My scatterbrain english prof gave us our final assignment today. We have to write a 3-5 page paper and give an 8-10 minute speech on... anything in the whole world. I hate when teachers don't give any guidelines. I have NO idea what to write about. Here's the assignment, copied directly from her page on Blackboard:
8-10 speach and 3-5 page paper Final Projects: Outline/Introductory Paragraph/ graphics Due March 8, 2006 1. 8-10 minute oral presentation with graphics March 10, 2006 2. Expository Research Paper March 10, 2006 (APA format) Title Page- Outline 3 to 5 pages of text Introductory paragraph Conclusion or Summary Paragraph Paraphrase- cite reference Direct Quote- cite references 3 to 5 references that must be cited within your paper Bibliography or Works Cited Uses APA format
Please give me an idea... any idea. I can't come up with anything. I never thought that coming up with a topic could be so hard.
Oh yeah, it's nice that she's giving us one week to do this, huh?
Bugger!! I hate it when profs don't give topics for papers, I always did better if I had some sort of guideline.
I'm assuming it has to be English-related, or does she just want to prove you know how to write a paper/follow instructions?
I would try to pick a topic I knew a lot about, or one that has a lot of books/citations about it. Sorry I'm not much of a help. It's things like these that make me glad I never have to go to school again!
__________________
Veni, Vedi, Visa.
I came, I saw, I did a little shopping.
Do a topic you already know a lot about. You'll already be aware of the issues and will know where to start researching.
this would be my advice as well. the other option is to pick a topic that you want to know more about yourself. do you have a possible career path laid out? perhaps pick out a topic that deals with something about your possible career path that really interests you. this is what i do when i have to pick topics, even when they are on a list that i have to pick from. there isn't any sense on my writing a paper that i don't really want to learn anything from.
by the way...just wanted to add that blackboard and i are good friends. it made me smile to hear you say that your stuff was posted on blackboard.
__________________
"But I want you to remember, I intend this breast satirically." Susan from Coupling
I hated when my English prof's gave us such open assignments.
But, since she said you can write on anything, here are some ideas:
Television Game Shows Throughout Time...how the shows during a time different periods in time reflected the general views of society at that point in time... (I actually wrote this paper and had a lot of fun doing it, it was easy to research and fun to write about)
The History of Your University
Women in the Work Place
Communication through the ages, from smoke signals to Blackberries
I know these are kind of crazy, but maybe they'll help you brainstorm?
__________________
It's pronounced "Johnny," like the boys name....but spelled like an Indian Zuchini.
I did many papers and speeches during my freshman year. I actually would double dip my english papers for my speech class because my english teacher gave us topics and my speech teacher wouldn't.
2 of the more interesting speeches I gave were on the Amish people and on Sexual Harassment where I used posterboards for displaying stats. It was pretty funny because when I started the speech I think my teacher and classmates were kind of shocked that I was lecturing/talking about that but I got a great grade on it.