Essay writing is a significant part of school and college education. Students are taught to write different types of essays during their academic life. There are four different categories of essay writing, including argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive essays. Of these four categories, the most interesting is the argumentative essay. These essays not only spark a student’s interest but also offer plenty of room for persuasive writing. Although these essays are interesting, they cannot stand out without engaging argumentative essay topics. So, we can say that choosing controversial or hot topics for argumentative essays is the right approach for grabbing readers’ attention. Due to such topics, readers will look at a certain subject with a new perspective and deduce new opinions.
In this article, we have shared more than a hundred topics for argumentative essays. The topics on this list are free for students to use in their college essays or use as inspiration to find out the right topic.
What is an Argumentative Essay?
An argumentative essay is a genre of essay writing. It requires investigation about a topic to collect and evaluate evidence and establish a position in favor of or against the topic in a brief manner.
Generally, argumentative essays are written on controversial topics because it is easier to take a strong stand against or in favor of the topic. However, it is not essential for the student to actually agree or disagree with the stance they take while writing about a topic. While writing a winning argumentative essay, they should focus on making logical and solid arguments. Moreover, these arguments must be backed up by credible sources; so, extensive research is required.
100+ Argumentative Essay Topics
Generally, argumentative essay topics revolve around subjects like the following:
- Should abortion be illegal?
- Should animal testing be criminalized?
- Metoo movement: Good or Bad?
- Should human trafficking be stopped?
- Death penalty: A just punishment or not?
- Should genetic cloning be illegal?
- Should illegal immigrants be deported?
- Fake news: A blessing or a curse?
- Social media: A blessing or a curse?
- Should factories be built in residential areas?
Now, we will share some academic-level and subject-specific essay topics below.
Argumentative Essay Topics: Elementary School Level
The following topics are suitable for writing argumentative essays at the elementary school level:
- Should there be commercials in children’s educational programs?
- Do schools treat boys and girls the same way?
- Should schools start before eight o’clock in the morning?
- Should kids have the same teacher every year?
- Are schools doing enough to stop bullying?
- Should video games be a sport?
- Should kids have homework on weekends?
- Is it better for kids to have e-learning or be in school?
- Should school lunch include fast food items?
- Should parents limit screen time?
Argumentative Essay Topics: Middle School Level
The following topics are suitable for writing argumentative essays at the middle school level:
- Should middle school students have jobs like babysitting or mowing lawns?
- Do middle school students have too much homework?
- Is it better to ride the bus or walk to school?
- Do students require gym class?
- Should kids read age-appropriate books, or is it okay to read grown-up books?
- Is school lunch good for kids?
- Are violent video games bad for middle school students?
- Is it better to have online classes or in-person classes?
- Is cyberbullying worse than in-person bullying?
- Should middle school students get paid for getting good grades?
Argumentative Essay Topics: High School Level
The following topics are suitable for writing argumentative essays at the high school level:
- Are women and men treated equally in our society?
- Should governments raise the minimum wage?
- Is climate change a real threat?
- Do a country’s leader’s actions influence the actions of its people?
- Should every student go to college?
- Should parents decide whether they want medical treatment for their kids?
- Do social media affect real-life relationships?
- Should high school students work during the school year?
- Should it be mandatory for schools to offer art courses?
- Is artificial intelligence beneficial or harmful for the world?
Argumentative Essay Topics: College Level
The following topics are suitable for writing argumentative essays at the college level:
- Are printed books better than e-readers?
- Are all college majors equally important?
- Has technology changed our definition of magic?
- Should all internships be paid?
- Is it worth exploring space?
- Do anti-discrimination laws do enough to protect disabled students?
- Are all people entitled to free health care?
- Are online college degrees as legitimate as a degree from a brick-and-mortar school?
- Is climate change the most serious threat to the world?
- Is feminism still important?
Political Argumentative Essay Topics
The following topics are suitable for writing an argumentative essay about politics:
- Is war always a political decision?
- Is capitalism the best economic system?
- Should a politician be merciful or cruel?
- People’s privacy or national security: What’s more important?
- War or diplomacy: What’s more effective?
- Can we completely overcome corruption?
- Do revolutions cause more harm than good?
- Are nuclear weapons a crucial need for countries?
- Is socialism the best economic system?
- Should the governments increase restrictions when it comes to gun control?
Social and Cultural Argumentative Essay Topics
The following topics are suitable for writing an argumentative essay about society and culture:
- Is healthcare a basic human right?
- Should TV censor explicit content to produce family-friendly programming?
- Do social media draw us together or pull us apart?
- Should governments legalize the possession of drugs like marijuana?
- Should a terminally ill patient be able to request medically-assisted suicide?
- Equality is part of lawmaking, but does it work in practice?
- Should smoking be illegal?
- Should people have the right to own a gun?
- Do new standards destroy cultural heritage in countries?
- Does the death of civilization speed up technological progress?
Artificial Intelligence Argumentative Essay Topics
The following topics are suitable for writing an argumentative essay about Artificial Intelligence:
- Are developments in the field of artificial intelligence significant for mankind?
- Will artificial intelligence be able to control an individual’s mind?
- Will robots have emotions?
- Is artificial intelligence evolving rapidly?
- Will robots replace humans in every profession?
- Are robots different from artificial intelligence machines?
- Will humans regret developing robots?
- Does humanity need an artificial intellect?
- Will synthetic people become a part of daily routine soon?
- Will artificial intelligence substitute the attention to internet resources?
In a Nutshell
Writing argumentative essays is interesting because they allow students to take a firm stance against or in favor of the topic. Besides taking a stance in favor of the topic, students also provide counter-arguments to make their argument more solid. Our list of argumentative essay topic serves as a starting point for choosing the right topic for your essay. Students can choose a topic from the above list of 100+ topics or they can use these topics to serve as inspiration for producing a brand-new topic. So, skim through our list, choose a topic, write a killer argumentative essay, and score the highest in your class. You can also use these topics for argumentative speeches and win competitions.
