Working on Your US History Essay: Try Using Original Topics
When you are writing an essay for your US history class, it is a good idea to use original topics. You will be better off writing about a topic that nobody else is writing about. The main reason why is because you will be able to stand out from the other papers.
If two individuals write about the same topic, the teacher will not only grade the assignment on the actual content, but she could compare it to the other piece of work. This is giving yourself some additional grading criteria. If your teacher was originally going to give you an “A” but then she reads the other paper that is written better, you could get your grade turned into a “B” because now she knows what an “A” paper looks like.
If you do choose an original topic, then you also may not have to worry about getting ahold of resources. If you and a few other students are trying to check out the same books from the library for research, you may not get the information that you need. Here are some good ways to come up with additional topics that you may not have considered.
- Check your text
A great place to look for essay ideas is in your history book. The table of contents is a gold mine when it comes to finding topics. Each chapter is usually concentrated on a time period or era. That means that you can literally go through your table of contents and get your ideas. Don’t choose a broad topic. Choose an offbeat topic within the broader topic.
- Online lists
You can find a lot of lists online that have great ideas to get you thinking about a topic. It is a great way to find a topic but remember that a lot of people have access to these same lists. If you are going for original, try to use this list just to get your thinking about ideas. Think about it from a different angle
- News
Another cool way to write an original topic is to relate a current event to an event in the past. There isn’t really any way to not keep it original with this idea. Show a pattern or show how things have changed. It is a neat way to show how the past and present are similar.