current events essay topics 2021

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IELTS Essay Topics for 2021

Below is a list of predicted IELTS essay topics for Writing Task 2 based on topics that have appeared recently, current world events and common topics that frequently appear in IELTS essays. Both GT and Academic IELTS candidates should prepare all topics from this list.

On this page, you will find:

Tips for Preparing Essays
Essay Topics 2021 List

Message from Liz

Ielts essay topics – preparing ideas.

Be aware of the range of possible topics and prepare them all. Be aware of current world issues – IELTS likes to stay up-to-date.
Prepare strong main ideas for all topics. Main ideas should be ones you can easily explain and develop.
Prepare supporting points. These make up the supporting sentences in your body paragraphs. The examiner will mark these carefully.
Practice planning paragraphing and links. See these pages: paragraphing and Linking Words for Essays
Source ideas in model essays online by google topics. You can find some model essays and free tips on this site. Click here: Free Model Essays etc
IDEAS E-BOOK. I wrote an e-book covering 150 essay topics with ideas and vocabulary. Get that if you need the help. Visit my store: Liz’s Ideas E-book
Target 7 and above. If you need more help reaching your goal for IELTS writing, I have Advanced Writing Task 2 Lessons in my online store: Liz’s Store .

Below is a list of predicted IELTS writing task 2 topics for 2021. The predictions are based on recurring essay topics, recent topics and world events which are all important in IELTS essay questions. The topics are not written as full IELTS essay questions, they are written as topics without the instructions. GT and Academic candidates should prepare all topics – even if you don’t get them in Writing Task 2, you might get them in Speaking Part 3. I’ve highlighted interesting essay topics for 2021 that are based on recent world issues that you might struggle with if you don’t prepare for them. Also note, topics change with each test, on one test day there can be a number of essay questions used, and essay topics are often recycled.

importance of the arts for society
supporting the arts – government funding
theatre and live events
freedom of speech and freedom of expression
children learning art
museums and galleries – importance
local business vs international businesses
supporting local businesses – buying local produce
business skills – important skills / learning skills
family run businesses
buying goods or saving money
the power of advertising in business
shopping online
businesses supporting local communities
how online communication has changed our lives
are people becoming more isolated because of only meeting online
face to face or online communication
pros and cons of meeting people online
has the internet brought people closer or not
how to stop criminals re-offending
fixed punishment for one crime or not
children – should parents be punished for their children’s crime
prison or rehabilitation
foreign cultures – learning through language, learning by travel, adapting to another culture
music – importance of music, international music
fashion – following trends and spending money
films – should historical films be accurate, learning about culture from films, foreign films, subtitles
how online media has changed local cultures
global warming
solving pollution – internationally or domestically
major problems and solutions
importance of nature for our well being
responsibility for problems – government or individual
urban nature
protecting wild species / endangered species – funding, reasons,
why people don’t change their life styles to help environmental problems
air / noise pollution in cities
putting children into groups based on age or ability
importance of children reading books (types of books)
science or art / sciences or music
how children learn
schools providing meals for children
making lessons more interesting
importance of science / history / technology in schools
disadvantages for children from poorer backgrounds
how to improve education in rural areas
what age to learn a foreign language
exams or on-going assessment / project work
university education – costs, funding, courses
home schooling / studying from home
online education
extra curricular activities
single parent families
importance of family for old people
roles of grandparents
supporting vulnerable members of the family: elderly, sick
peer pressure for children
children growing up in city or countryside
children with both parents working
childhood obesity – reasons, solutions
healthy diet
vegetarianism
junk food – problems, solutions
funding – prevention or cure
taking care of sick people – government or family
funding – health care or other society problems
good health – exercise or diet
free health care for everyone
cosmetic surgery – reasons, value
mental health – stress, positive mindset, meditation
lack of housing – building in cities or rural areas
using space in cities for housing or parks
funding affordable housing or other problems in society
living in flats – pros and cons
importance of hobbies / free time
leisure time – importance, activities,
spending time with family and friends
leadership – innate or learned
talent – innate or learned
ambition – pros and cons
important character traits
famous world leaders – skills and traits
family, society or government – taking care of the elderly
the generation gap
city living – positive or negative
people moving to cities – reasons, problems, solution
spending money on weddings – pros and cons
respecting older people
traditions – food, clothing, festivals
protecting old buildings
isolation among people in society
supporting vulnerable people in society – government or community
roles models in society for children
ideal society
online media stars
reality TV stars
importance of charities and charity work
importance of green spaces and urban environment
exploration – funding, importance
communicating with other planets
space travel for common people
international sporting event – importance
business sponsoring sporting events – pros and cons
exercising and health
children and sport – importance, who is responsible
indoor sports
smart phones – pros and cons, functions, limitations
the internet – pros and cons
online security (also for children)
the future of the internet
e-books – pros and cons, libraries
children spending too much time online
plane travel vs train travel
cars in city centres – pros and cons
using bicycles rather than cars
walking – pros and cons
pros and cons of tourism for rural communities
tourism and economy
working mothers
doing volunteer work / charity work
work / life balance
working long hours – pros and cons
experience or education or skills
four day working week
importance of promotion, salary, job satisfaction
working online – pros and cons
earning large salaries – films stars, sports people doctors etc
richer countries should help poorer countries
types of international aid
increasing number of old people
gap between rich and poor countries
violence on TV
tackling world issues domestically or internationally
news online – reliability of news, sources of news, fake news
people becoming similar
loss of culture (protecting traditions)
loss of local language (protecting language)
one language

Sharing your IELTS Writing Task 2 Experience

Did you get an essay topic you hadn’t prepared for?
What preparation tips do you have for others?
How did you manage your time in your writing test?
What score did you get in your writing test?
Sharing is caring 🙂

2021 is our chance to start fresh, to move forward and to build a strong future. Forget your difficult experiences and be proactive about your future. Each positive step forward takes you towards your goal and towards success. Be focused and strategic in your preparation for IELTS. You can find lots and lots of free lessons, tips, topics, model answers on this website – go to the HOME page to access it all. I wish you all lots of luck !! All the best, Liz 🙂

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I just want to say a big thank you for all you do. It is so kind of you to share your knowledge with us at not cost. I am inspired. God bless you and grant your heart’s desire.

I wrote the test on 30th October. My result just came out on Friday and I scored an average of 8. I appreciate your help in achieving that.

During my speaking test I was asked to talk about a café I had been to. I was to describe it and say what I went there to do.

During my writing Task 2, the question was something like: Some people believe that parents should be able to punish their children when they behave badly. However, others say there should be laws that govern how erring children are corrected. Discuss the two points of view and give your opinion.

Like you say, ‘sharing is caring’. Thanks for leaving me a better person.

Warm regards Nene

Great to see you’ve done so well. Good for you 🙂 Thanks for sharing

Thanks a lot

When children starting school the effect of teachers are more than parents in social and intellectual behaviour of students. To what extent do you agree? This was my topic 2 weeks ago and surprisingly, I got 6, I expected 7. I was in disagreement and give 5 reasons for it in 2 paragraphs.

Should I address social and intellectual in two separate paragraphs or I could explain them together in two paragraphs?

There are a number of points ton consider: 1. if you disagree then your essay must show why you think parents have more effect and why teachers have less effect – you must cover both within your opinion 2. you need to tackle both social and intellectual – you can tackle them together or separately – it depends on your point of view. For example, you might think teacher have a more intellectual effect and parents still have the most social effect 3. you should organise your ideas logically. Usually this means one single central theme per paragraph. If you had five main ideas – how can you have only two body paragraphs? When you brainstorm ideas – make a list of all the ideas you can think of and then choose the best to use. You don’t need to use all of them. Choose just two or three and organise them into separate body paragraphs

The three points above are just an example of things to consider for this essay and exemplify why you might have got a lower score than expected.

Just to share the question I got for my IELTS exam today. The words below are based on my memory.

The number of tall buildings in cities is increasing.

What are the reasons?

Is this a positive or negative development?

Share examples from your experience.

Hi Liz! Thank you so much for your site and great lessons. I bought your advanced writing classes and they were so helpful. I am a mom, working a full time job, and looking to apply for postgraduate study overseas. I barely had time to practice, but I do believe your website, tips and classes made an impact in my score. I got an 8.5 overall and 7.5 in the Writing section. Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Also, I wrote down the Writing Task 2 – Essay Question to share it with you and your students (I took the IELTS Academic on August 2021, quite recently).

Topic: In both studying and working, there are people that work harder than others. What makes people work hard? Is it a good thing to be a hard working person?

A great score – very well done 🙂 I’m glad you found my website useful 🙂

Cleared my exam and got my desired scores on the first attempt thanks to this site, Thank you so much Liz, all the best!

Great to hear!! Well done 🙂

Could you check and give me a score Task 2 The expansion of multinational companies and increase in globalization produces positive effects to everyone. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement. In this contemporary world, Change is the law of nature but trying to abolish the natural arena is discomforting and disturbing. The overruling of multinational companies and firms and the sudden rise of globalization have led to many problems in human lives. So I partially disagree with the above notation.

To begin with, the building of new projects and the tech companies have greatly affected the vegetation grounds and most parts of the cities such as residential colonies are taken also away to form new offices. Deforestation has led to major pollution in the cities as well. Another factor that has been affected due to this is the weather conditions of the country. The rainfall patterns which were fixed in the older days are not disturbed due to global warming. Besides that, even the summers are unbearable due to the rise of temperature up to 40 degrees Celsius and all these are the results of modernization.

Some people may disagree with me due to the fact that this new tech world has given them the opportunity to get good jobs and a lifestyle but at the same time, life is not all about getting rich.

To conclude, many factors have impacted the current situation of the world such as erosion of vegetation lands, pollution due to global warming, deforestation and all this is due to the expansion of cities and factories so people need to slow down their speed to save our future kids.

Hi! I got the band score I needed. Thank you so much for this site. I’ve learned a lot from you, guys!

Anyway, let me share the question I encountered last October 2020. “Some people believe that History subject should not be taught anymore because it is already old and outdated. Others think that it should still be kept. To what extent do you agree/disagree?”

I apologize as these were not the exact words, but they delivered the same thought.

Good luck to everyone who’s about to take the exam. 🙂

Recently i gave my IELTS exam and i got 5.5 band in writing. It wasn’t the score i expected but my writing task 2 topic was very tricky. It was to mention drawbacks of the same thing shown by films, ads, brands and tv channels over the years on people’s mind. But they aren’t the same they have changed and their content has changed drastically. This question was really contradictory and tricky. Reply mam if possible. Regards

Can you remember the essay question more clearly? It’s quite vague. I would need to see a more accurate recording of the question to comment.

Hi Madam, Can you please help me with the tricks to differentiate the Opinion and Non-opinion Essays, which don’t have the ‘Do you agree or Disagree’ keywords? My doubt is with the question of having the keywords like: 1. Question X, Discuss both the views and give your opinion? 2.Question X, Discuss both the views? 3.Question X, Do you think the advantage outweigh the disadvantages? 4.Question X, Does this development bring more advantages or disadvantages? Example: Many things that used to be done in the home by hands are now being done by machines. Does this development bring more advantages or disadvantages?

I’ve already written a page about this. Here is a link to the main Writing Task 2 section of the website and you’ll find this mentioned in a link: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-2/

hi liz, i really need your help regarding this question task 2.”Countries around the world will be facing significant challenges relating not only to the environment but population and education as well. What problems will your country face in the next ten years? How can these problems be overcome? im having problem paraphrasing this question for my background statement. i hope you can help me. thank you!

regards, jnet

Where did you get this question from? Was it from official sources? It doesn’t look like an official IELTS essay. The background statement does not include paraphrase the question for this essay question. You only paraphrase the first sentence:

Many countries worldwide might struggle in tackling issues such as environmental problems, education and population growth.

As you can see, when you paraphrase, you do NOT need to change all words. Just express the same ideas your own way and some words will be the same.

Hello everyone ,

I am going to give the exam of IELTS on 21 st Jan , so i am little bit confuse in choosing the topic for the writing task 2 , so can anyone help out with that , which topics can be used and what can i read it

You don’t choose the topic. You are given an essay question which you must answer. This means you need to prepare ideas for many topics. This can’t be done in one day. Instead, read over the topics are you not familiar with and do quick brainstorms.

Thank you Liz for your guidance. I got desrired results by following your lessons. I got overall band with 9 in both listening & reading. I had my GT IELTS exam on 9th Jan 2021.

My writing task 2 topic – Some people think that hard work helps in achieving Financial success while others think it is not the only thing which contributes to financial success. I was asked to discuss both of them & give my opinion.

Great scores – well done 🙂

Thank you Ma’am Liz! I’m glad that I found your website as I searched about IELTS. Its really a big help to me during this pandemic as I studied your lessons. Thank you so much for your generosity, I’ve got my desired band score. May you continue to be a blessing to everyone. I hope that your health will improve better. Take care always and God bless!

So glad to hear you’ve got the scores you needed – well done 🙂

Dear mam, I am a general training aspirant. I am practicing writing task 2. I am uncertain of how good i am while writing essay. I request you to please review my essay and tell me how much band will i score writing this way.

Ques. Today, high sales of popular consumer goods reflect the power of advertising and not the real needs of the society in which they are sold. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Ans. Effective marketing plays a major role in increasing the demand of the product. On account of this , vast scale selling of famous products is the result of efficient marketing and not requirement of the public. This essay will attempt to objectively examine all significant components in detail. (47 words)

Objectivity being of the essence, the following words will weigh one side of the issue against the other. In my opinion, right form of marketing makes us trust specific brands. On the other hand , i feel that everything that glitters is not gold. The following two paragraphs will delve effectively into both aspects. (54 words)

First, advertisements make us know about the products in demand sitting at home that tends to increase sales. Second well advertised brands are often topic of discussions among our acquaintances and that creates virtual impression of specific goods on our minds. To substantiate the above. highly marketed brands like Patanjali have become extremely popular amongst middle and upper class. They have made a huge network in a very short span of time. (72 words)

However, many popular brands that are advertised well are of no good use and creates hoax among public. Furthermore, many trusted companies are making business without much marketing only because they are fulfilling the needfulness of people by selling genuine products. To corroborate what has just been stated , brands like Mother dairy and Amul still hold their positions well even after introduction of many popular well marketed dairy firms. ( 70 words)

In light of above, it is true that proper advertising plays a distinct role in producing sales. Still i believe that fulfillment of public needs is equally important for successful vending. Bringing this essay to a close, there are at least two ways to examine any situation. In this instance, i disagree to the statement given. (56 words)

(total- 296 words)

Happy new year Liz. Hope you are much stronger now? I pray you have a quick recovery. I had my exam last year September. In my speaking, especially in part one, my examiner always cut me short, she never gave me time to add a conditional in my responses. Although I got a 6.5 band score, could it have equally affected my score in addition to my other mistakes.

It is 100% normal for your answers to be cut short. The examiner will interrupt when they want to ask another question. There are only 4-5 mins for 12 questions to be asked and answered in part 1. Take this into consideration when you answer. Give a direct answer and then add a little more until the examiner interrupts. Be ready for this and don’t let it affect your confidence. You must show willingness to speak at length – show as much fluency as you can. You haven’t asked me a question in your comment. But if you are asking if this is the reason for a lower score, the answer is “no”. Being interrupted is a natural part of IELTS speaking test.

Hi Liz, I follow your lessons since 2017. You have helped me crack Ielts 3 times already. Last time my score was overall 8.5 band with 9 in both listening and speaking. Hoping a good one this time too! Happy new year 🎉

Brilliant to hear – very well done 🙂 Wishing you a great 2021 !!

Thanks a lot ma’am Your effort for helping and guiding us is much more than excellent. Each and every module is explained in a very easy as well as much from point to point Today 9th January 2021 I have my IELTS Academic Exam I am from India Pray for me I have learned much from your offerings Thank you LIZ ☺️☺️ Love from INDIA

Hi Liz, hope and pray you’re doing well and in good health. Have a blessed New Year and more blessings to come throughout the year 2021. Thank you so much of your untiring effort to guide and teach us for our IELTS test preparation. I might take IELTS-GT test next month. To be honest, I am not very good with speaking in English yet I found your website very helpful. Your teaching was really inspiring, easy to understand tremendously and guiding us accordingly. My goal is to reach 6 band at least. Help me God. Take care and keep safe. God bless you relentlessly.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you 🙂

Your book IELTS writing topics is really brilliant!!

I am having my exam next week, hopefully, I will get my desired score

Good luck!! 🙂

Happy new year Liz.. and thank you so much for these materials. 😊

Wishing you all the best for 2021 🙂

Thanks for all your loyal support Liz! I wish you a very happy New Year and speedy recovery.

Thanks. I hope 2021 turns out to be a year of positive change 🙂

Have a mind-blowing new year liz

Happy New Year Liz

Same to you 🙂

thanks Liz. . . .

Hi Liz Im one of your followers and Found out that you have a good information in regards to ielts. I’m planning to take my ielts and I’m encouraged with the comments I read. I’m a nurse by profession but I need to take the band score intended in order for me to practice nurse in the uk. And I know you will be of great help.

Lots of luck! Go to the HOME page of this site to learn how to access all materials.

Thank you so much Liz for your effort! Happy New year

Happy 2021 🙂

Thank you Liz for your part. I got the desired result. I feel very happy to express my gratitude to all the people who had contributed, helped and encouraged me to get good band score. Thank you everyone. I got 7 5 overall with 8.5 in reading which I think is a great achievement in IELTS Academic. A little unhappy with my speaking score, if you can, please suggest something to improve my speaking. Regards

Great to hear your scores. Well done 🙂 For speaking, your score is based only on your language skills which is different to how the writing test is scored. See this page: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-band-scores/ and this page: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-2-band-scores-5-to-8/ . The key is to showcase your language in a natural way. For example, did you show the examiner a second conditional during the test? If not, why not? Your task is to show your range and this includes grammar which is equally as important as vocabulary. If the question isn’t a direct prompting for a second conditional, you can just add one yourself. Here’s an example: Part 1 Q: Do you often go swimming? Answer: No, I don’t. I don’t really have much time because of my work so I can only go swimming once in a while. But if I had more time, I’d definitely go swimming at least twice a week.

As you can see, the question was straight forward, but the answer showcased a direct use of the present simple with a flexible time phrase and a second conditional statement. These are the skills the examiner is looking for. The other thing to consider is developing your fluency in part 2. Take your talk beyond the prompts and take control of your talk. This is the time to think about what language to showcase and how to incorporate that. You have 1 min to plan this. So, prepare loads of ideas for topics before the test and then during part 2 you can prepare language to showcase for your talk during that prep time. Success in IELTS is about having and showing excellent use of English in a natural way. But, as with most exams, there are strategies to learn and techniques to help you present the best of yourself. I hope this helps 🙂

Thank you Liz, you are such a nice person apart from a wonderful coach, I think world needs more angels like you , STAY BLESSED ALWAYS

Happy New Year Liz, I hope your health is in great spirits.

