How to Choose an Essay Topic

Choosing an essay topic is one of the most important parts of writing an essay or paper. It also is one of the most difficult parts of building the essay. However, here are some important tips in choosing the essay topic:

• Select something that interests you,
• Choose something you know about.

A topic selection must be specific because it is impossible to cover all aspects of a broad topic in a single essay’s scope. For example, the topic “the Internet” is a general one. You may want to write on something more specific, which will give a deeper and more detailed discussion of this topic, such as “Microsoft’s contribution to the development of online games.”

General subject: Internet

Narrowed topic: Facebook

Specific topic: How Facebook influences us

After choosing the topic for your essay or paper, start researching that topic, brainstorm, and make an outline. As you research your topic, make notes, and record all you learn. This will make it easier to form an outline from the notes you have taken. Here are suggestions for choosing the essay topic (below):