Essay Topics

Once your group has deduced the differences between an essay and a research paper, you should have a better idea of how you need to approach your essay topic.

To get started on choosing and refining your topic, consider the following points:
1) Think about your interests.

What topics do you already know something about and have an opinion on?
What issues in your field have you debated with others but been able to fully explain or develop?
What issues do you think people misunderstand?
What issue do you have a particular and strongly held view on?

2)Remember you are writing an essay, so it is a reasonably short response to a topic, arguing your particular viewpoint. Make the topic MANAGEABLE in the space provided (2000 words).

3) Two approaches:

i) Question your topic. Try to find out ways to approach your topic by asking yourself questions about it.

How does your topic fit into a larger story or system?

What is the nature of your topic: how has it changed over time? Is it important now? Why?

Do I have a unique and interesting perspective on the topic that I can contribute to a more general discussion?

ii)Build on your research into the topic through AGREEMENT or DISAGREEMENT.

Agreement:
a) Ask questions about the source information that might help extend it or deepen it.
b) Apply persuasive arguments from one topic to a related topic.

Disagreement:
Ask questions that disagree with a source. Respond to your research material on your topic critically, disagree with your source and see if you can develop a well-supported and logical counter-argument.

Once you have brainstormed around your topic, started questioning it and feel like you have a good idea of what you want to work on. Try to write it into the following formula from the University of Chicago research guide:

1. Topic: I am studying ______
2. Question: because I want to find out what/why/how ______
3.Significance: in order to help my reader understand ______

example

1. Topic: I am studying how views on Reconciliation in Australia differ
2. Question: because I want to find out what divides indigenous Australians and
non-indigenous Australians
3. Significance: in order to help my reader understand what reconciliation
means to both groups and how it might be achieved through
finding views that are in common between them.

1. Topic: I am studying different ideas of Tokyo from Japanese and non-Japanese
writers
2. Question: because I want to find out how culture influences individual
perception of Tokyo
3. Significance: in order to help my reader understand that when we perceive
something (for example a concrete reality such as Tokyo) our
perception and so understanding are shaped by various forces
such as our interests, experiences, knowledge base, and that
the culture we come from is perhaps one of the strongest of these forces.