Essay Hack "WITI"

Tiffani Baik

Aug 17

A lot of AFs had questions on giving essay feedback! Of course, there is no essay advice that's one-size-fits-all, but here's the best hack that's worked for my HSFs: WITI 😎.

📍 What is "WITI"?

Glad you asked! It stands for "Why Is This Important?" and it's an important question that will help bring your HSF's essay to the next level.

This hack is especially important when you're editing a draft with your HSF. Your HSF wrote a great essay draft, but it just feels a bit surface-level or lack deeper meaning. They write about how they worked 2 jobs and it taught them the value of hard work or they write about how being in volleyball taught them how to work in a team. But you, the AF, feel like there's something bigger/something more introspective they could say. That's where WITI comes in.

After every sentence they write, they should ask themselves WITI❓

This will help them see if that sentence, info, or experience was relevant/important to include or what to expand on to make it appear more relevant/important. Do note that the WITI question is asked at the HSF, so it's "Why is this important to you?" rather than someone else 🙋‍♀️.

📝 Examples

So the AF writing about how they worked 2 jobs finds that the reason why they found the lesson of hard work important to them is (WITI)
- Because it got them to empathize with their working parents who they didn't get to see often. (AND WITI?)
  - Because of that, they developed a more understanding relationship with their parents. (AND WITI??)
    - They also want to help reconnecting other youth who lost touch with their parents, even if not physically present, in after-school programs 🙋.
Or the AF writing about volleyball finds that the reason why working in a team is important to them is (WITI)
- Because they struggled with being overly self-reliant and independent in the past. (AND WITI?)
  - They love helping people, but hate being helped. (AND WITI??)
    - So learning to work in a team through volleyball taught them that "help" goes both ways and to help even more people, they need the help of others--insert volleyball analogy here 🏐.

So, WITI helps you use the same skills in journaling! It helps HSFs get in the mood of writing authentically and vulnerably ✍️, which is difficult since we're often taught that good writing is (usually) analytical writing during K-12.