What is a good, academically appropriate topic for an argumentative essay?

Answer 1

That depends on the grade level and the parameters given by the instructor. If it is for college, you want something relevant to the present issues in any field. You may do something political, sociological, or from another type of discpline. Presently, I am working on a paper discussing Henry George's theories on land ownership and taxation for a Microeconomics course at the gradute level. As a college freshman, my daughter did one about the Patriot Act, narrowing her argument to the wiretapping controversy.

One might write an essay comparing pieces of literature, using references from literary critics.

The bottom line is to find an idea that interests YOU, because the paper will not interest someone else if it doesn't interest you.

You can pick just about any controversial issue in society and form an argument (which is giving reasons for believing what you do as opposed to fighting about it). Here's some thoughts:

Is the earth really being destroyed because of the ozone layer thing?

Are dogs really man's best friend?

How many slaves were freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation? Was the Civil War really about slavery?

Should America have English as the official language? Should schools be bilingual?

Should a huge fence be built to keep out illegal immigrants? Will it do any good?

There's a few thoughts for you. There are so many things you could choose to write. Pick something that matters to YOU! That way you will put some passion into the writing and it will come out much better.

Good Luck!
Sue

Answer 2

I wrote an essay about global political atmospheres and how they have changed back and forth from conservative to liberal in the 20th century, starting with the Russian Revolution. I claimed that they change every 20 years or so like clockwork with a short transition period between them. It got an A and when I proposed the thesis in class for it to be refuted by classmates they spent 20 minutes trying to refute it with counter arguments.

Answer 3

well you have all the big simple 1s like abortion, death penitaly, war in iraq, and so on , then u could go race relations, or smoking,or just about anything my last essay was on race relations good subject but pick something you have a strong feeling toward and go from there.