Food for Thought
When writing on controversial issues, exercise caution when considering a topic that has the potential to be overdone. Issues such as gun control, abortion, corporal punishment, etc. have been written about so much for so long that it may be difficult to find something new to add to the conversation. Here are a few databases that have extensive browse for topic features:
- Issues and Controversies This link opens in a new window
Issues and Controversies is the place to go to prepare for a debate, discussion, research paper, or persuasive writing assignment. This database explores more than 800 hot topics in business, politics, government, education, and popular culture.
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Opposing Viewpoints in Context is a rich resource for debaters and includes viewpoints, reference articles, infographics, news, images, video, audio, and more. This database centers on the key social issues of our time.
- Points of View Reference Center This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Points of View Reference Center contains many topics, each with an overview (objective background/description), point (argument) and counterpoint (opposing argument). For each topic, this database also offers a Guide to Critical Analysis, which helps the reader evaluate the controversial topics.
Controversial Issues
- Abortion
- Abstinence only education
- Affirmative Action
- Alternative medicine
- America's global influence
- Animal Testing
- Artificial intelligence
- Assisted suicide
- Atheism
- Bilingual education
- Biofuels
- Book banning
- Capital punishment
- Censorship
- Charter schools
- Childhood obesity
- Civil rights
- Climate change
- Cloning
- Concealed weapons
- Cryptocurrency
- Cyber bullying
- Death penalty
- Drug legalization
- Eating disorders
- Energy crisis
- Ethnic Adoption
- Extremism
- Factory farming
- Foreign aid
- Fracking
- Freedom of speech
- Gay rights
- Genetic Cloning
- Genetic engineering
- Hacking
- Health insurance
- Human Trafficking
- Identity theft
- Immigration
- Labor unions
- Local food movement
- Mandatory National Service
- Minimum wage
- Nuclear energy
- Organic food
- Offshore drilling
- Outsourcing
- Plastic Surgery
- Polygamy
- Privacy
- Racial profiling
- Recreational Marijuana
- Recycling
- Roe v. Wade
- School safety
- School uniforms
- Second Amendment
- Self-defense laws
- Self-driving cars
- Sex education
- Social security
- Standardized testing
- Student Loan Debt
- Stem cells
- Sweatshops
- Title IX
- Urban agriculture
- Vaccines
- Violence in the media
- Women's rights
- Zero tolerance policies
- Zoos
Current Events
- 2020 Census
- Affordable Care Act
- Afghanistan crisis
- Alt-right
- Arming teachers
- Bitcoin
- Black Lives Matter
- Brazil political crisis
- Concealed weapons
- Confederate memorials
- COVID-19 vaccines & mandates
- Cybersecurity
- DACA
- Electoral College
- Equal Rights Amendment
- FARC
- Federal interest rates
- Filibuster
- Gender nutral restrooms
- Gerrymandering
- Government shut down
- Hate speech
- Health insurance
- Hydraulic fracturing (fracking)
- Immigration
- Impeachment
- Internet privacy
- ISIS
- Iran nuclear deal
- Islamophobia
- Lethal Injections
- Marijuana legalization
- Mass incarceration
- Mass shooting
- Medical Devices
- Me Too movement
- Migrant crisis
- Minimum wage
- Mueller Report
- Net neutrality
- North Dakota Access Pipeline
- North Korea
- Paris Climate Agreement
- Planned Parenthood
- Poverty gap
- Prescription drug addiction
- Racism in America
- Refugee crisis
- Russian hacking
- Sanctuary city
- School safety
- School violence
- Sexual assault on campus
- Super PACs
- Supreme Court Justice oversight
- Syrian civil war
- Transgender rights
- Trump, Donald
- UK leaving EU (Brexit)
- Vaccination
- Voter fraud
- Voting laws
- Warehouse Working Conditions (Amazon, UPS, Walmart)
- Wildfires
- White nationalism