Choosing Brilliant Topics for Your Academic Essay

Selecting a great topic is the first and one of the most important parts of writing a great academic essay. Your topic should be challenging and interesting for you, but it should also be something you have some experience in and isn’t a completely new altogether. You will usually be placed in one of two situations: the first in which you are provided a list of topics to choose from and the second in which you have to develop a topic of your own.

Brainstorm Different Ideas with Classmates

Brainstorming with your classmates is a great way of not just developing ideas but also getting some insight as to the subject areas that interest them the most. This can really help you figure out what others will be captivated to learn more about and spend time reading. Encourage your classmates to spend a few minutes discussing the assignment soon after receiving the prompt.

Review Your Syllabus for Developing Ideas

Another effective method of choosing brilliant topic ideas is to review the areas covered in your course syllabus. Required and recommended readings can give you a sense of the subjects your instructor feels is important for further research but probably never made it into course lectures. As with all of your ideas you should always get approval before you invest too much time or energy.

Think About Areas You Wish to Explore

This suggestion is kind of a no-brainer and one of the easiest to follow. Just make a list of areas you wish to explore more in-depth. You can start with a series of questions or focus on a quote that caught your attention at some point. It all has to be related to the course so again make sure you get the proper approval before getting started with your research.

Read Some Course Material for Inspiration

This is sort of an extension of a syllabus review we mentioned above. In this method, you do your regular course readings and highlight or make notes of the areas that interest you. Remember that you always want to push the envelope in some way, so don’t simply restate material you have covered but instead take a look at how you can take those subjects into new directions altogether.

Conduct Background Research Beforehand

Finally, this last suggestion applies to every approach listed above. You always want to make sure that with which ever idea you consider for your academic essay, you should ensure there is enough research material out there to apply to your work. If there isn’t then perhaps you should revise your question until you are comfortable with what you will be able to achieve.