Essay Samples and Ideas Repository

When developing a paragraph or essay through process analysis, you should keep several points in mind:

Be sure to include all steps and arrange them in sequence.
Explain why each step is necessary, and include warnings where appropriate.
Define any terms that your readers may not be familiar with.
Offer clear descriptions of any tools or materials needed to carry out the process.
Provide your readers with a way of determining whether or not the process has been carried out successfully.
You shouldn’t find it difficult to follow these guidelines if you’ve chosen a topic that you know quite well. These 50 prompts are meant to help you to discover that topic.

Fifty Topic Suggestions: Process Analysis

How to lose weight without losing your mind
How to win at Texas hold ’em
How to choose a major
How to find the perfect roommate
How to get rid of a roommate–without committing a crime
How to succeed in (or flunk out of) college
How to pitch a knuckleball
How to plan the perfect party
How to survive a night of babysitting
How to pitch a tent in the rain
How to housebreak your dog
How to kick a bad habit
How to overcome insomnia
How to stay sober on a Saturday night
How to rent your first apartment
How to avoid a nervous breakdown during exams
How to enjoy the weekend for under $20
How to make the perfect brownies
How to keep peace with a spouse or a roommate
How to bathe a cat
How to complain effectively
How to survive a recession
How to toilet train a baby
How to develop self-confidence
How to use Twitter
How to wash a sweater
How to build a great music collection–cheaply and legally
How to get along with an instructor without sucking up
How to give yourself a haircut
How to plan the perfect class schedule
How to apply the Heimlich maneuver
How to end a relationship
How to select the best portable media player
How to take decent photographs with your cell phone
How to quit smoking
How to survive without a car
How to make the perfect cup of tea
How to save money while saving the environment
How to build a great sandcastle
How to edit a video
How to make (and keep) friends on Facebook
How to insert a contact lens
How teachers make up exams
How parents (or children) make us feel guilty
How an iPod works
How ice cream is made
How a cell phone takes pictures
How a magician saws a woman in half
How a pocket calculator works
How a particular accident occurred

Some of the essay prompts that colleges give for admissions purposes are amazingly fun.

Imagine that you have the opportunity to travel back through time. At what point in history would you list to stop and why? (Swarthmore)
What in the best advice you ever received? Why? And did you follow it? (University of Pennsylvania)
What do you think has been the most important social or political movement of the twentieth century? Do you share a personal identification with this cause? (Trinity College, CT)
It has been said [Andy Warhol] that “in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Describe your fifteen minutes. (New York University)
Describe an intellectual experience of the past two years that has given you great satisfaction. (Amherst)
You’ve just written a 300-page autobiography. Send us page 217. (University of Pennsylvania)
Sartre said “Hell is other people,” while Streisand sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” With whom do you agree? (Amherst)
If you could go back and change one day in your life, what would you change and why? (Santa Clara University)
Explain how your experiences as a teenager significantly differ from those of your friends. Include comparisons. (University of Puget Sound)
Compose an essay about a memorable meal you have eaten. We are especially interested in the details: the occasion, your company at this meal, its physical setting, the kinds of foods you ate, or their preparation. (University of Chicago)
Using a Piece of wire, a car window sticker, an egg carton, and any inexpensive hardware store item, create something that would solve a problem Tell us about your creation, but don’t worry: we won’t require proof that it works. (Johns Hopkins)
Elvis is alive! Okay, maybe not, but we have been persuaded that recent Elvis sightings in highway rest areas, grocery stores and laundramats are part of a wider conspiracy involving five of the following: the metric system, the Mall of America, the crash of the Hindenberg, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, lint, J.D. Salinger, and wax fruit. Construct your own theory of how and why five of these items are related. (University of Chicago)

There are many more to be found, I’m sure, by searching for college admissions topics.

Calendar Reform

Should the current Gregorian calendar be reformed? Should worldwide calendars be standardised?

Cameras in Courtrooms

Should cameras be placed in courtrooms so that criminal trials can be televised?

