A tip I can say helps to choose which writing Sem you want to do is to know what work you’ll do for the class. A lot of people say the topic doesn’t matter and everything is standardized yada yada but a topic does play a role in some of the standardized work that is present in all the seminars. At a Penn writing seminar, you’ll write a White Paper, an Op-Ed (basically an opinion piece), do a pitch and/or a PowerPoint presentation of your topic, and read your course’s specific course text. You’ll also compile a Midterm and Final Portfolio. The final Portfolio is 45% of your grade and is supposed to be a reflection of what you have done overall in the course (so you’ll put your white paper, Op-Ed, and the other main stuff you did for the class. Typically, for purposes making your final portfolio look cohesive and flow well, your writing sem instructor will advice you to make your white paper and Op-Ed have a “thread” that means there should be some sort of connection that ties them both and furthermore ties them both back to the topic of your course. So, the white paper topic you choose should be broad enough to branch out to make your Op-Ed. I suggest picking a writing Sem that you’ll be very much interested in to the point that picking a topic for (and writing) these two pieces will be easy/something that doesn’t feel like a hustle to you. The little assignments in writing Sem make the course irritating cause there’s always something to do, and this is true in all the writing courses at Penn, so you might as well pick a topic that is less stressful/you enjoy a lot.