“Chapter 10. Develop an Effective Topic for a Paragraph or an Essay” in “Read, Think, Write”
Chapter 10 Develop an Effective Topic for a Paragraph or an Essay
Learning Objectives
- • Use prewriting strategies to choose a topic and narrow the focus
- • Identify the characteristics of an effective essay topic
In addition to understanding that writing is a process, effective writers also understand that choosing a good topic for an assignment is an essential step. Sometimes, your instructor will give you an idea to begin an assignment, while other times, your instructor will ask you to come up with a topic on your own.
In this chapter, you will follow the process of a kinesiology student, Alex, as she chooses and narrows a topic in preparation for writing an essay. You will also practice choosing and narrowing a topic of your own.
Choose a Topic
A good general topic not only covers what an assignment will be about but also fits the assignment’s purpose and audience. Think about why you are writing (to inform, to explain, to persuade, or for some other purpose) and for whom you are writing. For a refresher on the importance of audience and purpose, review Chapter 5: First Things First: Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content.
Within the constraints of the assignment, try to choose a topic that interests you, which will make writing easier. If you are choosing your own topic, make sure it is suitable for the course and the assignment. Also, the topic must be manageable in a short essay. We’ll discuss this more in the next section.
In Chapter 4, you learned prewriting strategies that are helpful for finding general topics, such as using experiences and observations, brainstorming, and reading. Every time you receive a new writing assignment, return to those prewriting techniques to help generate topic ideas. Even if your instructor assigns you a general topic, prewriting techniques can help generate related ideas and subtopics.
Practice 10.1
Take a moment to review the ideas you generated in Practice 4.1, Practice 4.2, and Practice 4.3.
Choose one topic that you would like to develop throughout this chapter. Regardless of whether this is a practice essay or an essay for a class assignment, choose a topic that
- a. you are interested in
- b. is suitable for a university class
- c. is appropriate for a short essay
Then think about the intended audience and the purpose of the essay.
On a sheet of paper, write the general topic, the purpose, and the audience. Keep the paper close by as you read and complete exercises in this chapter.
- My general topic: ________________________________________________________
- My purpose: ______________________________________________________________
- My audience: _____________________________________________________________
Narrow the Focus
Once you’ve chosen a general topic for your assignment, it’s essential to narrow the focus. Many students miss this important step, and they try to write about a topic that is much too big for a short essay, which makes for a frustrating experience and a disappointing result.
Consider the example below. Alex’s instructor has asked students to write a five-page essay on a topic of interest. Alex wants to write about yoga. However, she knows that the general topic—yoga—is much too broad for a five-page essay. She could write an entire book about the topic of yoga (and many people have). Alex knows that in order to make the topic manageable, and in order to write a focused, coherent essay, she needs to narrow the focus to a more specific topic. She uses the prewriting strategy of idea mapping to generate subtopics, starting with the question, “What do I want people to know about yoga?”
Figure 10.1: Idea Map on the General Topic “Yoga”
Illustration by Jessica Tang.
After establishing several potential subtopics, Alex has some good choices. She knows that “yoga” is too big a topic for a five-page essay, so she circles some areas of the map that might be suitable. For example, she sees that she could write a classification essay about four types of yoga (see Figure 10.2).
Or she could write about the benefits of yoga (see Figure 10.3).
Alternatively, she could write a process essay about how to become a yoga teacher.
Alex decides to write about the benefits of yoga. Referring to her idea map, she identifies three types of benefits: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Alex decides to freewrite about these benefits of yoga for ten minutes. (For a refresher on freewriting, turn to Chapter 4.)
However, after freewriting, Alex realizes that to fully explore all three benefits of yoga, she would probably need to write an essay of twenty or even fifty pages. She knows she cannot do this topic justice in a five-page essay. The topic is still too broad. To narrow the topic further, Alex again refers to her idea map (see Figure 10.4).
Alex decides that she will focus on the physical benefits of yoga. Even though she is very interested in the emotional and spiritual benefits of yoga, she will not mention them in this essay. Focusing on the physical benefits, her subtopics will be balance, strength, and flexibility. She knows that she can adequately cover this topic in five pages.