Campaign Finance Reform

Should limits or regulations be placed on how candidates raise funds, and/or spend them, during political campaigns?

Canadian Senate Elections

Should the Canadian Senate be elected?

Cannabis, Legalisation of

Should Cannabis/Marijuana be legalised?

Capital Punishment

Is it ever justifiable to execute criminals?

Capitalism vs Socialism

Which is the superior system capitalism, or socialism?

Carbon Emissions, Market vs. Regulatory Approaches

Do market approaches have greater potential to reduce carbon emission than regulatory approaches?

Catholic Churchs Contraception policy

Should the Roman Catholic Church change its current position of forbidding the use of contraception?

Celebrities, should get greater protection?

Should celebrities have greater protection from the media?

Censorship of the Arts

What is the right balance to strike between freedom of and restrictions upon artistic expression?

Chapter 11-style Bankruptcy Provisions

Should countries adopt U.S.-style provisions which allow companies to trade in bankruptcy?

Chechnya, Intervention in

Should outside nations or international organisations become involved in the military conflict in the Russian province of Chechnya?

Child Curfews

Should young people be subjected to night-time curfews as a way to reduce crime?

Child Labour

Is the imposition of sanctions on states the best way to end child labour?

Child Offenders, Punishments for

Is stricter punishment the answer to juvenile crime?

Child Performers, Banning

Should children be allowed to work in the performing arts or professional sports?

Child Soldiers, Prosecution

Should countries prosecute child soldiers for the crimes they committed during wartime? Should there be an international minimum age of criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity?

Children, Choosing Sex of

Should parents be allowed to select the gender of their offspring?

Children: To Have Or Not To Have

Should you never have children?

China and the World Trade Organisation

Should China be allowed to join the World Trade Organisation?

China Human Rights Abuses, U.S. Trade Barriers

Should the United States use trade barriers to decrease human rights abuses in China?

China, Fear of

Does China give the rest of the world reasons for fear, in political, economic or social terms? Or is the �Terror from the East’ merely a myth ?

Civil Disobedience

When is it justifiable for protesters and activists to break the law for the sake of their cause?

Clash of Civilisations: Myth or Reality?

Is the idea that we are experiencing a clash of civilisations between Islam and the Christian West a myth, or does it have a basis in reality?

Classics (Latin and Ancient Greek), should be taught in schools

Should school pupils be able to study Latin and Ancient Greek at school? If so, should these subjects be compulsory?

Co-curricular activities in schools

Should schools and colleges increase the importance placed on co-curricular activities, so that they are formally recognised as equal to the academic curriculum?

Coal, use of

Should the US Rely More Heavily on Coal Energy?

Coalition Government

Is coalition government preferable to government by a single political party?

Colonialism: Compensation for

Should former colonial powers pay reparations to former colonies for their past activities?

Commonwealth, Abolition of

Should the Commonwealth be abolished?

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

Should the United States ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty?

Compulsory Voting

Should voting in elections be compulsory?

Condoms in Schools

Should publicly supported education programs include the distribution of condoms?

Confederate Flag, Banning of

Should the Confederate flag be banned?

Congo, UN Intervention in

Is the UN failing in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Congressional redistricting in the USA

Should electoral districts for the US House of Representatives be drawn by an independent authority or by state legislatures?

Contraception for Under-Age Girls [UK]

Should doctors be allowed to prescribe contraception for girls under the age of 16?

Corporal Punishment (for Adults)

Is physical force a justifiable method of punishing criminals?

Corporal Punishment (for Children)

Is physical force a justifiable method of punishing children?

Corporal Punishment in Schools

Should children be hit in school as a punishment?

Corruption, Benefits of

Should public corruption be accepted as a normal state of affairs in countries at a certain stage of development?

Cosmetic Surgery

Should cosmetic surgery be banned?

Counter Terrorism, UN Committee

Should the USA more vigorously support the UN’s Counter Terrorism Committee?

