Choosing The Best Controversial Essay Topics: Tips & Examples


If you need some ideas for your controversial essay topic, there are some things you should consider before deciding. Here are my top tips and examples:

What’s required of this assignment?

So what is a controversial essay topic? Well, they are strong, fiery and outspoken works- so if you choose a subject that you’re passionate about, this will certainly come across to the reader.

This type of paper looks at a burning issue of the present day; one that is discussed in the media and is well known. Here are the sorts of issues discussed:

Your paper should stick to the facts and fairly represent various standpoints on the issue at hand. You can direct your own passion into the topic by quoting sources that back up your own feelings, but always try to be objective.

Choose a strong subject.

To select the best subjects, you shouldn’t only take your own interest in the subject into account, as valuable as that is. These are hot issues up for discussion here, so the more you can find a subject that always creates strong debates whenever it’s brought up, the more you’ll be on to a winner.

Find examples

It’s always a good idea to study other controversial essays to get a good idea of what subjects work best and how to tackle them. If you go to your campus library, you’ll be able to find plenty of past student papers, as well as samples in books and academic magazines. If you can’t find what you’re after, then just ask the librarian to show you.

You’ll also be able to find plenty of samples online (and remember, if you don’t have internet access at home, you can always use it for free at libraries). When looking online, make sure you’re looking at reputable sites- the last thing you want is to be stuck studying a bad example to base your work on! There are plenty of not for profit and educational websites that will offer free samples of papers, so just make sure you’re looking in the right place!

Think carefully!

As much as you need to pick a well-known subject which always creates heated debate, you don’t want to just write a paper repeating the same old themes and arguments. The more specific you can be about your subject, or the more you look at it from a unique angle, perhaps providing quotes and references that aren’t the usual churned out ones, the better your paper will be.