Choosing an assignment topic in five steps
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010Some ideas for your assignment topics
Were you requested to write an assignment, and your teacher hasn’t provided you the topic? Don’t worry! It is very simple to choose a great assignment topic. Think it carefully, because once you have it decided, you’ll find that half of your task is already done! And if you are totally clueless, and don’t know where to start, here we will suggest you how to find assignment topics just by following five simple steps.
Step #1: Narrowing the topic
Of course, your teacher must have provided you some sort of orientation! Are you supposed to write an assignment on British History? Or on Contemporary Art? Then, what you must do is imagining that topic as a huge lake, wide and deep. Your assignment should be such a limited part of that whole lake: if you choose a wide topic, the assignment analysis will be shallow. That is why you should narrow your topic, resulting in a deep analysis. I beg your pardon. You are not getting it, are you? If the topic would be, for example, Contemporary Art, and your assignment should be no more that five pages long, all you’ll be able to do is to write a boring list of names and dates… but narrowing your topic (for example, writing about two contemporary artists that you like) will result in a much deeper analysis.
Step #2: Pick from a list
At first, you may feel a bit lost among thousands of possible assignment topics, but soon you will see that is not true. Start taking notes of your ideas, and you will handle them much better. Write a list with five or six possible topics you have in mind: following the previous example, five or six artists you find likely to write about. Then, go crossing those that you don’t feel that much interested.
Step #3: Do some research
If you have no idea on what to write about, maybe it is because you are still a bit lost in the subject itself. That is why before actually choosing your assignment topic, you should read a lot about the subject and have at least some general ideas on the different topics of choice.
Step #4: Talk to your teacher
Once you have picked a possible topic, ask your teacher or tutor, whether they find it appropriate. Assignment or essay topics that haven’t been checked on time are a risk you shouldn’t take. Besides, your teacher can give you advice, recommend bibliography you can quote, etc.
Step #5: Ask a question
Most assignment writings are structured not only by their topics, but also around answering a certain question the student must choose. For example, following the previous example, you may write answering this question: “How do Mass Media influence a contemporary artist such as …?”. Do not choose more than one question, since it will be very difficult for you to manage two or more at the same time in the same assignment.
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Tags: assignment topic, topic for assignment, topic help, topic ideas
