When I debated in high school, we were given topics that were poorly worded so that it was possible to take either side of the debate.

In fact, that’s how it worked. When the debate started we were told whether we were for or against the topic.

If the question were properly phrased, one side would have the advantage that it was VERIFIABLY right.

Taser guns? Would you rather police officers have only one technology, deadly force? You know that when one officer fires, all officers simultaneously unload their guns ? That really is how it works.

Recycling regardless of cost? We keep getting sucked into these intractable situations like the War in Iraq. We spend a trillion dollars because 3000 Americans were killed by terrorists. If we end up with more terrorism than when we started, should we spend 10 trillion dollars? 100 trillion dollars?

As soon as you decide to do something “regardless of cost”, you turn the government loose on a mission to seize scarce resources from people who created wealth and squander it without accountability or common sense.

Good topics?

“Abandoning the Bill of Rights is worse than being attacked by terrorists”.

“Making the World Safe for Halliburton”. That’s a play on the phrase used to justify World War One; we were making the World Safe for Democracy.

“Marxism has two problems. It doesn’t work in theory and it doesn’t work in practice.”

http://libertarianwiki.org/Immigration

G’luck,

– CarlD

Out of the two topics that you have laid out, I would choose the taser gun one. The whole recycling and environment thing seems cliché to me. Is that not what your professor asked you to avoid discussing? Sure, the issue regarding taser guns is around, but not as much as issues concerning recycling and whatnot.

That is just my personal opinion. Good luck! 🙂

I think that Existentialism in writing is too broad, if you were to use that essay topic you should narrow it down to a certain text, or texts. Out of your topics, I would choose either the comparison of Macbeth and Hamlet–perhaps by examining each of their tragic flaws, and how then both texts are tragic. I also like the narrowness of “themes in the poetry of Robert Frost”. I would offer some additional suggestions, but I am not sure what you have read or what you are particularly interested in. Maybe, examine how Arthur Miller depicts the “American Dream” in “Death of a Salesman”, and ,perhaps add another American text. Or, focus on alienation and isolation in Modern texts or poems–such as: something by T.S. Eliot, or Kafka. Good Luck.

I think the two subjects you’ve listed aren’t controversial enough.

How about the death penalty? It seems that people feel differently about that depending on the circumstances of the crime. I used to support capital punishment until I saw the movie “Last Dance” with Sharon Stone.

The recycling ones sounds ok…

the taser one seems boring.

Try something that you will wanna read on the newspaper when you flip the papers…

How the English language is transformed by email, forums, chat and such internet activities.

Discuss the good and bad effects on the language in general.