Have you ever been stressed out because you can’t think of a good topic for an important writing assignment? You’re not alone. As a student, you’d probably prefer it if professors would just assign topics rather than leave you to find one on your own. However, professors aren’t vague because they want to punish you; they usually just don’t want to constrain your creativity or discourage you from writing about topics that truly interest you. Professors also want to be surprised by their students’ ingenuity, and very few teachers want to read a big stack of essays all on the same stale topic. Unfortunately, just being told to “be creative” is unlikely to calm you down when you’ve got a major paper due next week and still haven’t found a topic to write about!

Imagine that you are in an introductory literature course. The professor has assigned a 3-5 page essay on a Shakespearean play that requires multiple sources. You try asking the professor to be more specific, or offer some suggestions. The professor responds, “No, it’s up to you. Surprise me.” What do you do?

One smart option is to go to the library and look for scholarly journals that cover Shakespearean studies. You might also try scholarly books about Shakespeare and his plays. Browsing these sources should give you some ideas about the aspects of Shakespeare and his plays, that scholars have found worth writing about. You might find that an idea that you thought was “totally original” has already been done. However, you shouldn’t let this worry you. If every essay or book had to be 100% original, we’d have precious few to read!

If you keep reading and skimming articles and books, you will find many different discussions and possibilities for writing topics. One way to do this is to write a list of binaries, a list of opposing ideas that may represent larger discussions about the topic at hand. Choosing from these opposing ideas in the text will lead you to ideas for a more specific argument. Scholars frequently engage in complex and long-lasting arguments that span across different journal articles and books. Professor X’s article on climate change will be mentioned, discussed, or challenged by Professor Y in a book and Professor Z in another article. None of them are worried about saying things that have never been said before; the key is just to say them differently and perhaps better.

You will always have one advantage over any other scholar you read–their articles and books cannot take advantage of all the relevant scholarship that appeared after their publication date. Don’t be afraid to freshen up an old article with new supporting evidence–or challenge one whose conclusions are called into question by subsequent research.

You should also look for an issue that you can reasonably cover given the time and space (page count) you have available. After that it’s a simple matter of supporting your argument by bringing in relevant quotations from those who agree with you. You should also identify the counter-arguments and provide pertinent background information.

This technique also works well for writing theses and dissertations. Instead of writing about “things never written about before,” try to make a new contribution to one of the many ongoing conversations in the field. This approach is especially handy if you hope to publish your work, since some publishers tend to favor works that fit with their existing line of publications. Readers also expect you to be familiar with, and probably refer to, works of other scholars who have written on your topic. Think of your work as either extending existing work or taking it in a new direction.

If you intend to publish fiction, it’s a good idea to first familiarize yourself with the work of successful fiction writers and consider what it is about their work that appeals to publishers. There is no shame in following the same roads that led to their success. This isn’t the same as “copying” or “ripping off” an author; there is a difference between duplicating techniques and duplicating content.

In essence, the easiest way to find a topic to write about is to see what other writers are writing about and join their “conversation.” The conversation metaphor is a very useful way to understand what scholarship is all about. Rather than thinking of essays or books as isolated units of scholarship, try envisioning them as the fruits of a massive network of scholars who converse with each other via scholarly documents, conference presentations, e-mail, phone calls, and other forms of communication. Research what is available and where you can make the most valuable contribution.

Another way to find a topic is to think ahead to what you will be studying and/or to your future career. You may want to write about challenges or issues within your field of study (major/minor) or within your future career. This can be a great way to discover what issues are currently being explored before you take upper level classes. It also can help you decide whether a major/minor is really what you would like to pursue.

Try this activity:

Google “challenges in the field of_______(major/minor, career)” or “challenges with ______(social/cultural/economic/political issue)

For example:

• Challenges in the field of nursing; challenges in the field of pharmacy; challenges in the field of advertising

Or…

• Challenges with gender equality; challenges college students face; challenges with racial equality and football

Another suggestion: go back and reread your Weekly Writes–what kinds of connections have you been noticing between classes/media/personal life?

However, while you want to write about a topic that is interesting in order to make it “fun,”  be cautious about choosing a topic that is too “personal” or that you feel “too passionately” about. Often students find it difficult to remain objective or fail to be able to include other perspectives when they choose topics that they are emotionally invested in–why do you think this could be true?