elian gonsalez

I have a research paper rough draft due thursday, and I'm really having a hard time finding a good topic I'm interested in. This would be so much easier if i found a topic i was really curious about.

Got any good ideas?

JJRousseau

There are no limitations on the topic at all? ??? What are you interested in outside of school?

elian gonsalez

yeah, for the most part there are no limitations. I guess it has to be something that relates today, and you have to take a stance on some sort of issue

phukraut

Advice: Go buy a paper and flip through it, or keep on clicking on the Random link in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">Wikipedia</a>.

JJRousseau

Well if you are looking for current issues, there are a bunch of them in the politics section of tfp, with a lot of discussion to get you going. Same for the philosophy section.

How about one of my favourites: whether the state has the authority to tax.

superiorrain

Well as most people who download things why don't you write something on peer to peer sharing and how its affecting the music industry or how it benefits the consumers. Whatever your opinion is, there is enough information out there, Kaaza are just about to be sued in australia so it's as current as it can be.

Whatever your stance there is enough information either side to support it. I know i'm doing my final year thesis on it.

Best idea i can come up with. Enjoy

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Asuka{eve}

I could write 16 pages about pron. I will dedicate 2 pages describing a girls breasts.

shakran

you can write 16 pages about a single brick on a building. it's all in how you look at it and learning to synthesize what you see into a logical flow.

In other words, pick something you're interested in and just start writing.

fckm

Quantum Physics

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JJRousseau

Pron... I lvoe pron... I thnik abuot pron all teh tmie.

irateplatypus

i find i can write volumes about a subject when i stop locking myself in trying to describe the topic at face value. a paper that merely describes something else (especially 16 pages of it) can be very tedious.

pick a subject you like and ask the following types of questions:
how did it get to be the way it is now?
what external forces have acted upon it?
does the relevant conventional wisdom align with recorded fact?

those sort of things.

and finally, as cheesy as it sounds, I would make an outline or list before you start. bookend the list with the usual introductory and conclusion paragraphs. in between, list all the aspects of the topic you feel you can write a paragraph on. arrange them in the most logically coherant way.

then start writing that bad boy...

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~ Winston Churchill

Stug

I actually did this once (although not 16 pages) about a brick for a media assignment. My speech on bricks mentioned: this four cornered bastion of society, this crimson crusader, this silent mainstay underpins and overcomes societys needs and desires etc...'

Write a 16 page article about virtual reality and whether or not it will be practically used in the future..?

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and so ends the thought process for another day...

miyamotomusashi

Violent Media is a good thing. Look at this http://www.abffe.com/myth1.htm to get some ideas on vilent media.

Avail

There are many controversial topics that are easily talked about, such as the reconstruction of Iraq, cloning, etc.

alarment13

a subject i was easily able to write 20 pages about was the role of women in the chicano art movement (but this was for an art history class)

radioguy

cults and cult leaders -------------- david koresh, jim jones, heaven's gate. there are some interesting beliefs in people out there.

ratiocination

How about the role of music is resolving conflict? For example, Udo Lindenberg playing near the Berlin Wall so that the people in East Germany could listen to his music.

heccubusiv

Pron, the mob, the pittsburgh steelers, notre dame history

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Fuck Ohio

Jakes

Ever think about putting your letters in order. but yea def pron

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Dean Martin

I like my jeep to be like my girl, topless and dirty.
me i guess

screamincheetah

Well I have an exciting topic for you.....cats. For some reason known only to the voices in my head that don't think I'm cool enough to tell things to, I just wrote about 16 pages on cats in the Members Room. I wouldn't be surprised if a MOD took it down though just for being totally boring. So, on second thought that's not a good topic for your term paper. Sorry.

ShaniFaye

I could write a more than 16 pages on how I, myself, would change things in the world today

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FloydianOne

man i love doing that so much (random wikipedia), i could waste hours... days even on wikipedia and become a genius while im at it.

Tophat665

Me, sixteen pages? Heck, I once wrote 20 on taunting during drinking games. However, if I wanted to write 16 pages on something that I would not be tired of before I got to sixteen pages, I could go with
* Epic Fantasy Book Series,
* Brewing Beer
* Rules of Fantasy Roleplaying Games
* Why English is the most Fucked Up language in the World,
* Why W is the worst President in American History (from a subjective standpoint),
* How W is like Bill Clinton on the one Hand, Ronald Regan on the other hand, and FDR on the Gripping hand
* Breasts I have enjoyed viewing,
* Beer Pong Rules and Ethics,
* Why religion is bunk, or
* Imaginary History/Geography/Ethnography/Zoology.

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Dbass

Umm...I guess this is way too late, but basically, if you are at all interested in philosophy, a good philosophy paper can be 45% made up of biographical notes on the philosopher. It's pretty easy to relate the death of a father or mother with the reasons somebody began to devalue life. That sort of thing can take up a page by itself.

