Re: Topic Choices Story: Revised(fwd)

["Adon Arnett" <arnett@faculty.suu.edu>]

I agree with Linda Kaastra's ideas regarding ways the topic of an 
essay can determine its success.  I don't, however, recommend to my 
students that they choose a topic "close" to them, unless the essay 
deals very specifically with that issue.  A description of place or 
issues regarding constructions of identity are obviously essays in 
which a student must discuss him/herself.  A research paper, on the 
other hand, can become very muddled from the get go if a student 
tries dealing with an issue so close to home.  The student who chose 
to write about rape had some very obvious problems or issues 
concerning that topic, and he most certainly sounded biased.  And why 
should an instructor be made to feel, regardless of gender, that rape 
is not violent?  

When I assign the research paper in my composition courses, I present 
this type of writing as something with real purpose, and the 
potential to be read by large numbers of people.  And since one isn't 
necessarily able to successfully discuss issues of global magnitude 
in a 10 page paper, I ask that my students deal with local 
issues--things that take place in and around their very immediate 
community.  I ask that they write about campus issues.  Most of the 
time the success rate is high, while at the same time students are 
able to explore their own environments in  more depth, and are 
made to narrow a topic from something large and uncontrolable to 
something manageable.  

Writing on issues too close to home, I think, allows students to get 
caught up in their own biases, which may become too overwhelming and 
difficult to get out from under.  Besides, making an argument 
requires viewing both sides of an issue, and having too strong a bias 
often deters students away from doing so.    

Adon Arnett
Southern Utah University