Research Paper - General Guidelines and Topics

While many college professors say they follow the guidelines of the AAUP, don't bet on it. Copy from a page on AAUP's Web site says, "The AAUP has long maintained that instructors should avoid the persistent intrusion of matter, controversial or not, that has no bearing on the subject of instruction."

Married to a cum laude in English from the University of Washington, who is also a well-versed acquistion editor of books from sources that include college professors, I don't get by with much these days. I recently learned, for instance, I couldn't say "anyways" unless I was from the South Side of Chicago, and that was stretching it, so I've dropped the word.

I would hope most students of English teachers across the country wouldn't suffer the same, but what has happened to me really is a good thing. The bottom line of being the best we can be in English is really very simple. Its purpose is to help us all be better citizens, to have a better chance of success in our chosen careers, and to have a shot at personal achievement through better writing skills.

So when I saw this professor's list of sample topics, I knew this was so far from what my wife had taught me about English that I felt I had landed on a pink submarine.

Below are topics listed for a 2004 English class in a university environment for a professor who is employed by an assumed accredited west-coast institution in the business of education.

So how did, "How the Republicans stole the presidential election of 2000," become a suggested topic for this English class, the topic no longer posted to the university's server *

Or what about the topic referring to homosexuals in the military, "What can be done to change the unfair policies of those colleges and universities which allow military recruiters and the ROTC on campus? Why does the present administration continue this "witch hunt" (Osburn 28)?"

And then there is the topic of "Analyze the recent (the last 50-100 years) history of sodomy laws in the United States," or this one on the "Honor Killings in Iraq," which the professor says has greatly increased since Saddam's "fall" from power.

Or this one, "How do you account for the phenomenon of male or female heterosexual cross-dressers? This is not a moral issue."

These topics point to an example of how an American college professor can and is allowed to drive an agenda onto young minds, this agenda obviously larger than just teaching English. The students in his class who thought they were paying to learn about the English language instead discovered they were being forced to also accept the professor's personal ideology if they are to have a chance at passing the course. This fact has obviously been ignored by the university while it still gladly takes the hard-earned money from enrolling students.

I smell a lawsuit here, and it has everything to do with the freedom of speech . . . that is, the student's freedom of speech and the university's failure to protect it.

Forgetting this, let's look at the above topics again, this time removing the obvious spin.

1. The current topic:

"How the Republicans stole the presidential election of 2000."

Alternative title: "If you think the Republicans stole the presidential election of 2000, what is your proof? If you think they did not, what process did work that was provided by our Constitution to solve a dilemma like this, the Democrats obviously accepting it since Bush is president. But would you want to see this solved differently for the current presidential election of 2004 if the same situation occurs again?"

"Why is America divided down a center line and what has caused this? Can it be resolved to make a stronger country, or do you believe the divide makes us strong?"

2. The current topic:

"What can be done to change the unfair policies [against gays] of those colleges and universities that allow military recruiters and the ROTC on campus? Why does the present administration continue this "witch hunt" (Osburn 28)?"

Alternative title: "Are policies in the military unfair against gays and if so, should this affect military and ROTC recruiters being allowed on the college campus?"

If yes, would you call this a witchhunt by the current Republican administration or something that has existed for decades in America? And if you would not allow recruiters on campus to enlist students for the military, then do you feel it's fair that the poorer part of the population (documented by those who actually serve today in the military) is left with protecting the United States, and students like you who have the funds to attend a university don't have to serve?"

"If not unfair, why?"

3. The current topic:

"Analyze the recent (the last 50-100 years) history of sodomy laws in the United States."

Alternative title: None suggested.

"Why is the penetration of a male's erect penis into the rectum of another of the same sex a subject for learning English?"

4. The current topic:

"Find out what is the extent of the problem of honor killings in Iraq, and what, if anything, can be done about it."

Alternative title: "Find out what is the extent of the problem of honor killings in Iraq, and what, if anything, can be done about it . . . or should anything be done about it? Then analyze if America was not in Iraq, would you even care about this subject matter? Finally, is it really any of America's business?"

5. The current topic:

"How do you account for the phenomenon of male or female heterosexual cross-dressers? This is not a moral issue."

Alternative title: None Suggested.

"What does the cross-dressing of a male to female have anything to do with an English class, and why is it being called a phenomenon. A phenomenon is 50% of American children being overweight or 50% of today's teenagers having an incurable STD by age 25, as recently reported by the CDC, with estimates today of actual infected Americans being over 40,000,000?"

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* List attributed to Web page was attributed to Clifton Snider, Ph.D., freely available on the Web without password. The professor at the time correctly requests his students to be sure to attribute published quotes, which we agree with and have followed.

The link to the above page, as shown on the Web on October 21, 2003, has now been removed from its server. We had provided this page exactly as it appeared in the event this would happen, the link no longer being active due to course changes or other events. However, it still serves as an example of what is being taught at today's universities.