Argumentative Essay Topics on Technology and Social Media

1. Are the Web Filters at Your School Too Restrictive?
2. Does Technology Make Us More Alone?
3. Are You Distracted by Technology?
4. Do Apps Help You or Just Waste Your Time?
5. Do You Spend Too Much Time on Smart Phones Playing ‘Stupid Games’?
6. Has Facebook Lost Its Edge?
7. Does Facebook Ever Make You Feel Bad?
8. Should What You Say on Facebook Be Grounds for Getting Fired?
9. Should People Be Allowed to Obscure Their Identities Online
10. Is Online Learning as Good as Face-to-Face Learning?
11. Do Your Teachers Use Technology Well?
12. Should Tablet Computers Become the Primary Way Students Learn in Class?
13. Can Cellphones Be Educational Tools?
14. Should Computer Games Be Used for Classroom Instruction?
15. How Young Is Too Young for an iPhone?
16. Should Companies Collect Information About You?
17. Would You Trade Your Paper Books for Digital Versions?
18. Are Digital Photographs Too Plentiful to Be Meaningful?
19. Do You Worry We Are Filming Too Much?
20. Would You Want a Pair of Google’s Computer Glasses?
21. How Would You Feel About a Computer Grading Your Essays?
22. What Role Will Robots Play in Our Future?
23. How Many Text Messages Are Too Many?
24. How Much Do You Trust Online Reviews?

Argumentative Essay Topics On Education

1. Is Cheating Getting Worse?
2. Should Students Be Able to Grade Their Teachers?
3. Does Your School Hand Out Too Many A’s?
4. Should Middle School Students Be Drug Tested?
5. Should Reading and Math Be Taught in Gym Class Too?
6. How Seriously Should We Take Standardized Tests?
7. How Well Do You Think Standardized Tests Measure Your Abilities?
8. Do You Spend Too Much Time Preparing for Standardized Tests?
9. Should Schools Offer Cash Bonuses for Good Test Scores?
10. Should We Rethink How Long Students Spend in High School?
11. Do Schools Provide Students With Enough Opportunities to Be Creative?
12. What Are You Really Learning at School?
13. How Important Is Arts Education?
14. Does Gym Help Students Perform Better in All Their Classes?
15. Who Should Be Able to See Students’ Records?
16. Are Children of Illegal Immigrants Entitled to a Public Education?
17. What Is the Right Amount of Group Work in School?
18. Is Your School Day Too Short?
19. Do You Think a Longer School Calendar Is a Good Idea?
20. Should the Dropout Age Be Raised?
21. Should Students Be Allowed to Skip Senior Year of High School?
22. How Does Your School Deal With Students Who Misbehave?
23. Should Schools Be Allowed to Use Corporal Punishment?
24. How Big a Problem Is Bullying or Cyberbullying in Your School or Community?
25. How Should Schools Address Bullying?
26. Should Schools Put Tracking Devices in Students’ ID Cards?
27. What Do You Think of Grouping Students by Ability in Schools?
28. Do We Need a New Way to Teach Math?
29. Does Class Size Matter?
30. Should All Students Get Equal Space in a Yearbook?
31. Is Prom Worth It?
32. How Important Are Parent-Teacher Conferences?
33. Should All Children Be Able to Go to Preschool?
34. Should Colleges Use Admissions Criteria Other Than SAT Scores and Grades?
35. What Criteria Should Be Used in Awarding Scholarships for College?
36. Do You Support Affirmative Action?
37. Do College Rankings Matter?
38. How Necessary Is a College Education?
39. Should Engineers Pay Less for College Than English Majors?

