Questions to Ask the Client in Order to Create Outlines

Questions to ask in order to create outline for an "who are you" essay:

This essay needs to be personal, mature, and talk specifics about "who I am" and what makes me a unique, exciting person. Definitely more emphasis on the personal side than on the classic leadership/professional stuff. Answers to some of these questions should appear in the essay:

What do you really care about, deep in your heart?
What do you like?
What don't you like?
What do you do in your free time?
What are you good at?
What aren't you good at? Does it bother you? Are you working to improve that? Have you improved that?
What were some of the defining moments in your life? How have they impacted you?
What are your most dominant characteristics?
What are your passions?
What are your areas of interest?
What are your values and beliefs? What values were you brought up with?
What is your professional identity (if any)?
What motivates and drives you?
Tell me about your family.
Tell me a funny story about you, even if it makes fun of you.
What are you most proud of?

Questions to ask in order to create outline for "what will you contribute to our student body":

What knowledge/industry perspective can you contribute in class discussions?
What knowledge/industry perspective will you contribute in your learning team meetings?
What values/culture will you help instill among the student body? How?
Which clubs will you be active? Any leadership roles you think of taking?
Any new clubs/projects you may want to initiate?
Which school projects will you take leadership roles? (conferences, delegations, community projects)
Will you contribute socially by initiating certain events/parties?
Will you be able to help your classmates with preparation for certain job interviews? (e.g. interviews for marketing jobs)
Will you be able to help your classmates with contacts for recruiting in a certain industry?
Are you planning to help in the school's admission committee? Why?
Are you planning to help market the school/strengthen it's image? Why? How?
What characteristics/style will you bring to the student community? Sense of humor? A certain spirit? A certain international/cultural flavor?

General outline questions:

Questions to ask the client in order to create any outline – Ask these questions after asking the outline questions for the specific topic:
OK, we have the basic content, now, do you find it important that this essay will be creative? unique? a "wow" essay?
IF they say yes, you say: "OK, how can we make it such?"
You both need to come up with ideas. For example (these are actually not such great examples, the great ones are the unique and specific ones that you and the client will come up with):
– Let's add a chart.
– Let's open with a short "suspense" part describing a certain rainy evening in 1998 where you decided to…
– Let's use the theme of ocean waves to describe how your life developed.
– Let's break the essay into sections and give each one a title
– How can we create an engaging, intriguing, interest-provoking opening?
It is recommended (but not required) that at least one of the essays will have some creativity/uniqueness in it.

How to use the questions:
1. Print out the questions.
2. Hang them somewhere near your computer, or just keep them close to your heart.
3. When you need to create an essay outline, go over the questions for the relevant topic (see above)
with the client prior to writing the outline.