Today was the first day that we started seriously considering our Junior Theme topics. I had 5 or 6 questions in mind when I walked into the library today, and by the time I left I had changed all of them at least a little bit to make them a possible candidate for the paper.
When Mr. Bolos and Doc 'OC first started talking about junior theme, they mentioned that it should be a topic that we care deeply about. When I first heard that, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that it should also be something that we know a lot about and have a lot of experience with. I was thinking that I would choose a topic on something like women's rights or vegetarianism, two things I have studied before and feel comfortable with.
Then, I realized the paper wouldn't be interesting to write if my topic was something I had already considered. One topic that I really like and might possibly consider is how technology affects our lives, especially the lives of teenagers. I saw a book in the library on this topic, and would love to read it, but it is an extremely long book and I would have to be very careful not to follow the author's argument in my paper, because I would essentially be basing my paper off of that book.
Another topic I thought about today was gay marriage and gay rights. There were a lot of resources in the library about that, and they could be very helpful. A problem that I encountered was finding a decent "why" question that would let me explore all aspects of the topic. I was thinking "why now?" with regards to the recent movement for gay rights, but that topic would need more exploring.
The topic that I seemed to be drifting towards in class today was the issue of assisted suicide. The why question that I would most likely use for this topic would be "why is assisted suicide illegal in the united states?". I would probably use court cases and a history of what suicide means in America to back up my arguments, as well as bringing up the issue of the death penalty to start a discussion on who has the right to life in America. This topic is extremely sad and very serious, but I also find the ethical issues interesting and important for understanding the future or medicine in America. I got some great leads from Doc 'OC and the librarians on sources today, and I think I am definitely going to look further into this topic.
I've been doing the exact same thing, starting with one topic and then deciding on another. Have you determined for sure that you'll be researching assisted suicide? It sounds like a very interesting topic with many angles to look at.
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ReplyDeleteYes after this post I decided that that was the topic I wanted to research.You're right, it's a really interesting topic because almost everybody has a very strong opinion of it, so there are a lot of opinion pieces that are radically different. I hope your paper is going well!