You are the best and Fabulous teacher, Lots of prayers and Love 🙂

Wishing you all the best for 2021 !! 🙂

Thanks alot liz for these stuff

You’re welcome 🙂

I did my exam on 12-12 and because of you I got the score that I wanted! It was my first attempt and I only studied from your website 😍 Can’t thank you enough Liz.

My Ielts writing task 2 topic was : Some people think that a good teamwork makes a company successful, other think that a good leadership is the reason behind the success of a company.

I was asked to discuss both of them and share my opinion.

So glad to hear you did well. Congratulations. The topic of Business is a common one in IELTS Writing Task 2, particularly what leads to success in business. Sometimes it might relate to key aspects of business such as marketing and advertising vs good product. Sometimes its about staff or character traits. This is the reason it’s so important to prepare as many ideas as possible for as many topics. Anyway, well done with your results 🙂

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130 + best current event essay topics & current event essay example, bob cardens.

July 29, 2022

This article covers a list over 130 Current Event Essay Topics and a Current Event Essay Example. It also discusses the ho to choose a Current Event Essay Topic that best fits your interests.

Current events essays are common assignments given by English professors which means learning to write them is a key to passing and succeeding in English class. Writing an essay may seem like a simple assignment, but when it is due tomorrow, a blank word document and piles of books can seem paralyzing.

What You'll Learn

Current Event Essay

A current events essay is a written description of a recent situation, issue, or happening. Current events essays are often assigned by English professors as a way to teach students about the research, writing, and editing process.

Properties of Current Events Essays

Are written in standard essay format
Include in-text citations and follow a specific citation format
Summarize a recent or upcoming event known to the public

You may also be interested to read about Argumentative business essay topics

How to choose your topic

Sometimes a current events essay assignment will provide specific instructions about what topic to write about.

Other times, students will have more flexibility in choosing a topic. Be sure to carefully review your assignment’s rubric and instructions.

If you will be choosing your own topic, make note of the following before you narrow down topic choices:

1. Do the instructions place any time constraints on your topic? In other words, does your current event have to be something that happened within the last year or can it be something that happened five years ago?

2. Does your topic need to relate to a specific industry or genre such as politics, sports, or business?

3. Are there any analytical components that are supposed to be addressed by your essay or are it purely descriptive?

How to Research Efficiently

Tackling the research process can, no doubt, feel a bit intimidating. Here are some basic steps for getting started:

1. Know how many sources you will need so that you can allow enough time to research.

2. Choose credible sources. This will depend on the instructions you are given. some professors allow business or media articles while others will only want scholarly sources.

3. Know exactly what you are looking for before you start your research. Jot down three or four main bullet points of what you will be looking for while you are researching.

Think of these points like a road map. They will guide your reading so you know what passages will be relevant to your paper.

Usually, you will be looking for information that relates to the What, Where, When, Who, Why, and How aspects of your topic.

Best Current Event Essay Topics

Politics current event essay topics.

How will Black Lives Matter affect the 2020 elections?
Should the police be defunded?
How is the Trump presidency changing international relationships?
How should the U.S. respond to cyber hacking by Russia, China, and other countries?
Should the United States raise the minimum wage for workers?
How can cities in the U.S. be better designed to create a safer and more economically productive community?
Is the U.S. economy becoming stronger or weaker?
How will COVID-19 change working in America? Around the world?
Getting “off the grid” is a current trend. What is the benefit of becoming self-sufficient? Is it worth the cost?
Does better health care for everyone make a better and stronger economy in the U.S.?
Does it make sense to give U.S. citizenship to all babies born in the United States?
Gallup polls show that Americans view Unemployment and the economy as the top problem in the United States. Does evidence suggest they are right?
What are the different sides of the current debate over immigration reform in the U.S.?
Does the United States have a good or a poor educational system compared to the rest of the world?
How important is it to reduce the Federal budget deficit?
What will be the most important issues in the next Presidential election cycle?
What is causing the increasingly high cost of healthcare in the United States?
Should the U.S. continue using drone strikes against terrorists?
How is the current U.S. drought going to affect the fire season and food supply?
Should the death penalty be outlawed throughout the U.S.?
Should the U.S. aggressively work to change towards alternative energies like solar and wind power?
What is the best way to create new jobs in the United States to get people back to work?
Is the United States responsible for keeping peace around the world? What role should the U.S. play in preventing or intervening in wars and abusive governments?
Should the United States fund college education more for people? What should be the rules for the repayment of loans?
Should the United States make it easier for educated people or people with valuable skills to immigrate to the United States?
How can the Borders of the United States be made more secure? How important is border security?
Should it be easier for people to become United States citizens?
What infrastructure projects should be the top domestic priority in the United States?
How has the high incarceration rate in the United States affected the economy? What Federal and State policies have driven up this incarceration rate?
How has the Black Lives Matter movement affected the debate about racism in the United States?

You may also be interested to read about Argumentative Essay Topics about Social Media

Sports Current Event Essay Topics

Should sports teams play to empty stands rather than not play at all?
How will COVID-19 affect sports in the future?
Should college football players receive a salary or other compensation for their playing?
Should the owner of a professional team be held accountable for the comments he makes in a private conversation?
Is it worth it for a city to invest in building a bigger and better stadium for its professional sports team?
What is the value of a college sports team for a college? How does this help the college in terms of getting financial support from alumni? Attracting students? Supporting the economy of their community?
What is the difference between sports and entertainment?
How have new technologies made by watching sports different? Is the experience of watching sports better or worse than it was before?
Which is more interesting to watch, college or professional sports?
What sports should be taken out or added to the Olympic games?
Should performance-enhancing drugs be allowed in sports? What should be the rules about these drugs? Should athletes who used them in the past before they were outlawed be prevented from being entered into Hall of Fame?
Is racism in sports a problem?
Should athletes protest racism in America by not participating in the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance?
Is participating in organized sports a good or bad idea for young people?
Is it better for young people to specialize in one sport from a young age? Or should they try a variety of sports?
Choose your favorite sport. What is the best way for coaches to identify the best talent in their specific sport? Are there better ways to pick a team?
How much of a role do parents play in developing top talent in their children? What is the best way parents can help develop their children’s sports career? What are the worst mistakes parents make?
Can fan-owned teams solve sports problems?

World Issues Current Event Essay Topics

How will COVID-19 change the world economy?
Is WHO and organization that provides the information we can trust?
Is the International Space Station a good way to bridge differences between nations, or is it vulnerable to become a political tool?
Are we heading towards a 3rd World War?
Is N.A.T.O. and an effective organization?
How can the International Community prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons? How important is it that Iran not be allowed nuclear weaponry?
What is the effect on Africa on the fact that many children have been forced to be soldiers?
Is the EU going to survive the current economic problems countries have been having? Should the EU nations separate their economies?
Is violence along the border of Mexico getting better?
How can ethnic killings be stopped in Sudan?
Is China easing up in restrictions for Religion or not? Are human rights better or worse in China than in the past?
Should women’s issues be more important in international affairs?
Is China about to overtake the United States economically?
What is the effect of piracy on the stability of world commerce? How important is it to stop African pirates?
Is there a better way to fight the war against drugs internationally?
Is China starting to deal with their pollution problem?
How has social media helped positively influence the world?
Is India a poor nation or an emerging superpower?
How can we stop the world population from reaching 9 billion in 2050? Is it important to work to limit world population growth?
Should the world follow Bhutan’s development model?
How healthy is the Indian Judicial System?
Why do African nations have so many civil wars?
Has foreign aid hurt Africa more than helping it?
How has the influence of western media hurt underdeveloped nations?
Does Colonialism still affect the nations that were colonized? Pick a nation and explain the continuing problems in that nation due to the history of being colonized.

Health and Medicine Current Event EssayTopics

What can we do to better prepare ourselves for pandemics in the future?
What are the lessons the medical community will learn from COVID-19?
Are E-Cigarettes less harmful than smoking?
Why do people oppose the Affordable Care Act?
Does spending time on media cause children to have mental health problems?
How is the job of frontline health workers like pharmacists, nurses, and doctors going to change?
Is it possible to get AIDS infection rates to zero?
What is preventing the world from eradicating polio?
How are new technologies changing health care?
What are the current trends in research about helping people break out of addictive behaviors?
Traditional Chinese Medicine birth practices like eating the placenta (which in Western countries is usually encapsulated by being steamed dried and ground into pills) are becoming popular among some celebrities. What is the benefit of this practice? Is there any scientific evidence it works?
Does making a city a “no smoking zone” really benefit health? Does it stop people from smoking, or help them quit? Does it result in fewer smokers in that city?
What is the best diet for people with heart disease in their family history?
The length of the average life continues to increase. What does current research say about the best lifestyle for someone who wants to live to be 100?
Research is finding that what we think a medicine or food will do sometimes affects the way our body reacts. What is the evidence that our mind controls our body?
Current health food trends include eating “superfoods” or going “gluten-free.” Take a current food trend and investigate the scientific evidence that this helps people have better health.
What is the benefit of taking a daily low dose of Aspirin for older people?

As you continue, thestudycorp.com has the top and most qualified writers to help with any of your assignments. All you need to do is place an order with us. (Current Event Essay Topics )

You can also check out Profile Essay Examples

Media and Entertainment Current Event Essay Topics

How has Twitter changed Entertainment news? What are the most recent scandals made bigger because of Tweets?
Is it inevitable that teenage stars eventually turn to drugs, alcohol, or other destructive behavior?
Are female stars fighting back effectively against being judged by their looks, and especially by their weight?
Which celebrity does the best job of seeming to be authentic? Is there a celebrity who seems to be as nice as they appear? How can fans know?
How have shows like “Project Runway” influenced fashion? Have they motivated people to become more creative and personal in what they wear?
In what way does the attention of the media on religious figures like The Pope affect the way they behave?
Are the recent Christian movies helping win the culture wars?
Why are cooking shows like “Chopped” popular?
What is the best recent film adapted from a novel?
What are the best movies in the current year? Do the Academy Awards winners reflect the very best movies?
Is recap culture hurting television?
Recently, scripts from pro-wrestling have been released showing that the storyline is written even though the wrestling is improved. Analyze how pro-wrestling is similar to other forms of live or taped entertainment.
Which current actors from Bollywood or other film industry outside of the U.S. seem most likely to make it big in Hollywood?
Does getting involved in a scandal hurt or help a celebrity’s career?
Does being on American Idol, The Voice or other singing contest help an artist’s career? Do winners do better than other contestants?
Pick one of the current Reality T.V. shows to investigate. How “Real” are these shows? What is done for entertainment value more than for depicting real life? Do these shows hurt or help the people on them?

Controversial Issues Current Event Essay Topics

Affirmative Action
Alternative medicine
America’s global influence
Artificial intelligence
Assisted suicide
Bilingual education
Capital punishment
Charter schools
Childhood obesity
Civil rights
Climate change
Cryptocurrency
Cyber bullying
Drug legalization
Eating disorders
Factory farming
Foreign aid
Freedom of speech
Genetic engineering
Health insurance
Immigration
Labor unions
Minimum wage
Nuclear energy
Organic food
Offshore drilling
Outsourcing
Racial profiling
Reparations
Screen addiction
Self-driving cars
Sex education
Smart speakers
Social security
Standardized testing
Urban agriculture
Violence in the media
Women’s rights
Zero tolerance policies

Current Event Essay Example

The negative social impacts of “tomorrowland music festival” essay.

“Tomorrowland” is among the biggest global music events that were first launched in 2005. Despite the benefits of this festival for the local community, such as increased economic activity and employment, “Tomorrowland” has also been criticized for the presence of drugs on-site, the issues with cleaning up the location after the festival, local community’s quality of life, and noise pollution.

According to Turner (2017), during events such as Tomorrowland, “police generally occupy a low-key role at festivals with a focus on the seizure of drugs, rather than arrests” (241). Hence, the youth attending this event is exposed to drugs and seeing people around them be under the influence.

Another issue with Tomorrowland is the effect that this festival has on the local community. According to Pavluković et al. (2018), the governments and organizers of festivals usually cite the economic benefits of these events but fail to acknowledge the discomfort the locals feel. An obvious environmental impact is trash left behind by the visitors, which requires the administration of the festival to invest in clearing the site after “Tomorrowland” is over.

Adbulredha et al. (2017) argue that major music festivals generate substantial quantities of solid waste, an estimated “0.89 kg per guest” (p. 388). This problem affects the environment negatively since this waste includes non-recyclable objects or items that need to be collected and send for recycling.

Finally, noise pollution due to the powerful sound systems used by “Tomorrowland’s” performers, which can affect the hearing of the people attending the festival and cause discomfort to the community members, is also a problem.

Overall, although “Tomorrowland” is an important cultural event that has multiple benefits, it also endangers the youth and the environment and causes discomfort for the locals.

Abdulredha, M., Al Khaddar, R., Jordan, D., Kot, P., Abdulridha, A., & Hashim, K. (2018). Estimating solid waste generation by hospitality industry during major festivals: A quantification model based on multiple regression. Waste Management, 77 , 388-400. Web.

Pavluković V., Armenski T., Alcántara-Pilar J.M. (2019) The impact of music festivals on local communities and their quality of life: Comparation of Serbia and Hungary. In A. Campón-Cerro A., J. Hernández-Mogollón, & J. Folgado-Fernández (Eds.), Best practices in hospitality and tourism marketing and management. Applying quality of life research (pp. 217-237). Springer.

Turner, T. (2017). Space, drugs and Disneyfication. An Ethnography of British youth in Ibiza. [Doctoral dissertation, Coventry University]. CURVE.

You can also check out Best Classification Essay Topics

Related FAQs

1. what are the components of a current events essay.

A well-written, “current events essay” has four main components: Research: Make sure that you’re getting your news from a reputable source. Online news sources like Google News and any national news syndication Web site are good, convenient sources from which to gather reputable information and compile research data.

2. How to write a narrative discussion analysis article about current events?

The eply a narrative discussion analysis article, Current Event, include: (1)’s significance, relevance, relationship PUBLIC ADMINISTATION, (2) student’s opinion article’s public administration issue / problem, (3) supported (4) -text reference citations pages text 300 words.

3. How to write an essay about a recent event?

Select a recent article. Your task is to write about a current event; therefore, you have to choose the material that is one or two days old, maximum, one week old. The topic must be appropriate.

4. How to write a summary for a current event assignment?

Choose an article that is fresh since the assignment is to write about a current event. In addition, choose an article on the correct topic and make sure that the article gives enough information. Prepare to write the summary by reading the entire article.

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Politics and Government

How effective are the first 100 days of a presidency?
Will voting reform ever happen in the U.S.?
Does the Electoral College still serve its purpose today?
Has climate change reached its tipping point, or can we reverse it up to this point?
Is political correctness in America harmful or helpful towards freedom?
What are some of the most popular political opinions of the day?
Will gun control ever become a national issue? What are some of the best arguments from either side?
When it comes to politics, how does big-money influence campaigns?
What is one of Joe Biden’s priorities stated during his campaign for the presidency?
How effective are interns in the political process?
What are some of the best political speeches delivered recently? How much do they affect us, either positively or negatively?
Should you vote for someone based on their character rather than their economic policies. What about voting based on both?
Will there ever be a woman president in the United States? How many years will it take before we have a woman president?
Will Joe Biden’s presidency be one of prosperity or downfall in America/the world?
How effective are political protests today, if at all? Are they necessary for our free society to function correctly?
What should the U.S. do about Russia’s involvement in our elections? How about China’s and Iran’s?
How much do free trade agreements affect American jobs?
Is corruption in American politics a bigger issue now than it used to be? How does their power affect us as citizens?

In case you like to debate as well, you may check our list of debate topics !

How much has technology changed our lives over the last decade?
Are we living in a digital world, and is it affecting our daily habits negatively or positively?
Who will win the battle between Google vs Apple? How big of an effect does each have on society?
Can 3-D printing be used for creating artificial hips and knees for joint replacement?
Are you paying too much for your cellphone plan? Can you get a better deal with another service provider?
How many people are still using landlines in the developed world, and how much longer will they be around? Will they ever disappear completely?
Does it cost more to send a text message than calling someone on their cell phone?
How much has the internet changed our lives in the last five years alone? Technology is constantly advancing and will always be an issue that we all deal with on some level.
What are some of the most popular new technological gadgets that have been recently released?
Should there be a limit on how much power should be given to big tech companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft?
What are the most popular social media sites in the world? How have they changed since their creation? Should these sites be regulated or treated as free speech zones?
As more people start using mobile phones instead of landlines, how will this affect telecommunication companies like AT&T, Verizon and others? Will they be able to stay relevant in this changing world of communication?
What are some of the newest technological trends that will significantly impact our daily lives in years to come?
How do new technological advances affect the job market in America? Will they cause a significant shift that will cripple our economy, or will the U.S. take advantage of them somehow?

Media and Entertainment

What are some of the best current T.V. show comedies? What makes a good comedy and what doesn’t?
How much does reality T.V. shows influence our society, if at all? Are they positive or negative? Why do we watch them either way?
How important is diversity in entertainment media today? Is America’s culture too homogenous?
What do we hope to see in new movies released for this year and even the rest of our lives?
How much should social media influence politics or government today?
Which is better, independent media sources or mainstream media sources? What is the value of each?
What are some of the most controversial movies released this year, and will they receive awards for their quality?
How has technology changed the art industry? Is there anywhere today where you can purchase fine art pieces at an affordable price?
Do you think that people’s tastes and preferences in entertainment media will change in the future?
Is it okay for entertainers to make political statements on stage, on T.V., or through social media? What would be the ramifications of entertainers doing so?
How do we feel about celebrities who are outspoken about politics through various mediums (i.e. social media, interviews/talk shows, etc.)? Should they be allowed to voice their opinions publicly if it may impact how we perceive them as entertainers?
How do you feel about the pay gap in Hollywood and other parts of show business? Do you think that women or men should make more money for the same job based on their gender?
Should the government have more influence in art and entertainment as a form of propaganda?
What are some of your favorite shows on Netflix right now? How does streaming media affect the television/movie industry?
How do you feel about movie sequels being made, even decades after the original movie were made? Why do they keep making them?

Our list of controversial topics may keep you entertained as well!

