ACADEMIC WRITING

UNIT 1: WEEK 2

Choose a topic for your essay

 Choose a topic for your essay
The topic you choose for your essay will be the focus of your work throughout this course.
Therefore, it is important that you choose a topic that is interesting to you, researchable, and
possible to write about. Your topic must:
o Not be too broad: your essay is of limited length. You are not writing a book. If you can’t focus
your research, you will spend your time collecting ideas and information and wind up with too
much to include in your paper. If you are interested in a broad topic, however, it is possible to
choose just one aspect of it for your paper.
o Not be too narrow: you are also asked to present a full discussion of the topic, so it must be
possible to develop the topic.
o Be interesting and important: If you have some natural passion for the topic, you can make it
interesting to your readers. You’ll know the topic is interesting if you can immediately tell others
why the topic is important.
o Be something that you know about: You will write the essay from your own knowledge. If you
choose a topic such as “climate change” but have no knowledge about it, you won’t know what
to say.
o Be researchable: You need to be able to find out more about the topic than you already know,
and you need to be able to find information easily. Some topics may be too old or too new to be
easy to research or discussed in language that is too technical for you to read in English without
further specialized study.
o Have a point: That is, there must be a reason to write a paper about it. Are you explaining
something you readers don’t know? Are you delivering important information? Are you trying to
change your readers’ attitudes? Do you want your readers tod o something? Make sure you can
complete the sentence “The purpose of this paper is to …”
 Examples of weak topics
1. Climate change: Too broad  “What role can education play in reducing the negative
impacts of climate change?”
2. Body language: Too broad  “The importance of body language for effective
communication”
3. Tuition at my university: Too narrow, not interesting, not researchable  “Should university
students be exempted from tuition fee?”
4. Teaching foreign languages in elementary schools in my hometown: Too narrow, not
researchable  “How to improve foreign language teaching at elementary levels in rural
areas in Vietnam”
5. The average age of marriage in my country: too narrow, not have a point  “Early teen
marriage and future poverty”
 CHOOSING YOUR TOPIC
Choose a topic that you are interested in researching and judge your topic on
the following criteria:
1. Is it broad/narrow enough?
2. Is it interesting and important?
3. Is it researchable?
4. Does it have a point?
 BRAINSTORMING YOUR ESSAY:
EXAMPLE
Topic: “the negative effects of social media on our mental health”
Brainstorm ideas:

Comparison factors: Fear of missing out:

Become addicted:
- Judging other - Other people live
- No time for social
people by what better lives
relationships
- No time for family they present on - Other people have
- No time for work social media more experiences
- Envy - I don’t want to
- No time for school
- Low self-
works look inferior
confidence  Stress and
 Undesirable moods
- Mistrust
depression
 Low self-esteem
 CREATE AN OUTLINE FOR YOUR
ESSAY
1. Introduction:
o Hook: …………………………………………………………
o Background information: …………………………..
o Thesis statement: ……………………………………..
2. Body paragraphs (Key point 1)
2.1. Main body 1
o Topic sentence: …………………………………………
o Supporting ideas: ………………………………………
o Concluding sentence: …………………………………
2.2. Main body 2 (Key point 2):
o Topic sentence: ………………………………………………………
o Supporting ideas: ……………………………………………………
o Concluding sentence: ………………………………………………
3. Conclusion:
…………………………………………………………………………………..
THANK YOU!