English 1010

Topics for Argumentative Research Paper

Ideally, you should choose a topic that interests you or a topic with which you have some (or a lot of!) experience. It’s much easier to address specific research issues when you either know the topic or have the interest to spend weekends and nights reading about it.

You have two choices for how you approach this assignment: You may present your argument as a problem and solution, or you may argue a position.

Choose a topic from the list below. You will need to narrow your topic (the parenthetical information provides possible options, but you may have another idea), and create a research question which will become your working thesis.

• Immigration reform (DACA, family separation policies, legal v. illegal pathways to

residency and/or citizenship)

• Election reform (electoral college and/or voting system)

• Healthcare reform

• Prison reform (state prisons, for-profit prisons, restoration of felons’ voting rights)

• Global climate reform (reduction of fossil fuel use, use of alternative energy sources)

• Sustainable urban development (economically, ecologically, or both)

• Affordable housing reform

• Education reform (abolishing standardized testing, free community college, college

admissions policies)

• Income reform (basic minimum income, minimum wage increase)

• Proposals to end gun violence in US

• Regulating Government use of technology to gather information and/or surveillance

(privacy concerns and/or the rights of the individual versus the greater good)

• Police reform

• Civil Rights reform (racial or ethnic minority, women, LGBTQ--as a group or any one of

these)