Philly Senior Projects

TOPIC SELECTION: Preliminary Research

The Senior Project is an opportunity for high school seniors to examine a topic of their choice in-depth. However, with an array of topics to choose from: health, poverty, education, etc., topic selection can be somewhat of a challenge.

Successful Senior Projects study a topic in-depth, so instead of using too broad of a topic, examine the HOW and WHY questions vs. the what questions.

For instance, if the topic was about smoking, the what question (What are the dangers of smoking?) would produce more of a book report than a research paper. A how/why question could be: why do teens smoke? How to media encourage smoking among youth?

Generating these how/why questions can help as guiding questions when conducting preliminary research on a topic. If there is too little existing research or resources regarding the topic, the topic selection can be modified.

Conducting preliminary research can help narrow down topics and can even help direct writing a strong thesis.

TOPIC SELECTION: Choosing A Topic

One of the hardest parts of the Senior Project can be choosing a good topic. Choosing a good topic in the beginning of the process can be a great help. You can start by brainstorming topics of interest first. You can ask yourself these questions:

-- What am I interested in?

-- What about this topic makes it interesting to me? Can this also be interesting to other people?

-- What specific things do I NOT know about this topic? 

Keep fieldwork options also in mind when choosing a topic. Successful Senior Projects in the past have explored interesting topics AND used good fieldwork sites. Projects that haven't been as successful have topics that are too broad or aren't dynamic or original (ex. abortion, sports, STDs, tattoos). For more help, ask your teachers and family members so they can help you brainstorm.