Ask any experienced writer about the key to a successful essay, and without any doubt one of the points mentioned will be a proper topic. It is definitely one of the major prerequisites, as it not only determines the content of your essay, but also helps you structure your thoughts in a logical, clear and concise way and draw the reader’s attention to the ideas presented.
But how to choose a topic which will help you exploit your writing skills to the utmost and hide the weaknesses of your writing style? Here are a few tips which are sure to make the selection process easier:
- Be passionate!
Never choose a subject which you feel indifferent about. If you do not care about the topic, you are very likely to suffer from a writer’s block, as you will not know what to tell your readers. In this respect, even the idea that you do not agree with or are strongly opposed to can be a better choice. However, the ideal choice is a subject matter that you really enjoy, because in this case you are sure to be passionate and enthusiastic, which is very inspiring itself.
- Be familiar with your topic!
One more advantage of writing about something important for you personally, is that you are very likely to know a lot about the topic. In case you do not, spend some time to research your sphere of interests! The more you know about what you are writing, the more believable the text will be and the more your readers will trust you.
- Be specific!
Once you have identified your key interest area, start narrowing it down to one clear problem. It is an important stage, because if you fail to formulate a clear definite topic, you will never manage to compress all your passion into a necessary amount of words and organize your writing in coherent paragraphs without being overwhelmed with emotions. Imagine, you love dancing and decide to write about it. Immediately a whole hurricane of ideas is stirred in your head: types of dancing, ballet, hip-hop, classical dance, benefits, training techniques, etc.
However, these elements are very different and, if you start writing everything that comes into your head, you will end up with nothing logical and meaningful, but appropriate in terms of size, or you will write a whole research, which will be comprehensive, but too lengthy. Instead, limit your imagination to one of the points within the key sphere of interest: write about why you love ballet or why, in your opinion, hip-hop is more popular with young people than classical dance.
- Never choose a worn out topic!
It is no doubt tempting to choose something ready-made instead of going deep into the preparation stage. However, it is worth bearing in mind, that the only thing a much elaborated topic will evoke in the reader is the desire to yawn. Even if your ideas are magnificent, they will never be even noticed. So, take time, but invent your own one. The time spent preparing for the writing process makes up half of its final success.
So, consider these four simple rules next time you have to write essay and make sure that they are easy to follow and effective.
Now that you have your topic defined, you are ready for the next stage.
