Academic Writing Lessons For College Students: English Term Paper Ideas

Writing a term paper takes much time. It takes even more if you don’t know what to write about. It often happens that days pass by, and you haven’t come up with a decent idea to research. A term paper topic that effectively fits college standards should be:

• original;
• interesting for both you and your reader (teacher);
• manageable, so that you could show your creative and academic writing skills in the best light.

Researching the English language or literature may be as interesting as working on a project in any other field. Here is a list of ideas that can make great topics for college term papers on English:

• Investigation into Old English (Anglo-Saxon): influence of Latin, Old Norse, and the Anglo-Norman French on its formation. Analysis of old and modern lexical equivalents.
• Impact of different cultures on the language development. How did American, Afro-American, Aboriginal, Indian, Creole, or Asian dialect appear? Choose any of the mentioned dialects and research its origins.
• Gender in modern language. How did feminism affect gender changes? Explore interaction between biological sex, social sex role, and psychological gender.
• What are the pitfalls of learning English as a second language?
• This idea may be particular interesting for a student who is a native speaker of a different language.
• American literature: the North literature versus the South literature. Refer to two literary works from the same period to provide good examples for your term paper.
• How did Indian writers affect English literature?
• How is love depicted in poems by Shakespeare and a modern poet? Analyze works by your favorite modern poet and find out if the attitude to love historically changed. What words for love and passion are used now and were used some time ago?
• Women in literature: historical overview. Conduct your research on the bases of old and new books.
• A famous woman in English literature. Analyze how this character was depicted in literary works by different writers.
• Good and evil in children’s literature.
• Why are/were some children’s books banned and challenged? Analyze the issue by the example of one of the numerous formerly banned literary works for children.
• How did Scottish writers contribute to English literature?
• Life versus book. An author’s life experience is often reflected in content and style of his/her books. Take a book by your favorite writer and analyze it.
• American dream in literary works by different authors. In your college term paper, investigate how this notion was presented in different books. How does its original understanding differ from modern views?