Research paper topics

Your five- to six-page research paper is due three weeks from today. Please have your topic selected no later than the end of this week. You must select one of the following topics for your research paper.

• The current Gulf oil leak is one of the greatest disasters of the past fifty years
• In context the damage from the current Gulf oil leak is being greatly exaggerated
• Barack Obama is well on his way toward becoming one of the the greatest presidents in United States history
• Barack Obama is well on his way toward becoming one of the worst presidents in United States history
• The United States is poised to enter the next golden age of space exploration and development
• Gender disparity in higher education is a problem and needs to be remedied
  

Yes, I will require that you write your paper on one of these topics. In past semesters I've found that opening up the list of topics presents three problems: students wavering too long on choosing a topic, unscrupulous students recycling essays from high school or other courses, and even more unscrupulous students downloading ready-made essays from the net. So you do have flexibility in choosing a topic, but only from the list on this page.