1. Holdstein & Aquiline, Chapter 4
Who Says?
Holdstein & Aquiline, Chapter 4

2. Choosing a topic This can be daunting, but it’s important
Choose something that
Interests you
Is significant/can have an impact
Basic steps:
Generate a list (your current assignment)
Pre-search—try Summon, ProQuest, Google, Google Scholar to see if these seem feasible
Narrow your topic to get to a Yes/No debatable non-trivial research question and thesis

3. Topic lists We are starting with the Internet
You could add topic areas within that as on p. 34—Internet and politics, music, fashion, etc.
Your topic/problem is more likely to be conceptual (social science, humanities) than practical (physical sciences)

4. Pre-searching
What resources (books, scholarly journals, databases) does the library have access to?
What new angle caught your attention as you were doing the search? [It’s OK to let your research “determine” or direct your choice of topic; better to have a topic you like less with resources than one you like more without resources]

5. Narrowing
Move from subject (or topic area) e.g. fashion to a topic (the role of fashion industries on the East Coast)
Look at catalog/Library of Congress subject areas (books) or get one book and look at chapter titles
Narrow by “journalistic questions”: Who, what, when where, why [also How?]
Start thinking about your audience—how specific or technical can you get?
Specific/narrow generally is better. Remember, you’re aiming at 10+ pages, while someone (hopefully) wrote a book about the same topic
Again, you should consider following your personal interests [for us, things about the Internet/Web that you already use and wonder about]

6. Audience, tone
Imagine that your paper would be read by a wider audience than classmates, and the professor [anticipating the audience is part of the “rhetorical turn”]
Your tone must reflect what the audience would expect—not too colloquial, slang, clichéd, but also not too formal/academic. Third-person only.

7. Thesis, RQ
Express your topic as a research question (RQ) to which the answer is your thesis. Your paper will “argue” that your thesis is supported by the research you present [note the book says you will “prove” your thesis—I argue that that is impossible]
The thesis might/should be a few sentences in the first few paragraphs of your paper.
A good thesis will
Provide the reader direction
Make a claim (point of view, argument) that is supported by evidence [For us we want a Yes/No topic if it is non-trivial e.g. “Does TV violence harm children?”]
Be narrow
Engage your readers
Give readers an answer to “So what?” i.e. lead to a practical purpose
[Example on p. 49 is about women's hemlines and the economy.]