Week 2: Topic Selection

I have chosen to create my podcast by emulating the style of “Grammar Girl”. I have chosen this podcast show because I enjoy learning about grammar rules and I sometimes find myself correcting others in proper use of grammar. The specific grammar issue I will be covering in my podcast is the spelling rule: i before e except after c. I have had difficulty using this rule and I think it would be helpful to others to explain the rule and how to discern exceptions to the rule to improve our spelling habits.

I hope to emulate the structure of Grammar Girl’s podcasts as well as the style. The host, Mignon Fogarty who is referred to as “Grammar Girl” begins each podcast by introducing a particular grammar rule that has become a problem for many people, explains the grammar rule and then she continues to explain why it is important to follow. She includes several examples of the grammar rule’s usage by individuals on social media or from personal conversations. “Grammar Girl” also incorporates the historical origins of the grammar rule and makes use of quotes by scholars and experts. I hope to use my content in the same way to elaborate further on the grammar rule’s significance and also to be informative for listeners that are being introduced to my topic for the first time.

I found advice for topic selection on SPARK and my favourite pointer that was mentioned was to write down all of the topic ideas that you have brainstormed and then narrow down your topics by moving from broad to specific. I know that brainstorming ideas (both broad and specific) has been helpful in my search for a topic, but the topic selection advice I received in lecture this week about preliminary research was most helpful. I realized that, as Professor Bell mentioned, we can consider the broad topics that she posted on Moodle but we should also examine the podcast websites themselves. While looking at examples of topics that have been covered by other podcast hosts it helped me to think about more specifically what I wanted to discuss.

To make the advice I received online and in lecture more useful for students in my position I would also advise them to not only look at the website for the podcast they are emulating, but to also explore other podcasts websites. This can help them to explore different recording styles that may add to the creative aspect of their podcast and may also spur new ideas. I would also advise students to make deadlines for their brainstorming process so there is not too much time spent searching for a topic and decisions are made quickly in order to move onto the next task.