Essay Topics

Coming up with an essay topic is the very first critical decision in the process of creating a good essay. Depending on the professor and the course, a student might or might not determine the topic. As a matter of fact, during any student’s schooling period they do many essays, some of which are generally assigned specifically, or are given to the total discretion of the student.

Specifically Assigned Essay Topics

Usually professors are very specific when assigning students' essays, concerning who designs the topic. Some essay writing topics are specifically assigned by the respective professors. Generally this occurs in courses of liberal arts such as political science and English. In this kind of a scenario, the students are required to develop a piece of literature in one theme, and then they are asked to present their own opinion concerning a specific controversial topic or even a Supreme Court decision. Here the students have no ground to decide their preferred essay topics and their ability to be compelling and creative in the presentation of the essay content is what makes a good paper.

General Essay Topics

Sometimes a general essay topic is given and the students have to narrow down to a preferred essay topic. This also generally happens in the humanities and arts department. Here, the professor assigns a broader topic, and the students are left to freely determine that which they assume will be an interesting essay topic. For instance, a professor of sociology may assign a topic that is so general, such as “level of poverty in civil environments”. The students are thus at liberty to produce sub-topics on the broader topic. Such sub-topics could be, say, the influence of poverty on families, education, or crime. Here a bright student would ensure that they come up with informative essay topics so as to cover the general topic effectively.

Open-Ended Essay Assignments

This is the most liberal assignment of essay topics. Here, students are given the total freedom of choosing their preferred essay topic. The only instruction from the professor could be one like, “Please, choose some recent arguable issue and compose a paper with your own opinion”. Many students prefer this option because one can choose a topic that they are most proficient in, or one that is easy to research on. In fact, the professor cares much about the content of the paper and type of the essay produced, not the topic. It gives them the opportunity to effectively evaluate the students based on their ability to write a narrative paper, or their ability to compare and contrast various elements of information. Here, the idea would be to come up with a persuasive essay topic which would assist in the build up of the general body. In this kind of assignments the essay writing topics are very crucial in the overall relevance of the paper.

Choosing Essay Topics

There are two main standards that influence the choice of an essay topic idea. An essay could be explanatory, descriptive, reflective, and evaluative, a compare/contrast kind of an essay, and so on. Here the essay is not really much about the position and opinion, but more about presenting the factual information and data. Whereas many school essay topics may only need the use of the five senses and figurative language, others may require a degree of researching.  The purpose is mainly to inform a reader. Either way, any type of an essay requires to be thoroughly researched on and a careful presentation of ideas and thoughts. A persuasive essay topic gives the reader the urge to find out more about the essay content. Different essay types have different and unique kinds of information and persuasive methods that should be applied. It is important to know how to effectively present each.