For more on finding and exploring a topic, see Chapter 2.
Your instructor may assign a topic, or you might be expected to think of your own. If you are free to choose your own topic, find a subject that you are personally interested in or curious about.
| POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR A RESEARCH ESSAY | |
|---|---|
| Assisted suicide | The minimum wage |
| Banning texting (in class, while driving) | Music downloading |
| Causes of stress | Patients’ rights |
| Dieting/eating disorders | Presidential campaigns |
| Environmental issues | Reality television programs |
| Gambling | Rights of children of illegal immigrants |
| Gay/lesbian marriage/adoption | Road rage |
| Gun control | Sexual harassment |
| Healthy eating | Standardized testing |
| Identity theft | Veterans’ issues |
| Mandatory drug testing | Violence in the media |
| Marijuana for medical purposes | Women in military combat |
When you have chosen a general topic, you will need to narrow it using the same process you learned about in Chapter 2. Although a research essay may be longer than some of the other essays you have written, the topic still needs to be narrow enough to write about in the assigned length.
Before moving ahead with a narrowed topic, check its appropriateness with your instructor if you have any doubt. You might also check library resources to see if information is available on your planned topic. You do not need to actually look at the sources at this point, but you should assure yourself that a reasonable number of sources exist on your topic.
Before writing a working thesis statement, choose a guiding research question about your narrowed topic. For example, Michael McQuiston’s paper on green landscaping began with the question, “What are the benefits of green landscaping?”
After choosing and narrowing a topic and developing a guiding research question, you are ready to find and evaluate sources that you will use.