15 Great Persuasive Research Paper Topics for College Students

The main goal of a persuasive research paper is to persuade your audience to believe in your opinion on a certain subject. The idea is to come up with a controversial topic that you have a strong opinion about. You will state your opinion on the topic and then persuade your audience to agree with your side of the topic. You will have to come up with several different reasons why your reader should agree with your side of the controversy.

  1. Abortion: Is it morally wrong to abort a pregnancy or should it be a woman’s choice?
  2. Fur: Is it morally okay to kill animals for their fur?
  3. Animal Testing: Animals are given deadly diseases and then possible vaccines to see if they can cure them. Is this fair?
  4. Animal cloning: There can be some great advances in genetics and it is tested through animal cloning, so what is the big deal?
  5. School uniforms: Should students have to wear school uniforms? It may deter some bullying.
  6. Electronic textbooks: Should textbooks be electronic to save natural resources?
  7. Violent video games: Are violent video games making our kids more violent?
  8. Universal Health Care: Should there be a universal health care program in place instead of making everyone pay for their own insurance?
  9. Death penalty: Should criminals be killed for their crimes?
  10. Stem cell research: In order to do stem cell research, a fetus has to be destroyed. Is this legal? Can aborted babies be used?
  11. Gender Wages: Should women receive the same amount of pay as men for labor based jobs?
  12. Celebrity Crime: Should celebrities get harsher punishments when they break the law?
  13. Cyber Bullying: Should there be harsher punishments for cyber bullying?
  14. Same Sex Marriages: Should people be allowed to marry the same gender?
  15. Cell Phones: Should students be allowed to have cell phone in school?

This type of paper will be set up like other essays with a thesis and at least three different supporting reasons. You would want to write an introduction, a paragraph for each of the three reasons, and a conclusion. You want to choose a topic that you have a strong stance on. Do not choose a topic that you sit the fence on because you won’t be able to develop your reasons very well unless they are strong ones.