Which is most important for achieving excellence: natural ability, hard work, or
a combination of both? Write an argumentative essay for your school newspaper
in which you state a claim and defend it. Use information from the texts in your
essay.
(Need help writing a essay)

While natural ability is certainly an advantage, hard work is crucial for achieving excellence in majority of the cases. For instance, if one wants to learn a foreign language, the fact that he/she has a natural gift for languages does not ensure excellence. It is only through practice and hard work that he/she will gain more knowledge. The mistake that people often make is that they rely on their "gifts" for certain disciplines and refuse to put some effort into improving their skills. This does more harm than good, as they gradually see no progress in what they do. After all, no one is born as an expert of any field. It is, therefore, the best option for a person to be both gifted for what he/she does, and to be ready to work hard to become even better.