Argumentative Research Paper Topics
Ethical Dilemmas
§ Zoos are internment camps for animals and should be shut down.
§ Surrogacy should be illegal.
§ All countries should abandon nuclear weapons.
§ Companies using animal testing should pay higher taxes.
§ Only victims of accidents can use plastic surgery.
§ Professional actors shouldn't be allowed to play poker.
§ Leather and fur clothes should be outlawed.
§ Teens should have access to birth control pills.
§ Politics and church should be separate.
§ News writers should never distort the truth to astonish audiences.
Personal Relations
§ Empathy should be taught at school.
§ Humor is the best way to resolve conflicts.
§ Social life is more important than academics.
§ Parents should become their kids' best friends.
§ Smoking doesn't help make acquaintances.
§ Internet kills communication.
§ Codependency is the key to a happy family life.
§ The first impression of a person is always right.
§ Effective listening is more important than talking.
§ Conflicts are necessary for healthy relationships.
Business Communication
§ All is fair in love, war and business.
§ Companies can refuse to hire candidates who smoke.
§ Team building exercises improve employees' productivity.
§ Brainstorming helps boost company's performance.
§ Companies shouldn't copy competitors' strategies.
§ Leaving a company to work for a competitor is unethical.
§ Customers' critique is the best way to improvement.
§ Inclusive corporate culture increases employees' motivation.
§ Dress code is unnecessary for office employees.
§ Diagonal communication is critical for company's performance.
§ Should the government provide bailouts for companies that go bankrupt?
§ Should small towns with many local businesses allow big corporations (e.g., WalMart) in also?
§ Does it take a college degree to get a well paying job?
International Economy
§ Outsourcing IT departments is ineffective.
§ Innovations should be used carefully.
§ Small towns with local businesses shouldn't let big corporations (IKEA) in.
§ Governments shouldn't give bailouts to bankrupt businesses.
§ All businesses should have pages on social networks.
§ MBA degree doesn't guarantee business success.
§ All businesses should go green.
§ SOPA and PIPA can't stop online piracy.
§ Poor leadership is the main cause of business bankruptcy.
§ Energy drinks are a promising business niche.
§ China is a new economic superpower.
§ English should remain an international language for business.
§ Outsourcing call centers to India cuts costs but reduces the quality of services.
§ The European debt crisis can affect US small businesses.
§ All countries should use the same currency.
§ The European crisis shows that globalization is a bad idea.
§ The International Monetary Fund (IMF) shouldn't give loans to economically challenged countries.
§ The Poverty Reduction and Growth program from IMF and World Bank is ineffective.
§ The immediate debt cancellation for the poorest countries is unjust.
§ Greece won't leave the eurozone.
Management
§ HR mangers shouldn't use lie detectors at job interviews.
§ Applicants shouldn't be judged by their social network profiles.
§ Companies shouldn't block social networks in the offices.
§ Regular official training is necessary for all industries.
§ Non-monetary motivation can be effective for employee retention.
§ Staff turnover is bad for the company's revenues.
§ Entry-level employees bring young energy to companies.
§ Law should protect trade secrets.
§ Delegating responsibilities is the key to effective management.
§ Steve Jobs' genius is the top reason of Apple's success.
Marketing/Advertising
§ Social media is a cheap but effective advertizing channel.
§ Subliminal messages in advertizing aren't effective anymore.
§ Customer feedback is the key to improvement.
§ How do certain kinds of advertising perpetuate gender, racial, or religious stereotypes?
§ How do certain kinds of advertising make claims of patriotic values?
§ How do mass marketing and manufacturing affect originality and creativity in the arts and other fields?
§ Does the American consumerist society conflict with democratic values? In what ways?
§ How does advertising treat convenience as necessity?
§ Are certain kinds of advertising unethical?
§ Should product placement in television, film, and other media be controlled?
§ Should product advertising and selling be permitted in public schools?
§ Should communities retain the naming rights to baseball parks and football stadiums, or should businesses be allowed to purchase these rights?
