Love what you write (a summary on choosing a topic)

by: Joanna Mae T. Eborda

Having connections and knowing people that are possible sources tops the class' ranking on choosing a topic to write about. Evidently, more than a half of the class wants an assurance of a reachable source beforehand, that could provide the facts and information needed to complete the article. Yet, the cluster things otherwise, for having the connections placed only 5th in our ranking. The cluster believes that knowing the readers would help best in determining what topic to write about.

Knowing the readers, as the cluster believes, means knowing what the readers are interested to read about and at the same time, the way or how the readers could possibly want this article to be written. By knowing both, the writer could now easily have an idea on what to write about.

A triple tie on the other hand holds true on the class' top two. Topics that the the writer likes/ is comfortable with, public interest and knowing the readers was placed on an equal level by the class. And the cluster obviously agrees for public interest and a topic the writer is comfortable with, ranked 2nd and 3rd on our list.

Next on the class' list is being obsevant to little details. "By being observant, one could easily grasp an idea on what to write about. And besides, I do believe that we could write an article about anything that we see" says Miss Anonymous. The cluster somehow agrees, yet being observant to little details had only placed 8th on our list, for narrowing the subject, finding out if it has been written before and if it is unconventional yet intereresting holds a higher significance to us.

Narrowing the subject helps the writer on focusing in one specific angle, to prevent vagueness of the article. A subject could be so broad and confusing if not narrowed down. Yet, this specific subject and angle might have been already written about before, so it is also important to check past articles that are related to your topic. Then, know if it is unconventional but at the same time, interesting to the readers.

And lastly, both the cluster and the class placed attending forums and depending on the proposal last on the list.

Funny as it sounds, most of us find attending forums quite boring and uninteresting, resulting to non-grasping of ideas to write about. Again, we emphasize that liking and being comfortable with our topic is important.

And of course, we should not depend much on our proposals. True enough, the proposal could help us a lot, but, we should not limit ourselves to explore and write about something new that had caught our interest or attention.