What are some of the most essential skills you think students need to succeed in today’s society?
How can we help high school and college students develop soft skills such as communication, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, etc.?
Should there be more standardization in defining what constitutes as adequate levels of education per grade level?
Is there a difference between education and training? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
How do we feel about homeschooling versus public or private schools in today’s world? What are the potential downsides to being homeschooled?
What can people do to make their time at home more educational? How vital is self-education, and how can people become more self-educated?
What are some of the most controversial education bills being discussed in politics today? How much influence do lobbyists have on them?
How important is it to encourage students to pursue careers outside their major after college?
What are the benefits of online learning (i.e. MOOCs)? What kind of disadvantages exists for students?
Do you think that university courses should include more practical, real-life applications in their curriculum? How would this be done?
Is it okay for adults to attend elementary school classes if they want a refresher course?
How should teachers be evaluated and rewarded for their work? What are the best ways that teacher incentives can be implemented without compromising a school’s integrity or student performance?
Where do you see education in America headed in the near future? Can it stay on its current trajectory, or will change happen at some point in future?
Do you feel that teachers are sufficiently compensated for their work, and if not, why do you think this is so?
What are some of the best programs/classes/activities to get children interested in math early?

Still on education, you may want to check out our list of easy-to-do research topics

How should leaders react to ISIS/ISIL? Do you think that any religion is inherently violent, if at all? What needs to be done when it comes to religious extremism?
What do you think of the newest pope, Francis I? Is his style going to have a lasting impact on Catholicism and religion worldwide?
Do you believe that Christianity is growing or shrinking as a world religion today? If it is growing, is it growing primarily in places where Islam is also spreading?
Is religion a good thing or a bad thing overall for our world today?
What are some religions that you are unfamiliar with and would like to learn about?
What are some examples of religion being used positively in your life, whether through a particular ritual or otherwise? What are the benefits of having religious influence?
How do you feel about the Islamic faith concerning ISIS/ISIL and what they preach?
What are the benefits of religious education and training? Do you have any examples from your own experience?
What do you think of different religions incorporating practices, such as incense burning, meditation/yoga, or chanting into their rituals?
Why do some religions have icons, symbols of importance and power, to represent their faith? What is the purpose of these icons?
What do you think about religious groups taking over real estate property (buildings, parks, etc.) in your area without permission? What does this say about our political system and our society as a whole?
Do you think that religion has harmed us or helped us in some ways throughout history? Why or why not?
Do you think that religion will die out as an institution in the next 100 years?
What do you want your last words to be when you are on your deathbed?
How do we feel about religion being used by politicians to gain votes and sway public opinion, whether for political or financial gain?
What do you think about the fact that many religious leaders/religious texts are not written in modern languages and cannot be easily understood by some? What is needed to solve this problem?
How does religion play a role in your daily life? How can it improve if it doesn’t play an important role in your everyday life (e.g., if you are not religious, etc.)?

Of course, religion is sure to generate a lot of arguments, which is why you may as well spice things up with our list of argumentative topics !

Health and Science

Can we take a picture of what’s happening in the brain for each different mental disorder?
What are some of the most common medical procedures done incorrectly?
Should insurance companies cover transgender surgery? Why or why not?
Can we genetically engineer humans to live hundreds and even thousands of years?
What are some new effective ways to treat depression?
Will Alzheimer’s be cured in my lifetime? Will it affect me personally, or will I still be alive when a cure is developed?
Might we ever be able to turn back the clock on a person’s age?
Should organ donors receive much more compensation for their organs than they do now?
How has cancer changed in the last ten years?
How does being overweight affect the body, and is obesity an addiction like smoking?
Can we stop human trafficking once and for all?
How serious is our problem with drug use in the United States?
What are some of the most effective ways to prevent drug use and abuse?
How much technology can we have in a hospital without compromising our health in any way?
Can we ever reach immortality by developing technologies that will effectively bring us back from the dead?
How much of our DNA do we know?
Can we make a vaccine for HIV/AIDS that will permanently prevent its return without having to take a daily pill?
How many viruses are there, and how do they affect us today?
Can we effectively cure any diseases in the future using genetic engineering? What about preventing them entirely with vaccines or other means of prevention?
Should we consider genetic engineering to be a way to live longer?

You may also want to check an analysis of “A Modest Proposal

Transport and Automobile

Should we create more train tracks rather than building new highways?
Is Uber’s business model going to create a world in which fewer people have their cars and rely on driver-less vehicles for transportation? How will this affect our society as a whole?
How do you feel about flying private aircraft, rather than commercial airlines, as a means for personal travel?
How does the amount of time we spend in our cars affect our lives?
Is it better to own a car or use public transportation?
Should you be able to drive an 18-wheeler truck if you do not already have a commercial license?
How will driverless cars and trucks affect those employed in the industry? How about everyone else who is dependent on the industry for their livelihood?
How much of a role should electric cars play in our society?
Will driverless cars be able to travel on any road in the world, or will they need special coding and modification for each one?
What are some of the best ways to create a more efficient way to travel between cities that are only tens of miles apart, yet hundreds of miles away from each other as the crow flies?
Should artificial intelligence-driven cars be included in sporting events in the u.s or any other part of the world?
How will driverless cars and trucks change the delivery industry?
What effect, if any, will self-driving vehicles have on traffic congestion very soon? How about ten to 20 years from now?
What are some of the biggest hurdles developers face as they research to bring fully automated vehicles into our society?

How much money do professional sports leagues make each year, and how is it split between the team owners?
Can crime in sports be eliminated?
How can a head coach give his team the edge to win on game day?
What is one of the most crucial skills a professional sports official possesses, and why is it so important?
What are some quotes from athletes that stand out and make us think more than just about sports?
How does sports betting affect our country’s economy?
Is there room for innovation in professional hockey, and how could it help their sport grow? How about other professional sports leagues?
How much control do people have over sports news, and how do they affect fans?
Can a professional sports team be too dominant for their own good? Can it hurt other teams in the leagues?
What are some of the greatest rivalries in all professional sports? What makes them such an entertaining spectacle to watch?
Can winning more games than the other team be reason enough to believe one is better?
What is one of the best strategies for winning a game in professional sports? How much does it affect our society as a whole?
Can athletics alone make an elite school, or are there other important aspects to consider for admissions?
Are steroids in sports ever considered acceptable, and if so, how should we regulate them?
What is one of the biggest reasons for sports corruption, and what can be done to prevent it?
How much does the gender of a professional athlete affect their pay grade?
How much control do the players have over how often they play?
Is there any type of professional sports that should be banned from our society? Why are they so crucial to our culture, if at all?
How does the quality of play in professional sports affect our culture and what we see as acceptable?
What is one of the most misunderstood rules in professional sports, and how can it be clarified to enhance enjoyment for everyone involved?

Sports is surely a special event, and if you need more ideas for special events, check our exclusive list !

World News/Issues

How will the space race affect our society?
What is one of the biggest obstacles or barriers preventing the peaceful United States in the middle east?
Is there an issue in the world that has not been addressed to your satisfaction, and if so, what is it? How do you plan on resolving it? What gives you hope for its solution?
Can the war on drugs be won, or should there be a different approach to solving this problem? How about other crimes such as cybercrime and white-collar crime?
How does U.S. foreign policy affect us here in America? What are some of the best/worst examples, and what would you do differently?
What is one of our society’s main problems, and how would you change it if you were put in charge for one day?
How can we make our cities safer without infringing on people’s rights or freedoms?
How about other crimes such as cybercrime and white-collar crime?
What is one of the biggest obstacles or barriers preventing a peaceful United States in the middle east?
Are we living in more peaceful times now, compared to 20-50 years ago? Why or why not? Will things ever stop getting worse? If so, when?
What are some of the biggest challenges facing the U.S. today? How can we overcome them to create a better society? What is one feature about this issue that makes it so important to you personally?

We also have an exclusive list of topics that are appropriate for children debates

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Tips for writing an Excellent Current Events Essay or Research Paper

Let's face it, writing a current events essay can be challenging if you are not adequately prepared. It is a laborious process, especially if you are to select a current event issue, formulate a topic, plan, write, and polish your essay within a tight deadline.

The bitter truth is that no professor will teach you how to write one. Well, at least not as deep as our detailed guide here will do in the next less than a quarter an hour of your time. Yet it is an assignment assigned at grades 6-8, high school, college, university, and sometimes even at Ph.D. levels.

In most cases, your role is to present points or concrete arguments about the event in question. In essence, you need to plan, research, and engage your best writing, critical thinking, and creativity skills. Good analysis, organization, and presentation are necessary more like when writing a synthesis essay or expository essay .

With all that in mind, let's find the way out. You can read this article and scoop some ideas on the elements that make a good current events paper, even if you are writing it for the first time.

What is a current events essay?

A current events essay describes a recent issue, situation, phenomenon, or happening that is interesting, drawing the attention of many people, shocking, or fascinating. In some cases, current event essays describe an event that is yet to happen. It helps relate what you have learned in class to the real-world situations that occur around you. Most current event essays are five-paragraph essays.

In a current events essay, you are to address the historical context, current state, and the potential short- and long-term effects of a given aspect of a current issue or phenomenon that has a global impact. In most cases, the topics will relate to concepts from the law, politics, international relations, technology, science, sociology, medicine and health, and other controversial societal issues. You will take a current event or issue and present it in its context.

It is a common assignment for students taking English writing classes, which is meant to assess writing, editing, and research skills. It also informs students about important occurrences across the world.

When writing one, you are to reflect on and form opinions about social justice and also learn how to spot publication bias. And as you write it, you get to hone your reading comprehension, summary, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

As well, writing an essay on current events helps you to develop your argumentative and persuasive skills.

Now that we know what a current events essay or the paper is let's explore the various steps you should take to write one successfully.

Steps to Write a Current Events Essay

Before everything else, let us show you the steps you need to follow when writing a current events essay. Although there is no one single proven way to approach such an essay better, these steps can help you avoid writer's block and write a current events essay that becomes your teacher's favorite. To write a current events essay, follow these steps:

1. Select a topic you find interesting

Although some professors or educators provide specific instructions about what topic to choose or write about, others leave it up to you (the student) to choose one. When allowed the flexibility of selecting a current events essay topic, you need to be very careful.

Check whether the instructions have specific time constraints on the topic you are to select. For instance, the instructions could stress that you focus on current events within the last year, one month, or five years.

You must also check whether your topic relates to a specific area, field, or industry. For example, understand whether it relates to education, banking, investments, technology, sports, business, religion, discrimination, gender, or politics.

Finally, check whether you need to choose a topic with some analytical aspects. This step should help you choose a topic that will not end up with a descriptive tone.

To choose a fit essay topic , you can focus on your notes, ask for insights from classmates and peers, or consult with your teacher. And as you select a topic, remember to choose one that is interesting, easy to find information about, and one you can write a complete 5-10 page essay on.

Suppose you are unsure and cannot get enough help from your teacher. In that case, you can engage an essay writing service for topic selection and further guidance.

2. Choose a reputable news source and select an article

Some of the good places to find topics and articles for a current events essay include New ELA, NY Times , National News, Local news websites, Sports News, The Atlantic , BBC News , Daily Mail, The Economist, The Guardian, Investopedia, Forbes, TIME Magazine, The Harvard Business Review, National Public Radio (NPR), CNN News , USA Today, The Wall Street Journal , The Washington Post , and other credible news outlets.

The source you select should be reliable, reputable, and credible. It should write well-researched, verified, and trustworthy news. After finding the source, research a fresh article as you write about a current event. Besides, choose an article on the correct topic and ensure it has the right information for your current events paper.

If you are writing a current events paper for a politics class, use the section of the major newspapers that deals with political matters. In the same way, if you are writing on science topics, target the science and technology section of the newspaper for appropriate articles.

Consider choosing from scholarly sources such as empirical journal articles, scholarly books, government documents, or peer-reviewed articles.

3. Read the selected article and take notes

After you have selected the article, read through it severally. In the first few instances, skim through the article to have a rough idea of its contents, then subsequently read as you take notes.

When reading, highlight the critical points within the article. If you are unsure of some vocabulary in the article, use a dictionary and note the contextual meaning of the words.

You should then use the highlighted notes to identify the 5 Ws: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Answer briefly the questions below:

What happened?
Where did it happen?
When did it happen?
Who was involved?
Why did it happen?
How did it happen?

Determining these aspects helps you develop an angle of analysis, develop lead sentences, craft a strong thesis statement , and develop claims and arguments necessary for your current events paper. You can also document your thoughts about the article and its content.

4. Develop a thesis statement and hook for your essay

With the notes, you can develop a thesis statement and choose a good hook for your essay . A current events essay needs to be captivating, which means supporting the main arguments with credible evidence. Therefore, develop a strong thesis that each body paragraph will support using evidence.

If you are writing a current events essay on human trafficking during COVID-19, you can use the hook and thesis below:

Hook: In a study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) , it emerged that the COVID-19 pandemic had had a devastating impact on the victims and survivors of human trafficking, with an increased targeting and exploitation of children and women.

Thesis Statement: It is time for world leaders, investigative agencies, and law enforcement agencies to come together and develop a platform that would curb human trafficking, especially during challenging times such as pandemics and natural disasters.

5. Select the sources you are going to use to support the thesis

Research is the most critical yet intimidating part of writing any paper. However, to set yourself up in the right direction, consider doing this:

Understand the number of sources you are to use to determine the scope of your research
Choose credible sources. This primarily depends on the instructions. Some professors and teachers will allow you to use media and business articles. At the same time, some will only accept essays written with scholarly sources.
Know the scope of your research or paper before commencing research. Try to write down the main points that you will use to support the thesis then research.

These are blueprints for your research as you seek to expound on the 5Ws and H of your current events essay paper.

The sources should help you fortify your position. Find and quote from experts, public figures, and scholars in the field.

When researching, look for relevant passages. Then, skim and read the documents with the 5Ws and H in your mind. If a section has ideas, consider them and highlight the significant points. You can also use the organizing tools to organize ideas from the sources.

6. Create an outline

A current events essay follows the five-paragraph essay format:

Introduction

Body paragraphs

The body section is where the rubber meets the road as you provide evidence to support the thesis. For example, you can use subheadings in the body corresponding to the 5Ws and H.

Below is a breakdown of what should go where:

What is the event?
What happened or is yet to happen?
What are the consequences?
Which media has covered the event, and when did it do so?

The answers to these questions should be brief. Your current events essay introduction aims to give the reader insight into the event. Brevity helps you to sound reliable, knowledgeable, and engaging. The introduction should not exceed five to six sentences in most cases unless it is a very long essay.

Body Paragraph 1

Give a history of the event
What factors led to the event, and who was involved

Body Paragraph 2

Explain the two sides people can take regarding the event (one side agrees, the other disagrees)- give adequate reasons.

Body Paragraph 3

Explain the significance of the event
As yourself, "who will the event impact?"
What will happen?
What roles do the people involve play?
What can be done to change things, and by who?
Summarize the crucial details of your essay
Discuss the possibility of bias in the article
Reflect on how bias informs you of the way the article was created
Tell your readers why the event is significant enough to cover in an essay.

Works Cited Page

List of the sources used in the essay

7. Write the first draft

It is now time to make the outline count with the outline completely. Then, you can start organizing your research and developing ideas in your essay. We advise that you begin by writing the body paragraphs, then the introduction, finally winds up with the conclusion. We are of the opinion that writing the introduction last ensures that it is excellent, composed, and consistent.

Regardless of the process, even if you begin writing chronologically (from introduction to conclusion), only focus on writing and not perfection when developing the first draft.

Select from the important passages you read evidence that support your thesis. Paraphrase, quote, and summarize from the sources, then provide an appropriate citation. Write the respective headings, subheadings, and paragraphs, and use transitions to maintain a good flow.

Your first draft should be rough, which means writing and not editing. Then, when writing the conclusion , it should be a recap of your essay. It should have a rephrased thesis and some important points of your research.

To avoid writer's block, ensure you systematically complete the paper when you have the will and zeal to write. Do not wait until later. Instead, plan your essay and complete it in phases before the deadline.

8. Proofread and edit the essay

With everything completed, it is time to refine the first draft and turn it into a final draft. First, edit your essay for the flow of ideas and sentence structure. Check whether there are ambiguous sentences, run-on sentences, or sentences that don�t make sense and are correct. If essay phrases have been misplaced, replace them with the best ones.

Proceed to proofread your essay for spelling and grammar errors. To conclude the polishing process, countercheck the sources cited in your essay. Check if the citations are done per the preferred format and that sources used in the in-text citations appear in your list of references in the correct format.

If possible, have another person read your essay. Trust our online proofreaders to read your essay, highlight mistakes, and make necessary corrections. You will get a smart paper that explains the significance of these changes. Your essay sells ideas to your professor or markers and anticipates the best Grade.

Tips when writing a current events paper

Use the following tips to perfect your current events essay.

1. Always read, understand, and analyze the essay question or the essay prompt

Check the limiting terms that define the scope of the topic, the content terms specific to the task, and the directive terms that define what your essay will be about. Directive terms include discussing, evaluating, comparing, illustrating, or exploring.

2. Define your arguments as you plan to write the essay

Ensure you have claim statements , thesis statements, and good hooks related to the main topic. Make an informed opinion, position, or point of view on the topic.

3. Use evidence, reasoning, and scholarship.

Evidence should offer data and facts to support your claim. It could be statistics, examples, quotations, and facts. Reasoning helps connect the evidence to your main argument. You will have to use reason when evaluating the evidence to show how it fits in the context of your paper. The scholarship aspect helps show how your arguments relate to what you have cited.

4. Ensure that your essay has an excellent organization

Use good essay hooks and thesis statements, and write befitting background information in your introduction. Next, organize the body paragraphs using different paragraphing techniques for a good flow. Finally, let your conclusion leave the readers yearning for more from you. It should show how the topic fits a broader context of your discipline, the significance of your findings, and factors you have covered that might interest your readers.

5. Have an essay plan

An essay plan will help you avoid writer's block. It will also help break down the writing process's parts, making it easier to concentrate, focus, and achieve more.

6. Have an essay checklist to help you refine and polish the paper

Develop the checklist from the rubric or marking scheme if one is provided. If not provided, consider some factors for a successful essay and mark your paper against the checklist.

7. Cite sources and evidence in your essay

Check whether each of the in-text citations is done as per the requirements. Equally, ensure that your list of references is up-to-date and formatted correctly in MLA, APA , Chicago, or Harvard formats.

8. Do not plagiarize

Ensure that every piece of information you use is well-cited. Acknowledge others for their credible information as you use their evidence, findings, and data to write your essay. This also means referring to verified sources such as authoritative newspapers, government journals, company data, images, and scholarly articles.

