Wherever you live, whatever college you attend, whatever discipline is your major, and whatever year of study you are currently at, you will face a research paper writing assignment anyway. You probably have already written essays where you had to use your analytical skills. But you could have made a wrong guess and chosen a wrong topic, which didn’t let you demonstrate your ability to research. Is this why you are looking for research essay topics now, or do you simply lack inspiration right now? Don’t worry; you will find some excellent topic ideas below.

Still, before you read them and choose the best one, make sure you understand what is required from you with this essay type.

What is a Research Essay?

Having a clear idea of what a research paper is, you will surely be able to create a good piece of writing. So, this type of essay requires you to pick a topic, investigate it, and present the findings. Plainly put, you ask a question at the beginning of the work, answer it during the process of researching, and tell the reader the answer you have found.

Working on such an essay, you have to seriously approach the issue of finding sources to use. How are you going to conduct a research? Where will you be looking for the information? Basically, there are three places you can start your search at:

• Local library.
  Any library is a huge database of material on different topics, which means you will definitely find a book or a magazine with an article on yours. Also, college libraries collect published papers of other students, which you can have as examples. Don’t be too humble to ask a librarian to show you where the sources useful for your research might be.
• The Web.
  Online libraries, educational portals, and blogs related to the topic of academic writing can serve as valuable sources too. Today search engines make the search easier than ever. You just type your request in a text field and get plenty of results according to your keyword.
  A secret tip: if you don’t want your paper to look similar to the paper written by your groupmate, don’t use typical keywords and try different phrases to get even more of various results.
• In case you didn’t manage to find some information in a library and online, you can always address your professor to recommend you particular literature. Also, you may ask your mates about their search methods. Finally, you can turn to professional essay writing services for help and get not only a consultation and useful tips but also an entire paper written by a qualified writer.

The availability of information is very important when it comes to selecting a topic. So, when you have some ideas on your mind, visit the library or try searching online to make certain that you will find the literature to base your research and reasoning around. Now that you have a vision of how the writing process goes, it’s time to think about the topic.

Tips for finding a great topic

A simple secret to making up a topic that will get you an “A” grade is to find a broad topic you are familiar with well enough and narrow it to something you are an expert in. You should always come up with topic ideas that interest you personally:

• Write down several subjects of your interest.
• Take each topic one by one and think it over.
• Ask yourself if you feel you can research it deeply and develop the reasoning around it.
• Decide which one is the most interesting for you and which one has a potential of being well researched.
• Start researching it and break it down into more specific topics.
• Think about each smaller aspect and again choose the one that is closer to the circle of your interests.
• Find paper samples written on the topic you have selected and make sure you can give the reader some new information or reveal the topic in a new light.
• Look for the sources and check out if there’s enough information to rely on.
• Start writing an essay.

An ultimate List of research essay ideas to get started

Are you sick of the same old research paper topics, e.g. drunk driving or ban on smartphones in schools? Don’t worry – your professors are not less sick of them than you are. Therefore, you shouldn’t be afraid to come up with a more creative idea.

Since the purpose of writing a research paper is both to show your research skills and to provide some new information about the topic, it’s quite reasonable to step away from the issues traditionally discussed. Actually, you will hardly manage to write anything interesting about gun control or drug legalization. Even if you do, this will be somewhere between a few lines and a few paragraphs. But an essay requires at least several pages; it depends on the requirements of your professor. So, make up a topic your professor will find interesting and original.

• Local problems
  It’s a great idea to choose a subject that relates to the problems of your community. These can be recent media scandals, political elections, social problems in your area, actual problems in your college or university.
• Environmental issues
  Step aside from global warming and GMO. Is building eco-cities a good idea, how can you make your own city sustainable, and will there be the real use for the environment?
• Social problems
  Why do young people fail to receive their education and get expelled from colleges and schools? Research the rights of youth concerning medical issues or identity theft and its effects.
• Law and crime
  This field is rather complicated to research because of the specific lexis and difficult terms. You can study the prison system in different countries and write about circumstances that the imprisoned people live in. Or approach the child crime issues and common methods of reducing child crime rates.
• Ideas in media
  Study and provide new insights into the connection between social media profiles and self-esteem. Or dwell upon the abundance of advertisements all over the Web – is it okay to use anti-advertisement apps, should we fight for an ad-free Web?

Hopefully, these ideas will lead you in the right direction to find the most suitable subject to research for your essay.