UNIT TOPICS
What interests you?
Researching and writing about something that really interests you will be more enjoyable as you work. The sites you go to will catch your attention, you will relate to the information and you will be able to better recognize the information you need for your research. So think about things that you are interested in. Do you like music? Sports? Art? Do you have tattoos or piercings? Do you like to hunt? Are you curious about gangs and gang activity? Are you from a different culture and want to learn more about your culture? Would you like to find out about experiences of immigrants and what life has been like for them since they arrived in the U.S.? These are all areas that you can research and write about. There are many more. Just think about the kinds of things you are interested in and consider how you can turn your interest into a research topic. Look below for a list of topics you could consider. Here are ideas to help you:
MUSIC Can the lyrics of rap increase violence among young people? Does really loud music affect hearing? Can music be used in therapy to help calm people? How is music changing and does contemporary music reflect our society?
SPORTS Should high school students participate in risky contact sports? Should there be a minimum age limit for Olympic female gymnasts and figure skaters? What are the risks regarding steroids in sports and why do some athletes still use them?
ART Is graffiti art? Are tattoos art? What are the differences between American comic books and Japanese manga? Is modern art really art and how can one tell what is good art?
TATTOOS Should parents be able to control the age that their children get tattoos and piercings? Are navel or tongue piercings risky? How has public opinion of piercings and tattoos changed in the last two decades?
HUNTING Should gun control be tightened? Why are there open seasons for hunting and why or why not is it really best to only hunt during these times? Does hunting influence the potential for violence in children?
GANGS Are gangs always bad/dangerous? Is gang activity increasing in the US? Why are young people lured into gang life? Do most members of gangs regret the choice they made to join a gang?
CULTURES Why do people have different customs? Why are cultural customs important to people and can these cultural customs help society as a whole? Is it important for a society to have a cultural identity? Does the US have a culture and what does American culture look like?
IMMIGRATION Why do people decide to move to a different country? What are some of the difficulties immigrants face in their new country? What kinds of help are available to immigrants in the US? What rules and regulations should the US government consider for border control?
What bothers you or what would you like to change?
Learning how to write a persuasive essay is an important tool. It helps you learn to support and defend your opinions. Generally persuasive essays revolve around an issue. When teachers assign students a persuasive essay, often they give students the option to choose their topic. Selecting a topic you are passionate about will make the work more interesting for you and will give you more insight into your opinion. It will also help you defend your side of an issue when you discuss it with others. Below is a list of some ideas of interesting topics for persuasive essay papers:
Advertising in schools
AIDS
Alcoholism
Allowances
Animal cruelty
Animal testing
Assisted Suicide
Automatic weapons
Beauty pageants
Betting in sports
Biofuels
Book banning
Breathalyzers
Capital punishment
Carpooling
Casino gambling
Cell phones in school
Censorship
Charter schools
Cheating
Child abuse
Child labor
Child slavery
Child support penalties
Children's rights
Civil rights
Consumerism
Cosmetic Surgery
Cost of college
Cyberbullying
Daily exercise
Dating age
Deforestation
Drug Abuse
Drunk Driving
Economic inequality
Eliminate Electoral College
Endangered species
Energy crisis
ESL testing
Exotic Animal trade
Famine
Fast food in schools
Fast food warning labels
Free internet access
Free speech limitations
Free state colleges
Fur trade
Gang violence
Gay marriage
Gender issues
Global Warming
GMOs
Gun control
Health tax for tobacco
High stakes testing
Home birth
Homelessness
Homosexuality
Human cloning
Human rights
Illegal Immigration
Immigration laws
Income tax rates
Instant run-off voting
Internet privacy
Is homework helpful
Ivory trade
Junk food in schools
Junk food tax
Legal drinking age
Legalizing marijuana
Marketing to children
Media violence
Metric system
Military draft
Music lyrics
National healthcare
Organ donation
Pollution
Poverty
Prayer in schools
Privacy vs safety
Professional athlete salaries
Puerto Rican Statehood
Racial profiling
School dance music
School fund raising
School locker searches
School uniforms
School vouchers
Sex education
Single parent families
Smoking
Space program funding
Sports drug testing
Sports violence
State lotteries
Stem cell research
Steroids in sports
Tobacco Tax
Teacher salaries
Teen curfews
Teen parenting classes
Teen prostitution
Terrorism
Torturing terrorists
Tracking in schools
TV ads for alcohol
Urban food deserts
Video game violence
Violence in schools
Voting age
Welfare
Women's rights
World population
Year round school
Who would you like to get to know better?