9. Be impartial

When writing, describe an event objectively without taking a subjective position. Look at the causes, factors, and other background details of the event that are not accessible. Choose not to guess or misrepresent ideas. Instead, analyze the chosen issue or event critically. And if you are writing about an event yet to occur, write what is expected based on evidence. Make good predictions and offer rationale or justifications to support your arguments. Your current event essay must be objective, convincing, informative, and educative.

These current essay tips can be the only determinant for getting the best Grade off your current events essay. Perfect and polish your writing, reading and comprehension, analytical, and organization skills because that is what is being tested. Avoid using complicated vocabulary. Instead, focus on the simplicity required in scholarly writing.

Current Event Topics

We have brainstormed, researched, and developed various current event essay topics you can choose and write about. Alternatively, these topics can be a great starting point for brainstorming and developing an appropriate topic.

How Twitter is a significant political tool
The USA uses drone strikes to attack terrorists; how accurate is the move?
Causes of the high cost of healthcare in the USA
Shortage of nurses and healthcare workers in the USA
Wildfires in Australia
Is the WHO trustworthy?
Is Big Pharma taking us around with COVID-19 vaccines?
Controversies about green energy
Ballooning student loans in the USA
Is social media to blame for rising teenage suicides?
Is TikTok better than Google?
Trump's presidency and international relations
Afghan women's rights under Taliban 2.0
The Black Lives Matter Movement in America
How COVID-19 changed the global politics
Are mandatory vaccination laws legal?
Should the USA reduce its strictness to illegal immigrants considering its built on the same workforce?
Should children above 15 years be allowed to vote?
Should the government be representative?
Should developed nations stop funding corrupt developing countries?
Should rich people be exposed?
Do rich people control the world
Are wars a tool to thwart developing nations?
The war in Syria is a creation of selfish leaders
Why America and Russia are not on good terms
Should North Korea stop nuclear weapons manufacturing?
Relationship between North Korea and the USA
The impacts of COVID-19 on the Tokyo Olympic
Eliud Kipchoge's 1:59 marathon Record
Should NFTs be banned?
Is Blockchain the next big thing for the world?
Nations should negotiate with North Korea
Causes of global hunger and poverty
Is NATO an effective organization
Did COVID-19 change the global healthcare system?
Is it possible that we are headed for a third world war?
Is China an observer of human rights?
Is China the new world's superpower?
China is the world's kitchen, a chief polluter
Is the Indian Judicial system better?
Foreign aid has hurt Africa for ages
African leaders are mainly corrupt, and dictators
Should Africa be recolonized
Is China using loans and foreign aid to recolonize Africa?
Is cycling better than football?
Covid-19 and the Olympic games
How covid-19 has affected sports
Should euthanasia be legalized
The endless destruction of Amazon and what governments are doing
Sex work should be legalized
Women's rights in Afghanistan
Mental healthcare for the LGBTQ people
How COVID-19 Exposed the Flaws of America's Private Health Insurance System
Why should Korea not forgive Japan for its past war crimes?
Did History Repeat Itself in Afghanistan?
The Afghanistan-Taliban scandal
Is Dubai a hub for international organized financial crimes?
Social isolation of prisoners during covid-19?
Was the media skewed in telling lies during the pandemic?
The no-mask mandate in England
Why is it time to lift COVID-19 restrictions?
Mandatory vaccinations and global travel
Was the alarm around COVID-19 necessary?
Housing shortage in China
Gender reveal parties are a waste of time
Is democracy doing any good?
Social distancing distanced people all over the world
Vaccine equality
Science and lies during the covid-19
Politics behind climate change
Fascism in the contemporary society
Can Trump make it back in 2024?
Covid-19 and property pricing in New York
Media censorship and oppression
The media only sings the tunes of the rich
Effects of covid-19 on financial stabilities of families
Being a Muslim in China
Are electronics the ultimate weapons?
Are the media houses making us more divisive through the news?
The third hand in Myanmar chaos
Africa and its ballooning foreign debts
Why do African countries store their money abroad?
Immigration and covid-19
Access to food and water during the pandemic
Should TikTok be banned?
Is TikTok a tool that has enabled LGBTQ people to come out?
Is universal basic income attainable?
Are trade unions any better in contemporary society?
Who runs the world?
Role of the New Silk Road from China to Pakistan
Justice in a divided country
Is Kim Jong-Un displaying his insecurity by flexing his nuclear muscles?
Is Trump among the best Presidents the USA has ever had?
Is Medical marijuana a promise for terminally ill patients?
Can medical marijuana be used to manage COVID-19 symptoms?
Deepwater Horizon Explosion and the environment
Walmart and gun ordinances
Consumer behavior in the age of social media
Nissan's CEO a wanted man
The latest breakthroughs in Fusion power
Elizabeth Holmes and her Theranos ideas
Is Next-Gen Graphics the next big thing?
Using CRISPR to reverse blindness
Silicon valley's greatest disaster
Thorium as the future of energy
Apple's M1 Chip as a game-changer
Rise of bank fraud
Ponzi schemes in the 21 st Century
The rise and fall of HTC
Humanoid robots and the future

List of Current Events to Write About

We have listed elsewhere social issues that you can also look into as possible topics and titles for your current event essay. Apart from those, here are suggestions of recent events that you can check and pick an appropriate topic. First, focus on what is in the news pertaining to these areas, then choose your angle of analysis.

Airline travel
Artificial intelligence
Assisted suicide
Bilingual education
Black lives matter
Blockchain technology
Border Security
Capital punishment
Charter schools
Childhood obesity
Citizen scientists
Civil rights
The civil war in Ethiopia
Climate change
Concussions and injuries in football
Cyberbullying
Cyber security
Cybersecurity
Digital divide
Drug trafficking
Early childhood development
Early voting
Electric vehicles
Electronic voting
Environmental laws
Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam
Executive order
Factory farming
Food security
Fast food advertisements
Flint water issues
Foreign aid
Freedom of speech
Genetic engineering
Gerrymandering
Green energy
Green New Deal
Global Recession
Hate crimes
Hate speech
Health insurance
Healthcare access
Heart diseases among footballers
Human trafficking
Immigration
Investigative journalism
Israel-Palestinian relations
Land ownership
Land use and management
Lead and copper rule
Lead toxicity
Machine learning
Me Too movement
Minimum wage
Misinformation
Money laundering
National elections
Natural disasters (Tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, flooding, snowing, storms, etc.)
Net neutrality
Nuclear energy
Offshore drilling
Online anonymity
Organic food
Organized crimes
Outsourcing
Police reforms
Police shootings
Poor governance
Racial profiling by law enforcement
Russian hacking
Scientific Research
Self-driving cars
Sex education
Shale gas exploration
Slacktivism
Smart devices
Social security
Space exploration
Stimulus packages
Supreme Court
Taliban and Afghanistan
Trade tariffs
Transgender rights
Transnational crimes
Ukraine and Russia
Voter fraud
Voting laws
Water resources
Water rights
Water supply regulation
White nationalism
White privilege
Women's rights
World cycling tours
Zero tolerance policies

Final Remarks

Now you understand how to write and what to include in a current events paper. We hope you are inspired to write one on your own following the steps, structure, and examples outlined above.

Related Read: Titling an article in an essay.

Although this guide is the surest way to write a quality paper, you can always look at samples of current event papers written in the past. You can also consult with peers and professors for the best ideas. Finally, you can choose from our list of topics and develop further ideas from our list of current events.

If you are not satisfied or confident with your research and writing skills, you are welcome to seek the help of our essay writing experts . We offer 24/7 professional support that can help you when stuck. Do not hesitate to contact us and ask us to write your current events paper.

Gradecrest is a professional writing service that provides original model papers. We offer personalized services along with research materials for assistance purposes only. All the materials from our website should be used with proper references. See our Terms of Use Page for proper details.

ESSAY TOPICS YOUR STUDENTS WILL LOVE TO WRITE ABOUT

1. Should student’s textbooks be replaced by notebook computers?

2. To what extent is the use of animals in scientific research acceptable?

3. Are actors and professional athletes paid too much?

4. Zoos are sometimes seen as necessary but not poor alternatives to a natural environment. Discuss some of the arguments for and/or against keeping animals in zoos.

5. Is fashion important?

6. Should wealthy nations be required to share their wealth among poorer nations?

7. If you had the opportunity to bring any person — past or present, fictional or nonfictional — to a place that is special to you (your hometown or country), who would you bring and why? Tell us what you would share with that person

8. Should students be allowed to grade their teachers?

9. The destruction of the world’s forests is inevitable as our need for land and food grows. Do you agree?

10. Should more be done to protect and preserve endangered animals?

11. Many parents give their children certain chores or tasks to do at home. Should children have to do chores or tasks at home? Be sure to explain why you think it is a good idea or a bad idea. Include examples to support your reasons.

12. In your opinion what factors contribute to a good movie?

13. Most high level jobs are done by men. Should the government encourage a certain percentage of these jobs to be reserved for women?

14. Should the voting age be lowered to thirteen?

15. Should the government place a tax on junk food and fatty snacks?

16. Are we too dependent on computers?

17. Imagine that your teacher wants to teach a new subject for the next few weeks. Your teacher will take suggestions, and then let the students vote on the new subject. What subject should your class choose? Write an essay to support your choice and to persuade the other students to vote for your choice.

18. Since the invention of nuclear weapons we have had a long period of GLOBAL peace and stability. Are nuclear weapons global peacemakers or killing devices?

19. Should boys and girls be in separate classes?

20. Is the death penalty effective?

21. Pretend you woke up one day and there were no rules. People could suddenly do whatever they wanted! Explain what the world would be like. Use your imagination!

22. Should students be allowed to have cell phones in elementary and high schools?

23. Should teachers have to wear uniforms or have a dress code?

24. Should money be spent on space exploration?

25. What age is appropriate for dating?

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Controversial issues and current events, flint water crisis.

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Look at the "Picking a Topic" tab on this guide for help brainstorming your topic. Also, our Research Process guide can help you throughout your research process.

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Affirmative Action
Affordable Care Act
Alternative medicine
America's global influence
Artificial intelligence
Assisted suicide
Bilingual education
Black Lives Matter
Border security
Capital punishment
Charter schools
Childhood obesity
Civil rights
Climate change
Concussions in football
COVID restrictions
Cryptocurrency
Cyber bullying
Cybersecurity
Drug legalization
Early voting
Eating disorders
Equal Rights Amendment
Executive order
Factory farming
Foreign aid
Freedom of speech
General Data Protection Regulation
Genetic engineering
Gerrymandering
Green New Deal
Hate speech
Health insurance
Human trafficking
Immigration
Israel-Palestine relations
Judicial activism
Labor unions
Land acknowledgments
#MeToo movement
Minimum wage
Misinformation
Net neutrality
Nuclear energy
Offshore drilling
Online anonymity
Organic food
Outsourcing
Police reform
Political activism
Prescription drug addiction
Racial profiling
Reparations
Russian hacking
Sanctuary city
Screen addiction
Self-driving cars
Sex education
Smart speakers
Social Security reform
Standardized testing
Stimulus packages
Supreme Court confirmation
Syrian civil war
Title IX enforcement
Trade tariffs
Transgender rights
Ukraine and Russia
Urban agriculture
Vaccination mandates
Violence in the media
Voter ID laws
Voting fraud and security
White nationalism
Women's rights
Zero tolerance policies

Related suggested databases

Covers contemporary social issues with pro & con and background information. Also allows searching of the collection Global Issues.

Covers contemporary social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations, and more. This resource helps students explore issues from all perspectives, and includes: pro/con viewpoint essays, topic overviews, primary source documents, biographies of social activists and reformers, court-case overviews, periodical articles, statistical tables, charts and graphs, images and a link to Google Image Search, podcasts (including weekly presidential addresses and premier NPR programs), and a national and state curriculum standards search correlated to the content that allows educators to quickly identify material by grade and discipline. Keyword(s): United States

In-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy.

1923-present. Each single-themed, 12,000-word report is researched and written by a seasoned journalist, and contains an introductory overview; background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro & con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources.

Balanced, accurate discussions of over 250 controversial topics in the news along with chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, contact info, and bibliographies, including primary source documents and news editorials.

Covers 1995-present. A Read Aloud button is available for text-to-speech for much of the content.

Series of short books that offer a balanced and authoritative treatment of current events and countries of the world.

What Everyone Needs to Know has short overviews designed to offer a balanced and authoritative treatment on complex current events and countries of the world. Includes books in these areas:

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Early childhood development
Citizen scientists
Emergency manager law
Environmental health
Government regulations
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100 Essay Topics for 2024

Government’s Vision of Amrit Kaal
Central Bank Digital Currency by RBI
How important is flow of money for the economy?
Need of the Hour is to Maximize Possibilities of Agriculture in India
50 Crore Jan Dhan Accounts: Giant leap towards financial inclusion
Privatization in Defence Manufacturing
RBI’s strategies to tackle inflation in Economy
Non-Performing Assets and their impact on economy
India to be the world’s third largest economy
Global Recession and shapes of Economy
India becoming a leader in Renewable Energy
Is a 70-Hour Work Week Healthy?
Crypto-currency and issues related to it
Growing trends of Privatisation
Fugitive Economic Offenders and the need to bring them back

EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES

Higher Education versus skill acquisition
Entrance exams versus Qualifying exams - what is the relevance of entrance exams for admissions to UG and PG courses in India?
Online schooling, can it be the future of education?
New Education Policy: A Progressive Policy with Diverse Challenges
Skills or knowledge: What matters more in today’s world?

ENVIRONMENT

Biodiversity Conservation– Our Solutions are in Nature
Hyper-globalism is threat to human prosperity
Net Zero Carbon Emission
Shifting of Earth's Geo-Magnetic field and its impact
Money Laundering and Illegal Wildlife trade
Ban on plastic: Environment vs. Economy
Seed Bombs: Solution to Man-Animal Conflict
Growing Pollution in Rivers
Organic Farming in India
Merger of Project Tiger and Project Elephant: Pros and Cons
Growing Intolerance in the world
Goodwill is the only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy
Role of kindness in an utterly competitive world
Is defection becoming the new norm in Indian politics?
New India @75
Supreme Court Judgment on Jammu and Kashmir
Pro poor policies of Modi Government
Controversies surrounding the Present-day NDA government in India
Supreme Court Judgment on Demonetisation
India China border issues – Where is it headed?
Too much Democracy is Detrimental to Development
India needs aggressive and pragmatic neighborhood policy
Today India Needs ‘Harmony in Diversity’, Not Unity in Diversity
Atmanirbhar Bharat
India and SDGs
India’s Neighbourhood Policy
India’s Participation in Central Asian Region
India’s claim to UNSC permanent membership
Presidential vs Parliamentary form of government: which one India should go for?
India’s deepening malnutrition
India as the World’s fifth largest economy
One nation one election
Falling parliamentary morals in India
Is the era of coalitions over?
GST growth indicates India’s growth
Compatibility of the Contempt of Court with International Standards
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INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Russia-Ukraine War and its impact on geopolitics
India: From SAARC to BIMSTEC
Israel-Hamas Conflict and Operation Ajay
Has UNSC become redundant?
10 years of One Belt One Road (OBOR) Policy and India's Counter
Democracy in its neighbourhood is in India’s interest
Importance of regional trade blocs like NAFTA, RCEP etc.
G20 New Delhi Summit
SCO and its evolution
Rising Chinese hegemony in Indo-Pacific and implications for India
Climate Diplomacy and COP 28
NASA’s Artemis Program
IMEEEC and its prospects

PHILOSOPHICAL/ ABSTRACT

A smooth sea never makes a good sailor
Hour work week
Light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion, the tunnel is.
Is humanity enough to handle crises and serve people in need?
Is being vegetarian the way to go for the world?
Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
War is the ultimate Price we pay for lasting Peace
Artificial Intelligence is Not All Evil – It can Promote Social Good Too
Our World is in a Surplus of Multilateral Challenges and a Deficit of Solutions.
The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Does India need more missiles or more industries?
Genetically Modified Crops
National Infrastructure Pipeline
How will the FASTag project help in improving the logistics and transport sector?

SOCIAL ISSUES (Society, Gender, Caste)

Lack of civic sense among Indians is pushing the country backwards
Media’s duty is to inform public, not manufacture opinion
Urban exclusion of migrant workers in India is a reality and needs urgent robust policy measures.
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition
Economic Growth and Development are shaped by the societies in which they operate.
Social media is the fourth pillar of democracy
How does a leader impact the destiny of his country?
The Cry of Transgenders
Caste Census: Equity or casteism?
One Nation, One Ration Card
Legalizing Betting in India
The ‘Dunki’ route to illegal migration
Elderly Population in India
Transparent Taxation- honoring the honest platform
Sub-categorisation of castes in India
Group Discussions
Personality
Past Experiences

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10 key events and trends in the Middle East and North Africa in 2021

Paul Salem , Brian Katulis , Gerald M. Feierstein , Gönül Tol , Charles Lister , Ross Harrison , Alex Vatanka , Marvin G. Weinbaum , Khaled Elgindy , Mark A. Heller , Karen E. Young , Mohammed Mahmoud , Eliza Campbell

A transition in America occurs as the landscape shifts in the Middle East

The GCC turns to diplomacy and dialogue to manage conflict

Facing long odds and growing pressure at home, erdoğan tries a new approach: diplomacy, the year of assad’s normalization.

The catch-22 of civil wars in the Middle East
Iran’s hardliners consolidate their hold on power
The end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan
The lessons of the May war in Gaza
Israel’s new government lowers the temperature of the debate
A year of reckoning in energy markets
More climate change highs (and lows) for the Middle East

The implications of NSO Group

Looking ahead to 2022, 1) a transition in america occurs as the landscape shifts in the middle east.

Paul Salem President

Brian Katulis Vice President for Policy

The center of gravity for the Biden administration’s overall policy was on domestic issues, with a sharp focus on the pandemic and economic crisis at home. On the foreign policy front, the three C’s — China, climate change, and COVID-19 — along with efforts to rebuild ties with democratic allies in Europe and Asia, dominated the agenda.The transition of power in the United States from the Trump administration to the Biden administration was one of the year’s most important events for the broader Middle East and North Africa, as it resulted in significant shifts in U.S. policy that had ripple effects across the region. The most consequential of these moves were the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the attempt to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. Nevertheless, many of the most important trends in the Middle East remain driven by its governments and people, as well as the impact of factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and migration on the regional landscape. Yet, for all of the talk about U.S. disengagement from the region and the rise of China and Russia, the United States remains the most influential outside actor, given its broad network of relationships and ability to influence dynamics.

The Biden administration signaled a more modest approach to the Middle East compared to the Trump administration, prioritizing diplomacy in its rhetoric and actions and stressing that it was moving “back to basics” in avoiding overpromising about the level of U.S. engagement. It worked to adopt a steadier, more predictable policymaking process than its predecessor had on the Middle East.

