Selecting and Narrowing a Topic

1. Select a topic that fits you as a writer, a person with a past, and a student.

A. If you adapt the paper to who you are, you will write a much better paper than if you write a paper on something to which you have made no connection.

B. Thus, the best idea for selecting a topic is to make a connection between you and the subject.

C. If you can’t make a connection, then you are already in trouble with the paper.

2. Avoid certain topics.

A. Avoid topics that have been written to death: abortion, death penalty, gun control, etc.

1. You will likely not write anything that hasn’t already been written.

2. Your tendency will be to rely on other arguments or information and not yourself.

3. If you do want to write on such topics, do something creative or different with the topic.

a. For example, explain how using the death penalty exemplifies a primitive attitude toward human society.

b. Explain why the concept of wergild might be more suitable than the death penalty.

c. Make a personal connection by explaining how someone who committed a crime involving you personally should be executed.

B. Avoid topics that are too simple for your level of writing.

1. Whether you want to consider yourself an adult or not, you are a college student and your writing must reflect that sophistication of thought and learning.

2. As a result, don’t pick a topic more suited to a high school or even a middle school student.

a. For example, if you have to write a paper for literature, don’t write a canned biography of an author; instead, explain how the author’s life or philosophical attitude created a particular work.

b. If you have a paper to write for environment science, don’t write a paraphrase of your class’s lectures on recycling. Instead, explain how a particular national park is environmentally beneficial.

c. If you have to write a paper for history, don’t simply describe what happened on September 11, 2001. Instead explain how suicide bombers are a result of America’s ignorance of Islam.

3. Don’t write on a topic on which you’ve already written.

a. You will not have the interest in the topic which is necessary to create a good paper.

b. You will use out-of-date resources.

c. Your writing will sound as rehashed as it must be because you are using something that you’ve already written.

4. Don’t write on a topic about which you know nothing.

a. This point goes back to what is said early in the chapter: you must have a connection to the topic or you can’t write on it.

b. You can’t research what you know nothing about.

c. You can’t analyze research if you have no clue what is being said.

d. You must have some understanding of the topic.

3. Select a topic based on these criteria:

A. If you are writing a research paper for a class, obviously you must write on the specific assignment.

1. Decide how you want to make that specific assignment connect to you.

2. If you can’t see a connection, talk to your professor until you find one.

3. Never write on a topic to which you have not made a connection.

4. Everything connects; it’s just your responsibility to make the connection.

5. You’re human; all topic are about the human experience; therefore, you connect to all topics.

6. You also have the obvious connection that you are in the class; therefore, if you have the text and have attended class, you can make a connection.

7. If you can’t, then you need to pay more attention in class.

8. Look at the Genesis assignment.

B. If the topic is more generally assigned, then you have more leeway to make connections.

1. First of all, make the all important connection between you and the general topic.

2. Pick something of interest to you; you’re college students so never say that you aren’t interested in something. Lie if you have to, but always claim an interest until you actually create one.

3. Select an aspect that is familiar enough with your learning that you can determine an approach almost right away.

4. Select an aspect of the topic that connects most to what you need to know for your major or career or even personally.

5. Look at the Criminology assignment.

C. If the topic is wide open, as it is for this general composition class, you can write about what you want to write about—so long as it meets the basic parameters of the assignment.

1. Determine what you want to research and design your topic around that subject.

2. Connect the assignment to another class where you either have a paper to do or you need to research an aspect to understand it better.

3. Connect the assignment to another class’s subject matter that you found interesting enough to want to cover in greater depth.

4. Write about your future.

5. Write about your past.

6. What it comes down to is that if you are involved in the topic and want to research it, you will write a good paper.

7. The worst possible attitude to have is that you don’t want to do the paper because your instructor will see that attitude and you will write according to that attitude: the result will be a very poor paper.

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