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Teaching and
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BRK 460206.6503
Distinguishing Between
Subject Area, Topic and Thesis

excerpted from The Random House Handbook

by Frederick Crews, 1980

Instructors often assign research papers in deliberately general terms, leaving their students partly or wholly
free to choose what they will write about. The thrill of such freedom tends to wear off rather quickly. How
can you find a topic that will be both manageable and interesting? And even if that topic has been named
for you, you must still decide what main point you want to make. The purpose of all your activity prior to
writing a draft is to locate that point, or thesis, and to test its suitability. But to avoid mistaking how far you
have gone toward that goal, you must be alert to the differences between three things that are often confused:
a subject area, a topic and a thesis.

Subject Area
A subject area is a large category within which you may hope to find your actual topic. Thus, if you are
asked to discuss an issue of civil liberties or write a paper about Catch 22, you have been given, not
topics, but subject areas. A subject area is too large to be usefully enlisted as a topic in itself. If you find
yourself uttering I cant say anything about such a ridiculously broad topic, perhaps it isnt a topic but a
subject area. Think of a subject area as a large, unopened sack of topics, and remember how awkward it
would be to write an essay about an as yet unopened sack.

Topic
The topic of a paper is the issue it deals with. Thus, within the subject area of education, some workable
topics might be: the effect of open admissions on high potential students; Why did open admissions
become popular in the late 60's?; The success (or failure) of open admissions; Open admissions as a means
to social equality. Notice that these topics take up considerably more words than education. Potential
topics of one or two words are probably subject area in disguise. A topic is definite, and definiteness means
spelling something out. Here are further instances of the contrast between subject areas and topics:

Subject Area Topic

Agricultural production The effect of mechanization on farm employment
Genetic research Major developments in genetic research since 1960
Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn A comparison of the young narrators
Drug abuse Behavioral effects of angel dust
Federal water projects How federal water projects get approved and
cancelled

At this point, you may find it useful to restate your topic in question form. Such restatement inevitably
sharpens the topic, changing if from material to be covered to a problem or issue to be addressed. Thus:
Civil Liberties under the Warren Court becomes How did civil liberties fare under the Warren Court?

Thesis
The thesis is the one leading idea you are going to propose about your topic. When your topic is ready to
be restated as a question, your thesis is simply your answer to that question. A thesis is never subject matter
to be investigated; it is always an assertion. As such, it lends itself to formulation in one sentence: Civil
liberties were significantly expanded under the Warren Court.
 Narrowing: How to Turn a Subject Area into a Topic

One of the most frequent complaints of college teachers is that their students papers lack focusthat their
students have failed to sufficiently narrow a subject to a topic small enough to be manageable. Students
often counter such criticism with remarks like, But if I narrow it too much, I wont able to find enough to
fill fifteen pages! (Or twenty, or whatever the instructor deems an appropriate length.) Somewhere between
these two concerns, of course, lies the truth. As a general rule of thumb, however: avoid a topic that is too
broad and nebulous (Women in History), a topic that is too complex, given your background, resources
and time (Serbo-Croatian Dialects) or a topic that would not readily lend itself to research (the biography
or journal of an obscure poet). What many writers are surprised to discover, when they do narrow their
topics, is that they can really dig into their topics and become experts of sorts in one small corner of a
large area. Instead finding too little to say, they often find too much because they know their subjects quite
well by the time they begin to write. Ultimately, the papers they turn out have more depth and afford more
satisfaction than can be derived from merely skimming the surface of a topic that is too broadan effort that
usually results in a fairly self-evident, dull paper. But how can one narrow this large subject area?

Browsing
First, unless you are already quite well versed in the subject, you must do some preliminary reading to
acquire a general knowledge of your topic and to learn what materials are available on it. During this early
investigation, you discover how a large subject rather naturally falls into smaller components and which of
those components most interests you.

Brainstorming
A second helpful device for stimulating your thinking on a subject and generating possible topics is
brainstormingan unstructured probing of a topic. As Erika Lindemann says: Like free association,
brainstorming allows writers to venture whatever comes to mind about a subject, no matter how obvious or
strange the ideas might be. What follows is an example of a topic chart that grew out of a brainstorming
session on the subject of animals. Any branch of this chart could be developed into a thesis statement (A
Rhetoric for Writing Teachers, p. 80-91).

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 Narrowing 2

Freewriting
Freewriting is a technique advocated by Peter Elbow and Ken Macrorie. It offers students a way of getting
ideas and words onto a page without worrying about their coherence and correctness. Elbows explains this
technique:
The idea is simply to write for ten minutes later on, perhaps fifteen or twenty. Dont stop for anything.
Go quickly without rushing. Never stop to look back, to cross something out, to wonder how to spell
something, to wonder what word or thought to use, or to think about what you are doing. If you cant think
of a word or a spelling, just use a squiggle or else write, I cant think of it. Just put down something. The
easiest thing is just to put down whatever is in your mind. If you get stuck its fine to write I cant think
what to say, I cant think what to say as many times as you want, or repeat the last word you wrote over
and over again, or anything else. The only requirement is that you never stop. (Writing Without
Teachers, p. 3)

Freewriting is a useful technique for overcoming the fear of the blank page and the stifling preoccupation
with correctness that paralyzes many writers. It is also a way of talking out an idea and may be used in the
early stages to generate ideas and to bridge between pre-writing and first draft to see what youve assimilated
from your research.

Although free writing can generate some real garbage, it may also release an insight or help you see a
connection you might not have discovered by more formal writing. The word, once written, is powerful, so
dont be trapped by your free writing. Use it for its ideas, phrases, questions yet unansweredperhaps even
extract an outline from it.

Generating Questions
This can be useful in narrowing a subject to a topic or in further refining your topic. Write down as many
questions as you can generate on your topic. Ask others to offer questions they might have. No question is
too simplistic. William Zinsser suggests that you treat each question as a trial thesis, a possible argument
around which to organize an essay. Then put it to the test:
1. Is the question or answer plausible enough to be made convincing?
2. Is it sufficiently challenging?
3. Is it within your reach, given the limitations on time, your access to pertinent information and the length
of the assignment? (On Writing Well)

If you run out of your own ideas, you might want to try a more formal heuristican investigative
procedure providing a series of questions that guide inquiry and increase the chances for a workable solution
(were all familiar with the old who, what, when, where heuristic).

Charting
Finally, you might try a kind of chart that takes a broad subject, subdivides it into its components, narrows
each component, chooses one, narrows it again, adds scope, and finally establishes a possible purpose.
(next page)

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 General Topic: Aging

Possible Components:
Sexuality, Housing, Suicide, Depression
Choose: Sexuality

Possible Aspects:
1. Attitudes toward sexuality and the elderly
2. Culturally acceptable expressions of elderly sexuality
3. Physiological changes in aging and their impact on sexuality
Choose: Attitudes toward sexuality and the elderly

Narrow Again:
Examine the possible impact of caretaker attitudes and the institutional setting on elderly sexual
expression.

Add Scope:
Look at studies of the caretaker attitudes toward elderly sexual expression.

Look at how the institutions attitudes toward elderly sexual expression are reflected in policies, rules,
floor plan, etc.

Look at studies on the attitudes of the institutionalized elderly toward their own sexuality.

Examine what sexual expression is open to elderly ( and what is not) in the institutional setting.

Tentative Thesis: Caretaker attitudes and the institutional setting can have a negative impact on elderly
sexual expression.

Components Choose Possible Aspects Choose Narrow Again Add Scope