Choosing a Topic

1. Brainstorm Topic Ideas: Read, Talk, Sketch, Enjoy... I read this section and immediately started to use these strategies to help think of what I wanted to write about for our research project. This section lays out the steps in how to think about what to write. It first explains how to do productive research about different topics that interest you. It also states some helpful educational websites. Then the author suggests some techniques to further see what you are interested in ex. talking to other people and making list. I personally have used both of these writing techniques and they are usually very helpful. However, the author also suggested free writing and mind mapping. I can honestly say that I have never used either of these writing techniques. The author explained how helpful they can be to really honing on in what you wanted to write. She then elaborated on them by showing an example and eventually how all of these techniques eventually added up to Sharon Freeman, a student finding her topic of choice.

2.I felt that the section that I summarized is going to be very useful for me. I have personally sued some of the writing techniques before but not all of them. I liked the way that the author gave a specific example at the end of her explanation. This helped me understand the steps more and really proved that they worked. Out of the 4 different sections I think that this is the easiest way to choose a topic. However, I think that the Free write is the most helpful in choosing your exact topic. I believe that it’ll really help the writer just get all of her feelings out and help figure out what she is passionate about. If you know the answer to a research topic and don’t want to write about it, I think that it is easiest to think of things the exact opposite from this topic. Or to make a list of other things that you enjoy and that should help distract you from the topic that you already know. However, this is much harder to do than one thinks so it might take some time to think of a worthy topic.

3. I am debating on writing about a couple of different topics. I am having a hard time choosing which one because I’m not sure if they will be substantial enough to write 3000 words on. However, my options are either something related to health/obesity, disabled children, jobs in the psychology or medical field or divorced parents. I have not started to choose a research question yet but am looking forward to jumping right into the project!