When instructors assign a research paper without assigning you a topic as well, it can sometimes be hard to narrow the wide world of potential topics down to something arguable. Try these.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS and ETHICS

• overpopulation (effects, projections, statistics, relation to climate change)
• domestic violence
• global warming, climate change (stats, projections)
• child abuse, elder abuse
• racism
• sexism
• health care reform
• cheating (in school, on taxes, in marriage, in political campaigns)
• terrorism (causes: political, domestic, international)
• poverty (efforts to abolish)
• prison reform
• immigration problems (education, jobs, language, acceptance)
• religious cults
• attacks on school texts, libraries, (education, legal)
• ethics in business and in school
• religion vs politics (government)
• right of adoptive parents vs rights of natural parents
• censoring books, censoring on the internet
• US intervention in developing countries

HEALTH AND MEDICINE

• medical research (cancer, diabetes, MS, spinal cord injuries)
• selecting the appropriate/best treatments for addiction (drugs, alcohol)
• organic food (regulations, benefits)
• chemical sensitivity
• fine particle pollution and its effects
• air pollution and health
• ways to identify or prevent nursing home abuses
• artificial sweeteners, the safe and the unsafe
• alcoholism in college (patterns, avoidance)
• mental illness (treatment of patients, stigma, hospitals, halfway houses, the homeless, or diseases like phobias, schizophrenia, autism, manic depression)
• treatment/recognition of Post traumatic Stress Syndrome in military veterans
• disposal of waste (medical, nuclear)
•  HIV treatments
• eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia, compulsive overeating)
• alternative health care (vitamins, herbal remedies, homeopathic, acupuncture)

LAW

• civil rights
• human rights violations
• immigration, illegal immigrants and the law,
• rights of the disabled
• conflict resolution/mediation instead of lawsuits
• sexual harassment in the workplace
• laws concerning daycare facilities/workers
• treatment of juveniles by the courts
• influence of lobbyists
• internet and copyright laws
• courts – should children be tried as adults
• gay marriage, gay rights, gays in military
• raising the age for a driver license to 21 years old
• racial profiling
• police violence

EDUCATION

• illiteracy in the United States
• TV’s effects on children
• education and income
• sex education in high school, in middle school
• academic failure of American public schools
• hazing
• Ebonics/English as “national language”
• prayer in public schools
• technology in education
• internet (virtual college)
• education as a business (Sylvan Learning)
• public vs. private education
• educating special populations (ADD; ADHD, physical, mental, or emotional handicaps, autism, etc)
• value of preschool education
• differences in the treatment of male and female students

GOVERNMENT

• regulation of auto industry to control air pollution and global warming, funding public transportation
• space stations (their purpose the costs)
• import/export quotas
• government vs. private industry
• tax reform
• elections/voting
• media treatment of political candidates
• space exploration (dangers, important or waste of money, defense)
• building on hurricane prone beaches/insurance/tax payer’s burden

GENERAL

• alternative energy (renewable energy sources, solar energy, wind, methane, etc)
• working parents (pros and cons)
• advertising (subliminal, effects of TV advertising on children, the truth in)
• humor (what makes people laugh, how different cultures view humor)
• the family farm
• China – the one-child policy
• computers (fraud, dating, networking)
• the aging population (medical, legal, social, pets and the elderly, special needs)
• women’s sports (equality in money, prestige, media coverage, standards vs. men)
• rehabilitation (prisoners, mental illness, abusers)
• wage gaps between males and females
• teenage sexual behavior
• street people (medical, legal, social)
• influence of new technology on society
• art/music on the mentally ill
• adoption (domestic/foreign, agency/private – legal, ethical)
• violence in professional sports
• road rage (fines, accidents, reporting by citizens to police)
• chemical fertilizers (effects on crops, health, food supply, environment, water)
• beach erosion, preservation (Eastern Shore of Maryland, Ocean City)
• earthquake readiness in California (or any natural disaster prevention, preparation, recovery, long-range effects)
• biological weapons, germ warfare
• Chesapeake Bay pollution issues, vanishing watermen/farmers
• airline safety
• weather (trends, predictions, accuracy)
• items/trends/institutions that represent our society
• endangered species
• national Parks (misuse, too much land set aside)
• athletes’ income
• cloned plants as food
• resurgence of smoking in teenagers