Choosing Argumentative Essay Topics

Forget the old adage about not discussing politics or religion, these make for some of the best argumentative essay topics going. Argumentative essay topics should be controversial to make them compelling. An argumentative essay topic should not be dull; it should have at least two very gripping sides to the story. What makes this type of essay great is not just the presentation of your argument but also the presentation and refute of some exciting and stirring counter arguments. As such politics and religion are absolutely perfect argumentative essay topics – particularly in situations or arguments where there is a passionate case to be made on both sides.

For all writing it’s important the author find ways to connect with the reader. Sometimes this is by relating to a familiar and common practice or occurrence. When it comes to argumentative essay topics that engagement with the reader comes from arguing all sides of the story and drawing a conclusion. Even if the conclusion differs from that of the reader, you will have engaged the reader by presenting his or her alternate view. You may then sway the reader’s opinion or not. It really isn’t too important whether you do or don’t but rather that you have presented a well rounded opinion based on data to prove your point.

Other excellent habits for good writing of all types are to use language that is active and not passive. While this is true for all writing types except maybe creative writing of fiction or poetry, it is especially true for argumentative essays. This is not the place for ambiguous language. Make your arguments using direct active statements. If you’re not sure if your language is active or passive turn on your indicator tool in your spelling and grammar spell check settings. Do this by clicking on Spelling and Grammar under the Review tab, and then choose Options. In the box that reads Check Grammar Settings place a tick. This will highlight every instance in which you’ve written a passive sentence and offer suggestions for making it more active.

While you’re checking your grammar box you may also want to click readability statistics. Doing this will provide you with valuable data when you’ve finished each spell check. This includes the readability level of your writing, the grade level and reading ease. It will also tell you how many passive sentences remain in your text. These are simple but effective tools for tightening up any piece of writing.

That information is handy but we do realize that the most difficult aspect of writing an argumentative essay is choosing the topic and that politics and religion, although good, may be a bit broad in scope. So here are some solid, straight up outstanding argumentative essay topics. Our top ten argumentative essay topics are:

• Is the death penalty effective as a detriment to violent crime? 
• Should the government have a say in our diets by law?
• Are beauty pageants exploitive, what messages do they give about women?
• Is global climate change really as bad as they say or just a political power play?
• Should cigarette smoking be banned, how about alcohol?
• Are some religions more right than others are?
• Should we hold politicians to higher standards of moral conduct than others?
• Is communism the answer to economic disparity?
• Should children be allowed on-line?
• Are law enforcement cameras an invasion of privacy?

These are just a few among the many many argumentative topics you might choose but they give you a good idea of the kind of topic you want. Chances are pretty good that you reacted to each of these topics with a degree of emotion. That’s the key!