Writing an essay often seems to be a tedious and overwhelming task for most students.
Students are either assigned the topic to write or given free rein to choose their topic.
The process of choosing a good essay topic to write can stall the whole essay writing process.
This is not for a lack of ideas but too many ideas to choose from.
Students need to analyze what they know best, their interests, the type of essay, and explore ways to make the topic effective.
Here are a few steps that will help you narrow down the best essay topic.
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Determine the type of essay
There are different types of essays ranging from argumentative essays, comparative essays, persuasive essays, explanatory essays, informal essays, etc.
These different types of essays impose different requirements in topic selection.
Persuasive essays
This essay requires you to argue your opinion or point of view.
When choosing an essay topic to write a persuasive essay, choose something you are opinionated about.
Your argument will not be very good if you pick something that you don’t care about.
Argumentative essay
This essay requires the student to investigate an essay topic and establish a position.
Pick an issue that you can see both sides of. You need to have multiple perspectives about the issue to have a stronger case when refuting the opposition.
Explanatory essay
In this essay, you are showing why or how something is done.
When choosing a topic, you need to understand the process or concept well enough to explain it from the beginning to the end.
Comparative essays/ Compare and contrast essays
You need to write essays that show differences and similarities between the two items.
It can be books, people or concepts. You should choose topics that have obvious differences and similarities.
Descriptive essays/ Narrative essays
The goal here is to tell a story. When choosing an essay topic, choose a topic that shows the transformation and growth of the characters or concept.
This topic should incorporate other people or characters to allow dialogue and descriptive passages in your essay.
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Brainstorm
Brainstorming through websites and research sites can generate multiple potential ideas.
Write down some of the ideas, keywords or concepts that may pick your interest. Use these keywords to form several more focused essay topics.
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Research the selected topics
Consider each essay topic individually and read general background information about it.
This will help you find out whether there is enough evidence to support the claims you’ll make in an essay.
Reading a broad summary of the topics you are interested in will also help you get a general overview of the topic and related issues.
It is impossible to write essays without relevant material.
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Narrow down your topic
Analyze your topic and figure out whether it is narrow or broad. A broad topic such as ”the environment” could confuse readers as it won’t give any specific information.
While a narrow topic such as ”How does environmental awareness effect business practices today” is more specific and clearer and the reader can understand the main purpose of your essay. You need to narrow down your topic and make it more specific.
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Select the final topic
Choose a topic that interests you. When you have more to say about a topic, you will write better.
This will also make your essay writing process so much more enjoyable. Your readers will also find your essay interesting to read if it is something you care about.
If you are still having a hard time getting a topic for your essay, you can get help from this service that writes essays for students called Edubirdie.
The service has professional writers who will help in deciding the topic, content writing, and research.
Conclusion
Selecting an essay topic is not an easy process. Use your freedom wisely and select an essay topic that speaks to the type of essay you are writing.
Make it specific enough to be interesting and wide enough to find adequate information.
Don’t be afraid to change your topic at the last minute if you do not find enough information to write about.
Your instructors would rather you write a good essay than writing about a topic you are not familiar with.
Once you have determined the topic that will be suitable, you can move on to writing the essay.
Author Bio
Nicholas Walker has been an academic writer for over 10 years now and his area of work is writing, editing and proofreading.
His work has helped many students achieve better grades in their studies and even secure admissions in top colleges.
His modus operandi is simple – deep research, following the writing rules and constant communication with the student he works for.