Choose a concept to write about.
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Come up with a list of possible concepts you might write about. For the best results, your concept should be one that
- you understand well or feel eager to learn more about;
- you think is important and will interest your readers;
- you can research sufficiently in the allotted time;
- you can explain clearly in the length prescribed by your instructor.
To get your juices flowing, review the Consider Possible Topics activities for the essays by Toufexis, Hurley, Cain, Slate, and Beck, or reread notes you made in response to those suggestions. The following list suggests some good concepts:
- Literature and cultural studies: irony, semiotics, dystopia, canon, postmodernism, realism, genre, connotation
- Psychology and sociology: assimilation/accommodation, social cognition, emotional intelligence, the Stroop effect, trauma, theory of mind, deviance, ethnocentrism, social stratification, acculturation, cultural relativism, patriarchy
- Biology, nursing, and the physical sciences: morphogenesis, electron transport, phagocytosis, homozygosity, diffusion, mass, energy, gravity, entropy, communicable diseases, epidemiology, toxicology, holistic medicine, pathogen
- Identity and community: multiculturalism, racism, social contract, community policing, social Darwinism, identity politics, public space
- Environment: fracking, toxic waste, endangered species, sustainability
Workplace and Business Management
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- Work: private and public sector, minimum wage, affirmative action, glass ceiling, downsizing, collective bargaining, robotics
- Management and finance: risk management, leveraged buyout, deregulation, branding, economy of scale, monopoly capitalism, socially conscious investing
TEST YOUR CHOICE
To decide whether to proceed with this concept, ask yourself the following questions:
- Can I answer my readers’ inevitable “So what?” question and make the concept seem interesting and worth knowing about?
- Am I interested in the concept and can I focus my explanation?
- Do I know enough about the concept now, or can I research it in the time I have?