Picking a Research Paper Topic and Narrowing It Down

Students are allowed to choose their own research paper topic in hopes they remain interested in the essay. After all, for most students taking English 101, 4-7 pages is a lot. By picking a relatable subject, they can hopefully become more involved in the process.

Last semester, the department warned not to let students choose any topic, and especially not abortion. I never listened, and as they warned, many students reverted to abortion (because I'm guessing they wrote essays about abortion in high school).

This time around, students can go with most any topic as long as there is an argument, but not abortion, marijuana or the legal drinking age.

Why should there be an argument? Well, while it has only been two semesters, it seems like students revert back to the "pro and con" essay without any real stance or conclusion. They want to summarize the sides and say there are positives and negatives with nothing to add. Students constantly use this strategy in in-class essays.

For this one, make an argument even if it is not a personal belief. If the reader (which is me) can be convinced, then for this class that is what matters.

What if I wanted to write about cellphones or smartphones?

I need to ask a question.

Is there a correlation between using smartphones in class and receiving poor grades?

I'm going to turn that into an argument.

Students who use smartphones in class are more likely to receive poor grades. Yet, some professors continue to let such activity go on despite the overwhelming evidence of lower scores.

What is going on? Students receive poor grades.

How is this happening? They use smartphones in class.

Why is this important to study? overwhelming evidence of lower scores

Now, some professors like to teach their students to go through the research before coming up with the thesis statement. Students can take that route too.

The research may change the thesis statement.

Maybe almost every legitimate article out there argues the benefits of smartphone usage in class. Then, the thesis statement may change depending on whether those articles or books convinced me of their position. 

Alternatively, those articles which go against the initial thesis statement created can be proven wrong, possibly by doing more research and finding a study which contradicts those authors' findings.

By going through the process of the annotated bibliography, students are seeing what the other opinions out there are first, and that will affect the final product of the research paper.