Are you interested in sports? Do you like to listen to music? Who are your heroes and what did they do? Using the life of a person for a narrative essay can be rewarding. You may not want to write the essay, but you might really enjoy finding out about someone. If you can choose the person you read and write about, why not make it someone you are interested in? The more you want to know about this person the more fun reading about him/her will be. One of the nice things about biographies is that the things that famous people do can also be interesting. If you don't have a favorite person, but there are famous people involved in one of your interests, selecting someone who is passionate about something you like will also make this research more interesting. Here are some ideas for biographies:
Al Gore
Albert Einstein
Alexander Bell
Alexander the Great
Alfred Hitchcock
Alice Walker
Amelia Earhart
Anne Frank
Aung San Suu Kyi
Babe Ruth
Barack Obama
Beyonce
Bill Cosby
Bill Gates
Billie Holiday
Billie Jean King
Bono
C.S. Lewis
Carl Lewis
Catherine the Great
Charles Darwin
Charles de Gaulle
Charles Dickens
Christopher Colombus
Cleopatra
Coco Chanel
Dalai Lama
David Beckham
Denzel Washington
Desmond Tutu
Edward R. Murrow
Elizabeth Stanton
Elvis Presley
Ernest Hemingway
Eva Peron
Feodor Dostoevsky
Fidel Castro
Florence Nightingale
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Frederick Douglas
George Orwell
George Washington
Haile Selassie
Harriet Tubman
Henry Ford
Indira Gandhi
J.K.Rowling
J.R.R. Tolkien
Jacqueline Onassis
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jesse Owens
Jimmy Carter
John F. Kennedy
John Lennon
John M. Keynes
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Stalin
Katherine Hepburn
Lady Gaga
Lance Armstrong
Lech Walesa
Leo Tolstoy
Leon Trotsky
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo DiCaprio
Lionel Messi
Lord Baden Powell
Louis Pasteur
Lucretia Borgia
Ludwig Beethoven
Lyndon Johnson
Madonna
Mahatma Gandhi
Malcolm X
Mao Zedong
Margaret Thatcher
Marie Curie
Marilyn Monroe
Mark Twain
Mark Zuckerberg
Martin Luther King
Mata Hari
Meryl Streep
Michael Jackson
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mother Teresa
Muhammad Ali
Neil Armstrong
Nelson Mandela
Nikola Tesla
Oprah Winfrey
Osama Bin Laden
Oscar Wilde
Pablo Picasso
Paul McCartney
Pele
Plato
Pope John Paul II
Prince Charles
Queen ElizabethII
Queen Victoria
Rachel Carson
Rosa Parks
Saint Francis of Assisi
Sandra Day O'Connor
Shakira
Sigmund Freud
Sojourner Truth
Stephen Hawking
Stephen King
Steve Jobs
Sting
Thomas Edison
Thomas Jefferson
Tiger Woods
Toni Morrison
Tupak Shakur
Usain Bolt
Vanessa Williams
Vincent Van Gogh
Virginia Woolf
Vladimir Lenin
Walt Disney
Winston Churchill
Woodrow Wilson
Yoko Ono
What job do you hope to have one day?
Careers can often be a good topic for a narrative paper. When you choose a job try to select a job that you are interested in and maybe want to work at someday. It is best to think about jobs that have activities that you enjoy. Then when you do the research the information will include a description of the jobs and you can better evaluate your actual interest in them. Sometimes jobs are very different than they initially seem. There are people who are jealous of jobs other people have and wish they had those jobs, but in actuality the job might not be as glamorous or enjoyable as it appears. When you consider a career, think about what you want to do while on the job. What do want to do all day long?
Here are some possible career fields:Agriculture: farming, bio-engineering, crop disease research, animal husbandry, livestock, etc.
Automotive: mechanic, salesman, research and development, etc.
Business: marketing, accounting, administrator, clerical, management, finance, customer service, human resources, banker, inventory, nonprofits, consulting and many more.
