What Should I Write My College Essay About: How to Select a Topic

The college essay is a student work of scientific content, which has an internal unity and reflects the selected idea’s results. It must correspond to the current level of development of science, and its theme must be relevant. This student essay is usually presented in a form that allows judging the completeness of the reflections and justification of the provisions, conclusions, and recommendations, their novelty and significance. 

The set of results obtained in such essay should indicate that the student has scientific work skills in the chosen field of professional activity.

The content of this student essay characterizes the originality and uniqueness of the information. The basis of the content should be new material, including a description of factors, phenomena, and patterns or a generalization of previously known provisions from other positions. To present the material you need to prepare argumentation of statements and accuracy of the data.

General Scheme of Essay Work

The college essay is performed on the basis of theoretical knowledge and practical experience obtained by the student during the entire period of study and independent research essay. The process of student essay writing includes several stages:

1. Preparatory stage: formulation of the issue, choice of topic and justification of its relevance; goal setting and specific tasks; analysis of the state of problem-solving based on materials of domestic and foreign publications; substantiation of main goals; formation of an outline.
2. The main stage: collection, processing, analysis, and generalization of theoretical and practical materials and on their basis presentation of their own opinion.
3. The final stage: formulation of conclusions; evaluation of the obtained results.

How to Choose a Problem and Topic for Writing a Good College Paper?

As you can see, writing a college essay by a college student begins with choosing a matter, theme and identifying key issues that need to be revealed. But quite often the student does not know what to write a student essay about, what theme to choose, and what idea to base the research on. Therefore, in this article, it seems important to answer the common question “What should I write my college essay about?”. If you are interested in this information, read the material below carefully.

An Issue That Requires Research

The study begins with a research of the state of the problem. It is a form of scientific knowledge where the limits of existing knowledge are defined, and new knowledge ways are forecasted. It is also considered a complex theoretical or practical issue. It implies the existence of a contradictory situation when there are two or more positions (sometimes opposite), and you need to create a theory or concept to explain them correctly.

The issue does not arise arbitrarily but is the result of an in-depth study of the general state of theory and practice, acquaintance with the scientific literature, dissertations, and reference books. Therefore, the choice of research problems cannot be accidental, but on the contrary – it must be based on certain criteria that must be guided by the writer so that his chosen problem has scientific and cognitive value and practical orientation. 

Putting forward the main idea, the author argues the lack of current level of knowledge in the field of interest, against the background of new factors and connections, identified shortcomings in existing concepts, the emergence of new demands for practice.

There are certain criteria for selecting a problem. These include the following:

• actual and prospective requirements of practice;
• the current level of scientific knowledge;
• individual interest and abilities of the author.

Peculiarities of the Topic Selection

As you can see, the concern is formed, and the expected results are defined based on the analysis of the specific direction’s contradictions. Then the structure of the college essay is developed, theoretical issues are identified, their relevance is determined.

Main Types of Topics

After substantiating the matter, which contains a number of themes, the research concern is determined. A theme is a part of a matter, a scientific task that covers a certain field of research. Research matters are divided into methodological, theoretical, and organizational:

1. Methodologically relate to the methods of a particular science used in the process of studying its objects.
2. Theoretical include the study of certain concepts of the theory of a particular science, relating to its scientific laws, the development of axiomatic knowledge.
3. Organizational include the organization of research in particular science and the application of its results in practice.

A successful, semantically accurate, succinctly formulated topic clarifies the issue, outlines the scope of the study, specifies its main point and content, thus creating the preconditions for the success of the student work as a whole. The formulation of the matter should reflect the movement from the old to the new so that it is clear with which broader categories and problems the theme relates, what new cognitive and practical material is expected to be mastered.

Basic Methods of Topic Selection

The following methods can help to choose the problem for a college essay:

• Acquaintance with the works already done;
• Getting acquainted with new results in related fields of science because using this way you can often find new and sometimes unexpected solutions;
• Review of known solutions using new methods from new theoretical positions with the involvement of unknown essential facts discovered by the writer.

Significant assistance in choosing a subject is provided by acquaintance with analytical reviews and articles in special periodicals and conversations and consultations with practitioners, in the process of which it is possible to identify important concerns that are still insufficiently studied in science.

Having chosen a matter, the student must realize what the purpose and tasks of its development are. It is necessary to determine the essence of the proposed idea, the relevance of the theme, its theoretical novelty, and practical value. This will greatly facilitate the assessment and final decision on the choice of the theme.

Relevance of the Theme

The relevance of the matter is a mandatory requirement of the college essay writing. It is determined by the extent to which the study results will contribute to the solution of specific practical issues or will help eliminate existing contradictions in public life and so on. Research is considered relevant if the concern itself is relevant: firstly, its scientific solution meets the urgent needs of the practice and, secondly, fills a gap in science, which currently has no means to solve this urgent dilemma.