§ Does the modeling industry bear any responsibility to provide healthy, realistic physical role models for young women?
§ Is the use of sexual imagery in ad campaigns unethical?
§ Should tobacco and liquor advertising be allowed on television?
§ Should all billboard advertising of alcohol be banned?
§ Should tobacco and alcohol companies be allowed to use ad campaigns that could be considered child-friendly?
§ Why are alcohol companies now allowed to advertise on television under certain conditions (after primetime, with responsible drinking messages in some ads, etc.)?
§ Humor is the only way for ads to reach spectators' hearts.
§ Brand loyalty can't compete with special offers and sales.
§ Push marketing strategy is obsolete.
§ Direct sales letters are always perceived as spam.
§ Old price/new price tricks will always be effective.
§ Positive branding is central to business success.
§ Companies shouldn't send annoying happy birthday messages to their clients.
Languages
§ The structure of the language affects the way in which native speakers perceive the world.
§ Jargon is caused by speakers' laziness, not language evolution.
§ Google's auto-complete function uses negative stereotypes.
§ Metaphors have the power of controlling people's minds.
§ Social media networks are a strong engine of change in the arena of typed conversation.
§ The prevalence of same-sex marriages requires reconsideration of dictionary definitions of traditional concepts of "marriage" and inclusion of new words, such as "widower", for example.
§ Stronger taboos against swear words can make people' cursing more creative.
§ A simplified phonetic language system can help language students speak their target language.
§ Complimenting colleagues’ looks is language sexism.
§ Telling jokes or declaring love in a foreign language is easier to multilinguals.
Education
§ All K - 12 public schools should adopt a school uniform policy.
§ The classroom size of grades K through 5 statewide should be set at a maximum of 20 students.
§ Children should not be exposed to computer technology until late in the education process [which year?] because computers often distract young learners from learning the basics, or have the basics done for them by computers.
§ Home schooling provides an exceptional education under controlled circumstances. Nevertheless, I would advocate that every American child should receive at least two years of public schooling before graduating from high school.
We should implement a public school voucher system in PA.
§ Students should not be required to take physical education courses.
§ Any student caught cheating on an examination should be automatically dismissed from college.
§ Freshmen should not be required to purchase a meal plan from the college.
§ University students should not be penalized for illegally downloading music, movies, or other protected content.
§ Government financial aid for students should be based solely on merit.
§ Nontraditional students should be exempted from regular class-attendance policies.
§ At the end of each term, student evaluations of faculty should be posted online.
§ College students should have complete freedom to choose their own courses.
§ The primary mission of colleges and universities should be preparing students for the workforce.
§ Financial incentives should be offered to high school students who perform well on standardized tests.
§ All students in high school and college should be required to take at least two years of a foreign language.
§ College students in the U.S. should be offered financial incentives to graduate in three years rather than four.
§ College athletes should be exempted from regular class-attendance policies.
§ Parents should allow kids draw on walls.
§ Students should be able to choose teachers.
§ Video games should be used in class.
§ Homeschooling is more effective than public schools.
§ Online courses won't kill traditional universities.
§ Teaching handwriting isn't important anymore.
§ Grades don't indicate either intelligence or effort.
§ College classes should start later.
§ Teachers should be allowed to possess guns during school hours.
§ Schools have no right to search students' lockers.
§ Testing to Improve Educational Standards
School Choice - charter schools & vouchers
Intercollegiate Athletics and Ethics
§ Cyberschool versus “brick and mortar” schools
§ Public schools versus private schools
§ Corporal punishment in schools should be banned.
§ Schools need more anti-bullying programs.
§ Home schooling deprives kids of important social experiences.
§ Religion shouldn't be included in school curriculum.
§ Video camera surveillance in schools violates students' rights.
§ Fund raising in schools should be banned.
§ Should college be for everyone? Does going to college guarantee a job? What happens to the individuals that are not college material?
