1. STEP 1: Choosing a Topic What to choose What not to choose
Subjects which are
Familiar
Interesting
Source availability
Contemporary
What not to choose
Very new
Too controversial
No interest

2. Review course materials. 
Check your class notes to find interesting topic.

3. Brainstorming:
Take the general topic and create a concept map for it. This can help you find aspect about your topic.

4. Ask your instructor.
Your instructor can be an excellent source for topic suggestions, as well as recommend readings.

5. Avoiding topics Commonly written about.
Too difficult to add your own insights
Too easy to plagiarize
Might bore audience
Simplistic issues, easily answerable.
Won't test your research or critical thinking skills. Leads to cliches.
Arguments that overly rely on religious or ethical perspectives.
Audience might not share your beliefs

6. Narrowing a Topic Use demographic categories to help: Age
Sex or gender
Ethnicity
Nationality
Race
Class
Religion
Education
Geographic factors: region/country, urban/rural
Time periods

7. Asking Questions to Narrow the Topic
Questions based on rhetorical mode:
·:· Comparison
·:· Definition
·:· Cause/Effect
·:· Process
·:· Classification
Evaluation

8. Asking Questions by Discipline
Economics
History
Psychology
Sociology
Literature
Business
• Science

9. Example for narrowing a topic
Topic: Education
Geographically-in Upper Egypt
Class-among Egypt's upper class
Age-primary education
Sex/gender-primary education among upper Egyptian females
Religion-religious education in upper Egypt
Ethnicity-primary education for upper Egypt's Nubian population

10. Finding an Issue
An issue is an aspect of the topic that you can analyze and/or take a position on.
Examples:
:;. Curriculum reform
:;. Private lessons
Government role in education reform
NGO/foreign donor role in education reform

11. Topic: Internet
Focus: e-business in Egypt
Issue: ??

12. Topic: film
Focus: Cairo International Film Festival
Issues: ??

13. Where to start? Start with yourself.
Select a topic that interests you… one you know something about or
want to know something about.

14. STEP 2: Narrowing and Limiting the Topic
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
Process
Too General
Still Broad
Less Broad
Narrow Enough

15. How to narrow your topic???
Best way is to ask questions:
Use words like
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why? and
How?

16. Strategies for developing a topic

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

18. 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?

19. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a method of generating topics to write about, or points to make about your topic.

20. Formats
List
Spidergram
Tree-diagram

21. 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.

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

23. Tree Diagram

24. Narrowing down your Topic

25. Limiting a Literary Topic
You should include:
A literary figure (Shakespeare, Austen, Fitzgerald)
A literary genre (a novel, a short story, a tragedy)
A literary work (Emma, Oliver Twist, Arms and the Man)
A particular character (Macbeth, King Lear, Tess)
A particular aspect related to a theme, setting, symbolism, irony, (functions, roles, types, effects, differences)

26. The more elements you include in your topic, the more specific it becomes. Below are some examples that demonstrate how you might limit certain broad topics. They move from too general to specific.
a. Irony (an aspect)
b. Irony in novels (an aspect + a literary genre)
c. Irony in Jane Austen’s novels (an aspect + a literary figure + a general literary genre)
d. Irony in Jane Austen’s Emma (an aspect + a literary figure + a specific example of literary genre)

27. 2. a. Victorian Literature
b. Children in Victorian Literature
c. Children in Charles Dickens’ novels
d. How Charles Dickens portrays children in Oliver Twist
3. a. American Literature
b. American life as described in novels
c. The image of America as portrayed in Fitzgerald’s novels
d. The image of America as portrayed in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

28. Limiting a Language Teaching Topic
You should include:
A language skill (listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation)
An aspect of a skill (testing, reading, short stories, or silent reading)
A teaching techniques (pair work, songs, audio-visuals, games)
Learners’ educational level (primary/secondary school or university)
Learners’ age (children, young adult, mature adult)
Location (Palestine, UK, USA, Japan)

29. Here are some example topics, again moving from general to specific
1. a. Listening skill (language skill)
b. Teaching the listening skill (not, for example, testing)
c. Using audio-visuals in developing the listening skill (language skill + an aspect of skill + techniques of teaching)
d. The significance of audio-visuals in developing children’s listening skills in Palestine (language skill + an aspect + teaching technique + learner’s age + location)

30. 2. a. Large classes b. Strategies for dealing with large classes c
2. a. Large classes b. Strategies for dealing with large classes c. How teachers can deal with large classes in teaching English d. How teachers can deal with large classes in teaching writing in English 3. a. Short stories b. short stories as a means of expanding vocabulary c. The lexical advantages of short stories to Palestinian secondary school learners

31. Activity Rewrite the following topics in a more specific way.
Teaching and games
Poetic image
Grammar
Destiny in Shakespeare's plays
Motivation
Symbolism
Metaphor
Reading skills

32. Huge topics like “Poverty,” “unemployment,” “Victorian Literature” or “Elizabethan Literature” need to be limited.