First Steps in Writing: 25 Essay Topics to Practice Essay Writing Skills

Academic writing is one of the pillars of formal education in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries across the world. It helps teachers to quickly test different student skills from the ability to express one’s ideas to the consistency of the written text.

Essay writing is difficult for everyone from native speakers to ESL students. The latter may find it more complicated given their language barrier. However, you have to believe it: writing is a challenge for both these student groups.

However, any experienced essay writer would agree that you can improve your writing like any other skill. The only thing required from you is to practice. Essay structures, sentence construction, vocabulary, and even grammar – every skill can be improved if you practice regularly.

If you are interested in growing your writing expertise, read our essay topic list to know where to start.

Descriptive Topics

A good idea is to start with descriptive topics to practice your ability to narrate a plot, characterize a movie hero, or describe landscapes. These essays will let you learn and use active vocabulary with lots of adjectives and adverbs.

These are a few best topics to consider:

• Describe your favorite building in your city or town.

• If you only had one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Describe it and explain your choice.

• Describe your favorite character from a book or a movie. Why are you attracted to them so much?

• Describe your friend’s hobby or sports they participate in. Why do they enjoy these activities so much?

• What are the best ways to entertain guests who unexpectedly arrived at your home?

Vocabulary Practice

The more industry-specific words you use in your essay samples while training, the better. There are certain topics that provide this vocabulary practice to students. They are so tricky that you may need to use a dictionary from time to time to find the words you need or check their true meaning.

Check the following topics to practice:

• Write a new restaurant review providing your opinion on the interior, cuisine, and customer service.

• How planes, cars, or ships have changed people’s lives? Choose one form of transportation and consider both advantages and disadvantages.

• Write a movie review focusing on special effects, production aspects, and cast rather than your impressions and emotions.

• If you were a teacher, what subject would you introduce or encourage to study? Why do you think it is so important?

• The invention of nuclear weapons has changed the world in different ways. Are these truly global peacemakers or rather killing machines?

Tense Practice Topics

Should you need to focus more on your ability to use the correct tense form, look for the topics that send you back into the past or, instead, to the distant future. Let yourself reflect on something that was or could have been done or, on the contrary, is the promise of the days to come.

Here are the samples of the best topics for you:

• Write about your childhood sweetest memories. Why are they so important to you?

• How the Age of Discoveries transformed the ancient world and what do we have to learn from it now in the era of globalization?

• Talk about five goals you wish to accomplish in the next 5 years as well as explain the means to do that.

• With Elon Musk changing the landscape, what new technologies you think will appear in the following years?

• If you could travel in the past, what period would you like to visit? Why?

Persuasive Writing Topics

Persuasive essay writing is more interesting as it requires research and consistency. Such essays are quite difficult to write as you have to be skilled in expressing your opinion in addition to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style. At the same time, they are far more interesting to work on because you get to choose the side and persuade the reader why you think you are right.

Below are a few possible topics for you:

• Is our society too dependent on technologies like computers and smartphones? Why or why not?

• Do you support building more department stores in suburban towns or not?

• Do you think having a gap year benefits students or takes away their precious time?

• Should employers care more about the physical and mental health of their employees and how can it be done?

• Do digital games foster child development or prompt aggression in them?

Argumentative Writing Topics

Argumentative essays are quite similar to persuasive essays as you still have to prove yourself right. However, these essays rely more on the evidence in the literature than your personal ideas. You can discuss both sides of the matter to present a mass of information to the readers. However, you don’t have to persuade them. They can decide on the issue on their own based on the arguments you provide.

Here are the topics for you to choose from:

• What age is appropriate for dating?

• Should money be spent on space exploration when half of the world’s population lives below or near the poverty line?

• Should cellphones be banned on school premises?

• How gender inequality influences economic development in your country.

• At what age children should be introduced to certain household duties and tasks?

Final Words

Writing practice is very important if you want to reach perfection and impress everyone with your skills. It’s impossible to do if you don’t write regularly.

The topics provided above are designed to practice different aspects of writing. For example, when you describe things, you tend to use longer sentences and more adjectives. Thus, you need to learn to cut your sentences to make your essay readable as well as think carefully about what words to choose to sound more concise and precise.

If you choose a topic for an argumentative or persuasive essay, you are supposed to practice your ability to present information, find evidence, and make sound conclusions. But most importantly, you need your grammar, spelling, and punctuation to be perfect. Hope these essay writing tips will help you to improve your essay writing skills.