Community Service: policeman, fireman, urban planner, community developer, public librarian, social worker, counselor, sanitation engineer and many more.
Construction: contractor, architect, installer, maintenance crew, repair person, roofer, plumber, electrician, cabinet maker, woodworker, architect, interior designer, and many more.
Design: Fashion design, pattern making, textiles, costume design, set designer, modeling, etc.
Education: Teacher, school counselor, principal, school librarian, early childcare director or teacher, nanny, teacher's assistant, educational specialist, professor, dean, and many more
Entertainment: Film, theater, director, actor, stunt man, photographer, music industry, singer, musician, composer, publisher, etc.
Government: civil Service, military, politics
Hospitality: restaurants, food services and catering, hotels, conference organizer, etc.
Insurance: health insurance, property insurance, car insurance, travel insurance, accident insurance, etc.
Legal Professions: Lawyer, Judge, legal secretary, para-professional
Manufacturing: Assembly line, foreman
Medical: Doctor, dentist, nurse, dental hygienist, EMT or emergency medical technician, researcher, pharmacist, radiologist, anesthesiologist, veterinarian, and many more
Natural Sciences: Biologist, ornithologist, marine biologist, environmental scientist, forensic scientist, park ranger, parks conservator, and many more
Physical Sciences: Mechanical, electrical, civil or nuclear engineer, mathematician, actuary, surveyor, physicist, and many more
Real Estate: Realtor, landlord, property manager, etc.
Technology: Biotechnology, computer scientist, robotics, programmer, game developer
Telecommunications: Media technician, journalist, network anchor, news editor, etc.
FOCUS YOUR TOPIC
When you get a research assignment, the first thing many students consider is how will I get enough information to get this done. Because of this students often select very broad topics and are not able to really focus on a specific issue. The work becomes bogged down and they aren’t able to do a thorough job. When you consider what you will research you need to remember that you don’t want too much or too little information, like Goldilocks you want it to be just the right. That is, you need to make sure the focus of your paper will work. To help as you consider what you will research look things up and see what information is available. If there are just oodles of hits, you will want to consider making the topic more narrow. If you get too few hits, consider if there is a broader issue or a different focus that will provide more information.
Here are some ideas to help you get started. Look at the topics and subtopics and see how they are related, but will help the focus of the research project. Your topic is sure to have subtopics or areas of interest that will help you focus as you write questions, create keywords and look for information. The more specific you are the easier it will be to find what you are looking for.
Topic: Music
Subtopics:
Can the lyrics of rap increase violence among young people?
Does really loud music affect hearing?
Can music be used in therapy to help calm people?
How does contemporary music reflect our society?
Topic: Sports
Subtopics:
Should high school students participate in risky contact sports?
Should there be a minimum age limit for Olympic female gymnasts and figure skaters?
What are the risks regarding steroids in sports and why do some athletes still use them?
Topic: Art
Subtopics:
Is graffiti art?
What are the differences between American comic books and Japanese manga?
Is modern art really art and how can one tell what is good art?
Topic: Tattoos and Piercings
Subtopics:
Are navel or tongue piercings risky?
Should parents be able to control the age that their children get tattoos and piercings?
How has public opinion of piercings and tattoos changed in the last two decades?
Topic: Hunting
Subtopics:
Should gun control be tightened?
Why are there open seasons for hunting and why or why not is it really best to only hunt during these times?
Does hunting influence the potential for violence in children?
Topic: Gangs
Subtopics: Are gangs always bad/dangerous?
Is gang activity increasing in the US?
Why are young people lured into gang life?
Do most members of gangs regret the choice they made to join a gang?
Topic: Culture
Subtopics:
Why do people have different customs?
Why are cultural customs important to people and can these cultural customs help society as a whole?
Is it important for a society to have a cultural identity?
Does the US have a culture and what does American culture look like?
Topic: Immigration
Subtopics:
Why do people decide to move to a different country?
What are some of the difficulties immigrants face in their new country?
What kinds of help are available to immigrants in the US?
What rules and regulations should the US government consider for border control?
COMPOSE EFFECTIVE QUESTIONS
Questions are the driving force behind your research; they can make or break your search. You use questions to help you focus on the specific information you need for your research assignment. In other words, questions will help you better understand what you want and how to find it.