To substantiate the relevance of the research area, arguments are put forward that prove the necessity and expediency of the author’s appeal. The authors’ different views and positions are analyzed, the gaps in scientific knowledge and practical applications, the empirical results of data by authors who have dealt with similar scientific subjects, etc., are clarified. 

As a result, the main contradictions or inconsistencies between the achieved level of knowledge and the difficulties of development of theory and practice, between the discovery of new facts and connections, and the emergence of practical demands that require the development of new theoretical knowledge are clarified and become an object of analysis.

So, if you find it difficult to find the answer to the question “What should I write my college essay about?”, you initially need to decide on the problem that worries you. It can be wide enough. Then you should proceed to the choice of a narrow matter and then start the college paper’s direct writing. 

Sample Themes for Writing a Memorable College Paper

To help you choose a subject for your student essay writing, we want to provide below the relevant ideas for writing college papers. We hope that you will find an interesting subject among them.

Relevant Ideas for Economics Papers

Considering the development of countries, in particular, the state of economic development in different parts of the world, we can conclude that we are in different conditions, but the economies and financial systems of countries are interconnected because globalization as a set of phenomena, approaches, measures, methods of transformation markets and countries for a holistic economic, social, political system covered the entire world market. Its effective functioning takes place under the conditions of definition and coordination of common interests of states, as a result of analysis and substantiation of priorities of formation and directions of coordination of economic interests of states.

If you are interested in this area, consider the list of ideas below:

• Features of resource provision and resource conservation of the country;
• The role of marketing in economic growth;
• The issue of forming joint-stock companies in the country;
• The relationship between the level of taxes and budget revenues;
• The matter of balanced development of the national economy;
• The world economy as a growing contradictory whole;
• International economic relations and principles of their organization.

Themes for College Essays on Sociology

As it is known, sociology studies social life, social changes in society, and social events with which individuals are constantly confronted. They participate and affect their behavior, lifestyle, and position in society. If you like studying these issues, you can choose one of the following ideas:

• The role and functions of sociology in society;
• Public opinion: the current state, resources, and some aspects of the mechanisms of mass influence;
• Studentship and its social role in society;
• Social difficulties of modern society development;
• Social status of women in society;
• Functions of education as a social institution;
• Personality: peculiarities of socialization.

Ideas for College Papers on Programming

Today’s business conditions require economic management specialists to make full use of the latest information technologies. Extensive capabilities of computerized tools in the collection, processing, and issuance of the necessary information can significantly improve the quality of economic calculations and make more efficient the process of substantiating economic decisions.

Here is a list of ideas to choose from for writing a programming student paper:

• Programming languages: procedural, applied, rule systems, object-oriented;
• Summary table of priority and associativity of operations;
• Rules for working with functions;
• Initialization of a multidimensional array;
• Memory organization in modern processors and C ++ language pointers;
• Using files for data input-output;
• Drawing algorithms in Windows.

Interesting Physical Education and Sports Topics for College Essay Writing

Physical culture in a broad sense (actually, specific motor activity, hardening of the body by natural factors, other health and hygiene procedures, etc.) is an essential component of general human culture and, accordingly, a mandatory component of the process of raising children and youth. In addition, physical culture and sports are powerful means of maintaining and strengthening human health, which, of course, cannot be neglected.

Pay attention to the list of relevant subjects in this area:

• The impact of complex coordination exercises on the health of people of different ages;
• Health as a state task and personal need;
• Disease prevention as a biological and social problem;
• Medico-hygienic aspects of a healthy lifestyle;
• Modes of work and rest, their impact on health;
• Work as an integral part of existence, its positive and negative impact on health;
• Adaptation and resistance of the human body to various environmental conditions.

Ideas for Creating a Unique College Paper on Political Science 

Today’s modern political world, the globalization of all world processes, and in particular political, requires people who have decided to link their lives with political science, a clear, rapid orientation in the rapid flow of modern political events, the ability to identify, formulate and establish patterns, norms, ways of development of these events and processes.

If you are studying political science, you will probably be interested in some of the following topics:

• The legitimacy of political power as a sign and legitimacy of power as a process;
• Ancient and modern democracy: comparative analysis;
• The essence and conditions of formation of modern civil society;
• Civil society and concerns of its institutionalization;
• The image of the ideal leader in the mass consciousness of society;
• Social networks: good and bad;
• Growing ambitions of the main centers of power in world politics.

Don’t miss our other article, ‘Words and Phrases for Essays‘ ’to learn more and improve with writing skills.

We hope that now you will not have any difficulties related to the choice of the main problem and topic of your student admission essay writing. But if you need support, you can contact our professional experts and get high-quality and fast assistance at any time.