What Topic Should You Choose?

You started researching your topic broadly. You wanted to look at a general research question and in that find your argument for your persuasive essay. You want to write a paper you think is interesting. You can choose any topic you want to write a persuasive essay about. It is possible to relate any topic you  choose to the Harvard Sampler. Here is an example (Number 4).

If you are struggling to think of a good topic, here are some ideas to get you started.

1) What do you want to do in university? Choose a topic related to that. Do you want to be a diplomat? How about connecting it to the medical detectives topic: "Global health should be the primary concern of future global leaders." Or, if you want to be a PA for a news team, maybe you could connect it to the internet topic: "Social media expertise is a requirement for any successful journalist."

2) What are you studying in your other classes? Debate? Literature? Korean? If you're interested in history, maybe you could do an argument like, "The internet should be used to "normalize" world history and remove the biases of history produced by single countries. If you like biology you could discuss evolution in terms of anything that interests you. For example, "What is the evolution of education in Korea?" Or, "how has the Korean language evolved?" Maybe you could combine the evolution topic with the internet and the human mind: "We need to replace natural selection with artificial selection by creating technology that directly links our minds to the internet.

3) What are your hobbies? Do you really like manga? You could relate it to the human mind by arguing, "Reading manga is more intellectually stimulating than watching movies." What about bike riding? "The evolution of bike mechanics is the most profound evolution of technology in sports."

Again, remember that any topic is acceptable, and the most important criteria for your argument is that you think it is interesting. You can write an academic and intellectually stimulating paper on any topic, academic or not. 

Research Topic Suggestions

Choose a topic that is interesting to YOU. Also, remember that your final project will be a PERSUASIVE essay, not a research paper.

Are you still looking for your research topic? Here are some generous suggestions from 김진영 선생님:

1) Psychological (or they can look at them from other point of view) reasons why we are attracted to physical beauty. Simply put, why do we like pretty and handsome people? Is it because of biological or evolutionary reasons or is there something else?

2) How far along have we come in terms of robot technology? How much can the robots be like us human beings?

3) Where does cognitive biological approach stand in the history of psychology? What research areas are there and what have we found?

4) Is the cognitive biological approach to human mind a suitable way of looking into our mental abilities? Can biology and evolution fully and profoundly explain every aspect of the human mind?

5) If we were able to copy the exact same human beings as ours, are they able to think, function and interact with creativity and intelligent the way we do?

Brainstorming Instructions

Make sure to add a label or 태그 to this post called "Research Question"

Brainstorm thoughts about the various topics, what are you curious about? What do you want to write a persuasive essay about?

This post is a place to start your semester long project. Remember, it is your job to choose something you are interested in and something that excites you. You do not need to make any final decisions today. You can change your topic whenever you want.

You can add photos, links, whatever you want to help you brainstorm ideas for your final paper.