How to Find the Perfect High School Research Paper Idea
Once you hit grades nine through twelve, you can count on writing a lot of research papers – meaning, of course, that you will have to come up with a lot of high school research paper ideas. For some of you, namely those with a serious writing bent, this will come easily. For others, it may be more difficult. The most common problems among high school students involves choosing topics which are either too broad or too narrow.
Sometimes your teachers will help you along, providing a ton of their own high school research paper ideas, revolving around whatever class they are teaching. For instance, possible topics for English research papers might include, depending on the class and grade level, various works of Charles Dickens, a definite high school favorite; at least one Shakespearian history, comedy, and/or tragedy (generally Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and who knows which of his comedies); and any number of other books, depending on your teacher’s lesson plan for the particular class.
In a twelfth grade AP English class, you will have more freedom with your senior research paper. You will usually have to write two, and at least one of them will be on a topic of your choice, keeping in mind your teacher’s approval. You might choose to write a persuasive research paper, or an argumentative one; it might even be an expository. Your humble author wrote one of hers on Tourette’s Syndrome and another on the Romantic poet, Lord Byron. So you see, the possibilities are only as limited as your imagination or your interests.
It must be said that most high school research paper ideas will at least be relegated to an English class, if not necessarily revolving around some form of literature. Other classes in high school rarely assign research papers, but trust that this will change when you get to college. English classes, literature classes, science classes, sociology classes, anthropology classes – you are apt to get such an assignment in any of them.
That is why your teachers require you to come up with so many high school research paper ideas, on such a wide variety of subjects. The difficulty of these papers starts out fairly low. As a freshman, you will likely start to see a lot of personal experience research papers. Your teachers are trying to get you comfortable with writing; the subject matter is less important than honing your skills as a writer. The fact of the matter is, a lot of students feel comfortable writing about their personal experiences. As you continue on into tenth grade, especially if you are in an advanced class, you will likely get to choose you own topic – but based upon a single work and subject to the teacher’s approval. Here, your instructors are trying to teach you to choose good topics. They will not turn down a possible subject because it is necessarily bad, but rather because you may not, as a sophomore, have the time or the resources to try your hand at it. You get even more freedom as a junior and, finally, as a senior, you get a taste of what writing will be like in college.