The Trump administration was focused on the military defeat of the Islamic State, the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, and efforts to forge normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. By contrast, the Biden administration’s initial stance has been to guard against the deep levels of engagement that had at times overwhelmed the broader agendas of the past three U.S. administrations. It appointed envoys on Yemen, Libya, and the Horn of Africa, and it reengaged Iran in international talks on its nuclear program in Vienna.

The May 2021 war between Israel and Hamas drew the Biden administration back into the Israeli-Palestinian issue more deeply than it had planned. The haphazard withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan caused a crisis of confidence among America’s partners in the Middle East and prompted more engagement with several of them, especially the Arab Gulf states, than the administration had initially intended.

But it was the common thread between the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations that made the biggest impression on the region: the desire to limit U.S. involvement in the Middle East. The U.S. posture has incentivized strategic hedging among key countries in the region, which have consequently worked to forge deeper ties with other outside actors, especially China, Russia, and some European countries. It also created incentives for many regional states to adopt a more assertive approach.

Within the region itself a number of dynamics have marked 2021 . The COVID pandemic continued to claim thousands of lives, strain public health resources, constrain economic growth and public finances, and drive up rates of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. Vaccination rates and COVID response efforts have varied widely across the region, from the top performers in the resource-rich Gulf states, to more challenging conditions in the population-rich and resource-poor countries, and desperate conditions in the fully or partially failed states of Yemen, Libya, and Syria.

Despite these challenges, the broader regional economy bounced back: Average GDP growth in 2021 returned to around 4% after contracting by 4% in 2020. Oil prices continued to recover in 2021 after the total collapse in early 2020 and rose steadily over the course of the year; this helped improve growth among oil-producing economies and also boosted remittances and investment flows to some non-oil-rich countries as well. Even as energy prices recovered, key energy producers — including Saudi Arabia — have started on a transition toward a cleaner energy mix, and are trying to position themselves as major players in natural gas, green and blue hydrogen, solar, and wind.

On the political level, the democratic transitions in Tunisia and Sudan — all that remained of the two waves of the Arab Spring in 2011 and 2019 — came to halt; whether that halt is final or merely temporary remains to be seen. Among the civil wars in the region, the Libyan conflict showed the most signs of progress, with ongoing negotiations among the parties, international support, and plans to hold fresh elections. The war in Yemen continued unabated, with the Houthis declining Saudi and international offers to negotiate and focusing instead on trying to take the strategic town of Marib, while the Saudis provided air support to government and local anti-Houthi forces to hold it. In Syria, the conflict remained largely frozen in 2021, with no major military operations, but also no progress toward any solution. Meanwhile, a new civil war erupted in Ethiopia between government forces and Tigrayan groups, with potential ripple effects for the Horn of Africa and the broader region.

At a regional level, key actors took steps to deescalate tensions and build — or rebuild — working relationships. Saudi Arabia took the lead in healing the rift with Qatar and trying to rebuild solidarity within the Gulf Cooperation Council. Saudi Arabia also initiated talks with Iran under Iraqi auspices in Baghdad. The UAE sent Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan to reestablish ties with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan visited erstwhile foe President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey and offered billions of dollars in economic investment, and UAE National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan was dispatched to Tehran to meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. This came on the heels of the historic Abraham Accords of 2020 and the strengthening of cooperation between the UAE and Israel.

But even as countries in the region took diplomatic steps to de-escalate tensions, heal rifts, and build new bridges, the security landscape continued to grow more complicated and fragmented, with an increasing number of state and non-state actors deploying and using unmanned weapons including aerial systems. The trend toward using armed drones that began before 2021 continued and accelerated — the attempted assassination of Iraq’s prime minister by militia groups and attacks on U.S. military bases in Syria and Iraq were just two prominent examples in the past year. The lower barriers to entry in this arms race complicate regional security dynamics by introducing new threats and increasing the overall uncertainty in the broader environment.

The most significant geopolitical event in the region was the haphazard U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which sparked widespread concern across the region. The Taliban’s resounding triumph plays directly into the jihadist narrative and will reinvigorate the recruitment and ambitions of like-minded groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda. The U.S. retreat also shook the confidence of America’s partners throughout the region that rely on U.S. backbone in their national security strategies and gave encouragement to states like Iran, reinforcing their view that the U.S. is a paper tiger that will buckle if enough pressure is exerted. Concerns about America’s inability to curb either Iran or the Taliban is part of the reason for the rapprochement between Israel and several Gulf states — which share a common fear of Iran — as well as the growing contacts between Middle East states and other great powers, such as Russia and China. While neither is a viable full strategic alternative for America’s partners in the region — they will remain mainly U.S. allies — hedging of bets and efforts to find areas of common security and economic interest proceed apace.

2) New regional diplomacy

Gerald M. Feierstein Senior Vice President

After decades of confrontation and the threat of war, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, emphasized in 2021 their desire to “turn a page” and seek to manage, if not resolve, regional conflicts through dialogue and negotiation. Beginning with the al-Ula agreement that ended the intra-GCC feud with Qatar, the two predominant GCC states have expanded their dialogue with Iran, calmed tensions with Turkey, pursued a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Yemen, and promoted Syrian reintegration into the Arab League. While not all of these initiatives have borne fruit, and several may not produce tangible benefit anytime soon, they are nevertheless a reflection of a changing strategy toward addressing regional challenges and have the added benefit of reducing internal GCC friction over regional policies. The communique released at the conclusion of the 42 nd GCC Summit on Dec. 14 was notable for the change in the tone and tenor of the leaders’ discussion on regional challenges as well as its emphasis on intra-GCC coordination on key political, economic, and social issues.

There are several likely reasons for the changing Gulf approach to conflict. Leaders have been clear that they are exhausted by decades of confrontations that have failed to improve their security materially or benefit their populations. The COVID-19 pandemic, economic and demographic challenges, as well as the threat from climate change have brought home the need to strengthen domestic institutions and reduce external distractions. Uncertainty about the dependability of the U.S. security umbrella, a key pillar of GCC defense strategies since the Carter Doctrine, has reinforced the need in the GCC to move away from long-standing reliance on the U.S. military presence. Although many of the steps (but not all of them) have been welcomed by the Biden administration, nevertheless, the emphasis on finding regional solutions to regional problems will challenge U.S. policies and assumptions going forward.

Gönül Tol Director of Turkey Program and Senior Fellow, Frontier Europe Initiative

In mid-August 2020, a Turkish and a Greek warship were involved in a mild collision during a standoff in the eastern Mediterranean — one many called the most explosive the region had seen in 20 years. The row between the two NATO allies over energy exploration was the latest in a series of aggressive foreign policy moves by Turkey. Since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan allied himself with the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) to recapture the parliamentary majority his party lost in the 2015 elections, Turkey had been pursuing a militaristic and unilateral foreign policy that has pitted Ankara against almost everyone in the region. 2021 was the year that finally changed.

President Erdoğan is now facing the longest odds of his political career. He has myriad problems but the chief among them is a collapsing economy. The Turkish currency has lost nearly half its value since the start of September. The crisis has driven up the cost of food, gasoline, and medicine, and hit poor and middle-class Turks, who have been key to his two-decade-long rule, hard. In the past, whenever domestic problems seemed overwhelming, Erdoğan turned to aggressive foreign policy moves to divert attention and benefit from a nationalist “rally ‘round the flag” effect. This strategy worked well for years but it has run its course. Nationalism is not doing the trick for Erdoğan anymore and his aggressive, adventurist, unilateral foreign policy, which has left him internationally isolated, has become costlier at a time of growing economic problems. So the Turkish president decided to change course and has been reaching out to regional adversaries as well as Western countries to mend ties.

Erdoğan recently hosted the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, after years of hostility. Erdoğan also pledged to repair ties with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Armenia and has been trying to have a positive agenda with Europe and the U.S. Erdoğan is hoping that billions of dollars of investment that Emirati officials promised during the crown prince’s visit and other potential economic benefits that normalization with other countries could bring will help ease his economic troubles. 2022 will show how realistic Erdogan’s expectations are.

Follow on Twitter: @gonultol

Charles Lister Senior Fellow, Director of Syria and Countering Terrorism & Extremism programs

In the not-too-distant future, 2021 will stand out as the year when a methodical process began to reintegrate Bashar al-Assad and his regime in Syria into the “international community.” Despite the enormity of the Assad regime’s war crimes since 2011 — prosecutors have more evidence against Syria than the world had against Hitler and the Nazi Party at Nuremberg — a combination of fatigue, disinterest, and resignation has created conditions in which re-engaging with the 21st century’s most notorious war criminal is seen by some as “realist” and “pragmatic” policy.

For many U.S. allies in the Middle East, their decision to re-engage is also being driven by a U.S.-created vacuum resulting from a clear disinvestment in Syria and a policy of no longer confronting Assad’s regime. In addition to Syria’s shocking election to the World Health Organization’s Executive Board and Interpol’s re-integration of Syria into its network, the Assad regime has benefited from signals sent by the Biden administration. A U.S.-facilitated regional energy deal to benefit Lebanon has seen Syria included as an active player and a recipient of foreign gas and electricity; to avoid triggering Caesar Act sanctions, the Biden administration has clarified loopholes. As part of back-channel negotiations with Russia, the U.S. has also softened restrictions on foreign entities, allowing financial engagements with Assad’s regime and funding for early recovery activities in regime areas that go far beyond humanitarian aid and will benefit the regime both directly and indirectly.

Encouraged by this softening of U.S. policy , the United Arab Emirates has dramatically escalated its re-engagement with Assad’s regime: dispatching Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed to Damascus, re-starting bilateral business collaboration, and signing a $300 million power plant deal. Exasperated by U.S. indifference and struggling economically, Jordan has aggressively re-engaged, exchanging multiple ministerial visits and re-opening trade. King Abdullah even took a “brotherly” call from Assad himself. Similarly, Egypt hosted Syria’s General Intelligence chief and Algeria is pushing hard for its re-entry into the Arab League.

Notwithstanding the potent dangers inherent in normalizing a brutal dictator and undermining any chance of a meaningful settlement, moves to reintegrate Assad into the regional architecture are stunningly short-sighted. They will embolden a brutal regime, guarantee Syria’s long-term instability, and in all likelihood, implicate key U.S. allies in indirectly aiding and abetting continued war crimes. For now, Qatar and Saudi Arabia stand vocally opposed to the prevailing regional winds, but for how long that will last is distinctly unclear.

Follow on Twitter: @Charles_Lister

3) The catch-22 of civil wars in the Middle East

Ross Harrison Senior Fellow and Director of Research

Civil wars in the Middle East, while symptomatic of the failure of states to build legitimacy and inclusive governance, also are emblematic of a fractured and failed region. Despite some attenuation of the civil wars in terms of the levels of violence and the degrees of lethality in 2021, these conflicts held the Middle East in a vice-grip of regional dysfunction for most of the year, something that is likely to carry over to 2022.

In 2021, active fighting in many of the civil wars largely abated. In Afghanistan this came about because of the outright victory of the Taliban over the Kabul government and the complete withdrawal of the United States. In Syria, victory was delivered to the Assad government over most, but not all, of the country, but only with Russia and Iran putting their collective thumbs on the scale. In the case of Libya, outside actors have played a role in forging agreement between the antagonists and have brought the country to the cusp of elections, which as of this writing seem to be delayed. In Yemen, there have been attempts by outside powers to move the parties toward resolution, but the Houthis, perhaps with Iranian support, have been resistant.

But despite an apparent reduction in the levels of overall fighting in several of these conflicts, for much of 2021 they persisted in creating regional dysfunction, and have defied attempts to create a permanent resolution that would give comfort to suffering populations.

It is easy to point fingers as to why this happened. Clearly there is no shortage of bad actors who have put their own interests ahead of those of their populations. Focusing on the actors themselves, however, misses a broader structural problem of the “unvirtuous cycle” of regional and international actors feasting on the civil wars, but the civil wars giving back by stoking conflicts between the regional actors, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran or Israel and Iran.

This structural problem manifested for the Middle East in a catch-22, whereby resolution of the wars required some form of regional and international cooperation , but the dynamics of the wars created security dilemmas and conflict traps that made the hurdles to getting to cooperation insuperable, even for actors who might be predisposed to cooperate. Going into 2022, these dynamics could mean that, notwithstanding signs in 2021 of an easing of tensions between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and Iran, a broader and more lasting rapprochement could prove elusive.

Let’s look at the following developments in the civil wars which defined 2021, posed a threat to the lives of people residing in the countries at war, and are likely to carry over to 2022:

Syria remains one of the countries on the planet most penetrated by outside powers. In 2021, Russia, Iran, and Turkey became more, not less, entrenched militarily in Syria. Transitioning from where Syria is today to a more stable, inclusive, and de-militarized country free of outside actors seems years, if not decades, away.

Other countries that have transitioned into a post-civil war reality are now at renewed risk of falling back into civil war. Lebanon in 2021 continued to experience the malaise that followed the explosion at Beirut Port in August 2020. This has contributed to further state failure, which could pull the country into civil violence. This would likely intensify the already significant involvement of outside regional actors, with Iran being the most likely protagonist and beneficiary. Iraq too is in a precarious state and remained for much of 2021 at risk of falling back into sectarian violence.

While the civil war in Ethiopia is somewhat removed from the broader Middle East, a prolonged conflict could invite meddling of regional actors like Egypt, which already has disagreements with the government in Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). It could also add to instability in Sudan, and might invite further involvement from international actors and terrorist organizations as well.

The countries that seem to be in some form of post-civil war state of suspended animation, like Iraq and Afghanistan, have become more, not less, vulnerable to spoilers, such as ISIS and even al-Qaeda, which could be reinvigorated by the U.S withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In 2021, attempts have so far failed to bring the United States back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and Iran back into compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal. This has given Iran a greater incentive to double down in the civil war zones instead of working cooperatively with other states to bring the wars to a close.

The Middle East for all of 2021 has been caught in a conflict trap, where civil wars stoked regional tensions and tensions between regional actors made ending the civil wars difficult. While as the year draws to a close, there are several promising signs of a thawing of tensions between regional actors, namely the GCC states and Iran, we need to be cognizant of how the current situation in the civil wars zones of the region could act as a headwind that will slow progress toward ultimate regional security and stability.

4) Iran’s hardliners consolidate their hold on power

Alex Vatanka Director of Iran Program and Senior Fellow, Frontier Europe Initiative

In Iran, the biggest headline of 2021 was the hardliners’ recapture of all centers of power in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his armed stalwarts in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) masterminded the installation of Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s new president in June. Thanks to mass disqualification of any authentic candidates, Raisi won in a sham election that saw the lowest turnout of any vote since the theocratic Islamist system was established in 1979.

Khamenei and the IRGC choose Raisi for a number of reasons, but the main one was a desire to consolidate power at a critical juncture. At home, the question of who will succeed the 82-year-old supreme leader remains open and Khamenei is striving to micro-manage the process. Khamenei essentially preferred the public boycotting the election over taking the risk of having to deal with a moderate figure in the Presidential Palace who could compromise his succession plans. To a lesser extent, the engineering of Raisi’s presidential win is also a signal to the U.S. and the West that any compromise with Tehran — over its nuclear or missile programs or its regional agenda — can only go through Khamenei and the IRGC and must take their interests into account.

Khamenei’s gambit with Raisi was always bound to be risky. It has effectively finished off the moderate regime faction and its promise that gradual reform of the system is possible. Khamenei’s handling of the June presidential elections is already resulting in more defections from among regime supporters. Meanwhile, Raisi has been given an impossible hand . He has tried to behave and sound like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: as a populist and a “people’s president.” The problem is that he does not have Ahmadinejad’s folksy personality or the billions of dollars in oil revenues that Ahmadinejad could dole out in the form of cash and benefits to the lower classes.

As president, Raisi has discovered that there is no quick fix for the sanction-hit economy , arguably the Achilles’ heel of the Islamic Republic. One official report recently warned that the government could be bankrupt in three years if present trends continue. The solution to that problem is linked to the lifting of sanctions, which in turn is tied to the outcome of the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna, a negotiation process that on the Iranian side Khamenei oversees more than anyone else. When Raisi was installed as president, many saw him as handpicked to succeed Khamenei as supreme leader when that day arrives. But so far Raisi has only performed the role of a scapegoat as the Iranian economy remains in a historic slump while Khamenei and the IRGC ponder what sort of a compromise in Vienna might be acceptable to their interests. Still, the ever-increasing popular anger seen in 2021, from labor strikes to street protests, also suggests that Khamenei and his cohorts do not have endless time to mitigate against greater public mobilization against the Islamist system.

Follow on Twitter: @AlexVatanka

5) The end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan

Marvin G. Weinbaum Director, Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies

The 20-year Afghan war, American’s longest, finally ended in 2021. On Aug. 15, fighters of the Taliban movement occupied Kabul , shortly after the president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and his close advisors had fled. The war ended largely as it had begun, with rule by an Islamic Emirate and with many of the same senior leaders that had served in a Talban government during the 1990s. In its first few months, the new regime has chosen domestic policies that closely resemble its previous practices, notably those prescribing acceptable political and social behavior. Less clear and of primary concern to the U.S. is whether the Taliban’s associations that brought U.S. intervention in 2001 will also return.

It was to ensure that global terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda are not harbored in Afghanistan and allowed to plan catastrophic attacks on American soil that the U.S. began its long, costly war in the first place. The U.S. air strikes that dislodged al-Qaeda also swept up a Taliban unwilling to give up Osama bin Laden and dismantle his operations. It is because the Taliban movement, especially its ascendant Haqqani branch, is known to have never severed its close ties to al-Qaeda that the Taliban restoration is worrisome. The Taliban may not share al-Qaeda’s global aims, but the financially hard-pressed regime may well play host to its rebuilding . Although an enemy of al-Qaeda, Islamic State-Khorasan Province, with its own far-flung designs, is expected to gain in strength by capitalizing on dissent within Taliban ranks. U.S. intelligence sources estimate that both organizations could, within two or three years, be capable of sponsoring terrorist attacks on the U.S.

While it is too soon to gauge the full impact of America’s military withdrawal on the broader region, its countries have been forced to reassess U.S. reliability as a partner and resolve as an adversary. The potential for regional instability has meanwhile increased and will almost certainly result should the Taliban regime tolerate or facilitate the export of Islamic insurgency to neighboring countries by such Afghanistan-nested militant groups as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). For all of the U.S. calculations that a strategic shift from Afghanistan and its region can allow a geographic refocus for U.S. foreign policy, the threat from the broader region of global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, humanitarian crisis, and mass migration seems likely to keep the U.S. well engaged.

