Pre-AP Essay Writing Sample
Prompt from Chapter 4:
Which of the four levels of economic activity is more important to our society?
Sample Essay “Although … because” Essay:
Different economic activities serve different purposes in a nation’s economy. Some types of activities are vital, while some others are less important. Although primary economic activities produce goods that are necessary to every economy, secondary economic activities are more important to our society because, they turn raw materials into useful products, these useful products can then be sold for a profit, and these useful products are the things that all modern societies need to sustain themselves.
Primary economic activities produce raw materials such as food, minerals, or energy that every society needs to exist. What a society does with these raw materials is the most important in determining whether the society is a wealthy and happy place to live or not. Secondary economic activities are manufacturing activities that take raw materials produced by primary activities, such as farming or mining, and turn them into useful produces such as food, automobiles, fuel, or Ipods. For example grains can be manufactured into bread, iron ore can be manufactured into cars, oil into gasoline, and silicon (sand) into the computer chips that go into Ipods.
These useful products that secondary economic activities produce can then be sold for a profit. A society can sell these products to its own citizens so they can lead happy and productive lives. Alternately, these products could be sold to companies in other countries who will then sell these products to their own citizens. This brings money into the society from foreign countries; that can be used to buy more raw materials to make more useful products.
All these products that are manufactured by secondary economic activities are necessary to all modern societies. All societies need food, but successful modern societies need food that can be stored, and transported easily across the world. The citizens of modern societies have access to a wide variety of foods from around the globe. Cars or other forms of transportation, and fuel to power them are necessary to all modern societies. Citizens in most modern countries need to travel from city to city or from country to county. This makes the manufacturing of useful products a most for all modern countries. Ipods and other computerized gadgets are necessary to keep a society’s citizens happy. Happy people usually are more productive and make a society a more pleasant place to live.
Secondary economic activities are most important because they turn raw materials, produced by primary economic activities, into useful manufactured products. These useful products can then be sold to the profit of the society, as they are necessary to life in modern societies around the world.