How to Choose an Essay Question or Topic

The picking of essay questions and topics may seem trivial in the grand scheme of researching and writing essays, however, unclear questions or only partially relevant topics may hinder the quality of an essay no matter how well researched and edited. This is some of Sophie’s advice on narrowing down questions and selecting topics from someone that has an eclectic taste in modules and subjects.

Tags: Essay Tips and Tricks

Whilst this advice seems straightforward, the more you enjoy a subject, the more you will be motivated in writing and researching.

Remember that this is your own personal academic journey, so pick the topic you enjoyed discussing the most or learning about in lectures and choose a question that you feel most represents your favourite topic of the module or you’re the most interested in researching.

We have all had to write an essay, whether it be in University or lower school, where you just aren’t interested in the topic and the motivation was just not there, don’t needlessly subject yourself to this torture.

I would always recommend going into an essay with a topic and a broader idea of a question. Often, once research begins, your initial views and arguments change and become more specific as you become more educated on the topic. In addition, it is significantly harder to write about a case study that has a lack of scholarly articles and sources, so you may change the case study as research progresses to something with more evidence and scholarship to build upon.

There is a myriad of sources provided by the Library for free that can help aid in narrowing down topics to questions.

Oxford Bibliographies: An encyclopaedia of academic topics that gives an introductory article and lists key texts. It can be used to find key arguments and top scholars in the topic.

Subject Support: the subject support section has tabs for every subject offered at Warwick with links to discipline-specific books, databases and journals that can help narrow down topics and questions by giving more specific texts.

Filters: use the filters on the left-hand side of the Library search bar to select specific disciplines and subject terms. In addition, when the ‘quick look’ button is pressed on any text there is a subject tab beneath the abstract which shows the key subjects discussed in the text and these can be clicked on to lead to other texts within the same subject.

Databases: the Library has an array of databases accessible from the databases tab on the front page. Databases cover a broad range of texts including but not limited to digital copies of historical newspapers, marketing research databases and British TV programmes. It can be useful to look at subject specific databases and journals to understand the key topics and current trends in research.

If you have more freedom in choosing questions, for example this year I had to research around the topic of social media aesthetics and their impact on culture, make sure your essay question has a clear aim and argument that can be continually linked back to, as this is effectively the skeleton of an essay.

Everyone needs a second opinion on a topic or some help narrowing down a question at some point in their academic journey. This is why I really recommend talking to a tutor or the module leader for guidance on picking topics as they know their modules inside out and can help point to relevant topics and questions.

Additionally, there is also Research and Academic Support Librarians for each discipline that can help with navigating and making the most of the Library.

Part of the beauty of university is the ability to make your own academic decisions and forge your own path but also remember you are never by yourself and there are many places and people who can lend support. I wish you the best of luck with your studies!