Selecting a good topic requires, first, that you find out what is important to you as an individual; are there any ideas in the texts we read that moved you, angered you, caused you to doubt your own perspective?

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There is no traditional prompt for this essay. Instead, I would like to ask you to come up with your own paper topic drawing on the work of at least *TWO* of the following texts:
Aristotle – The Politics (book I or book IV)
Locke – Second Treatise of Government (chapters 1-5)
Karl Marx – Estranged Labor
Leslie Chang – Factory Girls (chapter 5) or Assembly Line English
Lea Ypi – Free.
“Come up with your own topic. Here are a few tips that you may find useful as you begin to think about a possible essay topic:
Selecting a good topic requires, first, that you find out what is important to you as an individual; are there any ideas in the texts we read that moved you, angered you, caused you to doubt your own perspective? If so, these are the ideas you might want to focus on and explore further.
A good topic is controversial, in the sense that it should provoke an inner conflict in you, a conflict for which you have not yet found a resolution.
A good topic presents readers with an issue, idea, or dilemma that is debatable.
A good topic invites readers and writers to consider multiple perspectives; it invites us to engage in a dialogue with our own doubts.
coming up with a good topic is closely bound up with figuring out what your own individual learning needs are.
Finally, a good essay is one that is able to strike the right balance between the personal and the analytical.”

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