Essay Topics

[Jean Vargas]

Choosing the right essay topic is a step in the right direction when it comes to essay writing. Essay writing involves the use of well constructed sentences that have a logical meaning to pass across a certain message or information. Normally, essay topics are chosen depending on the type of essay you are planning to write.

However, all essays normally have a basic format consisting of the topic, the thesis statement, the body and the conclusion. When choosing a topic for an essay, the writer has to be sure that they have enough information to make this essay. For example, it is not wise to write an argumentative essay on a topic like rocket science if you do not have enough factual information to base your theories and arguments on.

Choosing the right essay is therefore very crucial. The type of topic you choose will depend on the purpose why you are writing the essay in the first place. If the essay is for general interest, it will have a different topic and language as compared to an academic essay.

There are several things that you will need to consider when choosing a topic. If for example you are writing an essay for college, you may have to tone down your language and therefore avoid being so outspoken. You will need a topic that is most suitable for an academic setting.

One of the major things you will need to consider when choosing your topic is the target audience. Make the topic appealing to your audience by discussing with a sample group of the audience to find out what their general opinion of the topic is. If for example you are a college student and your topic targets young people, find time to ask your peers what their take is on the topic.

[heyrick]

Well, that's slightly more cultured than most spam...

I just thought I should point out that my fifth form (last year of "high school", no idea how that translates to US XXth grade) I wrote a long and damning essay on why I felt that not only school sucked, but the whole purpose of rote education to a predefined curriculum treating everybody as cattle and failing almost consistantly to play to anybody's strengths and weaknesses. Also threw in some criticism of teachers who did not fully understand their subject, or those too afraid to stray beyond the government-mandated lesson plans, not to mention questioning the very validity of GCSE examinations when the school can pick its examining board - with one board almost consistantly offering multi-choice questions - how can these be considered equivalent?

Anyway, a massively off-topic post to an off-topic spam. Just wanted to say that only in the academic world will a boring pointless bland essay pass muster. For the rest of us, I feel that if you're going to write an essay you might as well enter with the belief of a few sides of A4 being able to change the world... else... what's the point? 


Best wishes,

Rick.

[pfft2001]

Well, that's slightly more cultured than most spam...

I just thought I should point out that my fifth form (last year of "high school", no idea how that translates to US XXth grade) I wrote a long and damning essay on why I felt that not only school sucked, but the whole purpose of rote education to a predefined curriculum treating everybody as cattle and failing almost consistantly to play to anybody's strengths and weaknesses. Also threw in some criticism of teachers who did not fully understand their subject, or those too afraid to stray beyond the government-mandated lesson plans, not to mention questioning the very validity of GCSE examinations when the school can pick its examining board - with one board almost consistantly offering multi-choice questions - how can these be considered equivalent?

Continuing this thread (Never thought I'd be contributing to off-topic fluff on this of all boards!)

Yes, public education (in the US) is a joke.  The seeds were being planted back in the 70s when I was in school.  I could see that, in an attempt to make it less painful (which as a student at the time, I was all for), they were destroying the purpose of it.

Your sentiments are echoed here:  http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/06/30/valedictorians-education-entirely-hollow/

[ChadV]

I love the discussion this has brought forth, so I went ahead and removed the spam link and banned the user, but I'll allow the thread to continue. 

[heyrick]

I love the discussion this has brought forth

I don't think there's much else to say (aaargh! oops! jinxed!) except that it seems to me that the main purpose of education is to take minds full of wonder and possibilities and beat them into submission so they no longer question the possibilities and they no longer question authority. In that respect, not much has changed since the Middle Ages. Those in power hold the power, don't want their flaws pointed out, and certainly don't want us to follow from their lead. Perhaps this is part of the mass populace obsession with (faux) celebrity? To have a short at a fleeting glimpse of "power", to be a drunk drugged twit and do, like, 14 days or so in jail (with mod cons) and then have people offering to buy your story. Most of the so-called famous people are famous for, er, being famous. So maybe normal people can do it after all? But for the rest of us, keep on flipping those burgers while paying absoutely no attention to the police outside opening abusing their s44 anti-terror legislation on random Japanese tourists who dare to unleash photographic equipment in London... no, we accept, we do not question, and in that respect education has served its purpose.

[believe it or not, I'm a reasonably happy bloke; I just have a very cynical mind - anybody who grew up in the Thatcher years and then had to endure Tony Blair's "leadership" (aka "what my bestest mate George W wants us to do now!") would probably feel the same...]

[heyrick]

I'll add, as a separate post - where is it written that "girls cook" and "boys do metalwork"? At secondary (high school), I wanted to learn cookery. I was never one for staring at the girls, and I certainly had no interest in staring at boys. The only obession in my life in those days had a 2MHz heartbeat. Not a lot has changed, I'm twice as old (or more) and I'm still alone, and my obsessions have heartbeats with a 50% duty cycle. A cute girl would be nice, but I think it would be half nice and half hassle (oooh, 50% duty cycle, maybe I'm girl-compatible after all?!), so maybe some other time in my life...

...anyway, waaay back then I could forsee this. It didn't bother me much, but - you know - what kind of dumb-ass lives off ready meals and "stuff you can microwave"? No, I wanted to learn basic cookery so I didn't kill myself. You take a slab of beef, show it the oven, then serve it with a pulse still going - the French practically do. But try that with a chicken, you'd better eat fast so you have time to get yourself to hospital before your insides shred themselves across the floor. Most beef sold for anything under €16/kilo is crap, but pretty much anything over €8/kilo can become a juicy cut if you soak it in water and then set to it with a hammer. Apparently they sell special hammers for this purpose, but between you and me I wash and sterilise my Draper ball-pein and set to it with that. It's actually quite cathartic.
Talking of cathartic, beating dough to make home-made pasta. You don't need love to make the dough, you need love to make the sauce. For the dough? It's a brilliant punching bag. Just imagine it's your boss's head, you'll have it homogenised in no time!
None of this was taught to me at school. Some things were passed on by friends of parents (or friend's parents), some I found on-line, and some (like my pasta sauce) I just invented myself. No, school taught me metalwork, but since I wasn't the cool kid and since I didn't get an erection every time somebody started an engine, I never got to hold the welder never mind actually use it.
I'm 36 and I have, hand on heart, NEVER needed to weld anything myself. I've done some of my own woodwork (usually in a "quirky" fashion, which is another way of saying "what the hell is it supposed to be?") but I've never needed to do metalwork.
I eat ready meals half the time as I don't want to take the time to prepare a meal every day. But the other half of the time? I cook. For myself. Maybe 180 things a year, and it's been 20 years since I left school, which is over three and a half thousand meals my school completely failed to prepare me for. And I don't plan on dying tomorrow, so that number is only going to get bigger...
Gee.
Thanks.