How Easy Dissertation Topics Can Ruin Your Academic Career

The “This One, Or That One” Shuffle

When we are told that we have to write 250 pages worth of material, some of us first-timers gladly look to grab the easiest topic on the list because we believe it will be the quickest to pound out. Afterwards, when they get about a quarter-way past the halfway point, they quickly burn out of fuel, realizing they don’t have anything left original or substantial enough to say on the topic. To avoid the frustration of having to go back to square one, here is a short appraisal on how avoiding easy topics that can ruin your academic career.

Easy Means Predictable

Your choice of topic is the first indication of whether you’re someone who can think outside of the box, which is an important quality to have if you’re going be real contributor to the field. The world is looking for someone who is going to venture outside lines that have already been explored. Therefore, resisting your initial instinct to grab an easy topic is to avoid the trap of drowning in the background of voices that don’t seem to be saying anything new. Remember this may be your first time writing on the topic, but your professors may have read hundreds of papers in the past on the same topics. You get to make only one statement, so choose wisely. Above all else, your professors are looking for clear thinkers who can convincingly advance a claim. Therefore choose according to your ability to effectively craft, develop, and communicate a convincing argument.

Chose The Path Less Traveled

There is no formula for choosing the perfect thesis, no magic piece of advice to follow. What matters is choosing a topic you can substantially develop. If you’re lucky to get a professor to eye-ball your topic list and give you reasons why he or she would choose one topic over the next, than it’s a great opportunity to get his or her scope on how to assess a worth topic. If you a professor to consult, then jot down your instinctual first choice; but go back and give the list a second or third sit through. The most important thing to remember about a dissertation is to demonstrate your ability to construct a professional, independent study with the aim of making some significant yet small contribution to your field of study ---think of this paper as the start of your career, not the final undertaking of your scholarly tenure at your university or college.

So here are the pitfalls to be mindful of:

• The easy choice may be the sloppy choice.
• The easy choice runs the hazard of repeating what countless others before you have already said.
• The easy choice may not be the most ideal for the developmental aspect of your work.
• Easy is always risky, unless you have something absolutely brilliant that has not been said.