How you craft your questions will also impact how you write your notes. Solid questions will lead to quality notes that will provide the material for a successful paper. When you compose your questions make sure that they really state what you want to say. Also make sure that they lead you to the information that will be useful. The questions you consider should provide you with a launching point for your rough draft. They should lead you into a thoughtful consideration of the issue or topic you are researching.
Some questions ask for a yes or no answer.
Is the Golden Gate Bridge in London? (No)
Did John Wilkes Booth kill Lincoln? (Yes)
Others might seek out a specific answer.
Who was the first Black U.S. president? (Barack Obama)
Where is Mt. Rainier? (Washington State)
Then there are questions that ask us to find a little more descriptive information. These questions will result in a more complex answer, but are still found in the body of the text.
What was the reason the US entered World War I?How did the Egyptians build the Sphynx?
Finally there are questions that ask us to form an opinion or to analyze something. For these questions you need to both read and think about the information. With these questions you need to make inferences and draw your own conclusions.
Why do people decide to move to another country?How does immigration impact the workplace?
For your research assignment you will need factual information, but you also will want to analyze your issue and draw conclusions. This means that you will need to compose questions that ask for facts and for analysis. Your instructor will expect this in your paper. Keep this in mind as you compose your questions.
CHOOSE RELEVANT KEYWORDS
If you have designed good questions the keywords will be included in them and you will be able to easily identify them. Below I have used some of my sample questions to show how to do this. Sometimes you will think of a term or another word for something that will make your search more robust.
Can the lyrics of rap increase violence among young people?
Keywords: rap lyrics, violence, teen, young adult, juvenile
Does really loud music affect hearing?
Keywords: loud, music, affect, hearing
Can music be used in therapy to help calm people?
Keywords: music, therapy, calming
How is music does contemporary music reflect our society?
Keywords: music, contemporary, reflect, society
Questions: Sports
Should high school students participate in risky contact sports?
Keywords: high school students, participate, contact sports
Should there be a minimum age limit for Olympic female gymnasts and figure skaters?
Keywords: minimum age, female, gymnasts, figure skaters
What are the risks regarding steroids in sports and why do some athletes still use them?
Keywords: risks, steroids, sports, athletes
Questions: Art
Is graffiti art?
Keywords: graffiti, art, urban
What are the differences between American comic books and Japanese manga?
Keywords: comic books, manga, differences
Is modern art really art and how can one tell what is good art?
Keywords: modern art, good, determine
Questions: Tattoos and Piercings
Are navel or tongue piercings risky?
Keywords: navel, tongue, piercings, risky
Should parents be able to control the age that their children get tattoos and piercings?
Keywords: control, age, children, tattoos, piercings
How has public opinion of piercings and tattoos changed in the last two decades?
Keywords: public opinion, piercings, tattoos, changed
Questions: Hunting
Should gun control be tightened?
Keywords: gun control, tightened
Why are there open seasons for hunting and why or why not is it really best to only hunt during these times?
Keywords: open season, hunting, best
Does hunting influence the potential for violence in children?
Keywords: hunting, influence, violence, children
Questions: Gangs
Are gangs always bad/dangerous?
Keywords: gangs, always, bad, dangerous
Is gang activity increasing in the US?
Keywords: gang, activity, increasing, U.S., America
Why are young people lured into gang life?
Keywords: teens, young adults, lured, gangs
Do most members of gangs regret the choice they made to join a gang?
Keywords: gang members, regret, choice, join
Questions: Culture
Why do people have different customs?
Keywords: why, people, different, customs
Why are cultural customs important to people and can these cultural customs help society as a whole?
Keywords: why, cultural customs, important, help society
Is it important for a society to have a cultural identity?
Keywords: important, society, cultural identity
Does the US have a culture and what does American culture look like?
Keywords: US culture, American culture, include
Questions: Immigration
Why do people decide to move to a different country?
Keywords: why, people, move, different country, immigrate
What are some of the difficulties immigrants face in their new country?
Keywords: difficulties, immigrants, face, new country
What kinds of help are available to immigrants in the U.S.?
Keywords: help, available, immigrants, U.S.
What rules and regulations should the US government consider for border control?
Keywords: rules, regulations, U.S. government, border, control