Finding Academic Essay Topics on your own
The higher you go in the field of academia, the more freedom you are given to choose a direction. The essay topics you select, however, can easily make or break you so here is a method that may help you choose more wisely.
- Be Creative
- Know what is expected of you
- Know your limits
- Know your strengths
- Be Creative
- Know what is expected of you
- Know your limits
- Know your strengths
Allow yourself a few moments to brainstorm topics. Focus on generating ideas at first, you can always toss the worst ones out later but it is better not to stifle your creativity early on in the process. There is no need to stay indoors for this step. A change of scenary can do wonders for helping the creative juices to flow.
Having come up with a satisfactory list, you can begin the first round of eliminations. It may be a bit painful but any brainstormed topics that meet your needs but not those of the person who assigned you the essay will have to go. Perhaps you have a particular style that works in many situations or a cause that you enjoy writing about. If the assignment requires a different approach, resist the urge to alter it until it fits your comfort zone. You will just have to step out for a bit.
The most awe inspiring, life altering topic is absolutely inappropriate if you lack the time, research skills or dedication to do it justice. This is a particularly difficult problem for students who are bright and ambitious but have abysmal time management skills. It often leads to the submission of a rushed, substandard essay. At this stage, if you are not sure a topic should remain on your list, try mind-mapping it and look again. Can you see yourself successfully addressing each of the sections with the resources at your disposal? If not, that topic must be discarded.
In this last round of elimination you can select the topics based on which ones best display your abilities. If you do something well AND it is applicable to the essay assigned, by all means, highlight that! To avoid pigeon-holing yourself to a particular subject matter, this criteria is best left for last. When the only things left on your list are topics that are practical and acceptable, you can afford to rank them based on how suited they are to you. Employ mind maps again if any uncertainties remain about which topic suits you best.
Once you have the right topic you are well on your way to producing a well constructed academic essay.
The higher you go in the field of academia, the more freedom you are given to choose a direction. The essay topics you select, however, can easily make or break you so here is a method that may help you choose more wisely.
Allow yourself a few moments to brainstorm topics. Focus on generating ideas at first, you can always toss the worst ones out later but it is better not to stifle your creativity early on in the process. There is no need to stay indoors for this step. A change of scenary can do wonders for helping the creative juices to flow.
Having come up with a satisfactory list, you can begin the first round of eliminations. It may be a bit painful but any brainstormed topics that meet your needs but not those of the person who assigned you the essay will have to go. Perhaps you have a particular style that works in many situations or a cause that you enjoy writing about. If the assignment requires a different approach, resist the urge to alter it until it fits your comfort zone. You will just have to step out for a bit.
The most awe inspiring, life altering topic is absolutely inappropriate if you lack the time, research skills or dedication to do it justice. This is a particularly difficult problem for students who are bright and ambitious but have abysmal time management skills. It often leads to the submission of a rushed, substandard essay. At this stage, if you are not sure a topic should remain on your list, try mind-mapping it and look again. Can you see yourself successfully addressing each of the sections with the resources at your disposal? If not, that topic must be discarded.
In this last round of elimination you can select the topics based on which ones best display your abilities. If you do something well AND it is applicable to the essay assigned, by all means, highlight that! To avoid pigeon-holing yourself to a particular subject matter, this criteria is best left for last. When the only things left on your list are topics that are practical and acceptable, you can afford to rank them based on how suited they are to you. Employ mind maps again if any uncertainties remain about which topic suits you best.
Once you have the right topic you are well on your way to producing a well constructed academic essay.