Wooden Desk

Top 25 Controversial Topics For Your Next College Essay


When you have to write a persuasive or argumentative essay, you want to use a controversial topic. Both of these essay types work out best when you are using a controversial topic because they have clearly defined sides of the issues. They usually have supporters that favor the issue and some opposition that rejects the issue. You can choose your side of one of these issues below and write your paper on the side you choose.

If you are writing a persuasive essay, you want to persuade your audience to believe your side. If you are writing an argumentative essay, you have to present the evidence for one side of the other without presenting your own opinion in the matter.

Top 25 Controversial Topics


  1. Euthanasia
  2. Abortion
  3. Animal Testing
  4. Animal Cloning
  5. Stem Cell Research
  6. Same Sex Marriage
  7. Recreational Legalization of Marijuana
  8. Cell phone use in school
  9. Death Penalty
  10. Killing animals for their fur
  11. Religion in school
  12. Plastic surgery
  13. Homework in school
  14. School uniforms
  15. Global warming
  16. Healthcare reform
  17. Plastic surgery
  18. Illiteracy
  19. Estate tax
  20. Gun control
  21. Internet censorship
  22. Homeschooling
  23. Racial profiling
  24. Social security
  25. Welfare

When you are choosing your topic, be sure to choose something that you are interested in and make sure that you have a strong opinion for one side or the other. You want to choose a topic that you don’t sit the fence on. If you think that the topic should be allowed sometimes, then choose a different topic. It has to be completely black and white to you.

After you choose your topic, you can start researching for reasons to support it. You should try and choose three reasons to support your stand. Each one of the reasons will be presented in its own paragraph in your essay.

Create your thesis statement and then complete an outline. Your thesis statement is going to be the main point of the essay. It should say something like “homeschooling is damaging to students because they don’t receive instruction from a professional, they lack social interaction, and they don’t study for as many hours”. Now, you just have to set out to prove it. Good luck. I hope you found a topic on this list that works for you.