Argumentative Essay Topics on Sports and Athletics

1. If Football Is So Dangerous to Players, Should We Be Watching It?
2. Should Parents Let Their Children Play Football?
3. Should College Football Players Get Paid?
4. When Do Pranks Cross the Line to Become Bullying?
5. Has Baseball Lost Its Cool?
6. Are Some Youth Sports Too Intense?
7. Is It Offensive for Sports Teams to Use Native American Names and Mascots?
8. Where Should Colleges and Sports Teams Draw the Line in Selling Naming Rights?
9. Should Colleges Fund Wellness Programs Instead of Sports?
10. IsCheer-leadinga Sport?
11. How Big a Deal Is It That an N.B.A. Player Came Out as Gay?
12. Should There Be Stricter Rules About How Coaches Treat Their Players?
13. Should Athletes Who Dope Have to Forfeit Their Titles and Medals?
14. Should Sports Betting Be Legal Everywhere?
15. Should Home-Schoolers Be Allowed to Play Public School Sports?
16. Would You Want a Bike Share Program for Your Community?

Sample Argumentative Essay Topics On Health and fitness

1. should healthcare be considered a right?
2. Is the hybrid American Health care system sustainable or will it collapse back to the state it was at prior to the recent passing of laws?
3. Should Cosmetic surgery be covered by insurance?
4. should alternate medicines be covered by insurance?
5. Can mental health clinics be attached to American high schools?
6. What is the real cost of medicine, and why are health care costs so high in the first place?
7. Why do people go to other countries for health care?
8. How is the state of corruption in the Eastern European health care system affecting the healthcare decisions of patients?
9. Is male circumcision ethical?
10. Is female circumcision ethical?
11. Is the compensation financially for doctors too high, are they exploiting people in need of health care?
12. What everyday things can people do to avoid seeing a doctor?

Essay Writing Services Are Unethical And Must Be Banned In Academia

Plagiarism has evolved into much more than a simple copy-and-paste job. In the last decade, “essay mills”—companies that supply written works from critique papers to entire dissertations, with students comprising majority of customers—have become accessible enough to provide viable options to students struggling with coursework (Shahabuddin 2016). The process is simple: Go on a mill’s website, give the details of your assignment (and credit card), and a writer can whip up a piece decent enough to submit in class. Although it’s easy to compare this to freelance ghostwriting, the academic context makes the ethics behind essay writing services wholly different from the situation in the professional world. There may be a dose of instant gratification offered along with it, but the use of essay mills is a highly unethical practice that must be banned in academia.

Essays and papers are assigned in higher education to aid learning—such works develop numerous skills from communication to critical thinking—to provide a diagnostic medium, and to assess (Henderson 1980; Riddell 2015). However, it is undeniable that some students will have a harder time completing these than others. Not all students, for instance, are native English speakers. Others have to balance school with pressing responsibilities. Essay mills tend to play to these vulnerabilities, arguing that, as Daniel Dennehy, the chief operating officer of UK Essays, writes, “Accepting that the support students are seeking can be a huge benefit to them” (Dennehy 2016). While it is true that students who turn in ghostwritten essays are unburdened of the writing process, the long-term consequences involved are more dangerous than relieving. Students have been expelled for engaging in this form of “contract cheating”—and even if submissions slip through professors and plagiarism-detection software, the impact is just as deplorable (Jacks 2016). Regardless of the underlying reason, turning in work bought from an essay-writing service raises questions as to why students even enroll in universities if they were unwilling or unable to put in the work needed to achieve their educational goals.

By advertising with the allure of getting work off students’ shoulders, essay mills exploit students’ weaknesses instead of encouraging adaptation to the rigors of academia. University results are undermined as unmerited degrees are awarded to students who graduate scot-free. In turn, this results in career disruption and a loss of professional credibility as students choose not to develop the competencies that come with completing school work (Tauginienė & Jurkevičius 2017). The use of essay mills is especially abhorrent in college admissions, where universities are looking for pieces that don’t just show effective communication skills, but character and personality. Applicants with ghostwritten personal statements won’t be admitted for their fitness for the institution; instead, their application will be built upon another’s work and writing style. This poses additional dangers for them if admitted—when faced with a rigorous course load, they may, once again, turn to essay mills. After all, research has shown that contract cheating is generally a habitual behavior (Clarke & Lancaster 2006).

