Depending on the grade level, persuasive essays concerning sweatshops and the use of child labor in the developing world can be approached at different levels of complexity. A middle school essay might be titled, "Child Labor Should Be Abolished," while a high school student may support the view, "U.S. Corporations Should Be Banned from Contracting With Foreign Sweatshops." Conversely, a student may choose to write a persuasive essay that argues that banning sweatshops may increase costs to the consumer.
Students can choose to write a persuasive essay concerning a local development project currently under consideration by their city or county government. Keep in mind that students will be more likely to write effective essays if the project under consideration will affect them in some way. They can choose to advocate for the project as proposed, advocate for specified changes or advocate against the project.
There are compelling debates concerning how and where we choose to invest resources to meet our energy consumption needs. In May 2011, Germany decided to close down all of its nuclear power plants by 2022 while the U.S. government decided to continue its support of nuclear power. There may be a current local issue concerning energy and environment in your area that would make an interesting persuasive essay topic.
There are many cognitive and cultural benefits of being bilingual for both children and adults, yet foreign language programs are among the first to be cut when school districts face budget cuts. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2050 Hispanics will constitute 30 percent of the population in the United States. In addition, the top ten languages used on the Internet (in order of use) are English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Arabic, French, Russian and Korean. Ask students to research the pros and cons of requiring bilingual education in kindergarten through the 12th grade, take a position and defend it in their persuasive essay.
There are passionate advocates on both sides of the debate about the use of the death penalty. Some believe it is inhumane and a denial of basic human rights while others believe it is both a just punishment and a necessary deterrent to serious crime. The issue of capital punishment is further complicated by the possibility that an innocent person may be executed as a result of a wrongful conviction. Human error, dishonest witnesses, corruption of government officials and advances in DNA evidence collection are all factors that should be considered in relation to this issue before taking a position to defend in a persuasive essay.