Teaching Ideas and Topic List for Exploratory Essay

What are Exploratory Papers?

Exploratory Essays do not present a single focused position. Instead, they explore several sides of an issue in order to more fully understand what different people think about it. Sometimes exploratory essays can be part of a persuasive paper, to show the context of the argument before you present your own view. In other instances, these papers can stand on their own as an exploration of all of the ways that different people have pursued attempting to solve that argument.

The Assignment in Perspectives on Argument

In the popular Rhetoric textbook, Perspectives on Argument by Nancy Wood, the Exploratory paper is presented as an assignment in chapter 3 (7th edition) or chapter 4 (6th edition). Generally, I use this assignment as my second essay, and ask my students to do their assignments on their Summary, Analysis and Response Essay in preparation for writing this Exploratory Paper. After they have then practiced researching, then exploring the issue, they can do their third paper, the Position Essay (or argument essay) on the same topic, as Wood suggests, or I allow them to choose an entirely different topic if they are tired of writing on that issue.

Writing as a Class on One Topic from the Perspectives on Argument Reader

Last year, I followed the suggestion in Perspectives on Argument and let students survey and then choose a topic from the different sections of the reader. However, I was very dissatisfied with the way the classes went since no one in the class was reading the same material and therefore it was difficult to do any sort of interesting class discussion which involved everyone.

This year, I changed my tactics to have the whole class read on one topic. I chose the first section of the reader on the topic of Marriage and Family. My students read and summarized briefly all of the articles and images in the reader under that section. This worked well as the class was much better able to discuss the ideas they were interested in.

To focus the articles they will use for their Summary Analysis and Response paper, I am having them choose an arguable question or statement (which will be the arguable issue they use for their Exploratory paper). To come up with these, I had the students do a web of issues (following the web format from p. 70 in Perspectives on Argument) related to one of the following terms: marriage, divorce, family or relationship. They did that as homework, and then as a class, they worked in groups to make a list of arguable statements or questions. A compilation of the lists my students came up with is below.

For their Summary Analysis and Response paper, I am allowing them to use any of the articles in the book which fit their topic. In addition, I have supplied the students with links to other Articles on the Topic of Marriage, Divorce and Family, which include a government report on statistics on Divorce, Marriage and Co-habitation, some interesting articles I found on topics we discussed, as well as links to articles which were in edition 6 of Perspectives on Argument (and which I liked) but are no longer included in edition 7.

I like this method of teaching Perspectives on Argument much better. My class has more interesting discussions and seems more involved in the topics. I was rather surprised at how quickly they came up with the many different topics below. Some of these topics are directly from articles we've read, others are relating to issues they are personally concerned about.

Arguable Issues on the Topic of Marriage, Family and Relationships

Remember that you want an arguable statement or question, which means something that people have different opinions about. See p. 37 "Twelve Tests of an Arguable Issue" to help you decide..

1. Parents should have equal authority over children.
2. Divorce negatively affects families
3. Religion has a positive effect on families.
4. Same sex parenting can be just as effective as conventional parenting.
5. Adoption is a good way to build a family.
6. Single parents should be allowed to adopt more children.
7. Single, childless individuals should be allowed (or encouraged) to adopt.
8. Single parents struggle in raising families.
9. Children of single parents have more behavior problems.
10. Single parents can raise a child just as well as two parents.
11. What are the effects of marrying as teenagers?
12. What are the disadvantages/or advantages/or struggles of interracial marriage?
13. What are the disadvantages (or advantages, or struggles) of marrying someone of another faith?
14. What are the advantages (or advantages, or struggles) of monogamous marriages vs. polygamy?
15. Divorce negatively affects children.
16. What are the negative effects of divorce on children.
17. Children recover from divorce.
18. Divorce of parents affects children for the rest of their lives.
19. How is financial security related to relationship/marriage security?
20. Is it better for step-parents to adopt their spouses children when possible?
21. What is a family?
22. Families are important.
23. What is the best structure of a family?
24. Non-traditional families are just as good or better than traditional families.
25. In America today the role of the family has changed from the way it functioned in the past.
26. Parents should be the primary caretakers and teachers of their children.
27. Marriages of people who are of the same ethnicity/race work better.
28. Arranged marriages are suppressing to those involved.
29. Love is the most important factor in choosing a spouse.
30. Being best friends is the most important factor in choosing a spouse.
31. Does sex before marriage hurt, or help the marriage?
32. Does living together before the marriage help or hurt the marriage?
33. How important is it that parents approve of a marriage?
34. How do different beliefs in God affect a marriage?
35. Is it better to stay single and not marry?
36. What are the components of a healthy marriage? Is a marriage better if the man is the main breadwinner?
37. They say “opposites attract” but is being different helpful or harmful to a long term marriage?
38. Who causes more arguments, men or women?
39. Who most often wants a divorce, men or women?
40. Which sex is more likely to break up, men or women?
41. What is the #1 reason that people divorce? Or break up?
42. Should a man be the main pursuer?
43. Does distance negatively or positively affect dating relationships?
44. Are men and women looking for the same thing in relationships?
45. What are the reasons people go into relationships? Are some reasons better than others?
46. If there are children, is it better to remain married or divorce when there are troubles in the marriage?
47. What makes a marriage last for the long haul?
48. What role does religion play in marriage?
49. What is the effect of people getting married before they are finished with their schooling?
50. Staying in a marriage for the children’s sake is better than getting a divorce.
51. Living together is good for a relationship.
52. Living together is immoral.
53. What saves a marriage from divorce?
54. Should couples marry later in life?
55. What are the financial effects of divorce?
56. If people realized how difficult life was after divorce, they would work harder on saving their marriage.
57. Second marriages are more likely to end in divorce.
58. Should people remain friends with their ex-husband or ex-wife?
59. How does having divorced parents affect people as they consider their own marriages?
60. Being a surrogate parent is a noble thing to do.
61. Surrogate parenting should be outlawed.
62. Having biological children is important.
63. Christians should marry early to avoid premarital sex.