Define & Focus Your Topic

This worksheet will help you to define and focus your topic and provide examples of how to do so. For example, let's say that you are required to write a six- to ten-page paper on films of your choice on a topic of your choice. Below is an example of how to define and focus a topic using the example of "gender stereotypes.” Use the work space on the left to work on your own topic.

YOUR WORK SPACE

EXAMPLE

Step 1

Carefully Read Your Assignment and answer the following questions.

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How long is your assignment?
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What kinds of resources are required?
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What do you think your instructor wants you to learn from this assignment?
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What do you hope to get out of this assignment?

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Carefully read your assignment.

For example:

-A paper on a controversial issue.

-Assignment is 6-10 pages long.

-I have to use at least 4 scholarly resources, including books, book chapters, and scholarly journal articles. In addition, I may use up to 4 articles from popular magazines.

-This class is my basic writing course. I think my instructor wants me to learn how to use various sources of information to write an original paper.

-From this assignment, I hope to gain experience using scholarly resources to back up my own ideas and to help me make a strong point.

Step 2

Write down everything you know or want to know about your topic.

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Write down everything you know or want to know about your topic.
-Gender often plays an important role in movies.

-The issue of gender is often expressed on film as issues of men and women breaking gender stereotypes or taboos, i.e. a woman doing “a man’s job” or a man doing “woman’s work.”

-How does the portrayal of gender in films relate to gender roles and issues in the real world?

-I need to decide on a few films that explore the ways in which people try to overcome the narrow strictures or expectations of gender roles.

-What is the role of society in the construction of gender roles, and how is this societal role played out onscreen?

-Gender roles are more malleable than they were in my parents’ and grandparents’ generations. How do the films I’ve chosen reflect, deflect, or reinforce changing societal mores?

Step 3

Write a topic statement.
Look at the list you made of what you know and want to know about your topic. If the list reveals a common theme or area of focus, use it to help write your topic statement.

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Gender stereotypes play an important role in Legally Blonde, Daddy Day Care, and Flashdance. In all three films, notions of what is and is not “woman’s work” are explored.