Topics for an informative essay for scholarship!!

[Inka dreams]

Hi folks,

 

I have been asked to write an informative essay for a scholarship application - 2 to 4 pages long.

 

I need help choosing topics. I dont know how to choose good topics or what good topics can be that can engage.

 

"Write an original essay about a specific topic that interests you. This essay can be informative, but its primary purpose is to demonstrate how you can critically engage with a topic."

 

Any help will be much appreciated.

[danieleWrites]

The prompt defined the word "good" for you when it comes to selecting a topic. A good topic for you is one that 1) interests you, and 2) you can engage critically.

Good is one of those ridiculous words, like original, in topic/subject selection. Good or original or any of those qualifiers gets stuck in the brain as a topic/subject that will impress others (selection committees, scholarship committees, dissertation/thesis committees, journal editors, conference committees, and so on and so forth). Here's the key (and I speak of this with all of the authority of someone who has read hundreds of essays by the same kind of person looking for the same kind of outcome: an A) to "good". It's not the topic. It's how you engage with the topic. The fact that a student knows about a topic of interest to me, or to academia, or to whatever, is not impressive. Even if they've accumulated a surreal amount of knowledge. The fact that a student can take a topic (even a topic that they think others will think is banal) and apply critical thinking and the use of outside theories, perspectives, sources, and whatnot impresses me.

Isaac Newton (heard of him?) took the most banal of all topics in the 18th century (gravity, boooooring, you drop something, it falls, what else is there to know?) and critically engaged with it.

So. What are your basic interests and how can you turn that interest into a critical, thoughtful discussion of the topic?

I like comic books, and Batman has always been one of my faves. This was interesting: http://werecyclemovies.com/2013/08/31/gotham-city-and-the-metropolis-of-tomorrow/ Note: critical engagement with a comic book and its film adaptations. It doesn't cure cancer. It doesn't take inspiration from a falling apple to write some of our basic laws of physics. But it's still a good topic for that writer.

Whether your scholarship committee would agree with me about that Batman thing is a whole 'nother story. You cannot know what biases they have. If the Batman thing were a scholarship essay, but the people on the scholarship committee were raging Marvel fans? You lose. You can't try to find "safe" topics that would appeal to them because you don't really know where they stand on an issue, if you even know who they are in the first place, so can look them up. Besides, most people can spot pandering from people who want something. King Lear is the exception, not the rule.

So, do what the prompt suggests. Pick of topic of interest to you and show the scholarship people how you can engage with the academic way (with critical thinking).

(Huh. Apparently a lower case a and a close parenthesis makes an emoticon face.)

Edited March 20, 2014 by danieleWrites

[Inka dreams]

The prompt defined the word "good" for you when it comes to selecting a topic. A good topic for you is one that 1) interests you, and 2) you can engage critically.

Good is one of those ridiculous words, like original, in topic/subject selection. Good or original or any of those qualifiers gets stuck in the brain as a topic/subject that will impress others (selection committees, scholarship committees, dissertation/thesis committees, journal editors, conference committees, and so on and so forth). Here's the key (and I speak of this with all of the authority of someone who has read hundreds of essays by the same kind of person looking for the same kind of outcome: an A) to "good". It's not the topic. It's how you engage with the topic. The fact that a student knows about a topic of interest to me, or to academia, or to whatever, is not impressive. Even if they've accumulated a surreal amount of knowledge. The fact that a student can take a topic (even a topic that they think others will think is banal) and apply critical thinking and the use of outside theories, perspectives, sources, and whatnot impresses me.

Isaac Newton (heard of him?) took the most banal of all topics in the 18th century (gravity, boooooring, you drop something, it falls, what else is there to know?) and critically engaged with it.

So. What are your basic interests and how can you turn that interest into a critical, thoughtful discussion of the topic?

I like comic books, and Batman has always been one of my faves. This was interesting: http://werecyclemovies.com/2013/08/31/gotham-city-and-the-metropolis-of-tomorrow/ Note: critical engagement with a comic book and its film adaptations. It doesn't cure cancer. It doesn't take inspiration from a falling apple to write some of our basic laws of physics. But it's still a good topic for that writer.

Whether your scholarship committee would agree with me about that Batman thing is a whole 'nother story. You cannot know what biases they have. If the Batman thing were a scholarship essay, but the people on the scholarship committee were raging Marvel fans? You lose. You can't try to find "safe" topics that would appeal to them because you don't really know where they stand on an issue, if you even know who they are in the first place, so can look them up. Besides, most people can spot pandering from people who want something. King Lear is the exception, not the rule.

So, do what the prompt suggests. Pick of topic of interest to you and show the scholarship people how you can engage with the academic way (with critical thinking).

(Huh. Apparently a lower case a and a close parenthesis makes an emoticon face.)

Thank you!!

 

Well I am someone who loves to write. And I guess I can understand what you say. So well, I'll go about choosing a topic that I can write passionately and critically about. Thanks again!