Essay Topics and Ideas

Writing Essays in the University

Once a student picks a course in English language or with regards to the arts and humanities, writing essays become the whole of their university experience summed up in a phrase. Unfortunately, not all students find this as a strong suit. In fact, many of them hate the entire process and wish they could actually just lie down in a corner and cry themselves to sleep each night. Essay writing coupled with the deadlines and the specific outlines for academic writing can really be tough on a young student. School usually takes these essays and makes them either the total sum of your performance in the course or gives them a large enough stake in the development of your grades throughout the school year. Students who do not have the right guidance end up struggling with some of these essays resulting in either a bad performance at school or their total inability to pick up their gpa into a good enough score for them to get scholarships. Essay writing unfortunately is something that one can almost always not do without. This is because these pieces of writing end up stretching the writer and laying bare all of the writer’s thought processes, giving the opportunity to the reader to either applaud the writing as a good enough reflection of the writer’s ideas or a bad one. You write essays to make a point, to explain a presentation, based on the work you do, essays may even be you bread and butter. Young scholars write essays to determine whether or not they are accepted into a course. It seems as if once there is a good enough way to evaluate the mindset of students, essay writing will definitely be a part of it. Some students are born writers. They enjoy expressing themselves using words and other literary devices. Therefore, they find it a just a bit uncomfortable to adhere to the strict rules they are given with regards to academic essay writing. Others however, are not so lucky. They do not have a knack for expressiveness and end up struggling behind each sentence wondering what to write.

Choosing a Topic for Your Essay

There are many facets to essay writing. One of the most important parts of essay writing is choosing a topic. The topic you pick is a sensitive that it can either allow you to write the best essay or restrict you causing you to have a writer’s block. With regards to essay topics sometimes, you have the topic chosen for you. In those cases you do not have much of a choice. You simply have to work with what you have been given. There are other times when the converse is true and in addition to the stress you would normally feel about finding the right references, you also have to brainstorm on a good enough topic that can easily allow you to express yourself best. When this kind of opportunity is given, there is a sort of caveat where the topic you choose has to be relevant to your area of study. Nevertheless, choosing the right topic is not simple feat. Just in case you were unaware of the ways by which you could choose a topic, here are some ways that could simplify the task for you.

•  Brainstorming potential ideas-

It does not matter who you are, you need guidance to be able to choose a good topic. In fact, you might find that you need to form a conglomerate with several friends, well wishers and to tutor to help you to brainstorm on possible ideas that could work. Since most of the time you will be given the direction you are supposed to take, you might want to work around there, coming up with all possible ideas that fall under the large umbrella of you direction. Discussing and choosing these ideas makes it easier to eliminate some ideas that may not be feasible.

•  Write down and go over the ideas you get

You really need to keep your one handy when doing this. It is of the utmost importance that you take out time to write down these ideas. As part of your brainstorming, once the ideas come up, you can make a checklist of what works and wha doesn’t. You can also make a list of possible directions under each potential topic. This enables you to know how far you can stretch under the topic you have chosen. This stops you from picking a topic that limits you or makes it difficult for you to explore the topic in its entirety.

•  Make a shorter list and start to do a light research on the topics

This step helps you to know whether or not the information under the topic is easily accessible. For essay writing, you need a topic that can be easily researched, that probably has a lot of sources on, and that you can find papers and arguments written on, making it easy for you to gain inspiration for your own work. The more resources available to you for a topic, the better the topic is. This is another way you can eliminate ideas further. You really need a good amount of evidence that makes your essay more believable and supported with good facts.

