Y
ou’ve done some brainstorming and you’ve generated many ideas. Now, how do you turn those ideas
into an essay?
First, accept that many of those ideas will never go farther than your brainstorming notes. Think
of the brainstorming process of as a type of “rehearsal,” in which you try on different ideas or approaches. You
won’t be able to use them all. Instead, you’ll choose the very best for your “performance” (your essay). Somewhere
in your brainstorming notes is at least one great idea that you can develop into an effective essay.
LESSON
Choosing a
Topic and
Developing
a Thesis
LESSON SUMMARY
This lesson explains how to narrow your topic so that it is sufficiently
focused. You’ll also learn how to develop a tentative thesis for your
essay.
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Rules of Thumb for Choosing a Topic
The writing process involves making many decisions. You begin by deciding what to write about. To ensure that
you make a good choice, follow these four rules. The topic you choose must:
1. be interesting to you and your audience
2. fulfill the writing assignment
3. be sufficiently focused
4. be able to be turned into a question
Capturing Interest
The first rule for choosing a topic is simple: Make certain it holds your interest. If it’s not interesting to you, why
would it be to your reader? Your lack of enthusiasm will be evident, and your writing is likely to be dull, dry, and
uninspired as a result. If you are interested in your topic, you can convey that feeling to your reader, no matter
what the subject. Your reader will be drawn in by your lively prose and passionate assertions.

the requirements of your assignment.
It may take time to sufficiently focus the topic. Here’s how one student narrowed it down:
Assignment: Write a statement for your generation.
Broad topic:
My generation
Narrowed topic:
My generation’s beliefs
Further narrowed topic:
My generation’s beliefs about work
Sufficiently narrowed topic:
My generation’s beliefs about the balance between work and play
It took three steps, but her “sufficiently narrowed topic” has the right level of focus and can be adequately exam-
ined within the essay structure.
Turning Your Topic into a Question
A thesis is the main idea of an essay, and is a response to a topic. In the previous example, the student narrowed
her topic to “my generation’s beliefs about the balance between work and play.” To come up with a thesis, she can
restate that topic in the form of a question: “What are my generation’s beliefs about the balance between work and
play?” The answer to that question might be, “My generation believes that life should be made up of equal parts
of work and play.”
She might never use that sentence in her essay; she could reword it while writing, or after writing, a first draft.
Nevertheless, this exercise gives her a point from which she can launch into writing. Here are two more examples
of the evolution of a tentative thesis from an assignment, a focused topic, and a question.
Assignment: Describe how you think the federal income tax system should be reformed
and why.
Broad topic: Reforming federal tax system
Narrowed topic: Problems with the federal tax system
Further narrowed topic: Inequalities in the federal tax system
Sufficiently narrowed topic: How to eliminate inequalities in the federal tax system
Topic turned into a question: How can we eliminate inequalities in the federal tax system?
Tentative thesis: Instituting a flat tax will eliminate inequalities.

Further narrowed topic:
Sufficiently narrowed topic:
Topic turned into a question:
Tentative thesis:
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Practice 2
Return to one of your brainstorming sheets from Lesson 3 or 4. Use the steps outlined in the four rules for choos-
ing a topic, and write a tentative thesis.
–CHOOSING A TOPIC AND DEVELOPING A THESIS–
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