Steps in writing the essay: Choosing the topic.

Before you start writing your essay you should decide what you are going to discuss in your paper. It does not matter whether you have several topics to choose from or have your own, the topic of your essay should have something to excite your interest.

This way you will make the writing process pleasant and enjoyable. For a start you may acquaint yourself with several readings to find out if the topic is interesting and to see the amount of the material available on this subject.

The scope of the topic is one of the most widespread problems for every student who starts writing an essay paper. Many students regard such general words as "love", "hate", or" peace" and "world" as topics. So, as the result they compose a vague essay imbedded with platitudes and generalities, of no interest both to the reader and the tutor.

Once you have come up with some general idea, you should narrow the subject for essay writing. It will reduce the time spent on writing your paper as well as enormously improve its quality.

First, you should think how you can narrow your topic, make it more specific, divide it into several smaller topics. For example, if you plan to write an article on "cats", you might ask several question s on this topic, such as:

Should I describe some specific specimen of cats, or the description of cats in general would be sufficient?

What type of cats I would like to write about? Abyssinian? Oriental? Siberian?

What qualities of cats should be investigated and what types of their behavior should be accessed?

Second, there is a contradiction: though the topic should be limited, do not overdo it.

An extremely narrowed topic can not make effective and efficient presentation.

Your topic may be organized as the following:

The subject investigated: The cats.

The specific topic of the investigation:

Problems with the basic health care for cats.