Alex has chosen a sufficiently narrowed topic, and she will now be able to write a focused and coherent essay. She jots down her new topic:
Figure 10.2: A Portion of the Idea Map on the Topic “Yoga”
Illustration by Jessica Tang.
Figure 10.3: A Portion of the Idea Map on the Topic “Yoga”
Illustration by Jessica Tang.
Figure 10.4: A Narrower Portion of the Idea Map on the Topic “Yoga”
Illustration by Jessica Tang.
- General Topic: Yoga
- Narrower Topic: The benefits of yoga
- Final Narrowed Topic: The physical benefits of yoga
Having chosen a narrower topic suitable for a short essay, Alex now spends a few minutes making another idea map to generate and organize more detailed ideas (see Figure 10.5).
Figure 10.5: A New Idea Map on the “Physical Benefits of Yoga”
Illustration by Jessica Tang.
Now, based on the structure she identified in the last idea map, she is ready to create an outline for her essay. Below is Alex’s outline for an essay about the physical benefits of yoga:
Title: The Physical Benefits of Yoga
- I. Introductory paragraph
Thesis statement: Practicing yoga has many physical benefits, including improving balance, increasing strength, and developing flexibility.
- II. First body paragraph
Topic sentence: First, practicing yoga improves a person’s balance.
- A. Importance of balance in preventing injuries as we age
- B. Common balance poses
- i. Tree pose
- ii. Dancer’s pose.
- C. Effects of practicing balance poses
- III. Second body paragraph
Topic sentence: A yoga practice also improves strength.
- A. Why it’s important to build strong muscles
- B. Strengthening yoga poses
- i. Plank pose
- ii. Downward-facing dog pose
- C. Effects of these poses
- III. Third body paragraph
Topic sentence: Finally, practicing yoga increases one’s flexibility.
- A. The importance of flexibility for joint health and functional movement
- B. Poses that increase flexibility
- i. Cat-cow pose
- ii. Camel pose
- C. Effects of these poses on flexibility.
- IV. Concluding paragraph
Restate thesis: People who would like to improve their balance, strength, and flexibility should look to yoga.
As Alex discovered, the prewriting techniques of freewriting and asking questions can help a student think more about a general topic, and the following prewriting strategies can help narrow the focus of a topic:
- Brainstorming
- Idea mapping
- Searching the Internet
Narrowing the focus requires breaking up the topic into subtopics, or more specific points. Generating a lot of subtopics helps in selecting the ones that fit the assignment, appeal to the writer, and meet the needs of the audience.
Practice 10.2
Now choose and complete one of the prewriting strategies to narrow the focus for the general topic you chose in Practice 10.1. Use brainstorming, idea mapping, or searching the Internet. Then record the results below:
- My general topic: _________________________________________________________
- My narrower topic: _______________________________________________________
- My final narrowed topic: _________________________________________________
Share with a peer and compare your answers. Share what you found and what interests you about the topic.
Practice 10.3
Use Checklist 10.1: Developing a Good Topic to help you with narrowing a broad topic to a more specific topic that will be suitable for your assignment.
Checklist 10.1: Developing a Good Topic
- This checklist can help you decide if your narrowed topic is a good topic for your assignment.
- With your narrowed focus in mind, answer the bulleted questions in the checklist for developing a good topic. If you can answer “yes” to all the questions, write your topic on the line below. If you answer “no” to any of the questions, think about another topic or adjust the one you have, and try the prewriting strategies again.
- ☐ Am I interested in this topic?
- ☐ Would my audience be interested?
- ☐ Do I have prior knowledge or experience with this topic? If so, would I be comfortable exploring this topic and sharing my experiences?
- ☐ Do I want to learn more about this topic?
- ☐ Is this topic specific?
- ☐ Does it fit the length of the assignment?
An effective topic ensures that you are ready for the next step: writing about that topic in a paragraph or an essay.
Key Takeaways
- • Writers often choose a general topic first and then narrow the focus to a more specific topic.
- • Prewriting strategies can help a writer generate more specific topics.
- • A good topic interests the writer, appeals to the audience, and fits the purpose and requirements of the assignment.
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