Page 21 - PPW (Paper Proposal Writing)

Unit

1 Choosing Topics

Warming-up
OBJECTIVE
Did you do this?

When you have to write a paper for any courses, did you do these activities?
Write “Yes” when you do the activity and “No” if you do not do that.

No Activity Yes/ No
Students are able to:
1 Brainstorming to find the broad area of topics
1. apply the steps in
2 Making a list of possible topics to choose choosing topics by
3 Narrowing the scope of your broad topic identifying broad topic
4 Doing a Google search to get some more ideas and more specific topic.
2. determine their
5 Talking to a friend to communicate your ideas proposed topic to be
6 Making an outline of the paper developed into a paper
7 Reading different papers with similar topics proposal.

Choosing Topic for Research Proposals

Broad Topic and More Specific Topic

Read the following explanation about choosing topics for your paper proposal.

In choosing a topic for your research-based paper, you can use existing literature or
scholarly works such as journal articles or conference proceeding to help you determine the
focus of your paper. To do so, you can do the XY method of finding a topic. The XY method of
choosing a topic for your research proposal generally consists of three elements.

1. X → I am working on the topic of X
2. Y → Because I want to understand Y

X • Begin with your general interest
• Keep your topic as broad as possible
(Broad topic)

Y • Describe a more specific aspect of your topic
• Include additional details of your topic

(More specific topic)

Example:
My topic is looking at the environmental impact of plastic pollution, specifically
microplastics, on the ocean to determine how we can reduce harmful effects.

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