Any one of the 40 statements below may be either defended or attacked in an argumentative

essay or speech.

Forty Topic Suggestions: Argument and Persuasion

1. Dieting makes people fat.
2. Romantic love is a poor basis for marriage.
3. The war on terror has contributed to the growing abuse of human rights.
4. High school graduates should take a year off before entering college.
5. All citizens should be required by law to vote.
6. All forms of government welfare should be abolished.
7. Both parents should assume equal responsibility in raising a child.
8. Americans should have more holidays and longer vacations.
9. Participating in team sports helps to develop good character.
10. The production and sale of cigarettes should be made illegal.
11. People have become overly dependent on technology.
12. Censorship is sometimes justified.
13. Privacy is not the most important right.
14. Drunk drivers should be imprisoned on the first offense.
15. The lost art of letter-writing deserves to be revived.
16. Government and military personnel should have the right to strike.
17. Most study-abroad programs should be renamed "party abroad": they are a waste of
time and money
18. The continuing decline of CD sales along with the rapid growth of music downloads
signals a new era of innovation in popular music.
19. College students should have complete freedom to choose their own courses.
20. The solution to the impending crisis in Social Security is the immediate elimination of
this anachronistic government program.

21. The primary mission of colleges and universities should be preparing students for the
workforce.
22. Financial incentives should be offered to high school students who perform well on
standardized tests.
23. All students in high school and college should be required to take at least two years of
a foreign language.
24. College students in the U.S. should be offered financial incentives to graduate in three
years rather than four.
25. College athletes should be exempted from regular class-attendance policies.
26. To encourage healthy eating, higher taxes should be imposed on soft drinks and junk
food.
27. Students should not be required to take physical education courses.
28. To conserve fuel and save lives, the 55 miles-per-hour national speed limit should be
restored.
29. All citizens under the age of 21 should be required to pass a driving education course
before receiving a license to drive.
30. Any student caught cheating on an examination should be automatically dismissed
from college.

31. Freshmen should not be required to purchase a meal plan from the college.
32. Zoos are internment camps for animals and should be shut down.
33. University students should not be penalized for illegally downloading music, movies,
or other protected content.
34. Government financial aid for students should be based solely on merit.
35. Nontraditional students should be exempted from regular class-attendance policies.
36. At the end of each term, student evaluations of faculty should be posted online.
37. A student organization should be formed to rescue and care for the feral cats on
campus.
38. People who contribute to Social Security should have the right to choose how their
money is invested.

39. Professional baseball players convicted of using performance-enhancing drugs should

not be considered for induction into the Hall of Fame.
40. Any citizen who does not have a criminal record should be permitted to carry a
concealed weapon.

Top 10 Argumentative Research Paper Topics

One of the best ways to make writing a research paper easier is to choose a topic that you are
passionate about. You have to be careful to remember that this is not an essay, so your
opinion is not given the weight in a paper as it is in essay form. You have to find the research
to prove that your opinion is the correct view of the topic. Make sure, in the course of the
paper, that you use your research to refute the opposing opinion on the topic. This will make
the support for your view even stronger. Here are the top 10 argumentative research paper
topics to choose from:
Topic # 10 Animal research

Is it ever necessary to use animals in research studies or does modern technology make them
obsolete for research?
Topic # 8 Is torture ever acceptable?

Make sure to look at the recent cases of inquiry into war crimes as well as past events. There
are also a lot of sociological studies that have examined this topic.
Topic # 7 Is a college degree necessary to success?

Before the recent global recession, a college degree was a common indicator of a higher
earning potential. Now, being an entrpeneur is showing more signs of guaranteeing financial
achievement. Does this make a college degree unnecessary for a career?
Topic # 6 Should military service be compulsory?

Some countries require all citizens to serve 2 years in the armed service before the age of 25,
some countries dont. Is it a practical and useful requirement?
Topic # 5 The effect of violence in entertainment on children.

Look toward research done with video games, movies and musical lyrics for more
information on this topic.
Topic # 4- The effect of illegal immigration on the social welfare system

Illegal immigrants are often allowed to receive benefits from a nations social welfare system,
such as access to public schooling and food relief. While this puts a burden on a nations
budget, is the tradeoff that there is a correlation between higher illegal immigration levels coexisting with lower crime rates worth providing access to these benefits?
Topic # 3 Do educational tests prove education standards are met?

Does the use of a nationwide exam system encourage an educational program of

memorization and pattern thinking, or does it serve to produce an educated populace that is

capable of meeting the critical thinking skills of the modern workforce? You should also
examine how scores are tired to funding and whether or not there can be a quantitative
assessment of performance for schools that may have varying demographics.
Topic # 2 Is global warming manmade?

Stay away from the question, Does global warming exist? While that may be a political
argument topic, scientific findings do support it exists, the debate is over whether it is manmade or not.
Topic # 1 Is the Death Penalty a viable sentence in todays penal
system?

On this topic make sure to balance the economic cost of the sentence of the death penalty,
from the declaration of a capital trial through appeals to the cost of the actual execution. You
will also want to address the recent DNA findings that have proven innocent people have
been executed and/or are on death row and how that statistically plays into your view.