20 Persuasive Essay and Speech Topics

As a student, you can never escape from writing a persuasive speech or essay in your academic life. Also, depending on your future career path, you may need this skill badly one day. But is writing a persuasive essay easy? No! There is more to writing this type of essay than you can ever imagine. One of the most important aspects is finding a topic. It should be something that interests you and must also be relevant to your target audience. Hence, selecting a theme can sometimes be very challenging.

What to consider when choosing a topic

As mentioned above, when selecting a problem you must consider the following 

• An issue that interests you

You are required to research the topic you choose, so picking something that interests you is always helpful. It makes research more comfortable and the writing process becomes fun. 

• Something you know about or familiar to you

Apart from having an interest in the topic, you should be familiar with it. Having foreknowledge about your topic makes the research stage easier.

• Define your audience and let the theme suit them

If you intend to write for kids, yet choose a topic they can’t relate to, then you are wasting your time. So you can choose a theme like should kids have more or less homework instead of talking about family planning or politics. 

Tips to Create Your Persuasive Speech

Choose your position

When writing a persuasive essay, choose a stance on a subject matter. Do you agree with the subject or not? Make this clear from the start of your essay and come out strongly with it. Your opening paragraph should always grab the attention of your audience.

Who are your audience 

You can’t write a paper without defining your targets. Which group of people does your paper seek to attract? Knowing this helps you to use the right wording and how deep to do your research. For example, if you are writing for kids, your wordings must suit them, and the level of research can be shallow.

Do your research

Once you choose a topic, the next important thing is to research it. No matter how familiar you are with it, additional research would help you to write an insightful work and back it with facts and examples.

Persuasive essay topic ideas

To make your work easier, we decided to help you with some topic ideas.

Arts/Culture ideas

1. E-books and textbooks, which is better?
2. Should students learn how to play an instrument in school?
3. Should visiting national museums be free for citizens?

Economic

1. The minimum wage should be adjusted upwards.
2. Should companies pay their interns?
3. Why you should by products made in your country
4. Why companies should stop outsourcing work to foreign countries

Education

1. Should students have more or less homework?
2. Is the wearing of prescribed school uniforms outdated?
3. Why students shouldn’t use cell phones on campus
4. Reason to expel students who bully others

Ethics

1. Should states allow assisted suicide for people with a terminal illness?
2. Should animals be used for research?
3. The legalization of marijuana, are you for or against it?
4. Do we still need the death penalty in the modern world?

Government/Politics

1. Should people be mandated to vote?
2. What do you make of the voting age?
3. Do we need to build a wall on the Mexico- United States border?

Health

1. Should the eating of junk foods be illegal?
2. Eating people should have free access to insulin
3. Why exercising alone cannot check obesity