Selecting argumentative essay topics for middle school

If you are writing an argumentative essay in middle school you may be stumped. You may not know what to write about. But here is a hint: write about whatever interests you. Is there something that you have always wanted to study in depth but never did? Is there a debate you always have and now you want to write about it officially? Whatever you select for your argumentative research essay you should make sure it is something you love because that makes the research part much easier.

But what exactly is a research paper?

A research paper is a paper that presents significant and theoretical data, gathered from in-depth research and high quality sources. Imagine, for a moment, the five paragraph essays that made up most of your high school days and now add a lot of detail to them. That is essentially what your research paper is.

Before you begin the actual research part of the research paper you should ensure you have the proper note taking tools. Why? Because good note taking will mean the difference between an excellent paper with high quality statistics and data, and a paper that you trek through for days upon days because you can’t find the quote you wanted or the right statistic. So save yourself a lot of headaches in the future by getting:

• Note cards (index cards)
• Highlighters (lots of colors)
• Note paper

Also, take a moment to review your school policy on research ethics, just to make sure you are on the safe side. To begin the research paper you should follow these steps:

• Find a topic that truly inspires you. Don’t settle for just anything, especially if you are given the opportunity to pick something for yourself.
• Locate reliable sources.
• Organize the notes that you take while reviewing the reliable sources
• Brainstorm an outline that is substantial enough that you can easily convert it into a rough draft.
• Write your preliminary draft using the steps in your outline
• Read over the first draft you produced and rewrite things as necessary, changing paragraphs, swapping out ideas, removing bad transitions, etc…
• Edit your final draft

Finding Topics

You can look over the list below for some suggested topics and refine a thesis from there:

• Fitness programs
• Grades
• Health care
• Immigration
• Internet regulation