Final Project Topic Idea Description

(Before writing your idea description, be sure to review the requirements for the final essay.)

• Length: roughly 300 words
• Format: MLA Style

Description

The Final Essay Topic Idea Description is designed to get you thinking about your final research project for this course and to help you make sure you’re on the right track. You'll be writing about this topic for Essay 3 and also for Essay 4. These are two different essays, but they are about the same topic.

Your idea description should explain several things in one or two paragraphs, so it’s important for you to be informative and concise at the same time:

• What topic do you want to research and write about?
• How is the topic current? Can you provide an example of the topic being discussed in a media outlet? (If the answers to this second questions is no, then this topic is not appropriate for this assignment.)
• Are there at least three different opinions about the topic? (If the answer is no, then this topic is not appropriate for this assignment.) Describe, very briefly, what those different opinions are.
• Why are you interested in the topic?
• Do you already have an opinion about the topic? What is it?
• What questions do you have about the topic that your research will allow you to answer?
• What sources have you found in your preliminary research? (Be sure that you have found recent, credible sources through the library resources that you’ve been learning how to use.)

Please note: once your topic idea description has been approved, you may not change the topic of your paper without writing a new topic idea description and getting it approved. It’s usually best if you stick to the original topic you’re settled on because you don’t have a great deal of time to try out several different topics.