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 in order to persuade an audience. The writer takes a stand on the issue, presenting different sides of the debate and ultimately coming down on one side.

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 informative essay without factual evidence is just opinion.