In an oft-quoted 1992 interview, Nobel Laureate and Man Booker Prize-winning writer JM Coetzee claims that “all writing is autobiography,” and that “everything that you write, including criticism and fiction, writes you as you write it” (17). This might come as a shock: how can all writing be autobiographical? Specifically, how can formal academic writing—writing that aims for objectivity, such as a formal research-based, argumentative style essay—be autobiographical, when autobiography is a kind of writing that says something about its writer?

Setting aside the subjective experience of autobiography for a moment, it can be helpful to think of writing as autobiographical specifically in terms of identifying issues for a research project. In this section, you will read about applying autobiographical thinking to the early stages of the research process to help identify issues for a research project. You will also learn strategies to focus and refine the scope of a research project. Finally, you will learn the purpose of a proposal—a writing genre—and steps to create your own proposal,  an important part of the research process.

Autobiographical Thinking

Let’s say you’ve been asked to write a research paper. Perhaps you’re writing this paper for your English class, though you might be writing your research paper for another class. Your instructor gives you free rein on choosing a topic for research. The instructor simply tells you to “identify an issue for research.” Understandably, this is a daunting request. Where does one even start?

Here is where Coetzee’s autobiographical approach to writing can help us. Applying autobiographical thinking to a research project means finding connections between yourself (including personal interests, ideas, experiences, or concerns about the world), the writing assignment, and a topic or issue for research. After reading the assignment sheet, a writer tasked with writing a research project—usually a longer-term project that they will spend significant amounts of time developing—can begin by thinking about issues they are interested in, issues that are important, impactful, or meaningful to them. Writers are better off working with topics that they have some connection to than they are working with topics that are seemingly “easy.” On the surface, a topic that seems easy might be attractive; after all, simplifying a research project sounds ideal. The problem here is that when a writer writes about something they don’t have a connection with, that they don’t care much about, the writing and research process often becomes harder. A writer that doesn’t care much or is indifferent about a topic they are writing about might have less to say about the topic, for example, turning the seemingly easy project into a struggle. Usually, the result of such a project suffers because the writer’s disconnection is communicated in the writing itself. At the very least, the writing process is more engaging and interesting to a writer when that writer works with a topic they have some connection with.

So, it makes sense to try our best to find a connection with a topic or issue for research instead of struggling with a topic or issue we are at best indifferent toward. But what does finding connections to a topic actually look like? Let’s look at examples of three different kinds of commonly-assigned research projects, one that allows free choice of a topic, one that provides a list of topics, and one that asks you to develop a position on a pre-selected issue.

Project 1: Free Choice

In this research project, a writer is given free choice of a research topic. This means that there are no topic lists writers can choose from, and that the writer must create a topic on their own. This might seem like the most daunting of projects but applying autobiographical thinking at the beginning of such a project can help make the project accessible.

To start, think about your own life, experiences, interests, and concerns. Create an inventory—i.e., write a list—of who you are, what you like to do, what you care about, and, if possible, try to identify issues or problems in the world that you have experience with or that you wish would change.

Here is an example: Perhaps you are interested in becoming a nurse and are pursuing a degree in the field. Despite your interest, maybe you’ve heard that nurses face challenging work demands and often experience above-average work-related stress compared to those in other professions. In this case, because this research project is open-ended, you could begin exploring something related to this broad issue, such as the impacts of stress on nurses, or perhaps reasons why nurses might face above-average stress levels. Not only could this topic be interesting to you because you have a personal connection to it, it’s also a topic that is relevant in a practical way to your experience and possible future in the nursing field.

Here is another example: You are interested in video games. Perhaps you play video games regularly, as a hobby, though they aren’t necessarily connected to your professional pursuits. At first, you might gloss over this broad topic as a potential for research—video games are for entertainment only, right? As it turns out, video game studies is actually a growing area of academic research. So, perhaps you begin to explore existing video game research in order to identify an issue in the field for further research and argumentation. In this example, you’re applying your own extracurricular interests to the research process and, ideally, you’re working toward a research project that you can enjoy developing.

Project 2: Topic List

Sometimes, instructors assign research projects with specific research topic lists. You might be asked to select a broad topic from a list, which you will then narrow, focus, and refine into a more specific research project. While this type of research assignment is more constricting, you still have ample room to apply autobiographical thinking to the project. Rather than simply selecting a broad topic that seems easy to write about, consider approaching the assignment this way:

1. Write a personal inventory of yourself (as you might do in a more open-ended project).
2. Review the list closely and carefully.
3. Think about intersections between your personal inventory and the topic list. Are there any topics that can match up with one or more items in your inventory? Think critically and outside of the box: you might not have direct experience with the broad topic of “Social Media Censorship,” for example, but you might identify an issue relative to this broad topic that is important to you, or you might anticipate a growing problem in this area based on some other experience you’ve had using social media. You might feel indifferent about a vegetarian/non-vegetarian debate, but when you see the topic “Animal Rights,” you might feel inspired to research domesticated animal rights, perhaps because of a personal experience with a family pet.
4. Think about problems or concerns connected to broad topics on the list that you wish to change. For example, the broad topic “Animal Rights” can potentially contain many problems or issues, such as factory farming. Perhaps you feel that factory farming is a problem that needs to be addressed. If you do, this could be a broad topic to select.
5. If the list of topics is large, try to list a few topics that you are interested in. Not only will this be helpful later on when you begin to narrow the scope of your project, but it’s also easier to consider a smaller chunk of ideas rather than a large list.

Following the steps above can help you identify an issue for research amidst a large—and maybe overwhelming—list of potential topics.

Project 3: Research an Issue Related to a Pre-Selected Topic

While Project 2 limits a writer’s choice compared to an open-ended research project, instructors can assign even more specific research projects. Sometimes, a research project will ask you to identify an issue related to a pre-selected topic. In this case, you might at first feel restricted. What if you are indifferent to the topic? Though this kind of assignment is more focused, an autobiographical approach is still a great way to identify a specific issue for research. Let’s look at an example. Imagine your instructor assigns a research project and asks you to identify and research an issue related to the following topic: Social Media.

You might look at this and immediately feel lost. It’s too broad. How can you identify an issue with social media? What if you use social media regularly and can’t think of an issue with it? Alternatively, what if you don’t use or know much about social media?

Once again, applying an autobiographical approach can help you identify an issue for research. As with the previous projects, you can start by writing an inventory—only this time, your inventory will be a bit more specific and focused. Rather than writing about yourself, write an inventory about your relationship with social media, and try to be as specific as possible. List the social media platforms you use most; list what you like and dislike about these platforms; describe how much time you think you spend on these platforms each day; explain what you think you gain from these platforms, such as pleasure, knowledge, social connection, or even nothing at all. If you don’t use social media, describe why you don’t use it; describe what you think about specific social media platforms; write about your experience with others—such as friends or family members—who use social media. Are there any dangers associated with social media that you can think of? Write about those—being specific whenever possible (Facebook is not the same kind of social media platform as Instagram, for example). Whether you use or do not use social media, you could break down a few social media platforms into their individual features. Facebook and Instagram each offer different features.

The goal here is to find a personal connection of some kind to this topic or, in other words, to find yourself within it. Even a relatively small connection—perhaps you used Facebook to adopt a dog from a local animal shelter or to purchase a coffee table for your apartment—can spark a research project. If you did use Facebook to purchase some furniture, you might end up expanding this idea into an argument about how Facebook is a powerful tool in the search for affordable furniture, potentially allowing people of all income levels a means to furnish their homes.

Continue Reading: 20.2 Proposals