Follow on Twitter: @mgweinbaum

6) The lessons of the May war in Gaza

Khaled Elgindy Senior Fellow, Director of Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs

Last May’s war in Gaza , which left 256 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead, was the deadliest eruption of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian arena in nearly seven years. The 11-day war was triggered by events some 50 miles away in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem amid the pending expulsions of several Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood at the hands of extremist Israeli settlers — a reminder that what happens in one part of the occupied territories seldom stays there. The timing of the war was particularly inconvenient, coming just four months after the arrival of the new U.S. administration of Joe Biden and just one month before the swearing in of the new Israeli coalition government headed by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.

The fallout from the war in Gaza — the fifth in 12 years — would be felt by the Palestinians and in terms of U.S. policy. On the internal Palestinian front, both the war and the Jerusalem crisis that preceded it once again demonstrated Hamas’s ability to seize the political initiative. Despite the heavy human and material toll inflicted on Gaza’s civilian population, the war instantly boosted Hamas’s domestic popularity while highlighting the perceived impotence and growing irrelevance of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.

The crisis was equally problematic for the Biden administration, which had deprioritized and hoped to steer clear of the Israel/Palestine issue. The administration’s lethargic response to the crisis — offering blanket statements of support for Israel’s right to defend itself while attempting to work quietly for a truce, even as it blocked attempts by the U.N. Security Council to secure an immediate cease-fire — further highlighted the administration’s reluctance to challenge the status quo. Ultimately, however, the conflict exposed the dangers of allowing the situation on the ground, whether in Gaza or in East Jerusalem, to fester as well as the futility of disengaging from an issue that the United States has been and remains so deeply invested in. Whether the Biden administration officials have internalized those lessons remains to be seen in 2022.

Follow on Twitter: @elgindy_

7) Israel’s new government lowers the temperature of the debate

Mark A. Heller Non-Resident Scholar

The Israeli election in March 2021 produced what three other elections in the previous two years had failed to deliver: a new government headed by someone other than Benjamin Netanyahu. The governing coalition assembled by Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Yamina Party, is riven by internal contradictions of almost every sort and enjoys only a razor-thin majority. That explains why it has refrained from major initiatives on the most divisive issues on the Israel agenda, including relations with the Palestinians (although the coalition contains left-wing parties that have consistently advocated a two-state settlement of the conflict) and the question of religion and the state (although the coalition, for the first time in decades, includes no ultra-Orthodox representatives).

Still, the coalition has proved more resilient than many expected and has already registered some noteworthy accomplishments. For one thing, it has passed the first new budget in several years, thereby introducing a greater measure of rationality and transparency in economic planning. Secondly, it has formally involved an Arab party (as opposed to Arab individuals) in governing councils, by incorporating the United Arab List and allocating to it chairmanships of some important Knesset committees (but not positions in the Cabinet) — though it should be noted that some credit is due Netanyahu, who legitimized this transformation by declaring his desire to recruit Arab parties to his side, even campaigning on one occasion as “Abu Yair.” Thirdly, and perhaps most remarkably, the new government has practically transformed the tenor of public discourse by removing much of the toxicity that characterized political rhetoric in recent years. Opposition representatives may attack with little restraint, but government spokespeople have stopped demonizing their political adversaries, and policy preferences, some which do not differ that radically from those of preceding governments, are explained and defended with greater civility than before.

By lowering the temperature of the debate, the new government has injected a measure of calm and sobriety into the long-standing turbulence of Israeli politics. This does not just reassure the public as its government grapples with day-to-day challenges; it also reassures Israel’s regional and international partners, from the United Arab Emirates through Egypt and Morocco all the way to the United States, thereby facilitating the search for more cooperative approaches to common challenges.

8) A year of reckoning in energy markets

Karen E. Young Senior Fellow and Director of Program on Economics and Energy

2021 was a year of reckoning in global energy markets. We started to think more globally about climate change policy action with COP 26, even as many found the commitments disappointing.

The Middle East has become ground zero for much of the debate on net zero. Saudi Arabia surprised the world by setting a net-zero emissions target for 2060 , following the UAE's announcement of a 2050 target.

From the supply side of oil and gas exporters, there is a clear argument that their products matter and have a role in the energy transition. Saudi Arabia and its energy minister have made the strongest case that oil still matters, and a messy transition with short supply will be especially dangerous not just for producers, but globally.

Managing the debate and the framing the energy transition has become important for several Middle East producers. Egypt will host a global forum on climate change with COP 27. From the Egyptian government's point of view, defending a role for natural gas in the transition is vital to the ability to attract financing to develop its own industry. The UAE will host COP 28 and has aggressively promoted its diversification efforts, especially its capacity for renewable power production, which includes new nuclear power. The next COP will likely focus on gradations of clean hydrocarbons, making the case for new brandings of both oil and gas products.

Disagreements among producers, including the United States, have been emblematic of some of the domestic politics driving energy policy. The Biden administration has tried to shift the blame for rising gasoline costs — just one part of a large inflationary trend — to OPEC output quotas. Saudi Arabia cleverly countered with a commitment to increased output among OPEC+ members that few are actually able to meet. OPEC members also have some important differences in how they see the timeline of getting their exports to market and how to dominate among Asian buyers, as we saw between the UAE and Saudi Arabia this summer.

Follow on Twitter: @ProfessorKaren

9) More climate change highs (and lows) for the Middle East

Mohammed Mahmoud Senior Fellow and Director of the Climate and Water Program

The global implications of ongoing climate change this year have been especially acute in the Middle East. For a region that is already prone to hot and dry conditions, the suite of climate change impacts that the Middle East experienced this year are potentially an indication that the region is shifting to a new climate regime that will continue to bring more environmental challenges . It was a year of dangerous extremes: extreme heat, extreme weather, and extreme drought.

Extreme heat

The rise in average global temperatures has ramped up the occurrence and intensity of extreme heat events in the region, where many countries experienced daily temperatures that were not only well above average, but in some cases record-breaking. This phenomenon was most evident during the summer when a large number of locations, including major cities (e.g. Aqaba, Doha, and Khartoum), were amongst the hottest places in the world this year, with recorded temperatures close to or exceeding 50 degrees Celsius. Extreme heat events have serious implications for the residents of the Middle East, chief of which is in the domain of public health with an associated rise in heat-related illnesses and death.

Extreme weather

With the rise in global average temperatures also comes an increase in sea surface temperatures, particularly in water bodies around the equator where most of the earth’s incoming solar radiation is absorbed. In this band lies the Indian Ocean (and within it the Arabian Sea), a hotbed of tropical storm activity fueled by rising sea surface temperatures that can generate devastating cyclones with the capacity of making landfall anywhere from Pakistan/Iran and the Arabian Peninsula to the Horn of Africa. One such storm that formed this year was Cyclone Shaheen , a severe cyclonic storm that made landfall in Oman and caused substantial damage and numerous fatalities.

Extreme drought

Persistent drought has plagued the Middle East as a whole this year due to sustained hot and dry conditions brought on by climate change. But one of the hardest-hit areas has been the Levant region and Iraq and Iran in the east. Dwindling surface and groundwater supplies coupled with poor seasonal rainfall and inefficient water conveyance infrastructure (that contributes to substantial water losses) has threatened the water security of these nations, almost to the brink of catastrophic collapse due to water shortages. Inadequate access to potable water has already caused negative consequences for local economies (e.g. rising cost of food due to constrained agricultural activity ), public health (e.g. an increase in waterborne illnesses in rural communities drinking untreated water), and transboundary cooperation (e.g. water hoarding between the riparian nations along the Tigris River system).

10) Technopolitics emerge as a key factor in the new geopolitics

Eliza Campbell Director, Cyber Program

The saga of Israeli technology company NSO Group could fill volumes — and indeed, in 2021, to many observers of the Middle East it might have seemed as if it did. Why, readers might have asked themselves, does this matter? What exactly about a single midsize technology firm, only one of many in a crowded and fast-growing Israeli tech sector with a stunning 6,426 local start-ups, captured so much political and analytical attention this year, and what does this mean for what might be next? The short answer is this: Technopolitics are the new geopolitics, whether observers are ready to accept it or not. The rise of NSO Group, and the growing international outcry this year over its signature product, Pegasus, tells the story of how the Middle East might be the place where this reality is tested for the first time.

Pegasus, NSO’s star product, allows customers to remotely hack and access the mobile phones and communications of those infected by the spyware; NSO has maintained that its purpose is to intercept communications in order to “ prevent terrorism and crime .” Meanwhile, a growing chorus of technologists, activists, scholars, and journalists have repeatedly provided compelling evidence that clients of NSO, which have included many governments in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, are primarily engaging NSO for the purpose of surveilling and intimidating journalists, activists, political dissidents, and others. Blockbuster reporting by a coalition of media organizations called the Pegasus Project revealed this summer that, among other allegations, NSO’s software had potentially been used to target at least 50,000 persons of interest, including more than 180 journalists around the world. The implications of this reality are stunning; for a region in which the fight for human rights and freedom of expression have never been more dire, technology-aided intimidation and surveillance, unchecked by international sanction or rule of law, could be viewed as a game changer. Meanwhile, as Israel took the unprecedented step of officially designating six Palestinian civil society groups as terrorist organizations , and as workers from those organizations were later revealed to have been hacked by Pegasus , and later still, as the U.S. revealed that its own diplomats had been targeted by the software, it became more clear that something had shifted.

Ultimately, the story of NSO Group in 2021 is emblematic of larger questions about the spyware industry, which includes many peers in a growing marketplace . It also tells the story of a Middle East being reshaped by the interests of private capital and a rapidly diminishing sense of political and economic security for the vast majority of citizens, who largely continue to live according to the whims of corruption , crushing authoritarianism , and violent climate change. Cooperation between the Gulf Cooperation Council and Israel on tech issues is the culmination of this shift; Palestine has become, by and large, a symbolic debate, even as the lives of Palestinians grow increasingly desperate , and as Israel imports foreign workers rather than permit Palestinians living under their occupation to share the benefits of the booming local economy. In short, observers should watch the NSO story closely in 2022. What the case of this company tells us about dramatic shifts in regional power-sharing, the future of human rights, and the US’s changing role in the world will not always be so easy to ignore.

This look back at 10 key events and trends that shaped 2021 sets the foundation for thinking about what’s to come in 2022 and beyond in the Middle East. Countervailing trends — de-escalation through diplomacy at a time of continued tensions as actors use force, particularly with weapons enhanced by new technologies, including cyberweapons — demonstrate that the complicated competition for power and influence across the region continues to evolve. This regional competition comes at a time when broader geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting between the United States, China, Russia, and Europe, and these outside actors continue to play important roles in key parts of the Middle East.

The past year was one of many surprises and discontinuities in the Middle East, but some of the trendlines on basic human security, especially the impact of climate change producing extreme heat, weather, and drought, offer signs of the challenges ahead in the coming years. The people and governments of the region are the main actors in shaping outcomes, but countries like the United States can play an important role in turning challenges into opportunities for advancing greater security and prosperity in the Middle East in ways that directly benefit the broader world.

Follow on Twitter: @Katulis

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-for-profit, educational organization. It does not engage in advocacy and its scholars’ opinions are their own. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains sole editorial control over its work and its publications reflect only the authors’ views. For a listing of MEI donors, please click her e .

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NPR's picks for 2021 books on current events

Denise Couture

Mano Sundaresan

LaTesha Harris

Scott Detrow

From NPR's yearly reading list, Books We Love, three NPR colleagues share their suggestions for reads on current events.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

While I love to escape with a good novel, especially these days, I also read a ton about current events, what's happening in politics, what's happening to the climate, what's happening in the world of technology. It will probably not shock you that is the case for a lot of other people here at NPR, too. Books We Love, NPR's list of best reads from 2021, has hundreds of recommendations for books that came out over the past year. And today, we have four suggestions all about current events. I'll go first. I recommended "Last Best Hope: America In Crisis And Renewal" by George Packer. It is really no exaggeration to say that I have thought about the essay at the core of this book, which is about how America has sorted itself into four tribes that increasingly view each other with suspicion and contempt. Just about every day since I first read it, I think I've sent a link to the Atlantic excerpt to nearly everyone that I know. George Packer's analysis of how the pandemic and the Trump-era hypercharged division in the country is pretty bleak, despite the positive spin that the title's framing and the book's final chapter attempt to put on things. But it is an essential reading to understand what has gone wrong in our politics and in our civic institutions.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

LATESHA HARRIS, BYLINE: Hi, I'm LaTesha Harris, an editorial assistant for NPR Music and Louder Than A Riot. I recommend that you read Mariame Kaba's "We Do This 'Til We Free Us" as soon as you can. Last summer, after the police killing of George Floyd, abolition became a mainstream conversation for the first time in its organizing history. Even though global calls to end policing and replace it with other practices of communal safety petered out, the need for that to happen is as pertinent as ever. We saw the double standard of policing in its institution in the verdict of Kyle Rittenhouse. We will always see this double standard because that's how the law functions.

"We Do This 'Til We Free Us" is a vital introductory text of transformative justice and its organizing principles. Kaba's analysis of prisons and policing is human centric and expansive. She explains that as it stands, the institution of punishment is restrictive, carceral and dependent on racism. "We Do This 'Til We Free Us" breathes hope into the movement and is equally accessible for people new to abolition and its veteran organizers.

MANO SUNDARESAN, BYLINE: Hi, I'm Mano Sundaresan, and I'm a production assistant on NPR's All Things Considered. And the book I chose is "Under A White Sky" by Elizabeth Kolbert. Now, there is a pervading sense through this book that we've royally screwed up. Kolbert reports on the many ways humans have created these environmental problems, tried to solve them and create even more problems as a result. This sounds kind of sad and bleak and maybe even dry, but it's actually really, really engaging and really funny. Kolbert's travels take her all around the world, to some pretty bizarre places, including one Asian carp fest, which is quite literally a celebration of Asian carp. It's an interesting book that will make you laugh and make you really think about the state of things and how we've maybe gone too far. And the question it poses and doesn't super answer is, have we gone too far?

DENISE COUTURE, BYLINE: I'm Denise Couture, and I'm a senior editor at NPR. My book recommendation is "Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy And The Fall Of Boeing." The author is Peter Robison. The book is actually kind of heartbreaking. Remember those 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia a few years ago? This book is about what happened at Boeing, the company, that led up to those crashes and why there's been so little accountability. But he also tells a bigger story, one we've seen other places in corporate America over the decades. He explains in detail how Boeing went from being a company of engineers, where creating a perfect product was everything, to becoming a company of Wall Street types where the bottom line was everything and safety took a backseat.

I love this book not just because it's so well researched and interesting, which it is, but also because I'm from Seattle. Back in the day before Amazon, if you lived in the Seattle area, you either worked for Boeing or you knew someone who worked for Boeing. In my case, it was both. And I just think it's really important for people to know where Boeing went wrong.

DETROW: That was Denise Couture recommending "Flying Blind," Mano Sundaresan with "Under A White Sky" and LaTesha Harris who suggested "We Do This 'Til We Free Us." And that was also me, Scott Detrow, recommending "Last Best Hope." For more ideas on what to read, you can find the full list of Books We Love at npr.org/bestbooks.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Argumentative Essay Guide

Argumentative Essay Topics

Last updated on: Dec 19, 2023

Argumentative Essay Topics - Compelling Ideas to Get Started

By: Jared P.

18 min read

Reviewed By: Melisa C.

Published on: Oct 22, 2019

Are you about to write an argumentative essay but still confused about the topic?

Argumentative essays help students learn more about the subject matter of a particular course. This kind of writing is a genuine key to learning argumentative skills. You must pay attention to your subject while choosing a strong topic for your essay.

But what if you don’t even know what to write about?

Don’t worry! Here is a list of topics and tips to help you decide on the perfect topic for your argumentative paper.

So read on and make choosing a topic easier!

On this Page

Argumentative Essay Topics for students

Argumentative essay writing is one common academic assignment that almost every student will get to draft. In order to help the students, we have prepared a list of argumentative topic ideas. Pick a topic that works the best for you.

Argumentative Essay Topics for Middle School

What age is suitable for kids to start schooling?
Should students be allowed to evaluate their teachers?
Metal music should be banned due to its violent lyrics.
What are the pros and cons of making friends virtually?
Can we conserve energy as a society?
Does playing violent video games contribute to making a person violent in real life too?
How close is reality TV to real life?
Do girls face more societal pressure than guys?
What is the biggest challenge faced by students today?
Should there be cash rewards for getting a good score on standardized tests?
The rich should pay more taxes than the poor.
Cartoons are better than movies.
Teachers Vs. Parents: who plays a bigger role in shaping a child?

Argumentative Essay Topics for Grade 6

Here are some argumentative essay topics for 6th-grade students:

Should schools start later in the morning?
Is confining wild animals within zoos a cruel practice?
Should there be stricter laws for texting and driving?
Are social media sites like Facebook and Twitter bad for our society?
Should the voting age be lowered to allow young people a voice in democracy?
Should the school year be longer or shorter?
Is it okay for children to play violent video games?
Should cell phones be banned from schools?
Should recycling become a mandatory practice in all households?

Argumentative Essay Topics for 7th Graders

Should schools provide free meals to all students?
Are uniforms necessary for student success?
Does standardized testing accurately measure student progress?
Are after-school activities important for student development?
Is there too much emphasis on social media in education today?
Should schools place a stronger emphasis on physical education?
Are required classes in high school helpful or harmful to students?
Should all students have access to laptops and tablets in the classroom?
Is technology taking away from traditional learning methods in the classroom?
Should gym classes be mandatory for students?

Argumentative Essay Topics for Grade 8

Looking for argumentative essay topics for teenagers? Check out the ideas below:

Should the drinking age be lowered? Should the death penalty be abolished?
Is it necessary for governments to fund childcare?
Is there too much emphasis on standardized testing in schools?
Are schools doing enough to prevent bullying from happening?
Do adolescents need more sleep than adults?
Should students be allowed to have cell phones in school?
Is social media affecting the way we interact with each other?
What should be done about the student loan crisis?

Argumentative Essay Topics for High School

Is homeschooling better than the public school educational system?
Smartphones help the learning process.
Is co-education more advantageous than single-sex education?
Are GMOs safe for human consumption?
Is fast food healthy or a serious threat to physical health?
Teenagers feel more comfortable talking on social media rather than face to face.
Should it be legal to get a tattoo for kids younger than 18?
Are standardized tests beneficial for school students?
A negative high school experience you believe is important when it comes to personality.
Does the education system prepare a student for the real world?
Is there life after death?
Our society works on gender equality.
Subjects that should be removed from the high school program.
Is hate crime growing in high school?

