So many students feel writing an essay is difficult, but they actually don't have any problems writing the essay; instead, they spend agonizing hours - sometimes even days - struggling with generating ideas for an essay in the first place.
What are these students to do? Some students find that clustering exercises help them narrow their topic ideas, while other students find brainstorming to be the best way to generate dozens of ideas. But not all techniques work for all students. Another technique that works for some students is asking questions.
Using the Technique of Asking Questions to Generate Essay Topic Ideas
So how exactly does a student use this method? One way, of course, is to spend the semester reading and annotating the textbook (or books) for the class. If a student has spent her semester working closely with her text, she can sometimes browse back through the text, and some of her notes and questions about the text will supply ready-made topics for essays.
But what if the student feels that these questions aren't interesting enough to explore or - worse yet - he hasn't worked closely enough with his text to have these kinds of notes to fall back on? There are still ways to use this technique.
A student can sit down with a blank sheet of paper and simply begin asking broad questions of the ideas presented in class. The questions can be large or small, but they should be things that get the student thinking about the class from various angles. The student should think of himself as a scientist, asking questions that he thinks are things he and others might want to know about.
For example, a student writing a term paper for a modern theatre class might ask herself these kinds of questions:
- What are ways in which Stanislavski's influences are still felt in theatre today?
- How do actors today utilize Strasberg's method acting techniques?
- Are movements like Theatre of the Absurd and Theatre of Cruelty still prevalent today? Do they continue to accomplish what they set out to?
- What might be the next big theatre movement?
- Is postmodern theatre blasé? If so, what are some examples of this?
There is no right or wrong way to ask questions. The idea is for the student to ask enough questions that she finds a question she feels is worth exploring, something that gets her excited about researching and writing, and sometimes one question will lead to another and another.
Asking Questions about Information Already Learned in Class
Sometimes, though, asking general, broad questions can seem intimidating to a student. There's too much information and nothing to focus on.
This technique can still work, however; it's just on a more limited scale. A student should get his notes taken in class and take his time going through them, from the first class to the present. Going through his notes, he will ask questions about the materials already covered. Asking questions this way, the student will have more focus. Class lectures will undoubtedly have had a focal point, and at least several of the lecture notes will lead to questions the student will want to explore. Utilizing class notes involves the same technique of asking questions both broad and narrow, but it's more contained. The questions will be based on information the student has already learned, and some students find those essay topics more comfortable.
Asking Questions to Generate Essay Topics Works for Many Students
There are those rare students who are assigned the task of writing an essay who go home, sit at the computer, and simply start typing their paper. Most students, though, need some time to ponder ideas and settle on a topic. Other students find choosing a topic to be the most agonizing part of writing an essay. Those students might find that asking questions of the class itself or of their lecture notes helps them come up with topic ideas that inspire them to not only write an essay but enjoy doing it.
Cynthia Jones-Shoeman - Cynthia (“Cindy”) Jones-Shoeman earned her MA in English from Colorado State University in 2007; her thesis was "Toni ...