§ Should students who receive financial aid be required to go to school full-time?
§ Should college grads get a break on student loans?
§ Student debt, Fool’s Gold? Is it worth putting yourself in a financial hole that you might never get out of?
§ College degrees without going to class. How effective are they?
§ Should college be for everyone?
§ Should Home-Schooled kids play sports for high school teams?
§ Will women get ahead by going back to school?
§ Are teachers overpaid?
§ Should the school day be longer?
§ Do we spend too much time and money on education?
§ Woman’s Choices: School vs. Children
§ Can Young Students learn from online classes?
§ Should College Grads Get a Break on their loans?
§ What are the benefits of recess?
§ Teachers shouldn't encourage school snitches (those who report classmates for a certain reward).
§ Schools should place more emphasis on sports instead of academics.
§ Is standardized state or national testing (such as the FCAT or SAT) helping or hurting American schools?
§ Is the current system of public school funding (primarily through property taxes) unfair? Does it contribute to inequality in the public school system?
§ Should tracking be used in determining courses for public school children?
§ Should magnet and charter schools be encouraged or discouraged?
§ Should the system of busing students to school be amended?
§ Should local school districts be redrawn to create schools that are more equal?
§ Should federal school vouchers be used at religious schools? How does the separation of church and state apply to this issue?
§ Consider the needs of a teacher's salary vs. the realities of the funding schools now have. Argue for a change in education budget allocation.
§ Do teachers in classrooms of thirty or forty children accomplish their intended tasks as educators? Should they be expected to?
§ Some standardized tests scores factor in to how much money a school will receive in the next fiscal year. Is this an ethical way to demand accountability from a school, or does this further punish lower-performing schools?
§ Consider the benefits and drawbacks of a home-school education vs. a public school education.
§ Conservatives, liberals, and radicals all have different ideas about the purposes of a public education. Research several perspectives and argue for or against a particular viewpoint.
§ How necessary are the arts in the public school system? Argue for or against a change in funding for a particular district.
Law/Legislation
§ We should use death row inmates as subjects for medical testing rather than animals.
§ Drivers who are over 70 years old must pass an annual test for eyesight and physical ability before they can renew their driver's license.
§ We should not lower any physical requirement guidelines so that women may be admitted in the military [or fire or police departments].
§ Gay marriage should be legally recognized nationwide so that tax and insurance benefits apply equally among all states.
§ There should be no drug testing in the workplace because this violates our privacy rights.
§ We should implement immigration reform to provide those immigrants already here but not yet legal with a path to citizenship.
§ The war on terror has contributed to the growing abuse of human rights.
§ All forms of government welfare should be abolished.
§ The solution to the impending crisis in Social Security is the immediate elimination of this anachronistic government program.
§ Government and military personnel should have the right to strike.
§ To encourage healthy eating, higher taxes should be imposed on soft drinks and junk food.
§ To conserve fuel and save lives, the 55 miles-per-hour national speed limit should be restored.
§ All citizens under the age of 21 should be required to pass a driving education course before receiving a license to drive.
§ People who contribute to Social Security should have the right to choose how their money is invested.
§ Any citizen who does not have a criminal record should be permitted to carry a concealed weapon.
§ Excess weight fees in airplanes should be banned.
§ Parents' consent isn't necessary for giving teens birth control pills.
§ Mailing any materials that refer to the topic of abortion should be prohibited.
§ Drivers shouldn't be allowed to toot car horns unless it's a case of emergency.
§ Castle doctrine: homeowners can use guns if they feel threatened in their homes.
§ Citizens under the age of 21 shouldn't be allowed to carry guns.
§ The Confederate flag shouldn't flow on any public property in the US.
§ Police should be allowed to confiscate the vehicles of unlicensed drivers.
§ Minors under the age of 18 shouldn't be allowed to use tanning beds.
§ Police shouldn't be allowed to search a cell phone of anyone they arrest without a warrant.
History
§ Western museums should repatriate artifacts to the countries of their origin.