Minutes a day n e w y o r k

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3 8
1. Where have you been (chronological history)?
2. What have you accomplished or achieved?
3. What do you do with your time when not in school?
4. What are you good at? Passionate about?
5. Who are/were your major influences?
Admissions essays and some exit essays are intended to be personal, so you must focus on yourself. Take time
answering personal questions such as the following. This process involves a different set of W’s, meant to elicit
key information about you and about the topic if it has been chosen.
Here’s how the 5 W’s might work for the following assignment:
Television is a very powerful medium. What do you think is the ideal place of television in our lives, and why? Explain.
How close is the reality to that ideal?
Who watches TV?
What kinds of shows are people watching?
What happens to kids who watch too much TV? (affects schoolwork, relationships with others?)
What about people who have no TVs? Are they more informed? Less informed?
What do people expect from TV? Relaxation? Information? Entertainment?
Where do people place TVs in their homes? Kids’ rooms? (effect on family relationships, socialization?)
Bedroom? (effect on sleeping/relaxation?) Kitchen? (effect on conversation during meals?)
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What effect does TV have on our lives? Hurts us? Helps us?
What if we got rid of TV?
When was TV invented?
Why do people watch TV?
Notice the number of questions and the amount of possible essay material this student was able to gener-
ate. Some of the questions are more relevant to the assignment than others (“when was TV invented” probably
won’t be relevant, for example). But clearly, this student has many ideas to work with. In the next lesson, you’ll
learn how to use a brainstorming session like this to develop a thesis and organize your essay ideas.