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Assignment | Argument Essay (Weatherly): Topic Development

ENGL 1301 | Prof. S. Weatherly (Spring 2025)

Topic, Research Question, Thesis

First, you develop and narrow down your topic -- the general idea of what you're going to be researching. Questions may be prompted by your growing knowledge of the topic. As you read, let your research guide your thesis and talking points.  

From your central topic, you develop your research question(s) to investigate, and then finally develop a thesis statement which answers your chosen question.

Mind Map a Topic

PowerNotes: Clip, Save, Organize

PowerNotes is a research manager that works on anything you can open in your browser. Set up your free account and install the PowerNotes extension. 

Save and organize quotes as you research so you've got an outline ready to go. The built-in citation tool can export a bibliography.

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