Topic Proposal
4% of quarter grade
due Wednesday, January 17th
Bring two copies to class

For this assignment, turn in 150 words (about half a page) summarizing the general topic you wish to investigate.   So long as the finished product significantlyexpands the original material, this paper may grow out of Fall quarter's source-based argument.   You are encouraged to investigate and write about some aspect of disability (public policy or cultural representation), but you are not confined to this topic.   In fact, you may choose any topic, providing that it is circumscribed enough to allow for ample treatment in the format and length indicated and assuming that it is contestable.   The subject of the researched argument should be contemporary, controversial (likely to arouse some opposition among college-age readers), important, and interesting.

This assignment should help you crystallize your thinking so that the next stage--forming a judgment--will prove a little easier.   On this page I am using the words topic and subject deliberately because, very likely, at this early stage, you still are thinking in broad terms and have not yet formed an opinion.   To help you select a topic that will eventuate in your staking a claim, read chapter forty in NSMH (pp. 435-443).   Also, take a look at the ten sample arguments in EAA, many of which were written by first-year college students ( pp. 114+, 117+, 136+, 138+, 161+, 169+, 186+, 192+, 213+, 216+).   After looking at a few of them, ideas should begin springing to mind.

While considering topics, take into account whether your colleagues will find the one you are thinking about interesting.   The topic's currency--its "topicality" or contemporary relevance--should be a factor in your deliberations.

Remember that the topic of a researched argument must be contestable.   In other words, it must answer to the three characteristics of an arguable statement:
  1. The writer states a point of view that others might not share.
    The writer might even urge readers to consider his or her assertion as fact.
  2. The writer raises an issue regarding something about which no absolute answer exists--the answer never can be absolutely determined one way or the other.
    An arguable statement concerns something about which there is not general agreement.
  3. The writer urges the reader to accept his or her view.


In explaining what the issue is in which you are interested, discuss the following:
  1. Determine what the two (or more) sides are of the issue.
  2. Consider what kind of student reader would agree or disagree with one side or the other.
  3. Which side might you wind up taking?   To what degree have you already made up your mind about the issue?   Do you still have an open mind about it?

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