Marijuana use -- even for medicinal purposes -- is a controversial topic steeped heavily in personal morals and virtues. Because marijuana is controversial in our modern society, it is a common argumentative topic. Debating such a topic, however, requires solid reasoning or appeal to emotion with facts and statistics to back up the author's claims.
The rise of the Internet has created an uproar of people arguing over what is right and what is wrong. The music industry has faced rampant pirating of popular artists' recordings, with some arguing in favor of the the artists' intellectual property and others in favor of the pirates' right to share songs they purchased with their friends. An argument essay is capable of clearly defining what intellectual property is and what piracy is in order to back up the essay's claims.
Since Roger Ebert made his infamous comments in his Sun-Times blog April 16, 2010, regarding video games as a static form with no means of artistic expression, gamers everywhere have jumped up from their couches to defend their beloved pastime. Recently, the National Endowment for the Arts (nea.gov) proposed that video games are indeed an art form and are eligible for the group's grant of up to $200,000. Still, many people contest against video games as an art form, and the topic continues to offer a highly debatable argument.
This topic has been a hotbed for discussion since President George W. Bush directed the military to invade Iraq in 2003. Eight years later, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to spark controversy. Debating the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can be done from a logical viewpoint by citing statistics such as the financial burden it has on America, or from an emotional viewpoint by discussing civilian causalities and the effects war has on the indigenous population.