Comments (3)

By esteve, February 1, 2010 8:32 am

Your MSE1 topic needs to accomplish a few objectives that, if I get you thinking about them sooner rather than later, can greatly enhance the quality of your proposal, RD, FD, and therefore your grade.

Think early and often about what you hope to achieve in your MSE. Specifically, how do you want readers’ minds to change as a result of reading your essay? There are several types of foci you may want to consider:

Making An Argument is simple straightforward, and clear: consider all the opinions people can have on an issue, and then advocate the stance you find most logical, providing reasons for supporting that stance. Your counterargument (CA) would be a paragraph about how others could disagree with you and how you refute or concede that perspective.

Proposing a Solution requires you to (1) identify a problem in the world, demonstrating its existence, then (2) argue for the implementation of a solution (or series of solutions) that will reduce/eliminate that problem and then (3) exploring the benefits of that solution’s implementation. CA could be about a less-effective solution that others may take and why it’s not as logical as yours.

In a Searching for Causes purpose, you’d demonstrate the existence of a trend—something that’s happening more (or less) over the last 10 years or so—then providing speculative paragraphs about where that trend came from. CA would be a cause to the trend you don’t buy into and why you don’t.

An Evaluative essay is like the Critique, just on a grander scale. You could apply specific, appropriate criteria in order to evaluate a text (anything that can be researched, really: a written text, a movie, an artist, consumer electronics, a video game, etc.) and then heavily support your judgments with synthesized research.

There are certainly ways you can blend these different approaches, too. For instance, you could explore the causes of a problem before proposing a solution, or you could evaluate a text then argue that it’s good/bad for our culture, and so on. I don’t want to be too pedantic about topics, but I also thought I’d give you some food for thought. Email me any questions you have, and happy proposing!

Comments (2)

By esteve, January 27, 2010 8:56 am

I’m not terribly interested in assigning topics to you; when that happens, you suffer, I suffer, and most crucially, the writing suffers. But that doesn’t mean I can’t help you locate a suitable topic for MSE1 (or MSE2, or the RE). To that end, here’s a rough list of suggestions that will hopefully help you choose a worthwhile topic:

Controversy:
Choose a topic that’s being debated in print. That is, a reliable topic is one you can research extensively, and about which there are a lot of published opinions already out there. Your essay can then “weigh in” on this spectrum of opinion instead trying to generate a debate when there really is none. “Controversial” doesn’t have to mean it’s a hot-button topic likely to get people emotional (abortion rights, gun control, and the death penalty come to mind), but instead is a topic where it’ll be easy for you to enter into the ongoing cultural conversation.

Timely:
Closely related to controversy, a timely topic will more often than not be one that’s been in the news lately. I suggest going over to Google News and clicking around to see what newspapers, journals, and reputable websites have been writing about. I’m a news junkie, so if you’d like some help in locating a timely topic, I’m only an email or Skype session away.

Interesting (to you):
Don’t choose an unattractive-to-you topic because you think I’ll be interested in it, or worse yet, because you think I’ll agree with you. It’s my job to help you with your writing and I promise to do so on any and all topics, no matter how far from my own opinions and life experiences they may be. I’ve been at this teaching writing thing for more than a couple years, and I’m more than able to ignore my personal perspective and focus on improving your writing. Choose a topic because you want to write about it; the end result will be an essay you’ll care about, and that’s always preferable.

Unique (to you):
There are plenty of tried-and-true topics out there (like the drinking age, female body image, violent children and video games/movies/TV shows/ the internet, eating disorders, and so on), and those topics are okay by me, but I’d really like to challenge you to choose a topic that you’re especially suited to contribute to. Think about you and what makes you you–there’s a good topic to be found with enough introspection.

Your Major?
While you absolutely will not try to turn an old paper from a class in your major, you can still use the knowledge you’re acquiring in your intended field of vocation in GSW 1120. (You’d probably be able to find some super-credible sources in the process that may come in handy in other classes.) What’s going on in your major that you’d like to write about?

Categories:
Maybe you’re feeling a little burned out in your major; fine. I get that. Perhaps the following categories are worth exploring for your MSEs and RE:

Areas for Topic Exploration:
Arts,
Media Studies,
Pop Culture,
Social & Behavioral Sciences,
Technology/Online Identities,
Business,
Economics,
Environment/Science,
Consumer Culture,
Corporate Culture,
Crime and Punishment,
Family & Relationships,
Politics,
Education,
Spirituality,
Rights/Freedoms,
The American Dream

and a whole slew of others I’m not thinking of at the moment. I can give you further guidance on focused topics within these categories, but for now I’m being a little vague on purpose. If you investigate an issue on your own, your topic choice will be more organic, and that’s always a good thing.

Some topics I’d prefer you to avoid if it’s at all possible:
Sports (I love ’em, but non-ESPN research can be hard),
Abortion/Reproductive Rights,
Capital Punishment,
Gun Control,
Immigration, and
The Welfare State

for starters.

You’re due to test your MSE1 topic on the “Testing Topics: MSE1” discussion board forum by Thursday night (Feb. 4th), so you’ve got more than a week to contemplate a topic. I suggest, additionally, that if you’re really on fire to write on a certain subject that you “save” that topic for the Researched Essay, when the point values are their highest.

And of course I’m available by email and Skype to help you refine your topic.

Good luck!