Still, essay mill supporters argue for the service’s ethicality because of its supposed provision of academic value through “model essays”. “Most universities do not offer any such provision, but this is the essence of our service: we simply help students who need additional guidance by connecting them with qualified academics,” again, Dennehy says (Kelly 2017). “We embrace working with university tutors and academics to create model questions and answers, a recognised learning tool that helps guide students to success.” There is nothing unethical about using a model essay to gain inspiration. However, the vast range of essay-writing companies show inconsistencies in two significant areas: the standard of writing produced, and how ethics and academic integrity are treated (Medway, Roper, & Gillooly 2018). Due to the first aspect, it is not guaranteed that any given essay mill can produce work worthy of being “modeled”. Neither can the use of these essays be controlled. In a 2017 study analyzing the behaviors of essay-writing companies based in the United Kingdom, researchers found that all the investigated websites provided disclaimers stating their essays were for “research purposes only” (Draper, Ibezim, & Newton 2017). Unfortunately, it was also found that thirty-one percent of these had “potentially misleading advertising” that contradicted their terms and conditions, encouraging the idea that students can use the essays for submission in class. While the increase in mill usage exposes weak points in universities’ operations and assessment design, Dennehy’s argument does nothing to reverse how many students worldwide see education as a series of business transactions rather than a learning experience.

Contract cheating has yet to explode into an epidemic, but universities and government mustn’t wait to take action against it. It’s time for professors to rethink their assessments, and for students to remember that the goal of education is not to pass, but to learn—even if that involves initially getting low marks in the process of improving. Academic success shouldn’t have to revolve around industries. Rather, it roots from grit, organization, and confidence to do one’s best despite setbacks. Frankly, you don’t need a ghostwriter to develop those.

Works Cited

Clarke, Robert, and Thomas Lancaster. “Eliminating the Successor to Plagiarism? Identifying the Usage of Contract Cheating Sites.” Proceedings of 2nd International Plagiarism Conference, Jan. 2006.

Draper, Michael J., et al. “Are Essay Mills Committing Fraud? An Analysis of Their Behaviours vs the 2006 Fraud Act (UK).” International Journal for Educational Integrity, vol. 13, no. 1, 2017, doi:10.1007/s40979-017-0014-5.

Dennehy, Daniel. “View from an ‘Essay Mill’: the Best Offer Legitimate Support for Struggling Students.”

Henderson, Euan S. “The Essay in Continuous Assessment.” Studies in Higher Education, vol. 5, 1980, pp. 197–203., doi:10.1080/03075078012331377226.

Kelly, Guy. “Inside the ‘Essay Mills’ Offering to Do Students’ Work for Them.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 12 Oct.

Medway, Dominic, et al. “Contract Cheating in UK Higher Education: A Covert Investigation of Essay Mills.” British Educational Research Journal, vol. 44, no. 3, 2018, pp. 393–418., doi:10.1002/berj.3335.

Riddell, Jessica. “Performance, Feedback, and Revision: Metacognitive Approaches to Undergraduate Essay Writing.” Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching, vol. 8, Dec. 2015, p. 79., doi:10.22329/celt.v8i0.4256

Shahabuddin, Syed. “Plagiarism in Academia.” International Journal of Teaching and Learning, vol. 21, 2009, pp. 353–359

Rhetorical Analysis Outline : Rhetorical Analysis Essay Outline

Rhetorical Analysis Outline (With Sample Rhetorical Analysis)

We will begin by saying what rhetorical analysis is NOT because many students end up writing the wrong thing when asked to write a rhetorical analysis.

A rhetorical analysis is NOT a summary of a literary work or scholarly article.

You are, instead, required to apply your critical reading skills in order to “break down” a text with the aim of articulating HOW the author writes, rather than WHAT they actually wrote.

To do this, you will need to analyze the rhetoric strategies (logos, ethos, pathos) the author uses to achieve his or her goal or purpose of writing their piece. Keep in mind that writers of different disciplines often use varying writing strategies in order to achieve their goals, such as to persuade, entertain or inform. So, a scientific article will be analyzed differently from a humanities text.

