Choosing a Topic for your paper
If you read the assignment carefully, you probably noticed
that the choice of topic is completely left up to you. So, at
this point, you are probably panicked; wondering how you are ever
going to come up with an acceptable topic for a term paper. What
follows are a series of questions and prompts to assist you in
finding the perfect topic for your paper.
Step One: Brainstorm
To brainstorm means that you generate a list of every possible
idea that comes to your head. The key to keep this process
productive is to avoid making any critical decisions about the
value of the topics until you are done making the list and need
to trim it down to your final choices. You can guide the
brainstorming process by asking yourself a series of questions:
- What am I interested in? (If you are
interested in it, there may be something there that would
make a good paper. I have seen good papers on such
hobbies as candle-making, raising rabbits, and comic
books. I have also seen good papers on topics that folks
are interested in, such as conspiracy theories, Jell-O,
and Hip-Hop music).
- What do I do? (Most of you have held
part-time jobs, summer jobs, or internships which have
aspects that would make a great paper. This question has
led to such topics as "Smart Cards,"
"McDonald's," and "Checks.")
- What do I want to do? (Your prospective
major/career holds a plethora of potential topics for
your paper. If you are a psychology major, you could do a
paper on your favorite condition or neuroses. An
education major could do a paper on the Georgia P-16
initiative. The list is endless.)
Step Three: Paring down the list.
The next step is to move from the large list created by
brainstorming to the three topics you think would be the best fit
for you and for this assignment. You can do this by asking
yourself more questions:
- Is it interesting enough, to me, to live with it
for eight weeks? If you are going to get bored
with your topic, you will get bored with your paper and
that will show in the finished product.
- Can I make the reader care about it? Is
it something that only you find interesting, like your
family history? Or can you find something about the topic
that is going to draw the reader in?
- Can I find the resources? I suggest you
head to the library with your top three choices to answer
this one. Remember, if you can't get the research, you
can't write the paper.
Step Four: Avoiding Common Mistakes.
There are a lot of common mistakes that can derail the
research paper process at this point. Here is a list of many of
them and tips on how to avoid them:
- Avoid writing biographies. If we want to
read "People Weekly" we can get it at the
newsstand. Biographies lend themselves to weak research,
boring prose, and plagiarism. Stay Away.
- Procrastination. Sure, the paper isn't
due for eight weeks. You also can't write a passing
paper, from scratch, in eight hours.
- Only utilizing the internet for research.
Yes, the internet is easier than going to the library.
Yes, the pictures are pretty. However, the information
provided on the 'Net gives you only part of the picture
and represent only one viewpoint. A paper that cites
mostly Internet research also shows the teacher that you
did not spend much time working on the paper.
- Plagiarism. This is a serious offense
and I will not hesitate to turn over ANY evidence of
plagiarism to the University Judiciary for prosecution.
- Not bothering to find out how to cite your
sources and how to write a bibliography. This
should be self-evident, but apparently it isn't. If the
source citations are wrong, they might as well not be
there.
Well, the next step would be to begin your research....