Getting Started on a Research Project

Research is a process

The subpages on informative and persuasive topics offer starting places for generating, testing, and developing research topic ideas. 

Exploring ideas helps you:

• Find topics that interest you and meet the requirements of your assignment
• Test the topic in academic library databases to be sure you can find the appropriate sources.
• Take a broad initial interest and hone it into a researchable topic. That might mean slightly adjusting a topic to make it more academic, taking an overly broad focus and narrowing it down, or even making a very focused research topic slightly broader.

Topics for informative and persuasive essays

Use the pages on informative and persuasive essays to explore a range of resources with topic ideas for informative essays and argumentative essays. Note that many of the resources are the same; it is your approach to writing about the topic that will differ. 

In an Informative Essay the writer explains a topic to educate an audience. Informative essays may explain a cause and effect relationship or how something works, analyze data or a situation, report on issues, debates and events, or take the form of an autobiographical essay. In an informative essay, the writer does not take a stand or argue a position on the topic. 

In a Persuasive or Argument Essay, conversely, the writer presents an informed argument on a topic. The writer takes a stand on the issue, presenting debates and different sides of a debate - and ultimately coming down on one side in order to persuade an audience. 

Keep in Mind: Both informative and argumentative essays require the writer to support their claims with credible information, and that requires research. An argument or an informative essay without factual evidence is just opinion - and is unreliable.