•  Further shortlist your ideas based on questions you ask yourself

1.  Is this subject relevant to my field of study? You need to pick a topic that encompasses the core of your study outline for the period. Some students pick the topic based on the list of goals and aims that were outlined for them at the beginning of the semester. If you follow this guideline, your topic will be able to envelope all that you should have learnt about by the end of the school year.
2.  Can I write just enough to reach the specified word limit? Certain topics are a nightmare to write on. There is simply no content on those topics. You would find yourself adding a lot of pointless expressions just to cushion yourself enough to reach the word limit. You should opt for a topic with enough content to make you confident enough that you can actually cover the topic within the word limit.
3.  Are the resources easy to access? Some topics have resources yet, they are not as easily accessible as others. You need topics that have sources all over the internet, with full papers that can be accessed without too much hustle. Some of these sources have a good number of arguments strewn allover the internet. A topic like this could easily be a gold mine and it makes writing that much easier. You will then end up with a rich enough essay.
4.  How versatile can I be with this topic When it comes to your exposition on the topic, you need one that allows you to showcase your writing ability, the full extent of your knowledge and your understanding on the subject matter. In fact, the more you can stretch within the bounds of a topic, the richer your essay. You need a topic that makes you shine enough because your understanding is in-depth. There is nothing more painful than writing an essay with only half the understanding of what is going on. You will end up coming out with a confused piece of writing that would not help anyone.
5.  How passionate am I about this topic If you lack passion for your writing, there is hardly a thing in the world that can push you towards bringing out a good enough essay. Your interest in the topic abs subject matter has to be intact. Your curiosity has to spark your knack for research and your ideas have to excite you, if this does not happen, writing the essay will be a chore and nothing good will be gained from it. One part of writing an essay means that you have it convince all who read it that you know what you are talking about and you believe your writing. A half hearted essay wins no points. In fact researching for something you have little interest in would be so much of a pain in the neck that you would end up writing a piece that cannot even convince a mouse. So much for your time writing and reading.

Naming your topic

You knowing your topic is one thing. You finding the words to coin it into something catchy is another. Naming your topic is the next headache of choosing a topic. Putting words into the theme such that anyone who sees it is immediately interested in what follows needs a lot of creativity. Infact, writers sometimes stretch themselves when it comes to naming their topic. In truth, many writers who have managed beautiful themes and tailored all their writing behind it find themselves lacking. If you want to name your topic, you have to have the right words to use to drive your point home. Here are some tips you could use:

1.  Be creative No one likes a boring topic. Your creativity can easily be the beauty of your writing. Opt for good words, use some literary devices like alliteration. Get words that make writer’s get a feel of what they are about to hear in the story. In fact, dazzle your readers if you can with your title.
2.  Be unconventional Use unconventional terms and add punctuations that would otherwise not be used. For example: ‘Slavery: The Older Generation’s Scars, The Younger Generation’s fears’ Try to use compelling language that is slightly different from the language you hope to use in your main text. Take the time to try out several titles to clothe you topic. See the ones that are most unconventional.
3.  It should be relevant to your topic Amidst all the encouragement to think out of the box with your topic, do not think so far off that the title is in no way linked to the rest of the writing. Your title should be a worthy summary of what the people are about to read so it must be as close to home as possible.
4.  It should be short A title that is a two full sentences does not cut it. It is expedient that your title is short and it should only be as long as it needs to be. Use as few words as possible. Take some time off and write down the several titles to the essays, reducing the number of words each time. The shorter the title, the more powerful it feels. Stick to at most 6 words, unless you absolutely need to explain your entire writing in the title which is unlikely.
5.  It should capture the mood of the writing If your essay is somber, opt for a somber title. Choose a light hearted title for a light hearted piece of writing. Whatever the title is, it should not be removed from what the writing is. The moods need to be similar to foreshadow what is going on in the essay itself.
6.  It can be coined after the essay is written Once you’ve gotten your topic and theme, you can easily write the essay in full and then come back to create a title. Titles that are gotten after the writing has been done turn out to be the best ones compared to the ones coined before the essay.

Getting the right title for your essay can be a difficult task, however there are several steps to put you ahead of your game in that regard. Follow these steps closely, or simply find a good site that generates topics. Either ways you are made. Choose topics that you are passionate about and you can easily showcase your depth of knowledge. That is the best way to pick a topic.