Argumentative Essay Topics for College Students

Is the current taxation system effective or not?
Are men paid more than women in our corporate sector?
Should Shakespeare still be studied as part of the college curriculum?
Is college tuition becoming way too expensive?
Are test scores the only way to judge the competency of a student?
Getting a College degree is worth the cost.
Is the system of the electoral college still viable in the US?
Youngsters on social networks don’t realize the significance of privacy on these online sites.
Life is incomplete without faith.
Students nowadays face greater social pressures compared to the past.
Your past does not define you.
What can be done about gun control in the United States?
Is it ethical to genetically modify children to protect against diseases?
Do we need more gender diversity in STEM programs?

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Argumentative Essay Topics for University Students

Should mental health services be made available for free?
Is income inequality a necessary part of capitalism?
Should the minimum wage be raised in all countries?
Does technology have a positive or negative impact on mental health?
Should universities be allowed to charge students for taking classes?
Is it necessary for governments to fund space exploration?
Should religion be taught in public schools?
Are animal experiments necessary for medical progress?
Should young students join a political party to enhance the democratic process?
Does free speech help promote extremism in society?

Argumentative Essay Topics for O Levels

Should the government regulate the use of social media?
Is the death penalty an effective way to prevent crime?
Are online classes replacing traditional courses in schools?
Do standardized tests accurately measure academic achievement?
Should abortion be legalized in all countries?
Do celebrity role models have a positive or negative influence on young people?
Should school uniforms be mandatory in all schools?
Should the Internet be censored by governments around the world?
Should GMO foods be allowed in supermarkets?
Does free trade help or harm developing economies?

Discover Captivating Topics in a Click!

Best Argumentative Essay Topics

Just as important as it is to create compelling content, choosing a great topic is equally important. If you want to score well in academics, you will have to impress your instructor with the best argumentative essay topics.

Below are some great topic ideas for you related to different fields. Choose the right topic for your essay and start the process.

Sports Argumentative Essay Topics

Can video gamers be counted as true athletes?
By participating in sports, can children be kept out of trouble?
Should girls be allowed to participate in the same sports as boys?
Should alternatives to steroids be legalized for professional athletes?
Do you consider cheerleading a sport?
Does your College spend a lot of money in the name of sports programs?
Student-athletes should get money for playing.
Betting on sports should be illegal.
Sports events shouldn’t broadcast alcohol and tobacco ads.
Are female athletes looked upon as sexual objects by the media?
All athletes should be tested for drugs before their performance.
Females should not be allowed to take part in extreme sports.
Impact of bodybuilding on a woman’s body in old age.

Argumentative Essay Topics Education

Parents should have an active role in their child's education.
The grading system shouldn’t exist to judge a student’s abilities.
Standardized tests should be abolished in schools.
All students must wear a uniform in high school.
Does technology benefit the educational system?
Studying in a single-sex class is better than studying in a mixed one?
All students must be made to learn a foreign language?
Programming should be made compulsory for all students.
Should students have sex education classes at school?
Should schools have the right to test students for drugs?
Girls should be equally encouraged to take part in sports in school.
The world should have a uniform language.
Hard work isn’t enough for being successful in a student’s life.
Should teachers be allowed to physically discipline their students?
How to bring change in the education system of the United States?

Social Media Argumentative Essay Topics

Are social networks an effective platform for communication?
Do people really get a job through LinkedIn?
Is Facebook legally allowed to leak the private information of its users?
Is it possible to earn a good amount of money from YouTube?
Should Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter be banned permanently?
Social media has successfully increased employment rates.
Celebrity endorsements are unethical.
Social media has destroyed real-life communication.
Social media has made doing business easier.
Blogging is an irrelevant profession.
How is social media depicting beauty standards?
How has social media become a major source of inferiority complex among teenagers?
Is it possible to have a life without social media at this time?
Should underaged children be allowed to own social media accounts?
Pros and cons of social media.

Argumentative Essay Topics Technology

Are cell phones harmful to the human race?
Are spy applications invading the privacy of users?
Are Millennials more dependent on computers than Baby Boomers?
Is Typescript the future of front-end development?
The impact of microwave tech on our biology.Technology has made us lazier.
Should coding be taught from middle school?
Cognitive Computers like Watson are unethical.
Should a candidate’s social media profiles be considered in the hiring process?
Children shouldn’t be given personal mobile phones.
Self-driving cars and the future of transportation.
Has technology made people less efficient?
Technological advancements in the field of psychology.
Is the future in the hands of Artificial Intelligence?
Pros and cons of depending a lot on technology.

American History Argumentative Essay Topics

What was the impact of European colonization on Native Americans?
What was the role of women in the movement toward revolution?
What were the key causes of the American Revolution?
The key issues that caused conflict between North and South and led to the civil war?
The effects of the Great Depression on the banking industry in America.
Did the Civil Rights Movement reduce or lead to racial violence?
Post World War II, how did America grow?
21st-century American foreign policy.
Is Barack Obama the first American president who made history?
Was slavery an inevitable part of the development of American society?
Should the Indian Removal Act be considered an act of genocide?

Mental Health Argumentative Essay Topics

Are antidepressants overprescribed in modern society?
Should mental health services be made free for all?
Is social media affecting mental health negatively?
Is there a stigma attached to seeking out mental health help?
What role do genetics and environment play in determining mental illness?
Can art and music therapy be effective treatments for mental illness?
How can we tackle the stigma associated with mental illness?
What can be done to reduce the prevalence of anxiety in young people?
Should there be mandatory mental health education in schools?

Social Issues Argumentative Topics

Should male workers receive paternity leave too?
Is age a major factor in relationship success or failure?
Is torture acceptable under any circumstance?
What are the primary causes of down syndrome?
What should the punishments be for failed parenting?
A candidate’s appearance shouldn’t be considered in a job hiring process.
Some common stereotypes in your society.
Cheating is increasing every day.
We are way too dependent on computers and technology.
Is boredom the cause of getting into trouble?
Beauty magazines should stop photoshopping models.
Capitalism vs. socialism. What would benefit society more?
Is the women’s rights movement justified?
The real objectives of Feminism.
Impact of homosexuality on society.

Argumentative Essay Topics Animals

Hunting for fun and sports is unethical and must get banned.
Aggressive dog breeds such as pit bulls should not be allowed as pets.
Testing beauty products on animals is justifiable.
Using monkeys for research in labs is a necessary evil.
Wearing fur and leather shouldn’t be unethical.
Is genetic modification of livestock beneficial?
Animal dissection in medical school is a good way to learn.
Owning pets reduces the risk of getting diseases. Do you agree?
Emotional support animals can truly help lonely people.
Keeping exotic animals as pets is inhumane.
Stronger laws must be enforced against animal cruelty.
Pros and cons of animal testing.
How can the emotional support of animals help in treating mental problems?
Significance of microchipping the pets.
Rights enjoyed by the ESA owners.

Argumentative Research Paper Topics

Ways to decrease childcare costs in the United States.
Are literate people better parents?
Challenges faced by female politicians.
Is rehab effective for sex offenders?
Is music a form of real art?
Spanish is a simple language to learn.
Schools should ban vending machines on-campus.
Are teachers to blame when a student performs poorly?
Are gender stereotypes encouraged by parents?
Illegal immigrants and terrorism: is it related?
Can imposing a tax on sugar help fight obesity.
Should age be a factor in relationships?
Do dreams have a symbolic meaning?
Should South and North Korea become one?
Can depression be cured using natural ways?

Unique Argumentative Essay Topics

Looking for some general argumentative essay topic ideas? Here is an ultimate list of great topics that can make your essay writing fun for you and your readers.

Controversial Argumentative Essay Topics

Should same-sex marriage be legal in all 50 states within the United States of America?
Is the feminist movement ruining the minds of young girls?
Corruption and its effects on increasing wages.
Hunting should be banned globally. Do you agree?
Which is more beneficial for society, Communism or Capitalism?
Should human cloning be allowed or not?
Abortion – A pro-life or a pro-choice?
Do anti-discrimination laws reinforce discrimination?
Should patients be entitled to request medically-assisted suicide in cases of terminal illness?
Can beauty standards be more inclusive?
Workplace dating should not be allowed, and here’s why.
Displaced immigrants and refugees should be given shelter by every country.
Is vegan or vegetarian life good for health?
Online dating has ruined the essence of old-school romance.
Chocolate can help improve our bad mood.
Is it ethical to eat meat?
Mothers make better parents naturally.
Politics can never be clean and fair.
Should the drinking age be lowered?

Easy Argumentative Essay Topics

Are girls more intelligent than boys?
Parents of middle schoolers should control their internet.
Was Johnny Depp the best choice for Burton’s Ed Wood?
Do religious movements cause the outbreak of war?
Are human beings the major source of global climate change?
Is it ethical to have kids perform chores?
Is using LEDs making a difference?
How does being a vegan help the environment?
Should teenage marriages be allowed?
Social media has brought families closer. Is there any truth to this statement?
If the House of Lords had veto power over the House of Commons, Britain would’ve been better off.
It’s okay to date multiple people at the same time.
HIV is falsely associated with homosexuals. Why?
Why are the laws neglecting tobacco and alcohol?
Most of the modern-time artists are one-hit wonders.

Fun Argumentative Essay Topics

Is panda hugging a viable career option?
Does Justin Bieber owe his success to negative PR?
Is it true that a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?
Is the Bermuda Triangle a real thing?
Is it okay for parents to lie to their children about Santa Claus?
Did the feminist movement ever help you?
How did the feminist movement ever help you?
There is no such thing as organic food.
How to make your roommate believe that moving out is the best option.
Why should I join a different family?
Fans should not judge players after losses or failures.
Is social promotion a helpful practice?
Is racism a natural condition of human society?
Dieting must not be practiced by schoolers.
Should tattoos be perceived as a social deviation?

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Argumentative Essay Topics 2022

Are US elections always fair?
Is the death penalty an effective punishment for criminals?
Is it wise to replace soldiers with machines and artificial intelligence on battlefields?
Should animals be used for performing experiments?
Effects of terrorism on the foreign policy of the United States of America's cosmetic surgery worth the risks?
What is your point of view on a terminally ill person having the right to assisted suicide?
Life 100 years ago was much easier than it is today.
Is religion a factor that contributes to war?
A woman who doesn’t have enough resources to raise a child to be allowed to abort?
Physical activities are the most convenient way to relax.
The best way to enhance education is to decrease the number of classes.
Sports classes should become mandatory for everybody.
The pros and cons of using gadgets for studying purposes.
What is the most important socio-political movement of the modern era?

Argumentative Essay Topics 2023

The following are some amazing topics for argumentative essays. Have a look at them to get a better idea.

Fast food is responsible for childhood obesity in the US.
Is the United States ready for a female president?
Parents need to be very friendly with their kids.
Are smartphones harmful to our health?
Education needs to be free for all.
Is single-sex education still a good idea in 2020?
Should all people pursue a university degree worldwide?
Internet access must be unlimited and free.
Modern education has to eliminate grading systems.
Capitalism should acquire more socially significant policies.
Tourist tax is mandatory to save cultural heritage.
Kindergartens must introduce foreign language instruction.
Is hunting good for environmental well-being?
Using animals for research must be banned.
Women perform better than men in official positions and occupations.

Choosing a Good Argumentative Essay Topic

So you know the importance of choosing the right topic when writing an argumentative essay.

But what are you going to write about?

You sure don’t want to pick an argumentative essay topic that everyone else is working on. And you don’t want to research an argumentative topic where information and data are impossible to find.

You hopefully want to write on a debatable topic that will interest both you and your reader. Here are the criteria we use to choose a topic for argumentative essays:

It has to be interesting to the writer. You’ll be outlining, researching, and writing in-depth, so pick an engaging topic for your argument.
Have some information to begin with. The more familiar you are with the subject area, the easier it will be for both you and the reader.
The best argumentative essay topics are mostly controversial. If there’s no conflict and everyone agrees on everything, it won’t qualify as an argumentative essay.
An arguable thesis statement can be created according to the topic.

What Makes a Good Argumentative Essay?

A good argumentative essay is one that presents a well-reasoned and logical argument. It should be supported by facts and evidence, not just speculation or opinion. To create an effective argumentative essay, the writer must provide a strong case for their position on any given topic.

Strong Introduction and Thesis

The first element of a good argumentative essay is an interesting and clear introduction. This should introduce the topic in a way that engages readers and makes them want to learn more.

It should also provide an overview of the writer's position on the issue, as well as any evidence they will be using to support their argument.

Good Research and Evidence

Good argumentation requires good evidence. So a good argumentative essay should be backed up by research and evidence.

If a writer is making an assertion, they must provide evidence to back it up. This could include physical evidence such as statistics or quotes from experts in the field, as well as logical arguments that support their position.

Organized Structure

The structure of an argumentative essay is also important. It should be structured in a way that makes it easy to follow and understand.

This could include using headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up the text into more manageable pieces. In addition, it should have a clear flow of ideas, with each paragraph logically leading to the next.

Effective Conclusion

Finally, a good argumentative essay should have an effective conclusion. This should provide a summary of the writer's main points and reiterate their position on the issue. The conclusion should also leave readers with something to think about, leaving them informed and with new insight.

After reading our list, don’t be surprised if your mind starts coming up with additional topics for an argumentative essay. We recommend that you keep a notebook or journal handy to record these topic ideas for later.

These were some of the most interesting essay topics . Did you find a topic to write on?

Now, before you overwhelm yourself by jumping straight to the writing process, we have a helpful tip for you. Go through this detailed article to learn how to craft an argumentative essay effectively.

Seeking help from professionals is nothing to be ashamed of, especially when your grades are at stake. It is quite common for some students not to have a knack for writing. Also, some might not have the time to complete assignments.

If you can relate to such students, you should consider taking help from a reliable essay writing service such as 5StarEssays.com . You can simply request ‘ write my essay '. And we will have an expert essay writer to provide you with high-quality assignments regardless of type and field.

Or, use our AI Essay Generator , for AI powered writing help to guide your way!

Masters Essay, Literature

Jared P. is a renowned author and writing service provider with over fifteen years of experience in the publishing industry. He has a Ph.D. degree in English Literature and has spent his entire career helping students achieve their academic goals by providing expert writing assistance.

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100+ Strong Argumentative Essay Topics & Ideas for 2023

The purpose of any learning institution is to develop the students’ ability to reason critically and help them express their thoughts easily. The best way to achieve this is to give students essays. Writing essays is a path every student will go through in their academic career.

Due to the need to write essays, searches like “Good topics to write an argumentative essay on” or “What are some good argumentative essay topics?” are some of the most popular on Google. It’s no secret that without the best argumentative essay topics, your essay may not get the best grade. Whether it’s argumentative essay topics for middle school PDF or issues for argumentative essay college, you can find some inspiration with our 100 topics to do an argumentative essay on. Here we go!

Argumentative Essay Topics for High School

Education argumentative essay topics, psychology argumentative essay topics, political argumentative essay topics, 6th grade argumentative essay topics, 7th grade argumentative essay topics, 8th grade argumentative essay topics, social justice argumentative essay topics.

Argumentative Essay Topics on Health Care

Video Games Argumentative Essay Topics

Argumentative essay topics for students, argumentative essay topics for freshman, argumentative essay topics about music, argumentative essay topics related to sports, food argumentative essay topics, philosophy argumentative essay topics, immigration argumentative essay topics, medical argumentative essay topics, technology argumentative essay topics, black lives matter argumentative essay topics.

Teenagers must develop argumentative persuasive essay topics to help them write well-researched essays. To make writing fun, students should develop interesting argumentative essay topics. Here are some school argumentative essay topics for teenagers.

Should high schoolers wear uniforms?
Videogames are bad for teenagers; discuss
Who is a great leader to you?
Should P.E. be made optional?
When is it time to talk about sex education in school?

It’s hard coming up with argumentative essay topics about education when you don’t know what you’re writing about. Whether it is topics for argumentative essay middle school or education argumentative essay topics, you should figure out which side of the discussion you stand on. Here are some argumentative essay topics for 2020.

Should education be free?
How certain video games make students violent in school.
How helpful is the internet to students in school?
Effective ways of eliminating bullying in school.
Ways which technology has enhanced learning in schools.

Finding suitable argumentative essay topics about mental health or psychology argumentative essay topics can be challenging due to the topic’s broadness. Luckily, you can find 401 argumentative essay topics on psychology below.

What are the causes of suicidal actions?
Social development in the various stages of childhood
What causes false memories?
Symptoms and solutions to eating disorders.
Ways of helping children with learning difficulties.

Coming up with good argumentative essay topics for middle school or argumentative essay topics for college students essay regarding politics is complicated. However, with practical political issues like the ones listed below, you should have enough material to write about.

Impact of the WW2 on global politics
Is war a political decision?
How effective has the U.N. been in the 21 st century?
Should privacy be considered over national security?
How Ukraine’s Russian war influences global politics.

Below are some argumentative essay topics for 6 th grade meant to help students grow their writing skills. These fun argumentative essay topics for middle school or good argumentative essay topics for middle schools are simple to develop ideas to research and write about. Here are some of the most accessible argumentative essay topics below.

Different types of environmental pollution
How important are sports in school?
How to practice good time management
Disadvantages of eating junk food to the body
Importance of children having role models.

The best way of coming up with topics for argumentative essays in high school or good argumentative essay topics for middle school is to pick those that generate discussions. It’s important to note that argumentative essay topics for 7 th graders are different from narrative essays and thus require more practice and research. Whether they’re topics about current events or argumentative essay topics about animals, you can find some examples below.

Students shouldn’t watch reality T.V. shows.
The U.S. government should make English its official language
Does pop culture influence teenagers negatively?
Should the internet be censored in schools?
Should religion be taught in American schools?

When students join 8 th grade, one of the first activities they conduct is writing essays. This means they have to develop high school argumentative essay topics or argumentative essay topics for teenagers. If you’re searching what are some good topics for an argumentative essay or research argumentative essay topics on the internet, here are some below.

Is there too much pressure on students to join college?
Cellphones should be banned in schools; discuss
The advantages and disadvantages of social media
Should bullying in school be criminalized?
Ways of picking out colleges

The term social justice looks simple but selecting a social justice argumentative essay topic is problematic due to the subtopics the subject carries. Topics for an argumentative essay, such as gender violence, need to be clear to know how to go about the article. Here are some of the issues below.

Effects of fat-shaming on social media
Discuss the challenges convicts face in the job market
Is colorism the new racism?
Labor laws are not fair; discuss

Argumentative Essay Topics on Health Care

What are some good topics for an argumentative essay regarding health care? The answer to this question may be more complex than you think due to the vast subject. Make sure to select a contentious essay topic on health care that will be relevant to your study. Here are some controversial argumentative essay topics for 2021.

