Teachers often allow quite a bit of variety in topic choices for research papers, and this can be very nice. Unfortunately for many of us, choosing what to dig into from the huge variety of material available is daunting, even petrifying. I have this problem quite often, I remember in eleventh grade trying for weeks to decide on what topic I would write about, but always being uncertain. Finally I sat down with a notebook and pencil and put down by category what I could write about. It worked! With my thoughts down on paper, I was able to eliminate most choices until I finally decided to research the Huns.
I have now discovered that this process has a name. It is called "building an interest inventory" (Ballenger 25). Here is an example of an interest inventory that I made for my English Comp class.
Places: Trends:
Acapulco The move away from missionary newsletters
Cambodia Getting married later in
life
Heaven Artificial hearts that don't create a pulse
England Health food
Newzealand “Organic” farms
Yap Anti-vaccine movement
The Mariana Trench You-tube
Calcutta College
Moscow The move toward smaller cars
Northernmost Japanese Island Starbucks
Transylvania Bottled water
Glacier National Park School
Vouchers
Moravia
Kentucky
Akron, Ohio
Brazil
Guadalupe
Cush
Mt. McKinley
Rhodes
Palestine
Turkestan
History: Hobbies:
Norman invasion of England Reading
Norwegian discovery of
America Medieval Combat Reenactment
Early American civilizations Studying
History
Architecture Hunting
Indo-European Languages Sketching
The Forty Years' War Inventing board
games
The Huns Biking
The Lusitanians Debating
Roman Invasions Pen and paper RPGs
(role playing games)
Civil Wars Tabletop strategy games
The evolution of modern
missions Working out
Missionaries' effect on a country
Angor Watt Jobs:
Chinese Cannons Mechanic
The Punic wars Plumber
Vandals Technician
Bishops of Hippo Salesman
Petra Physician's Assistant
Bonnie Prince Charlie Farmer
The Netherlands' Revolution Manager
The War of the League of Augsburg Performing artist
Secretary
Accountant
Questions:
Artificial hearts that do not create a pulse:
Why are pulse-less hearts used?
How do they benefit the user in comparison to regular artificial hearts?
How could they be harmful to users?
What might be the effects on the body's rhythm?
Why would someone choose not to get one?
How will these hearts affect the medical industry?
How do doctors react to these machines?
How could these hearts be produced on a large scale?
What do the inventors say about them?
How much do they cost?
Why would people want one over a different type of artificial heart?
Can these hearts deal with physical exertion?
Works Cited
Ballenger, Bruce. The Curios Researcher. 7th ed. Boston: Longman, 2007. Print.
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