1. Choosing and Narrowing a Topic
Unit 2
Choosing and Narrowing a Topic

2. Strategies for developing a topic

3. Reading
Checking the content pages of books to verify the availability of sources.

4. Questions
What topic do I want to write about? Why do I want to write about this topic? Who is my favorite writer, etc.? What aspects do I like about the writer? What evidence do I have to support my views?

5. Free writing
What do you think free writing is?

6. Free writing is a prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic.

7. It means taking about 15 minutes to write down your ideas.
Focus on content.
No focus on grammar, spelling or style.
This method aims to help you generate ideas.
 It helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism

8. Example
I would like to write about a novel. My best one is Tess of the D’ubervilles. I like the character of Tess and sympathize with her suffering. I like her because she physically and emotionally suffers so much at the hands of several cunning people while she is still young and innocent.

9. Brainstorming
Brainstorming technique is an informal way of generating topics to write about, or points to make about your topic.

10. Formats
List
Spidergram
Tree-diagram

11. List Supernatural elements used in Macbeth.
Main characteristics of supernatural elements.
Types of supernatural elements used in Macbeth
The different roles played by supernatural elements
The influence of supernatural elements.

12. Spidergram on pair work
Pedagogical purposes
Advantages
Pair work
Activities
Disadvantages
Organization

13. Tree Diagram

14. Consult your instructor to discuss the topic.

15. Exercise 1
Choose three of the following subjects and use a different strategy for each (asking questions, free writing, spidergram, tree-diagram)

16. Characteristics of Romanticism
Major features of Elizabethan literature
Main theme in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Qualities of a successful university professor
Qualities of a successful university student
Revenge in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Strategies of teaching English to children

17. Assignment
Choose two topics. One should be related to literature and the other to language teaching.
Develop your topics through asking questions, free writing, or brainstorming.