The Ministry of Higher and secondary education of the Republic of Uzbekistan The Uzbekistan state World Languages University

Strategies for Finding a Topic

Whenever your instructor assigns a general subject, you’ll need to stake out a

limited topic suitable for your paper. If you’re lucky, the right one will come

to mind immediately. More often, though, you’ll need to resort to some special strategy. Following are six proven strategies that many writers use. Not all of

them will work for everyone, so experiment to find those that produce a topic

for you.

Tapping Your Personal Resources

Over the years, you’ve packed your

mind with memories of family gatherings, school activities, movies, concerts,

plays, parties, jobs, books you’ve read, TV programs, dates, discussions, arguments, and so on. All these experiences can provide suitable topics. Suppose

you’ve been asked to write about some aspect of education. Recalling the difficulties you had last term at registration, you might argue for better registration

procedures. Or if you’re a hopeless TV addict who must write on some advertising topic, why not analyze TV advertising techniques?

Anything you’ve read in magazines or journals, newspapers, novels, short

stories, or textbooks can also trigger a topic. Dan Greenburg’s “Sound and Fury”

(in The Reader), in which a potentially explosive situation is defused, might suggest a paper on some dangerous encounter in your past. An article reviewing the

career of a well-known politician might stir thoughts of a friend’s experience in

running for the student council.

EXERCISE
Select five of the subjects listed below. Tapping your personal resources, name

one topic suggested by each. For each topic, list three questions that you might answer in

a paper.

Life on a city street Some aspect of nature

A particular field of work Contemporary forms of dancing

Some branch of the federal bureaucracy Youth gangs

Concern for some aspect of the environment Fashions in clothing