Module Content

Why Quality Brainstorming Is Essential

I believe dedicating time to quality brainstorming can mean the difference between writing a just-okay essay and writing an outstanding one. Great brainstorming can also save you time, as it can sometimes lead to a topic in 15-20 minutes as opposed to 15-20 days.

Below are a few of my favorites.

The Values Exercise will help you figure out what's most important to you, while the mini exercises that follow will help you find some stuff to write about, plus some potential themes or topics to connect all the stuff.

To find three more brainstorming exercises I love, click here.

And "pre-work" isn't the best description for what you're about to do, since the following exercises aren't preparation for your application work. They are the actual work.

Let's do this.

PART 1: THE VALUES EXERCISE

Time: 5 min.

This exercise will provide you with the foundation for all our work ahead.

Instructions: Turn to the "Values Exercise" in your workbook and bold the 10 values you connect with most from the list.

Of those 10, underline your top 5.

Finally, italicize your top 3.

I'll tell you what to do with these in a little bit. And we'll come back to them many times through the writing process.

PART 2: 7 SHORT BRAINSTORMING EXERCISES

Time: 20 min

You'll find the exercises below in your workbook as well. Each one will take just a few minutes. Some of the questions may seem random, but just roll with it. The subconscious mind is a powerful thing, and you may be surprised at what you discover.

In fact, in the next few minutes, you may actually find your essay topic.

Exercise #1: I Love + I Know

Spend one minute making a random list of things you love. If you have a partner nearby, set a timer and speak your list aloud while your partner writes down what you say. Examples: I love ... the ocean. I love ... the way clean laundry smells. I love ... physics. I love ... my grandmother's pupusas, etc. Then switch roles, and you write while your partner makes their list. Here's a video of me doing this one.

After you've done that, spend one minute making a list of things you know a lot about. (Examples: I know a lot about ... board games ... World War II history ... constructed languages, etc.) Again, if you have a partner, take turns talking and writing.

[action_item]

Action Item: Complete the exercises below in your workbook.

Exercise #2: Essence Objects

Spend at least 5 minutes naming 10 "essence objects." These are tangible things that represent memories, moments, relationships, or values that are important to you. Briefly say why each one is meaningful. (Ex: "The beads on my desk were hand-painted by my friends for my daughter, and they represent the love from my community.")

Here are 20 questions to help you brainstorm:

• What’s an object that reminds you of home?

• What object makes you feel safe?

• What’s a food that reminds you of your family?

• What object represents a challenge you’ve faced?

• What’s a dream or goal you have for the future?

• What’s something about you that sometimes surprises people?

• Who are you with and what are you doing when you feel most like yourself?

• What brings you joy?

• What’s hanging on your bedroom walls?

• What are you proud of?

• What’s an object that reminds you of something that still feels unresolved in your life?

• What’s an object that represents something you know now that you didn’t know five years ago?

• What action or gesture represents love to you?

• What do you like to do that does not involve technology?

• What will you save for your child someday?

• What's the most memorable meal you've ever eaten or made?

• What's in your bag right now? Anything that's always there?

• What do you like to collect?

• What have you kept from a trip?

• What’s something that people associate with you?

Exercise #3: Random Questions Spend 5 minutes answering some of these random questions. Pick whichever ones you want. Feel free to skip around.

• What’s your actual superpower?

• What's your favorite story to tell?

• What traditions have been passed down in your family?

• What’s perfect about your life?

• When is a time you forgave someone or were forgiven for something?

• What’s a class you’d love to take, even if no such class exists?

• How do you make people laugh?

• When in life have you felt most alone?

• What's your biggest secret?

• What would you tell your younger self?

• If the zombie apocalypse came tomorrow, what particular skill would you use to survive?

• What does your inner voice tell you?

• What’s missing from your life?

• What thing could you never give up?

• What’s one thing you wake up to in the middle of the night worrying about?

• What are you hiding?

• Who or what makes you laugh?

• What are you ready to let go of?

Exercise #4: Career

Name a career, or several careers, you're interested in. Describe 2-3 qualities you possess that will make you great in that career, or those careers.

Exercise #5: Identity

How do you identify? Examples: "I'm a ... reader, jazz lover, queer, Colombian, singer, feminist, etc." Name as many identities you claim or communities you're a part of. Is there one identity that's particularly important to you, or maybe one you've struggled with? If so, what have you found challenging about it?

Exercise #6: Home

What's one place you feel most like yourself? Where do you find flow? Examples: in your kitchen, or when you're coding, or when you're playing games with your brothers, or when you're taking photographs. Name as many as you can think of. Or, if "home" is hard for you to define, freewrite for a minute about why "home" is hard for you to define.

(Most Important) Exercise #7: Identifying Your "Islands of Personality"

Finally, one of my favorite ways to help students find a topic is by asking them about their islands of personality. What do I mean?

Watch this 1-minute clip from the Pixar film Inside Out.

If you haven't seen it, the film personifies the emotions running around inside the brain of a young girl named Riley. In the clip above, the narrator, Joy, describes how Riley's core memories create the islands of our personality.

In the movie, Riley's islands are:

• Friendship

• Honesty

• Family

• Goofball

• Hockey

As Joy says, these islands are “what make Riley … Riley.”

Look back through your exercises.

Identify 4-7 "islands of your personality," a.k.a. the different sides of yourself that you might want to show in your application.

It could be, for example: Science, Family, Photography, Social Justice.

Spend at least 2-3 minutes doing this and write them in your workbook.

Sneak Peek: How These Exercises Can Turn Into an Essay Topic

In the next few lessons, I'll walk you through how to write an essay using some of what you've just written. But before we get there, I want to give you one quick example of how this can work, so you can see how cool this process is.

Pick something you know a lot about.

I know a lot about games, for example.

Grab a piece of paper and write that thing at the top. We'll call this your topic.

Then take a look at this Values List and see how many different values you can connect your topic to.

Like this:

Or you can do the bracelet version:

I could write a paragraph connecting games to each of these values:

• Family: We played games like Charades and Jeopardy when I was young. (My dad was the Game Master who would come up with the categories. As I grew older, I took over the role of Game Master.)

• Competition: People don't know this about me because I seem so chill, but I am incredibly competitive. Things I rarely lose at: ping pong, Tetris, foosball, and corn hole. I've gotten much better over the years at hiding my competitive side but it's still there.

• Connection: One memory I have is playing "I love" in a circle at camp with 20 friends and strangers. I still marvel at how quickly it helped us bond.

• Etc.

Each of these demonstrates one of the "islands of my personality"— an aspect of who I am that would show colleges why I would contribute to their campus.

The values are what I want to show; the specific examples are how I show them.

Do you see how these bullet points could lead to a personal statement? Each one could essentially become a paragraph, and each would show a different side of me.

Here's the interesting thing: There are many possible topics you could write on. Yes, you. The key is not to obsess about finding The Perfect Topic, but instead a Topic That Will Work, and by that I mean a topic that will allow you to show the different islands of your personality.