Topic 1- The topic of legalizing marijuana for recreational use has been under consideration for some time now and is gaining traction every day.

If marijuana is to be legalized, what rules and regulations should be set for its retail sale and its use?
In this essay, you may base your arguments on the commonly known rules and regulations that govern the retail sale and use of alcohol and tobacco.

Avoid using legal terms. Keep the essay about 'retail sale' and 'use' only and avoid discussing production or wholesale. Do not make it a legal document. Write for a general audience. Consider the counter argument. Do not discuss medical marijuana.

Topic 2- Should America offer undocumented children free education?

Write the topic from the perspective of America. Consider the consequences, benefits, and cost for America (not the benefits for the children) of allowing or denying those children an education. Cost is not only money, but social issues as well. For example, you may consider what those children will be doing with their time and the repercussions of having this number of illiterate people in America. You may want to think of other issues for allowing or denying children the opportunity to be educated, such as taxpayers' money and so on. Think of the advantages/disadvantages to America, not to the children.

This essay is about America. In other words: Is it better for America to offer or to deny education for undocumented children? The essay has to be written from the American perspective, not from the children's perspective.
Consider the counter argument.

Topic 3- No one knows better about the benefits and risks of carrying a weapon than members of the military. In your opinion, should every person in America carry a gun, or should there be exceptions? Should there be per-requisites, such as training or background checks? If you believe in exceptions, explain who should not carry a gun and why. If you believe that every one should carry a gun, do not write on this topic. This topic is about people who should not carry a gun only.

Your essay has to show your own critical thinking and your own ideas.Talking points that common people repeat should not be reflected in the essay.

Present arguments supported by clear evidence from commonly known events and from common knowledge. Consider the counter argument that everyone should carry with no exceptions.

Topic 4- There have been many inventions that changed the world. Those inventions shaped the lives of people in a new way that made a great impact on people. Some of those inventions are electricity (can you imagine life without electricity?) the automobile, the airplane, the cellular phone, the Internet, the phone, the radio, the television, the refrigerator, and list goes on. Can you imagine life without one of those inventions? Close your eyes and remove every cell phone in the world from its owner. Close your eyes and remove every television set in every house. Close your eyes and forever turn off electricity. What will happen to the world without one of those inventions? How would it look like? How would people live their lives?

Think of one of those inventions listed in the previous paragraph. Write an essay on how it has changed the way people live their every day life.

This essay is not about the benefits of the invention. It is about people. It is about how people's lives changed. One approach is to consider one activity and explain how it was done before and after the invention. When you do that, you make the change clear to the reader.

How can this topic be argumentative: Your thesis statement is a claim: (the invention) changed people's lives in many ways. Now the essay will show the changes and prove its point. For example: The cell phone changed the way people do banking, and so on. 

Counter argument: Think of a bad effect of the invention (in this example, cell phone) Some people claim that the cell phone disrupts family gatherings. A family sits at the dinner table, but they do not talk to each other.... You can come up with your own bad change that the invention has made.

How do you address that? What do you say to those people? You have to either agree (concede) or deny (refute). Remember that when you agree you have to show that it is true, but not very important.

Topic 5- A public place that you have known since you were a child has been changed. For example, a park where you used to play with your friends has been turned into a business building; a school has been renovated; a big department as been replaced by a parking structure. Was this change for better or for worse?

In the introduction, introduce this place as you knew it first, and then explain what it has become. In the thesis statement state whether the change has been for better or for worse. In each body paragraph explain one good/bad change depending on your thesis statement. If the thesis statement is that the change was good, each topic sentence has to state a positive change, etc.,