Essay Writing Tutorial: picking a Topic

Picking a topic for your essay is the first step. Hopefully picking a topic will come easily to you if it is not already assigned to you. Sometimes picking a topic can end up with you feeling like you have a lack of material to write about, however, or further you may pick a topic that you end up losing interest in. Both scenarios are unfortunate, but all too common. In order to pick a decent topic, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Substance

Your topic should have a lot of substance and a range of research opportunities. By picking a more dimensional topic, it gives you the liberty to pick and choose what you will include. This is a better alternative than finding something you have strong interest in, but lacking a lot of depth. Consider the different ways you can research your topic from all areas- production, history, aftermath, etc. Depending on what you choose, try to research the subject in a well-rounded manner so that you will be able to describe the topic from many different angles. This will make your essay more dynamic.

In addition to substance, it is important that your topic be made interesting. This is especially true for assigned topics, of which you only have a few options to pick from. However, you can potentially make any topic interesting with the know-how. There is an art to story telling that can extend to essays- the way you unfold information can include a level of suspense or mystery. It truly depends what kind of essay you are approaching, but do not feel limited in a sense if your topic is not your passion, as it is does not always work that way.

Brainstorming Ideas

If you are still unsure of what you want to write about, the brainstorming process is vital to coming to that conclusion. Be sure to write things out on a piece of paper- sometimes staring at a computer screen is actually inhibiting creativity. Once you start physically writing ideas, your brain will wander and eventually come up with a myriad of ideas. If you prefer using computers, you can also brainstorm different topics by looking at headlines of newspapers or other articles, and try focusing on a topic within a certain theme. The news is always categorized in a range of topics- politics, economics, finance, society, etc. Take a look at these categorizations and think of what you would like to write about within each subheading.