At first glance, opinion essays seem like the easiest assignment ever. You pick any topic and let loose your truth. However, like any school paper, it comes with a catch. Aside from sharing your unsolicited opinion, you have to provide evidence. Otherwise, your essay is nothing but a rant worthy of Facebook, not your school record.
Today we’ll share thirty opinion articles ideas that will knock your professor’s socks off and share a trick we use to come up with these ideas. As a bonus, you’ll get at least one credible source for every topic you create using our method.
But first, let’s go over the ideas we came up with.
Personal Opinion Papers Topics
These ten ideas are good for various classes, from English to Social Science and Gender Studies. We picked the saltiest topics to make your essay stand out among the sea of good-old discussions of the death penalty and euthanasia. If you pick a topic that you can relate to or have personal experience with, your paper will be even better and will surely earn a high grade:
- A child is nothing but a third wheel in a marriage.
- Friendships are more valuable than family ties.
- Sex Ed can’t ignore the existence of pornography.
- Non-violent communication is key to understanding and respect.
- People should not be made to choose between religion and their sexuality.
- The anti-abortion movement takes away women’s rights.
- American men and women are in no hurry to become parents.
- Unvaccinated students should be treated differently.
- My personal info should not be available to the government at first notice.
- Gadget manufacturers ignore the needs of the 99% in favor of the tech nerds.
Feel free to twist the topics on this list to suit your view of the world. You can go the easy route and use the ideas as they are or turn them inside out and take the opposite side. For example, you can write about porn being the bane of our society and how it should never be discussed in Sex Ed.
Opinionated Topics to Write About Current Events
What if you don’t want to bare your heart and soul to your professors and classmates? If you like following the current trends and news feeds, these topics will be right up your alley. Writing about ongoing events has the benefit of being exciting and fresh, so your professors won’t complain about you recycling old ideas. Besides, there are plenty of references and opinions for you to use and cite:
- The cancel culture infringes upon the freedom of speech.
- The government’s financial help causes jumps in prices and other problems.
- Dogs are the biggest winners of social distancing protocols.
- Getting vaccinated is more important than choosing a vaccine.
- It shouldn’t be as hard to sue the police and win the court.
- Remote education in its current form is a disgrace.
- All nuclear power plants should be under international oversight.
- Crime rates will surge at the tail end of the pandemic.
- Long-term post-covid health issues should be covered by insurance.
- Finding the people responsible for the pandemic can prevent future threats.
As always, you are free to alter and modify our ideas as you see fit. Remember to be careful with phrasing and word choice not to offend anyone, as current topics tend to be extremely controversial and prone to causing conflict. If that’s not your goal in class, stick with the safer topics in the next section.
Good Opinion Essay Topics for Anyone
The following essay ideas are fresh and exciting but much less inflammatory than the previous bunch. Most are suitable for a vast array of classes, including your Sociology, Philosophy, and Management courses:
- Doubting election results can break the military chain of command.
- Bitcoin exacerbates inequality and environmental problems.
- Poverty cannot be solved by taking the money from the rich.
- Humans are wired to have faith, religious or political.
- Modern zoos are not worth keeping animals in captivity.
- AI evolution will lead to digital dystopia and tyranny.
- Facebook news feeds ruined the Internet experience for everyone.
- Poverty addiction is the cause of labor shortages and employer panic.
- Remote learning is the way to eliminate inequality.
- Top manager’s salaries should not be so outrageous.
To make the topics your own, consider narrowing down the scope of your paper. For example, you can talk about the income inequities within tech giants like Facebook or Google. Or you can use the same topic to write about consultancy agencies, like Gartner or McKinsey. While the outline of both papers would be similar, the data and arguments can be vastly different.
How to Develop a List of Editorial Topics Fast
What do you do if none of the thirty topics on offer speaks to you?
As promised, we’ll share an algorithm for creating endless ideas for opinion articles. We used it for this list and countless others, and it works every time without fail:
- Pick a reputable online journal, newspaper, or magazine that fits the topics covered in your class. The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Forbes, or Business Insider are all great, though you may need to look into specialized publications for your Science research papers.
- Skim through the headlines of the section that fits your idea of a story. Opinion columns, guest posts, and personal blogs are perfect for finding thought-provoking topics for your paper.
- Choose a few topics and pick the one you like most among them. Make sure to rework the title until it fits your idea.
- Use the article or post as one of your references and cite it correctly to avoid unintentional plagiarism. If you’re lucky, the post will include links to other resources you can use. Otherwise, do your own research on the topic to back your arguments.
As you see, creating a great opinion essay topic is a piece of cake if you use the wisdom of Pablo Picasso and countless others who claim that bad artists copy while great artists steal.