Discuss the barriers to health services for African Americans
How has health care changed over the last decade?
Discuss the advantages of public health
Discuss the challenges of healthcare in the U.S.
What are the advantages of health care to you?

Selecting good topics to write about for an argumentative essay is challenging for subjects like video games. Luckily finding the right middle school argumentative essay topics is made more accessible due to the following topic examples below.

Violent V.R. games make children violent; discuss
Should video games be allowed in schools?
Do video games make children less social?
How young should children be introduced to video games?
Disadvantages of playing video games for too long.

Practicing how to write argumentative essays for teenagers begins by selecting argumentative essay topics for elementary school or argumentative persuasive essay topics. Whether history argumentative essay topics or environmental essay topics, the subject chosen must be simple to understand; below are some argumentative essay topics about social media.

Should the drinking age be raised?
Should students choose their teachers?
Is homework effective?
Should drug tests be done on students?
Discuss the importance of voting.

College argumentative essay topics are much more advanced than controversial topics for argumentative essays for high schoolers. That’s because the argumentative essay topics college 2021 chosen at this stage need to be unique. Here are some of the argumentative essay topics for college.

Would legalizing the death penalty reduce crime?
Should the voting age be lowered?
Should free speech be limited?
Should the government stop spying on citizens?
Advantages of making health carefree

One way of coming up with music argumentative essay topics is by relating them to today’s music culture. Whether you’re searching for 200 argumentative essay topics New York Times or small argumentative essay topics, go through various topics to find inspiration for your case. Here are some examples below.

Should music be classified racially?
Is classical music relevant in the modern era?
Discuss ways music has been a unifying factor.
What is the most significant music genre of all time?
How does hip hop influence cultural practices?

Besides having sports argumentative essay topics or fun argumentative essay topics, you should remember to support your points with points from your research. Here are some argumentative essay topics for 2021 college.

College athletes should get paid; discuss
Who is the most outstanding athlete in history? LeBron James or Tom Brady
How dangerous is pro football?
Are athletes good role models?
Should E-sports be classified as real sports?

Argumentative essay topics for students about food are pretty broad. Thus when coming up with argumentative essay topics, college begins with a question that directs to the subject you’re discussing. Please consider the following argumentative essay topics 2021

Advantages of a vegetarian diet.
Discuss the different types of food allergies
Are genetically modified foods suitable for consumption?
How do fast foods cause obesity in children
How long should you store certain foods?

When coming up with topics to write an argumentative essay, it’s essential to avoid issues that don’t raise any debate. Additionally, essay argumentative essay topics should address current events. Here are some excellent argumentative essay topics for 2021

Science and religion are not compatible; discuss
How does the belief in a deity change a person?
Are people evil or good by nature?
Are people born or made leaders?
Argue for or against violent resistance

Argumentative essay topics centered on immigration are sensitive. Thus, topics for argumentative essays on such subjects need you to pick a side. Such research-based argumentative essay topics are also suitable for dissertations.

Here are some essay argumentative topics you can consider.

Immigrants from Islamic countries shouldn’t be allowed in the country; discuss
Discuss the Australian immigration policies
How the Russian invasion of Ukraine influences immigration policies.
Does immigration increase terrorism activities?
Should immigrants be recognized as U.S. citizens?

The medical profession is a broad topic, and searching for mental health argumentative essay topics is not as simple as it looks. When choosing the best nursing argumentative essay topics or abortion argumentative essay topics, narrow down to a specific subject to avoid getting overwhelmed. Here are some health argumentative essay topics you can consider.

Signs, symptoms, and ways to treat depression
Various types of mental disorders
How processed foods destroy the human body
Ways to prevent heart diseases
Does marijuana cure specific ailments?

Technology has become crucial in people’s lives and can offer good topics for an argumentative essay. Subjects like social media contentious essay topics can provide sufficient material to write about. Here are some argumentative essay topics for college students.

How the Metaverse will influence social interaction
Robots should not have artificial intelligence; discuss
Advantages and disadvantages of technology in school
Is technology making us less social?
How social media causes depression.

Racial profiling and slavery are some of the controversial argumentative essay topics for 2020. Since this is a sensitive topic, thus deep argumentative essay topics or argumentative severe essay topics will be required. Here are some excellent argumentative essay topics you can choose from.

Disadvantages of multiculturalism in the African American community
How has the African American community been racially profiled?
Did George Floyd’s death change the racial profiling African Americans face?
Was the eugenics movement a racist ideology?
Do movements such as Black Lives Matter enhance racial inclusivity?

Let’s Write Interesting Argumentative Essay Topics & Essays for You

What are good topics for an argumentative essay? You now have the answer. Searching for argumentative essay topics for high school, argumentative essay topics for kids, or argumentative essay topics for college should not be a daunting task. The above topics give you an idea of what to write about. But here’s the good news: whenever you need help with writing argumentative topics and essays, feel free to reach out to us.

‘When Normal Life Stopped’: College Essays Reflect a Turbulent Year

This year’s admissions essays became a platform for high school seniors to reflect on the pandemic, race and loss.

By Anemona Hartocollis

This year perhaps more than ever before, the college essay has served as a canvas for high school seniors to reflect on a turbulent and, for many, sorrowful year. It has been a psychiatrist’s couch, a road map to a more hopeful future, a chance to pour out intimate feelings about loneliness and injustice.

In response to a request from The New York Times, more than 900 seniors submitted the personal essays they wrote for their college applications. Reading them is like a trip through two of the biggest news events of recent decades: the devastation wrought by the coronavirus, and the rise of a new civil rights movement.

In the wake of the high-profile deaths of Black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers, students shared how they had wrestled with racism in their own lives. Many dipped their feet into the politics of protest, finding themselves strengthened by their activism, yet sometimes conflicted.

And in the midst of the most far-reaching pandemic in a century, they described the isolation and loss that have pervaded every aspect of their lives since schools suddenly shut down a year ago. They sought to articulate how they have managed while cut off from friends and activities they had cultivated for years.

To some degree, the students were responding to prompts on the applications, with their essays taking on even more weight in a year when many colleges waived standardized test scores and when extracurricular activities were wiped out.

This year the Common App, the nation’s most-used application, added a question inviting students to write about the impact of Covid-19 on their lives and educations. And universities like Notre Dame and Lehigh invited applicants to write about their reactions to the death of George Floyd, and how that inspired them to make the world a better place.

The coronavirus was the most common theme in the essays submitted to The Times, appearing in 393 essays, more than 40 percent. Next was the value of family, coming up in 351 essays, but often in the context of other issues, like the pandemic and race. Racial justice and protest figured in 342 essays.

“We find with underrepresented populations, we have lots of people coming to us with a legitimate interest in seeing social justice established, and they are looking to see their college as their training ground for that,” said David A. Burge, vice president for enrollment management at George Mason University.

Family was not the only eternal verity to appear. Love came up in 286 essays; science in 128; art in 110; music in 109; and honor in 32. Personal tragedy also loomed large, with 30 essays about cancer alone.

Some students resisted the lure of current events, and wrote quirky essays about captaining a fishing boat on Cape Cod or hosting dinner parties. A few wrote poetry. Perhaps surprisingly, politics and the 2020 election were not of great interest.

Most students expect to hear where they were admitted by the end of March or beginning of April. Here are excerpts from a few of the essays, edited for length.

Nandini Likki

Nandini, a senior at the Seven Hills School in Cincinnati, took care of her father after he was hospitalized with Covid-19. It was a “harrowing” but also rewarding time, she writes.

When he came home, my sister and I had to take care of him during the day while my mom went to work. We cooked his food, washed his dishes, and excessively cleaned the house to make sure we didn’t get the disease as well.

It was an especially harrowing time in my life and my mental health suffered due to the amount of stress I was under.

However, I think I grew emotionally and matured because of the experience. My sister and I became more responsible as we took on more adult roles in the family. I grew even closer to my dad and learned how to bond with him in different ways, like using Netflix Party to watch movies together. Although the experience isolated me from most of my friends who couldn’t relate to me, my dad’s illness taught me to treasure my family even more and cherish the time I spend with them.

Nandini has been accepted at Case Western and other schools.

Grace Sundstrom

Through her church in Des Moines, Grace, a senior at Roosevelt High School, began a correspondence with Alden, a man who was living in a nursing home and isolated by the pandemic.

As our letters flew back and forth, I decided to take a chance and share my disgust about the treatment of people of color at the hands of police officers. To my surprise, Alden responded with the same sentiments and shared his experience marching in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Here we were, two people generations apart, finding common ground around one of the most polarizing subjects in American history.

When I arrived at my first Black Lives Matter protest this summer, I was greeted by the voices of singing protesters. The singing made me think of a younger Alden, stepping off the train at Union Station in Washington, D.C., to attend the 1963 March on Washington.

Grace has been admitted to Trinity University in San Antonio and is waiting to hear from others.

Ahmed AlMehri

Ahmed, who attends the American School of Kuwait, wrote of growing stronger through the death of his revered grandfather from Covid-19.

Fareed Al-Othman was a poet, journalist and, most importantly, my grandfather. Sept. 8, 2020, he fell victim to Covid-19. To many, he’s just a statistic — one of the “inevitable” deaths. But to me, he was, and continues to be, an inspiration. I understand the frustration people have with the restrictions, curfews, lockdowns and all of the tertiary effects of these things.

But I, personally, would go through it all a hundred times over just to have my grandfather back.

For a long time, things felt as if they weren’t going to get better. Balancing the grief of his death, school and the upcoming college applications was a struggle; and my stress started to accumulate. Covid-19 has taken a lot from me, but it has forced me to grow stronger and persevere. I know my grandfather would be disappointed if I had let myself use his death as an excuse to slack off.

Ahmed has been accepted by the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Miami and is waiting to hear from others.

Mina Rowland

Mina, who lives in a shelter in San Joaquin County, Calif., wrote of becoming homeless in middle school.

Despite every day that I continue to face homelessness, I know that I have outlets for my pain and anguish.

Most things that I’ve had in life have been destroyed, stolen, lost, or taken, but art and poetry shall be with me forever.

The stars in “Starry Night” are my tenacity and my hope. Every time I am lucky enough to see the stars, I am reminded of how far I’ve come and how much farther I can go.

After taking a gap year, Mina and her twin sister, Mirabell, have been accepted at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and are waiting on others.

Christine Faith Cabusay

Christine, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in New York, decided to break the isolation of the pandemic by writing letters to her friends.

How often would my friends receive something in the mail that was not college mail, a bill, or something they ordered online? My goal was to make opening a letter an experience. I learned calligraphy and Spencerian script so it was as if an 18th-century maiden was writing to them from her parlor on a rainy day.

Washing lines in my yard held an ever-changing rainbow of hand-recycled paper.

With every letter came a painting of something that I knew they liked: fandoms, animals, music, etc. I sprayed my favorite perfume on my signature on every letter because I read somewhere that women sprayed perfume on letters overseas to their partners in World War II; it made writing letters way more romantic (even if it was just to my close friends).

Christine is still waiting to hear from schools.

Alexis Ihezue

Her father’s death from complications of diabetes last year caused Alexis, a student at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Lawrenceville, Ga., to consider the meaning of love.

And in the midst of my grief swallowing me from the inside out, I asked myself when I loved him most, and when I knew he loved me. It’s nothing but brief flashes, like bits and pieces of a dream. I hear him singing “Fix You” by Coldplay on our way home, his hands across the table from me at our favorite wing spot that we went to weekly after school, him driving me home in the middle of a rainstorm, his last message to me congratulating me on making it to senior year.

It’s me finding a plastic spoon in the sink last week and remembering the obnoxious way he used to eat. I see him in bursts and flashes.

A myriad of colors and experiences. And I think to myself, ‘That’s what it is.’ It’s a second. It’s a minute. That’s what love is. It isn’t measured in years, but moments.

Alexis has been accepted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is waiting on others.

Ivy Wanjiku

She and her mother came to America “with nothing but each other and $100,” writes Ivy, who was born in Kenya and attends North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Ga.

I am a triple threat. Foreign, black, female. From the dirt roads and dust that covered the attire of my ancestors who worshiped the soil, I have sprouted new beginnings for generations.

But the question arises; will that generation live to see its day?

Melanin mistaken as a felon, my existence is now a hashtag that trends as often as my rights, a facade at best, a lie in truth. I now know more names of dead blacks than I do the amendments of the Constitution.

Ivy is going to Emory University in Atlanta on full scholarship and credits her essay with helping her get in.

Mary Clare Marshall

The isolation of the pandemic became worse when Mary Clare, a student at Sacred Heart Greenwich in Connecticut, realized that her mother had cancer.

My parents acted like everything was normal, but there were constant reminders of her diagnosis. After her first chemo appointment, I didn’t acknowledge the change. It became real when she came downstairs one day without hair.

No one said anything about the change. It just happened. And it hit me all over again. My mom has cancer.

Even after going to Catholic school for my whole life, I couldn’t help but be angry at God. I felt myself experiencing immense doubt in everything I believe in. Unable to escape my house for any small respite, I felt as though I faced the reality of my mom’s cancer totally alone.

Mary Clare has been admitted to the University of Virginia and is waiting on other schools.

Nora Frances Kohnhorst

Nora, a student at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in New York, was always “a serial dabbler,” but found commitment in a common pandemic hobby.

In March, when normal life stopped, I took up breadmaking. This served a practical purpose. The pandemic hit my neighborhood in Queens especially hard, and my parents were afraid to go to the store. This forced my family to come up with ways to avoid shopping. I decided I would learn to make sourdough using recipes I found online. Initially, some loaves fell flat, others were too soft inside, and still more spread into strange blobs.

I reminded myself that the bread didn’t need to be perfect, just edible.

It didn’t matter what it looked like; there was no one to see or eat it besides my brother and parents. They depended on my new activity, and that dependency prevented me from repeating the cycle of trying a hobby, losing steam, and moving on to something new.

Nora has been admitted to SUNY Binghamton and the University of Vermont and is waiting to hear from others.

Gracie Yong Ying Silides

Gracie, a student at Greensboro Day School in North Carolina, recalls the “red thread” of a Chinese proverb and wonders where it will take her next.

Destiny has led me into a mysterious place these last nine months: isolation. At a time in my life when I am supposed to be branching out, the Covid pandemic seems to have trimmed those branches back to nubs. I have had to research colleges without setting foot on them. I’ve introduced myself to strangers through essays, videos, and test scores.

I would have fallen apart over this if it weren’t for my faith.

In Hebrews 11:1, Paul says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” My life has shown me that the red thread of destiny guides me where I need to go. Though it might sound crazy, I trust that the red thread is guiding me to the next phase of my journey.

Gracie has been accepted to St. Olaf College, Ithaca College and others.

Levi, a student at Westerville Central High School in Ohio, wrestles with the conflict between her admiration for her father, a police officer, and the negative image of the police.

Since I was a small child I have watched my father put on his dark blue uniform to go to work protecting and serving others. He has always been my hero. As the African-American daughter of a police officer, I believe in what my father stands for, and I am so proud of him because he is not only my protector, but the protector of those I will likely never know. When I was young, I imagined him always being a hero to others, just as he was to me. How could anyone dislike him??? However, as I have gotten older and watched television and social media depict the brutalization of African-Americans, at the hands of police, I have come to a space that is uncomfortable.

I am certain there are others like me — African-Americans who love their police officer family members, yet who despise what the police are doing to African-Americans.

I know that I will not be able to rectify this problem alone, but I want to be a part of the solution where my paradox no longer exists.

Levi has been accepted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and is waiting to hear from others.

Henry Thomas Egan

When Henry, a student at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, attended a protest after the death of George Floyd, it was the words of a Nina Simone song that stayed with him.

I had never been to a protest before; neither my school, nor my family, nor my city are known for being outspoken. Thousands lined the intersection in all four directions, chanting, “He couldn’t breathe! George Floyd couldn’t breathe!”

In my head, thoughts of hunger, injustice, and silence swirled around.

In my ears, I heard lyrics playing on a speaker nearby, a song by Nina Simone: “To be young, gifted, and Black!” The experience was exceptionally sad and affirming and disorienting at the same time, and when the police arrived and started firing tear gas, I left. A lot has happened in my life over these last four years. I am left not knowing how to sort all of this out and what paths I should follow.

Henry has not yet heard back from colleges.

Anna Valades

Anna, a student at Coronado High School in California, pondered how children learned racism from their parents.

“She said I wasn’t invited to her birthday party because I was black,” my sister had told my mom, devastated, after coming home from third grade as the only classmate who had not been invited to the party. Although my sister is not black, she is a dark-skinned Mexican, and brown-skinned people in Mexico are thought of as being a lower class and commonly referred to as “negros.” When my mom found out who had been discriminating against my sister, she later informed me that the girl’s mother had also bullied my mom about her skin tone when she was in elementary school in Mexico City.

Through this situation, I learned the impact people’s upbringing and the values they are taught at home have on their beliefs and, therefore, their actions.

Anna has been accepted at Northeastern University and is waiting to hear from others.

Research was contributed by Asmaa Elkeurti, Aidan Gardiner, Pierre-Antoine Louis and Jake Frankenfield.

Anemona Hartocollis is a national correspondent, covering higher education. She is also the author of the book, “Seven Days of Possibilities: One Teacher, 24 Kids, and the Music That Changed Their Lives Forever.” More about Anemona Hartocollis

2021 Current Events

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Below is a list of predicted IELTS essay topics for Writing Task 2 based on topics that have appeared recently, current world events and common topics that frequently appear in IELTS essays. Both GT and Academic IELTS candidates should prepare all topics from this list. On this page, you will find: Tips for Preparing Essays; Essay Topics 2021 List
Top 25 Essay topics for 2021
2. To what extent is the use of animals in scientific research acceptable? 3. Are actors and professional athletes paid too much? 4. Zoos are sometimes seen as necessary but not poor alternatives to a natural environment. Discuss some of the arguments for and/or against keeping animals in zoos. 5. Is fashion important?
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Argumentative Essay Topics Education. Parents should have an active role in their child's education. The grading system shouldn't exist to judge a student's abilities. Standardized tests should be abolished in schools. All students must wear a uniform in high school.
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When coming up with topics to write an argumentative essay, it's essential to avoid issues that don't raise any debate. Additionally, essay argumentative essay topics should address current events. Here are some excellent argumentative essay topics for 2021. Science and religion are not compatible; discuss
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2021 Current Events. When people are searching the web for current events summaries they can trust, they almost always end up on Infoplease.com. View captivating images and news briefs about critical government decisions, medical discoveries, technology breakthroughs and more.