One of the hardest steps to complete when you start writing an essay is figuring out what topic to write about (unless it’s preassigned). Commonly, students are tempted to write about something they have a great passion towards or are genuinely interested in. Though there is never a correct answer about choosing the best topic, there are filters to use when brainstorming ideas. After having plenty of writing experience, it becomes apparent that certain topics fit better with specific categories than others
Personal essays are autobiographical stories that have a friendly, intimate touch to them. The tone of such an essay is usually conversational and reflects the character of the writer. It should also examine certain emotions you have experienced as a result of particular events that have happened to you.В
Informative essays are similar to research essays, however, they simply present facts and educate readers on a matter. Here you do not get to say what you think, rather you simply discuss your topic and inform your reader about it. Here are some good essay topics:
- Civil War and its significance in American history
- History of slavery in the United States
- The civil rights movementВ
- The causes and long-term consequences of stress
- Why we procrastinate and how to avoid it
- Racism in the US
- Child obesityВ
- Cybercrime and how not to be its victim
- The Solar System and its components
- The Milky Way and how to find it in the night sky
- How recycling can save our planet
- Hitler and his military strategies
- The causes of the Vietnam War
- The judiciary system in the United States
- What is ADHD and how does it change lives?
- The consequences of WWII
- Is a college degree necessary to be successful?
- Child abuse and its influence on character development
- Expressionism and its role in art history
- Overpopulation in prisons
Tips for Choosing the Best Topics
Descriptive Writing (Group 3) - This style asks the author to unleash their inner artist with lively vocabulary and coherent ideas to explain an idea, describe a concept, etc. Definition and Descriptive essays fit into this category.
Compare and contrast essays showcase your ability to find similarities and differences between two or more subjects or points of view. This type of essay is relatively easy and fun to write because you get to express your own thoughts instead of writing bare facts. You can draw parallels and analyze the relationships between objects while explaining to the reader your unique perspective.
Argumentative essays usually present arguments both for or against a certain issue. Depending on the author's goals and personal opinions, arguments can be balanced on both sides of the problem, or they can mostly support one of the sides. Some great essay topics are written below:
Summarize your main claims by restating them, though you don’t need to bring up the evidence again. This helps remind readers of everything you’ve said throughout the essay.
This example follows the Toulmin model—if your essay follows the Rogerian model, the same basic premise is true, but your thesis will instead propose two conflicting viewpoints that will be resolved through evidence in the body, with your conclusion choosing the stronger of the two arguments.
End by suggesting a picture of a world in which your argument and action are ignored. This increases the impact of your argument and leaves a lasting impression on the reader.
When you’re crafting an argument, it can be easy to get distracted by all the information and complications in your argument. It’s important to stay focused—be clear in your thesis and home in on claims that directly support that thesis.
Evidence
The Rogerian model analyzes two sides of an argument and reaches a conclusion after weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Your thesis is the crux of your argument. In an argumentative essay, your thesis should be clearly outlined so that readers know exactly what point you’ll be making. Don’t explain all your evidence in the opening, but do take a strong stance and make it clear what you’ll be discussing.
Be prepared to back your thesis up with reporting from scientific journals, newspapers, or other forms of research. Having well-researched sources will help support your argument better than hearsay or assumptions. If you can’t find enough research to back up your point, it’s worth reconsidering your thesis or conducting original research, if possible.
It’s important that your claims and evidence be based in facts, not just opinion. That’s why it’s important to use reliable sources based in science and reporting—otherwise, it’s easy for people to debunk your arguments.
There are a few hacks you can use to make the 150 words you have seem a lot longer and more developed. That way, if you want to write about a longer time span, your final product will seem less rushed.
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12. A conversation that taught you about good techniques for engaging others
Don’t mistake awards for personal development. Because it’s Princeton, you might feel tempted to list all your titles, achievements, accolades, etc. to prove you’re worthy of admission. But doing so unthinkingly is a fatal mistake that you should never make. For one thing, there’s a good chance that you’ll just be repeating your resume, which is a waste of your time and your precious word count. Additionally, it’s an easy way to lose your reader – the tone might sound off, it might come across as bragging, and (if you’re like most people) rattling off a list of awards isn’t something you’d actually do in conversation. Can you imagine? “I attended NJHS general meetings biweekly, in addition to officers’ meetings every Thursday after school, and co-chaired a subcommittee on our annual PADS benefit dance.” Ugh. NJHS might be an important community cause in which the speaker was passionately involved, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way from the writing. Our brains aren’t wired to have any actual response to language like this.
At Princeton, we value diverse perspectives and the ability to have respectful dialogue about difficult issues. Share a time when you had a conversation with a person or a group of people about a difficult topic. What insight did you gain, and how would you incorporate that knowledge into your thinking in the future? (250 words)
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This example would be a good start to an essay, because it hits on the author’s career goals, briefly summarizes the ideological conflict, and leaves you hanging with suspense – what made the author change his mind? How did it happen? It also paints a clear picture of the author at “point A,” so the rest of the essay can focus on “point B” and the changed opinion.
Example: “Sweat. Must. Dirt. These things became my world as my face crushed down onto the mat. I struggled to break loose, but it was useless – I was pinned.”
Jeannette (TX)
Natasha (CA)
A personal essay gives the reader a glimpse of your personal life experience. A lot of times you may need to compose a personal essay. It could be for a simple class assignment, or the requirement for a college application. In order to gain ideas of writing a personal essay, you can get inspired by the listed topics below. Just think of each of the ideas as a prompt for writing, and imagine any special moment the prompt may bring to your mind.
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I would also recommend starting with a longer personal statement before moving on to shorter supplementary essays, since the 500-700 word essays tend to take quite a bit longer than 100-250 word short responses. The brainstorming you do for the long essay may help you come up with ideas you like for the shorter ones as well.
Give yourself credit for what you've done well, but don't hesitate to change things that aren't working. It can be tempting to hang on to what you've already written—you took the time and thought to craft it in the first place, so it can be hard to let it go. Taking this approach is doing yourself a disservice, however. No matter how much work you put into a paragraph or much you like a phrase, if they aren't adding to your essay, they need to be cut or altered.
As you go through your ideas, be discriminating—really think about how each topic could work as an essay. But don't be too hard on yourself
You can talk about the effects of either your family life (like your relationship with your parents or what your household was like growing up) or your cultural history (like your Jewish faith or your Venezuelan heritage). You can also choose between focusing on positive or negative effects of your family or culture. No matter what however, the readers definitely want to hear about your educational goals (i.e. what you hope to get out of college) and how they're related to your personal experience.
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Revisit the main idea. At the end, you want to tie everything together by revisiting the main idea or object and showing how your relationship to it has shaped or affected you. Ideally, you'll also hint at how this thing will be important to you going forward.
When deciding what part of your topic to focus on, try to find whatever it is about the topic that is most meaningful and unique to you. Once you've figured that part out, it will guide how you structure the essay.