A rhetorical analysis should explore the writer’s goals, the techniques (or tools) used, examples of those techniques, and the effectiveness of those techniques.

When writing a rhetorical analysis, you are NOT saying whether or not you agree with the argument, but whether the approach used is successful.

Steps for Writing a Rhetorical Analysis

Step 1: Read the Text

The first step in writing a rhetorical analysis is to understand the text, its main arguments, and the thesis statement. You should also note the rhetoric features that the author uses.

Some of the questions that can help you with your analysis include:

• What is the thesis or overall argument that the author presents?
• What did the author choose to study and why?
• What is the writer’s purpose? Is it to inform, to persuade, or to criticize?
• Who is the author’s intended audience?
• How does the writer arrange his or her ideas? Chronologically?
• How does the writer use diction? (Word choice, arrangement, accuracy, is it formal, informal? Technical versus slang?)
• Does the writer use dialogue? Quotations? Why or what effect does it have?
• Are important terms repeated?
• What is the sentence structure of text? Are there fragments, run-ons? Is it declarative, imperative, and exclamatory? What effect does this have?
• Does the writer use punctuation to create an effect? Italics, underlining, parentheses?
• Which marks does the writer use, and when?
• Which rhetorical appeals does the author use? Whether logos, pathos, or ethos.

Step 2: Prepare an Outline for Your Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis Outline

1.0 Introduction

The introduction can be one or two paragraphs. Some of the things you can do in the introduction include:

• Summarizing the text: Write the name of the author and something about them to establish their credibility & authority. You should also state the genre, and title of work, and a phrase containing the major assertion (thesis statement) of the work.
• Writing about the Text’s Guiding Thesis: A statement of the author’s apparent purpose.
• Telling your readers who  the author is: e.g. Scholar, professor, and author, specializing in gender studies
• Telling your readers why the author has the right to write the subject: e.g. personal experience, field expert, etc.
• Telling your readers what the author’s motivation is
• A description of the intended audience and the relationship the author establishes with the audience

2.0 Body Paragraph #1:

• Topic sentence/transition: begin with a transition and topic sentence that reflects the first topic in the thesis
• Use quotes from the text to illustrate how the author uses appeals to ethos. When analyzing ethos, you are analyzing whether the rhetor is perceived by the audience as credible (or not).
• Analysis: explain how the quotes show the effective use of ethos, as noted in the thesis

3.0 Body Paragraph #2:

• Topic sentence/transition: Transition and topic sentence about the second point from the thesis
• Use quotes from the text that illustrates appeals to logos. Logos analyses whether the rhetor attempts to persuade the audience by the use of arguments that they will perceive as logical. Some of the strategies of making logical arguments that you can discuss include the use of analogy, cause, and effect, using testimony and authority, using definition, and syllogism.
• Analysis: more sentences that explain how the quotes show the effective use of logos, as noted in the thesis

4.0 Last Body Paragraph:

• Topic sentence/transition: Transition and topic sentence about the third point from the thesis
• Use quotes from the text to illustrate how the author appeals to pathos. When analyzing the use of pathos, check whether the author attempts to persuade the audience by making them feel certain emotions.
• Analysis: Analysis that explains how the quotes show the effective use of pathos, as noted in the thesis

5.0 Other Body Paragraphs

• Topic sentence/transition: Transition and topic sentence about next point from thesis
• Quotes illustrate how the author uses ethos, pathos, or logos in their text
• Analysis: explains how the quote supports the thesis

6.0 Conclusion

• Restatement of the thesis that digs deeper into the overall intended meaning of the text than the one in the introductory paragraph
• Reflection on examples and main ideas in body paragraphs, the significance of these strategies, AND how they are linked to your thesis.
• State if these were effective in conveying the claim/thesis/purpose.
• Closing thought – closing out the main purpose of the text being analyzed.

7.0 References

Check the style guide to know the appropriate referencing style to use. All the resources that you quoted in the text should be included in the references list. The text that you are analyzing should also be included in the references. IN most cases, this is the only reference.