SaltPork

How about the Pre and Post Soviet economy and their affects on global financial markets. Should be good for about 40-50 pages, but you can give the abridged version.

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It was like that when I got here....I swear.

ShaniFaye

The role of the bagpipes in many different wars in many different centuries

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I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

LLL2

I would pick Iraq...There is soo much to talk about it,Is it going work ? How many american lifes ? Draft ? How much we going invest? Do they really want us there ? How do we treat pows ? Also if you ever get stump,you could always do a search on the internet for something about iraq.

CSflim

This thread was started in November. I think its safe to say that 'thursday' has come and gone.

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Yakk

Cloning & Genetics: The Abortion-war is nothing compared to what is coming
Copyright, Trademarks and Patents: The Ownership of Thought
The Labour Problem: When Automation is Cheaper than a Living Wage
Alternative Energy, Peak Oil and Easter Island
The Morality of Suicide
What is Money?
The Calculus of War: Justice, Geopolitics and Game Theory
The Green Revolution: What went wrong?
Widerstehen den Anfängen: Does the "Slippery Slope" exist?
The Copenhagen Consensus: an analysis
The Three Oldest Games: which will win
What do we know?
"Expontential!" -- misuse of language in the media
Orders, Excuses and Obedience
The Tactical Situation: Differences between Iraq and Vietnam
The Canonization Process of Ronald Reagan
Gay Marriage: the current Constitutional status
Interstate Commerce, the Umbrella of Federal Power
Wars of Ideas and Wars on Ideas
Puritanism and Americanism
The Other Side: an exercise in media awareness
Eternal Life in Fiction, Religion and Science
Casualty Rate from a limited Nuclear War

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Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

Hard8s

I wrote a 10 page paper in high school on the "History of Passenger Travel in Aviation".
But I liked planes and still want to be a pilot someday. I thought it was very interesting, from the Montgolfier Bros. to TWA and the first Jet Airliners. Lots of stuff out there, you just need to find something that interests you. Do you like baseball? You could research how to throw a Curve ball and the impacts on the game of different pitches.... Like I said find something that interests you, you'll be a lot happier doing the paper.

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Jay You Dee

Tophat has the got the right idea. I've easily cranked out 20 pages or more for stories in fantasy role playing games (mainly Vampire/Mage). Also the Mafia is so easy to write about, and most people enjoy reading about schemes and plots of the Mafia. Bout 3 years ago I wrote a 10 page term paper all about the characters in the Godfather Part I.. took me 1 night of googling and watching the movie, and scored highest ever in that class - just a thought~

Good luck on that, btw

Hain

Anyone one else want to know what the final topic of the research paper was on?!?!?
Spit it out Elian!!! TELL US!!!

Since I have to write a 20 odd page paper, mine is going to be on the physics of creating a universal position, tactile hologram and the marketing of my holographic arcades. Yes, fully interactive, surround sound, smell-o-vision holograms that you can touch and feel. It really is only supposed to be on how a hologram is made and inovations with ion force fields but I can never take a serious paper serious. Have to throw in some creative elements. And who wouldn't want to play in an artificial environment???

Or, just do a paper on Larry Niven's Ringworld. MIT students have.

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Gatorade Frost

The longest paper I've ever written was on a piece of art. It was 27 pages.

monkeysugar

This is way too late for the first poster, but perhaps someone else looking for ideas will venture upon this thread at some point.

I did a 22 page paper on serial killers during my freshman year when I was interested in doing profiling. Common traits re: upbringing, childhood behaviors, psychological traits, etc. It was interesting, but not my best piece of work.

My most memorable paper was one I had to write for a class on sociological research methods. We basically had to completely formulate a research topic and a study to go along with it. We were not allowed to actually propose this study or go about doing it. I highly suspected that my instructor was lazy and needed something to write his thesis on. Rather than getting pissed off about it, I decided to have some fun. I turned it into a 25 page dick and fart joke. "Sociological Implications of Male Bathroom Etiquette" or something along those lines. I had research schematics, at one point, a sample survey, a list of "the rules", and the "this doesn't count if the involved parties are drunk" disclaimer. I'll have to see if I can find it...always good for a laugh.

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elian gonsalez

Wow this thread has lasted a long time! Thanks for your input. I ended up writing on the future of american foreign policy, and its implications/future. It wasnt my most eloquent paper, but it yielded a B+ in a class called 'challenge seminar'. I compared the future of american foreign policy to the spread of catholocism in the middle east, and the fall of rome... it was an entertaining paper to write. It was actually interesting to talk to other people about what they had discovered and such. A couple people wrote something relating to the davinci code, dead sea scrolls, serial killer profiling, and the degradation of society today. There were more, but these topics were the best.