One normally chooses to write a term paper on a subject that relates to the course. Identifying the scope of the course material is, therefore, the first step in writing a term paper, the tiny step one performs even before selecting a topic. While the general subject of the course may be immediately apparent, such as a course on American history, the actual scope of the course may be much more narrow, such as a course on American relations with Latin American minority political groups.
Once one has determined the scope of the course, one may then decide to write a term paper on some detail within that course material. For example, for a course on relations between the United States and Latin America, one may choose to write a term paper on the political background of Pablo Neruda's poem "La United Fruit Co."
This example of the poem by Neruda demonstrates a wonderful feature of term paper writing: students may write term papers on nearly any subject, no matter how arcane, infinitesimal, or obscure. The goal of writing term papers on any subject is to enter more deeply into a knowledge of that subject, and often extremely specialized term paper topics produce the best term papers.
If students are struggling with developing ideas for their term papers, they should first consult with their instructors. Instructors can often generate quite a few ideas in the course of a conversation, and they may even be able to direct the student to some preliminary research. Second, students may look through the index of their textbooks, searching for a word, phrase, or concept that piques their curiosity. Third, if students feel that it would be helpful to view some term papers that others have written, they may consult a reputable Internet website that provides academically sound example term papers. These example term papers may provide a toehold for students by giving them a hypothesis with which to disagree or by providing topics that they can research further.
