Writing Topics for Adult Students

These topics and assignments are specially designed to draw upon the strengths, thoughts, and experience of the adult returning student.  You may use them for ideas or discuss with to your instructor to see if they could be shaped to fit one or more of your class assignments.  They are labelled by writing strategy to match the types of writing in The College Writer.  

Personal Narrative

1. Write a story about a time in your life when you successfully worked hard at doing something you loved even when there were many obstacles that might have prevented you from doing this activity or project. Be as specific as possible about who or what helped you to bypass these obstacles.
2. Write a story about something you learned from someone who was quite different from you. It might have been an older person, a much younger person, a person from a different part of the country or world, a person of a different race or ethnicity, a person with a different career path, or any other difference you noticed at the time or since.
3. Think about a person, place, or event that moved you in a new direction, or changed you in some significant way. Put the person, place or event into a scene in a movie. Show us the character, the setting, the situation, perhaps some dialogue to illustrate the powerful effect on you of the person, place, or event.

Cause and Effect

4. Write an essay about an action you took that seemed to have an effect on a child (your own or someone else’s). The effect could have been positive or negative. Show your action and then show the way in which the child responded. Discuss why you think the action resulted in this effect.
5. Write an essay in which a particular behavior by your own child  (or someone else’s) developed from some action by you or a friend. Show the behavior and then trace the behavior to a cause. Discuss why you think the cause you have described contributed to the child’s behavior.   

Comparison and Contrast

6. Compare and contrast two different work supervisors you’ve had. Look for similarities and differences in such areas as communication style, clarity, positive/negative reinforcement, mentoring, flexibility, expectations, accessibility, fairness, honesty, leadership, and any other categories that focus on relationships between supervisors and employees. Organize your essay into either the block method or point-by-point method of comparison. Try to draw some conclusions about what makes some supervisors more effective than others.

Classification and Division

7. Think of a job you have had and the various types of people who worked in that environment. Then develop a list of categories of co-workers you might have known. For example: the optimist, the pessimist, the complainer, the helper,  the pass-the-buck worker, etc. Write an essay that classifies the kinds of co-workers found in a particular industry or type of work environment and describes each type. 

Problem and Solution

8. Write about a problem based on a difference of opinion between yourself and a parent, spouse, child, friend, neighbor, or co-worker. If the difference was resolved, explain how it was resolved. If it was not resolved, explain what obstacles prevented a resolution. Think about whether the resolution was short-term or long-term and whether it was satisfactory. Then write about strategies you use or could use to resolve problems that develop from a difference of opinion.

Definition

9. All terms have a dictionary meaning, but the working meaning of that term for you derives from your past experiences, values, and personal understanding of the word or phrase. Choose a word or phrase that you might need to explain to a non-native speaker and develop a working definition. You might choose a broad term or phrase, such as parenting or health or you might choose a narrow term or phrase, such as time-outs or low-fat breakfast. Remember that a definition should include the class to which the word or phrase belongs and set it off from other items in the same class. For example, a working dog is a canine (class) bred to drive, tend, work, or protect stock animals (the difference within that class)---it is different than a dog bred for hunting or guarding.

Illustration

10. Spend an hour or two watching television and take notes. Decide if there is a clear distinction between information and entertainment. Give a series of examples or illustrations to make your point clear.

Essay of Persuasion

11. Look at three advertisements for the same type of product: one on television, another on the web, and a third in print. Then write a letter to your boss recommending which medium you think the company should focus on when spending its advertising budget.

Position Paper

12. Look at any issue that affects your community: an educational, environmental, justice, transportation, economic, or racial issue would be a good starting point. Then take a position on this issue that you would develop into a letter to the editor of the local paper. If you have lived in that community for a long time, draw on your personal experience. If you have only lived in that community for a short time, compare your experience here with your experience in another community.  Make sure you define the issue as narrowly and clearly as possible, that your reasoning is sound and your evidence is solid. Consider the counter-arguments to your point of view and answer them based on your experience and reasoned thinking.

Argumentative Essay

13. Adult learners often have life experiences that are valuable learning experiences. Some institutions even provide credit for noncollegiate prior learning, which might include job-related training courses, travel, completed projects, etc. Make a list of such experiences you have had that might qualify for credit. Then develop an argument for how such prior learning could be assessed. Consider whether your learning actually relates to your college courses. Does it relate to your educational goals and career goals? How would you know if the learning is equivalent to college-level learning (consider textbooks, statements of objective, and syllabi as reference sources)? How could you document that you have actually learned what you want to get credit for? Who do you think should decide if you get academic credit? Develop your ideas into an argument for prior learning academic credit.

Writing for the Web

14. Your employer has asked you to create material that could be used on their web site. Often the home page, or opening web page, is a profile of the company, accompanied by a logo and animations or graphic illustrations that convey something about the company’s identity and purpose. Usually there is a navigation bar that will lead to other parts of the web site. Spend time thinking about the purpose of your company and how it is organized for the general public to find more information on the web site. Then create the navigation bar and the content about your company for their home page.

Interview Report

15. Interview someone from whom you have learned something valuable for your own lifelong learning. It could be someone at work, a friend, a relative, a teacher or trainer, a clergyperson, or anyone else whose wisdom or insight has been shared with you in the past. Develop a series of open-ended questions that address how that person arrived at that understanding, any hardships or challenges they faced, and how others might benefit from their experience. Then interview the person, using your questions. Create a report that features the main categories of information developed during your interview. You decide what should be included or excluded in the summary report, but plan that the report may be used for leadership development training for young college students.