This discussion is going to be in small groups, with 3–4 other people, in order to facilitate more direct interaction.   

After finishing this unit’s readings, as well as looking through the research essay prompt we’ll use to guide us the rest of the quarter, what are your initial thoughts about possible topic ideas?  Come up with at least 5 potential ideas.  At least one of those should be something “light-hearted”—something you would normally never consider as a possible topic, but still think it’d be fun to play with for a while.  Don’t tell us which one the light-hearted topic is, though!

For each of the 5 ideas (or more!), tell us the following:

• 1-2 sentences about what it is and why it interests you
• 1-2 questions you have about the topic that you don’t already know the answers to.  These can be small questions or large ones–whatever you would like to find out.

Your post should be about 100-150 words.  It doesn’t have to be grammatically perfect, but should use standard English (no text-speak, please) and normal capitalization rules.

Respond to EVERYONE else in your group who has made a post before you.  (That means that the first person to post doesn’t have to reply to anyone.  The earlier you post, the less work you have to do!)

Of the list of 5 your classmate has suggested, which do you like best as a paper topic?  Why?  What do you think the potential value of researching this idea further would be?  Do you have any initial suggestions for research sources, or ways of narrowing down this idea further?  Basically—we’re helping one another brainstorm.

Replies should be at least 50 words long each.  They should contain serious, thoughtful replies that directly correspond to what your classmate has written.