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How to Pick the RIGHT Essay Topic in 3 Easy Steps

Picking the wrong essay topic can make writing a good essay extremely difficult. Luckily most of the time picking a good essay topic is simple and easy – watch this video to see how!
This is Part 1 of 6 in the series How to Write a Good Essay Every Time
Next Post: How to Start Writing an Essay >>


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There actually isn’t a RIGHT essay topic, but there are WRONG ones.  The trick is avoiding the bad topics and picking something you’re interested in – you’ll enjoy it more, and you’ll probably do a better job.

Step 1: Love at First Sight
If there’s a topic that jumps out at you, that you’d really like to do and feel confident about, then just do it. Go straight to Step 3!
If there isn’t a topic that jumps out at you, go to Step 2.

Step 2: Elimination
Get rid of any topics that:
a) You don’t understand
b) Fail the Goldilocks Test (too big or too small)
c) Are suuuuper boring
Take the topics that are left to Step 3.

Step 3: Take a Test Drive
Take the topic you feel in love with at Step 1, or your favourite topic from whatever is left after you eliminated topics in Step 2.

You need to make sure its going to work for you, so jot down the main ideas (arguments, pieces of evidence) you could use in your essay. If you find that hard or the arguments you come up with aren’t great, that means it will be hard to write. If your first topic fails the test drive, try your next favourite!

Once you have a topic you feel confident about it’s time to write an essay plan – we’ll be doing a post on that soon, hit subscribe if you’d like us to keep you in the loop!

There actually isn’t a RIGHT essay topic, but there are WRONG ones.  The trick is avoiding the bad topics and picking something you’re interested in – you’ll enjoy it more, and you’ll probably do a better job.

Step 1: Love at First Sight
If there’s a topic that jumps out at you, that you’d really like to do and feel confident about, then just do it. Go straight to Step 3!
If there isn’t a topic that jumps out at you, go to Step 2.

Step 2: Elimination
Get rid of any topics that:
a) You don’t understand
b) Fail the Goldilocks Test (too big or too small)
c) Are suuuuper boring
Take the topics that are left to Step 3.

Step 3: Take a Test Drive
Take the topic you feel in love with at Step 1, or your favourite topic from whatever is left after you eliminated topics in Step 2.

You need to make sure its going to work for you, so jot down the main ideas (arguments, pieces of evidence) you could use in your essay. If you find that hard or the arguments you come up with aren’t great, that means it will be hard to write. If your first topic fails the test drive, try your next favourite!

Once you have a topic you feel confident about it’s time to write an essay plan – we’ll be doing a post on that soon, hit subscribe if you’d like us to keep you in the loop!

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Next Post: How to Start Writing an Essay >>