Covenant Marriage

Should covenant marriages be supported in preference to traditional marriages? Should the state promote covenant marriage?

Creationism in Public Schools

What should state-funded schools teach about the origins of mankind? Should the teaching of creationism be allowed in classrooms alongside, or as an alternative to the theory of evolution?

Creationism vs Evolution

Should schools be allowed to teach creationism alongside evolution as part of their science curriculum?

Criminal Responsibility, Age of

Should the age of criminal responsibility be raised to 16 or even 18 across the world?

Criminalising Blasphemy

Should blasphemy be against the law?

Cuba, Dropping of US Sanctions

Should the United States drop its sanctions on Cuba?

Cultural Treasures

Should cultural treasures be returned to their country of origin?

Aboriginals, Treatment of
Should aboriginals be treated differentially?

Abortion
Should abortion be permitted?

Abortion, Parental Consent
Should parental consent be required for underage pregnant women to have abortions?

Abortion, Partial Birth
Should partial-birth abortion be banned?

Academic qualification ensures success in life?
Academic qualifications are commonly felt to give a person the best chance of success in life. How far is this true?

Adoption of Children by Same Sex Couples
Should gay couples be given the same legal rights as heterosexuals in adopting children?

Adoption, International
Should couples be banned from adopting children overseas?

Advertisements do more harm than good
Is having widespread advertising good for a society?

Advertising, Targeting of Children
Should there be a ban on television advertisements aimed at children?

Affirmative action in education
Should universities use positive discrimination to increase diversity?

Afghanistan, Invasion of
Should the USA and its allies have invaded Afghanistan?

African Affairs, Intervention in
Should African disputes and conflicts be handled by African countries themselves, rather than by external international organisations?

African Languages in African Schools
Should native tongues take precedence in African schools, or should English and other non-African languages be the languages of the school room?

African Union
Should countries in Africa become a political and economic union?

Age Discrimination
Should age discrimination be made illegal in the workplace?

Age of Consent, Lowering Of
Should age of consent laws be made more liberal?

AIDS Drugs for Developing Countries
Should AIDS drugs be made cheaper for developing countries?

Alcohol
Should the sale and consumption of alcohol – the world’s favourite drug – be further restricted, or even banned?

Alternative Vote
Should the current electoral system be replaced with the Alternative Voting System?

American way of life, rejection of
Should we reject the American way of life?

Anarchism
Is Anarchism a valuable political ideology?

Animal Experimentation
Is it morally acceptable to experiment on non-human animals to develop products and medicines that benefit human beings?

Animal Rights
Do non-human animals have rights?

Animals in Sports and Entertainment
Should human beings be allowed to use other animals as objects of sport and entertainment?

Anorexics, Force-Feeding of
Should the medical profession force-feed anorexics as part of their treatment?

Antarctic Exploitation
Should the present ban on exploiting the resources of the Antarctic be maintained?

Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOS) [UK]
Should Anti-Social Behaviour Orders be scrapped?

Armed Police
Should a police force be routinely armed?

Arms Trade, role of the United Nations and US interests
Should the US push the UN to restrict arms trading to rogue nations?

Arranged Marriages
Should arranged marriages be outlawed?

Arts Subsidies, Abolition of
Should government subsidy of the arts be ended?

ASEAN, Abolition of
Should the Association of Southeast Asian Nations be abandoned?

Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate
Should the USA pursue the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate as a response to climate change concerns rather than working through the UN?

Assassination of a Dictator
Can the assassination of a dictator be justified?

Assisted Suicide/Voluntary Euthanasia
Should assisted suicide be legalised?

Asylum seekers, welcome for
What obligations should nation-states have to those seeking asylum?

Attorney-Client Privilege
Should the attorney-client privilege be abolished?

Aviation, international taxation of
Should aviation fuel for domestic and international flights be taxed to combat climate change? Could such a tax be used to fund development aid? Are there viable alternatives?