Understanding – or making up – an essay topic
(What do they want from me??)
Even in these times of space tourism and indoor plumbing, it can still be hard sometimes to work out what an essay topic is asking you to do. If it comes in the form of a question, at least, that’s a very good start. If it doesn’t, you’ve got to figure out what question Lies Beneath. Either way, there are questions you can ask yourself to get a better grip on what the lecturer hopes you will learn by writing this essay.
If there’s a question … and it’s visible.
One, or two, or three sentences, maybe, with a question mark at the end. Bliss. You know what they’re asking. Still, have a look around the neighbourhood. Most books on study skills will tell you to look closely at the question words (what are you supposed to focus on? Theories of underdevelopment? Then, what are you supposed to do about them? Account for how they came into being? Explain them? Compare them? Evaluate them? Apply them to a particular example? All of the above? Something else?). There is another strategy they don’t usually suggest, however, which I find helpful too. If there’s a choice of topics, think about all the ones you’re NOT going to do: how do they compare with the one you’ve chosen? Often you’ll see that several topics are getting at the same idea, but with different emphases, or with reference to different examples. When you see what they have in common, you can see what underlying idea the lecturer considers so important that, whatever topic you choose, you’re going to have to come to grips with it. That brings us to the most useful thing you can do with any essay topic:
Ask yourself how it relates to the discussions you’ve been having in the subject up to now: in the readings, the lectures, and the tutes. In other words, ask yourself why the lecturer is asking this question, in this subject, at this point? It’s true that you’re about to write on just one topic, but your success with it depends on seeing its relation to the subject as a whole.
IF there’s a question in there somewhere, but it’s hard to see where
Sometimes the instructions you are given are very long and complicated, and include a lot of stuff the lecturer wants you to do in preparation for the essay. You should do it, of course, but if you’re not sure what, out of all those steps, is actually supposed to appear in the essay itself, ask your tutor. They’ve put all those instructions in because they think you’ll find them helpful – and, indeed, you may – but sometimes the sheer bulk can be confusing.
If there’s no question
Sometimes, the lecturer actually does want you just to “tell about” some topic. If you’re responsible for a tute presentation, for example, you may be supposed to find out what you can, from the reading, about some theme or object of interest to people in your subject and inform your fellow students about that. Even so, you’ve got to make decisions about what kind of ideas and information are considered worth reporting – and that goes back to the discussions in the subject as a whole.
Most often, however, “about” is not enough. The lecturer does have some question in mind, but hasn’t phrased it as a question but rather as a title. See if you can jiggle it a bit until a question appears. For example, if the topic is “Evidence for stratification in Bronze Age burials”, the question is probably “What evidence is there for stratification in Bronze Age burials?” See what you can do with a “what” or a “why” or a “how”, or, quite possibly, all three.
Get academic about it!
When a student brought me an essay topic recently, on which she had no idea where to start, I found myself spinning out a web of questions which apply to any academic question. This is because academics are in the business of asking questions about their subject matter and offering interpretations within a context of discussion among the members of their discipline. So, when academics think about researching any topic, they ask themselves:
· What problem(s) or question(s) are associated with this topic?
· Who has tried to solve these problems or answer these questions?
· How have they tried?
· How successful have they been? (i.e., what have they shed some light on, what limitations are there in the answers they have given, what further questions did their work give rise to, what remains to be done?)
· Having read what they say, what do you think about this? Why?
Setting your own essay topicThe questions above provided a way into the student’s assignment, and they should also be useful whenever you have to make up your own topic. If you’re asked to write a research essay, or if you’re contemplating an Honours thesis, you’ll want to ask yourself these questions; and if you’re asked to write a literature review (which is usually part of a research essay or a thesis), again, these are the questions to consider. Enjoy!