Tips And Tricks For Finding Good Persuasive Essay Topics For High School
In a persuasive essay, you are going to need to take a stance: you’re either for something, or against it. What sorts of topics are appropriate for a persuasive essay? How do you find the topic that will get you that A grade? Keep these tips in mind while you are starting the process of choosing a topic for your paper!
- Make it something you actually care about. When you actually care about an issue, and already know your stance and your reasons, you paper will almost write itself! Don’t worry if you think the topic is too controversial, or that your teacher will disagree with your stance. They are looking for how well you can write about the topic, and how well you support your opinion – it’s their job as teachers to ignore their own biases!
- Choose something important. You may have very compelling evidence for or against your mom’s new haircut, the way the person next to you smells, or the car that’s parked across two spaces in the parking lot. But, of course, that’s not quite what your teacher means when he assigns you a persuasive essay! The topic you choose to write about should be something important, something that matters to the whole world, not just you.
- Make sure that your reasons can be backed up. Once you think you have a topic to write about, make sure that you can provide evidence that supports your reasoning. You’ll want to break down every claim you make, and back it up with examples and, possibly, research. A persuasive essay isn’t a personal essay! You can include your own opinions, but make sure you provide lots of evidence. Remember, you don’t want to use any “I” statements in your paper, so sentences should never start with “I believe” or “I think”. Instead, state everything like a fact, then make sure you include the logic behind the statement. Not all of your evidence needs to come from outside sources, unless it is a research paper, but they always help! If you find that you can’t quite explain why you feel the way you do about a topic, and can’t find any good examples or research that prove your reasoning, it might be time to move on to another option.
Here are some good examples of persuasive essay topics:
- Women having access to birth control under Obamacare
- Hunting as a sport
- Whether or not voting matters
- Allowing immigrant children to attend public schools
- The death penalty
- The drinking age
- Gay marriage
- “Trickle down” economics
- Fracking
- Public nudity
