The complexity of an essay writing task depends on the topic. Contrary to popular belief, it’s less challenging to write about controversial topics because these are amply discussed and debated in society. Not only that they evoke a strong opinion in almost anyone, but they allow you to employ your critical thinking skills and establish your own values and principles.
It is arguable whether your choice to defend an issue should depend on your real personal beliefs. When faced with a controversial topic, it’s up to you whether to adopt a popular position and defend it or play devil’s advocate and attack it.
What Are Controversial Topics
Controversial topics include issues that spark fierce discussions and debates among individuals, groups of people, or society at large. Generally, they bring to the surface many different points of view. If you want to learn how to write about controversial topics effectively by demonstrating your analytical skills and supporting your position with strong arguments, you must first learn to identify what a controversial topic is.
According to the most debated issues of the moment in mainstream media, this is a list of the most controversial topics you can refer to:
Domestic Violence
One of the most common spread controversial topics in society is domestic violence. The reason is that this severe issue can take many different forms and affect people regardless of gender, education, location, age, or income. What makes this topic so complex is that statistics about its prevalence in all types of households are inaccurate because people don’t report incidents of violence and abuse in their families.
Everyone can be a victim of domestic assault, and there’s a fine line between a moment of anger that sparks conflict and an act of violence that a court will describe as an actual crime. If you want to write an argumentative essay on domestic violence, you must establish the different levels of abuse and what is a good proof that domestic violence occurs in a household.
An essay on domestic violence can refer to the psychology and typology of the victims, cultural and religious differences in the approach to domestic abuse, domestic violence laws and media coverage, and many others. Before sitting down to write, choose a narrower subject within the larger topic of domestic violence, and establish your position, which you can then sustain with a series of arguments.
Vaccines
In recent years, vaccines have become one of the most widespread topics of contention, paradoxically in developed countries. Most doctors and health specialists agree that vaccines are crucial for fighting off preventive diseases and thus save lives and guard the general health of a large community of people.
The controversy has been sparked in the past decade by people who view vaccines as causing autism and other serious conditions due to their dangerous side effects, which are kept hidden from public view. Writing an essay about these issues can be a rewarding choice for a topic as there is plenty of research to back up your arguments with. The challenge is reading through the torrents of fake knowledge and finding reputable sources of information.
If you want to write about such a contradictory topic, you can focus on elements such as parental responsibility regarding children’s health, people’s tendency to dismiss scientific research and embrace esoteric and alternative sources of information, or recent outbreaks of preventable diseases like measles among children in developed nations.
Abortion
There is no other controversial topic that engages so many different groups of people with different religious, cultural, and political backgrounds than abortion. At the core of this issue lay several fundamental disagreements that various societies and nations have solved in different ways. The disagreements are about whether a woman should be allowed to terminate a pregnancy and thus ignore a fetus’s right to life.
The topic of abortion has separated people on two opposite sides. On one side, there are those who identify as pro-choice, meaning they accept that the government should have no say in what a woman decides to do with her body. On the other side are those who identify as pro-life and who see abortion as a crime and moral sin that should be banned by the government.
If you choose the topic of abortion for your essay, you should first establish, according to your personal values and research, what side you prefer to defend or attack. Do you believe that abortion is a personal choice? Do you agree that the government should create legal difficulties for those who decide to go through a pregnancy termination?
Thorough research will reveal what are the consequences when in a society, one of the two sides wins the debate over this topic and legislation follows suit. You can explore how this topic has been settled in various countries and how this correlates with economic development, religious freedom, political systems, and more. Narrowing down your arguments to a specific subject and focusing on key-related issues will keep your essay cohesive.
Other Controversial Topics to Write About
The range of controversial topics to write about is big enough to allow you to choose an issue that speaks most to you. Writing about something that interests you, you’ll make your essay seem much more personal and convincing. Maybe you have a strong opinion about one of these following topics.
- Gun Control
- Climate Change
- Same-sex marriage
- Marijuana Legalization
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Depending on your interests regarding religion, science, national legislation, or geopolitics, writing about a controversial topic in these areas can prove a rewarding challenge for an essay assignment. Look up for more topics here.
