No Prompt? No Problem: Writing Your Own Question

This article provides recommendations for writing your own essay questions.

By Patricia Roy — April 3, 2023

Tags: essay questions, essay writing, finals season, grade booster, midterms season, writers block, writing

No Prompt? No Problem: Writing Your Own Question

It's a common experience for students: when given the freedom to choose a topic, your mind goes blank. What do you do when suffering the dearth of too many choices?

Open a notebook, a blank document, or a notes app and jot down my recommendations for writing your own essay questions.

Brainstorm Many Possible Topics

Most people brainstorm by making rapid lists, firing off the first ideas that come to mind. Many students stop brainstorming as soon as they come up with the first good hit. If you are lucky, this will work — but sometimes our first ideas are not the best ones for the job. You can improve upon this process by staying with the process just a little longer.

Before you get started, make sure you understand the assignment. When I assign a writing project without a prompt, I still give guidelines. For my freshman writing classes, I give students a theme, such as “Relationships,” or “Places” along with some loose parameters. For instance, in my ecological writing and literature class, I ask students to identify a place with which they had a strong emotional tie or relationship. I specify that the topic has to be a real one that they know well (not Hogwarts and not a vacation spot they visited only once). Beyond that, I give them formatting and word count parameters, but the rest is up to them.

Since the class is for freshmen, I guide them through this crucial brainstorming step by asking for a list of at least ten possible topics. Yes, that's a lot, but having back-up ideas is important. Every semester, at least one or two students need to fall back to a different topic.

Then, either in groups or individually, students briefly explain why three to six of those topics might be good ones. After reflecting or talking it out with peers, students eventually settle on a topic.

The students who skimp on the brainstorming sometimes run out of creative juice before the project is over. The reason we call it "brainstorming" is because it generates energy. A single cloud does not make a storm.

Now that you have a topic, you need a question.

List Experiences or Facts

Before you jump into the draft, jot down what you know about the topic. For a personal essay, these might be your prior experiences. For example, if you are writing about the baseball field in your neighborhood, take a few moments to write out some of the significant moments or observations you have made there. Those observations will remind you why this place is special.

If the topic is less personal, you can still do this. What are the indisputable facts of the issue? If you are analyzing a procedure or problem, reporting the details without bias can be an important first step to seeing the issue clearly. If you are analyzing a text or narrative, this might mean quoting passages from the text. This is a good time to go into your notes or textbook and familiarize yourself with what you have learned.

Consider Your Values

Inevitably, you will have an opinion about your topic. As you think about your experiences with the topic, you might start to have feelings or ideas related to them. For instance, if you are writing about your relationship with your grandmother who now has dementia, you might remember her fondness for baking cookies with you when you were a child. That memory might trigger some feelings that call to mind your values, such as the importance of family, or the importance of taking care of our elders.

When writing persuasively or analytically, your values are your appeals to reason and your interpretation of the facts. Your values might reflect your beliefs or personal philosophy, or stem from your membership in a particular group, club or organization. You might choose to express these values as ideals, mottoes, or words of wisdom.

Identify Cultural Narratives

Similar to values, cultural narratives often reflect interpretations of human experiences. The difference is the scope. Cultural narratives are the stories and interpretations that we share with others in our families, communities, nation, and world. For example, most Americans know the (fictitious) story of young George Washington chopping down a cherry tree. Perhaps, in your essay, you are recounting a time when telling the truth was particularly painful for you. You might indicate in your values reflection that you believe in honesty. In the cultural narratives part of your planning, you might recall this story of Washington or the education you received from your parents about honesty. Cultural narratives are not only written in words; they can be expressed in pictures or symbols, too. Referencing familiar tropes can persuade your reader that they share common ground with you. Furthermore, understanding the history of our ideas helps us to make sense of them and be more deliberate in our choices.

Find the Dissonance

"Ah, there's the rub!" Hamlet rues in his famous soliloquy on the pros and cons of suicide. As Hamlet discovers, life is not a straight and simple path of "correct" and obvious choices. If I choose to live, he says, I have to endure "the slings and arrows" of life. Yet, if he chooses to end it all, death will be like sleep, "to sleep, perchance to dream." What are the dreams of the dead? No one knows, and this uncertainty gives Hamlet pause.

It might help you to know that dissonance means "a lack of harmony." In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the experience of having contradictory thoughts. When people experience cognitive dissonance, there are always questions.

For this reason, dissonance is where the writing really begins. What will Hamlet do about his father's murder? Even Hamlet doesn't know. Essentially, dissonance asks, "What if?"

To find the dissonance in your topic, look for facts, experiences, values, or cultural narratives that don't add up. Look for contradictions between your experience and cultural narratives. Try to see how your values might contradict your experience. For example, if we return to the example of the grandmother with dementia, it might seem to you like a cruel irony (irony is a kind of dissonance) that the same woman who memorized her cookie recipes, now struggles to remember names. The point of dissonance in this essay might revolve around memory, its pain and pleasures.

The same can be done with analytical topics. For example, what are the barriers to the acceptance of a theory or set of actions? How do different cultural narratives shape a discourse on a particular topic? Maybe your paper proposes a solution or set of solutions to a challenge or issue.

Dissonance does not always have to be "bad," either. It can occur when success is unexpected, or when you are trying to figure out how to replicate success.

Find the Question

You may find that as you consider what is dissonant in your topic, a great question or two pops right out. Just like with the initial brainstorming, give yourself a moment to write a few questions before choosing one. You may find that as you continue the process, your needs change, so it's always a good idea to have choices, even if it's just different wording.

How do you know if the question is a good one? Here's a quick criteria checklist:

Does the question reflect dissonance between experiences, values, or cultural values?
Is the question open-ended? (Must be answered at length, not with a "yes" or a "no")
Is the question appropriate for the parameters of the course and assignment?
Is the question worded in neutral, unbiased language?
Is the answer to the question something I will have to think deeply about?

The best questions will answer "Yes" to all of these. If not, try using one of these formulas:

How is [statement of topic] affected by [dissonant facts, values, or narratives]?
How does [a fact, value, or cultural narrative] change the way [statement of topic] operates or is perceived?
Why should people care about how [statement of topic] is impacted by [dissonant facts, values, or narratives]?

After going through this process, you should have generated not only a great question but also details and insights you can use in your draft. With practice, good questions with lots of juicy dissonance will come to mind faster and easier.

Patricia Roy

Patricia Roy is a writer and professor who has helped students succeed for over 25 years. She started her career as a high school English teacher and then moved into higher education at Tuition Rewards member school, Lasell University in Newton, Massachusetts. Her practical guidance and enthusiasm motivate and inspire students to fearlessly explore their own passions. Professor Roy is also a freelance writer and published poet.

View all posts by Patricia Roy