10 Prompts to help you succeed with Academic Writing

One of the most difficult things about writing essays can be thinking of what to write about in the first place. The following is a list of writing prompts which can be used for academic writing. The ideas suggested can be used as they are, or they can be fine-tuned to be more appropriate for the style of essay that needs to be written. Either way, they can potentially prove to be useful and help to give some good ideas to creating a piece of academic writing.

1. Outline supporting arguments for and against the existence of global warming and whether or not it is a man-made problem and, if so, how much is the human race to blame.
2. Explain how the music industry is attempting to overcome the problems of piracy, including strategies and new technology that is aimed at encouraging consumers to pay for music rather than downloading it for free.
3. Choose an influential figure from the past and detail how they have impacted on the world today and what changes occurred as a result of them.
4. Describe the problems the world faces as a result of the obesity epidemic, using evidence to describe how important it is that governments attempt to tackle it or risk creating a ticking time-bomb that could have devastating impact in the future.
5. Pick three inventions and use evidence to argue as to why they are the most significant to the world as we know it today.
6. Give an overview of how the internet has come to dominate modern life, including everything from work, communication and leisure activities. Include positives and negatives that have resulted by the emergence of the web.
7. Outline the possibilities of a third world war ever occurring, and explain how different it could be in comparison to the first two world wars.
8. Describe the pros and cons of vegetarianism, outlining that whilst not eating meat prevents an animal from being raised in poor conditions, it also takes away the animals right to life in the first place if it does not need to be bred to be eaten.
9. Discuss whether or not abortion should be allowed, and whether it is right or wrong to deny a woman the right to choose, especially if there are extenuating circumstances.
10. Discuss whether or not the war on drugs can ever be won or whether or not it would be more beneficial to use a different approach, such as legalising drugs. Discuss the benefits and drawbacks to legalising drugs, as well as indicating whether or not all drugs should be included or whether certain drugs should never be legalised.