5 Minute Writing Prompt Ideas

 

Teaching a first-year writing course—with an emphasis on rhetoric—the majority of my students were non-English majors (in fact, I didn’t have a single English or humanities major across the two sections I taught in the past year, each comprised of 24 students. Most were engineering or business students. I know STEM fields are popular now but it’s looking a little bleak for other departments!). As much as I enjoyed interacting with them all and seeing them pursue their personal interests through the assignments, this meant that most of my students weren’t particularly passionate about writing and were taking the course just to fulfill a core requirement. To get students comfortable with writing, my department encouraged us to use an activity called “Write for 5,” in which the students were asked to freewrite for 5 minutes about various topics. This was usually introduced at the beginning of each class period to help students wake up, have something concrete written down before a potential class-wide discussion so they felt more comfortable about sharing their ideas if they already had them on paper, and to assess for intellectual engagement and participation for the occassional instances I asked the students to hand their writing in. This activity was useful for helping students brainstorm for an upcoming assignment, identify a particularly memorable moment in the readings for the day, or reflect on their progress (at the end of each unit, they were asked to write down their main takeaways, any obstacles they encountered and how they overcame them, as well as any suggestions for what the instructor could improve about the unit or help them with in the next unit). Because the students presumably felt less pressure to be perfect during this activity than in their formal assignments, it was a fun way to explore their creativity and critical thinking.

Despite many of them being unfamiliar with “casual” writing to record their ideas, many of my students said the Write for 5 activity was one of their favorite things about the course. This past semester one student even told me they started a diary after feeling inspired by the in-class writing prompts, something they said was helpful as they tried to work through the recent loss of a family member. Although I did use some prompts provided to me by my department, especially if they contributed to a longer writing assignment that the students were working on at the time, I also often tried to come up with prompts of my own and had a lot of fun doing so. Along with the brief writing activity, I also tried to learn more about my students by having a question of the day that they responded to (in a few words at most) as attendance instead of allowing them to just answer to their name with a lackluster “here.” Sometimes they were asked to give a detailed rationale for their answer from the attendance question in their Write for 5 responses. Whether you want to share these prompts with your own students or want to think about them for a diary entry, I’ve compiled some of the questions I enjoyed asking below.

1. If you could put anything in a time capsule to be opened in 50 years, what would it be and why? 

• This was especially relevant because our university found a time capsule from 1949 encased in concrete during a building renovation earlier this year. I asked this question just after we went online for the rest of the semester, so many of my students said they would record the state of things during the coronavirus pandemic!

2. What is a new skill you learned or returned to during quarantine/the stay-at-home order (e.g. new recipe, new habit, new workout)? What are the challenges and benefits of practicing this skill under the circumstances?

• Designed to help students think about something good in the midst of the chaotic circumstances. Although you don’t necessarily have to learn anything new or feel more productive in these strange times, I like the fact that many of us are picking up new hobbies (like countless others , I am currently into baking/cooking).

3. When was a time you disagreed with someone and had an argument? How did you try to clarify and support your own position? What were some strategies you used to maintain a tone of respect/establish common ground/appeal to your opponent (or you wished that you used)?

• This is mostly relevant to a productive counterargument assignment the students were working on at the time, but it also offers anybody an opportunity to assess how they deal with conflict.

4. What is one kind of class that you wish [your university] offered? That is, if you could propose any course what would it be and why?

• I had a wide range of responses to this one, from a viticulture class, a basic cooking class for students living in dorms with limited equipment, a budgeting class, etc. Even if you are no longer a college student, it’s interesting to think about what unique classes could be offered at these institutions.

5. What do grades mean to you/what is your relationship with school grades? What do you want this relationship to look like throughout your time in college? Did your view of grades change after your first semester? If you could change the grading system in schools, would you change it and why or why not? How would you change it and why?

• Again, this prompt is most relevant to college students, but I enjoyed this one because a lot of my students had interesting opinions about the current grading system. Some thought schools should factor in effort more into the final grades, while others suggested that the option to drop a particular/lowest quiz or exam grade in a course should be more widely adopted because everyone has a bad day from time to time.

6. How do you feel about writing? What helps you write (certain environment, music, habits, snacks etc.)? What keeps you from writing the way you want to? If you could only write about one topic for the rest of your life, and your livelihood depends on it, what would it be?

• Although you can tell this is a prompt for a writing course, this may also be useful for anyone thinking about what kind of environment they are most productive in and what topics they are truly passionate about. I received answers like soccer, music, personal stories, and feminism, all of which had nothing to do with what the students were actually majoring in but did come through in some of their papers!

7. Is cereal and milk a type of soup or is the milk a sauce to the cereal? What is your rationale?

• This seems like a silly prompt and you may have seen this one online with similar questions like “is a hotdog a kind of sandwich?” I used this as an attendance question rather than a full writing activity, but the class debate that ensued suggested students had enough arguments to turn their responses into a proper paragraph (logos is part of rhetoric after all!). I’m including this prompt just to show you can use silly questions like this to get people talking and to practice backing up their opinions. Other questions I used for attendance are things like “if you could have any superpwoer, what would it be?” or “if you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?”

8. Identify one problem or area for possible improvement at your high school [can be replaced with university, workplace, home]. What can you suggest to solve this issue? 

• This was actually to help students generate ideas for their proposal assignment, but it was a successful prompt because it was a chance for them to demonstrate their problem-solving skills. I think they were surprised by the insight they had about the things that needed to be changed.

9. If there was a zombie apocalypse, where on campus [can be replaced with town/other location] would you hide and why? What is the criteria you would need to pick a secure hiding spot?

• Again, this was to practice for an assignment where they had to develop a specific criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of something. However, I think this is fun enough to be a general writing prompt (did you know that the CDC has a zombie preparedness guide as a campaign to actually help prepare people for disasters?).

10. Write down a bad habit (e.g. buying two coffees a day or binge-watching too much Netflix). Consider the costs of this habit: environmental, social/professional, physical/health,  psychological/spiritual, time, financial. Focus on one of these costs. How much ________ does this cost you each day? Each week? Each month? Each year? A lifetime?

• My department actually provided this prompt and I think this is a really great one. One of my students said they thought they slept too much (9+ hours each day) and calculated if they just slept two hours less each day they would save a full month of waking time a year! I had to calculate it myself to double check this was true—and it is!

These were just some of the memorable prompts I used but I think 10 is a good number to stop at. Additionally, at the end of the semester I encouraged my students to write a letter to their future selves (although they didn’t have to share). I recently found out you can schedule an email to your future self through futureme.org and wrote one to be sent to me in four years, which is when I hope to graduate with my PhD. This would be another great writing activity for students or anyone looking to pass the time as they are stuck at home. I hope some of these prompts are thought-provoking to you nonexistent readers!