should students get paid for good grades persuasive essay

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Should Students Get Paid for Good Grades

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

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Financial incentives and motivation, undermining intrinsic motivation, equity and fairness.

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Should Students Be Paid For Good Grades Argumentative Essay

School can be hard on students. Parents expect a lot from their children when it comes to academics. The problem with this is that it puts tons of pressure on children and teens. Some people say that students should receive incentives for academic achievement. Students should be paid for good grades because it pushes them to strive for better grades, they deserve to be rewarded for their hard work, and it teaches a valuable life lesson about how hard work and dedication pay off in the end.

First of all, students should be paid for their good grades because it pushes them to strive for better grades. For example, say a student is failing his classes, so his mother agrees to give him 10 bucks for every letter his grade goes up. The student starts working harder and eventually gets his ten dollars. As time goes by the student starts putting more and more effort into his school work so that he can get a bigger reward. Furthermore, some students do not try in school, but an incentive could push them to do better.

Second of all, students should get paid for their good grades because they deserve to be rewarded for their hard work. For instance, if an adult works very hard at their job they might hope for a pay raise or some kind of promotion. Most students in school are not there by choice, yet they still work hard and devote their time to passing. Students who work hard in achieving good grades are usually putting in all their time for academic approval, and deserve to be rewarded. Furthermore, students need to be paid for good grades because they devote their time, days, and childhood to them.

Finally, students should be paid for their good grades because it teaches them a valuable life lesson about how hard work will pay off in the end. For example, a student is struggling with her grade because she does not want to do her work. Her mother is upset and offers her money for every grade she gets up. Eventually, the hard work and dedication pay off when she earns enough money to buy a new phone. Furthermore, school is seen as boring by most students but paying students can show them that it will eventually pay off in the end.

Some people think that students should not get paid for their good grades because it is unfair to students who struggle or have learning disabilities. This opinion is valid because some students learn differently and at a slower pace, but that does not mean that they should not get rewarded for their improvement and learning growth also. For instance, a student who struggles should be offered awards based on their level of improvement. Furthermore, all students learn and think differently so an award system can be adjusted to benefit all of them.

Students should be paid for their good grades because it pushes them to try harder, they deserve to be paid for their hard work, and it teaches a valuable life lesson. First of all, most students think school is boring, so paying them can push them to try harder and give more effort.  Next, school is hard work and it takes up most of the student’s time so they deserve to be paid for their hard work and dedication. Finally, when students are paid for academic achievement it shows them how hard work in school will pay off for them in life. All students should try and do their best in school, and a paying award system would push them.

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7 Reasons Why Students Should Get Paid for Good Grades

Written by Nathan Brunner .

Last updated on March 8, 2023.

It’s important to give students a reason to pursue good grades; when they’re fully motivated, their chances of receiving A’s increase dramatically. However, should students get paid for good grades? As it turns out, yes, they should!

Here are seven reasons why students should get paid for good grades:

• It teaches students how motivation can help them grow academically.
• It encourages students to push for higher academic goals.
• It promotes a strong work ethic.
• It gives students financial freedom.
• It is a great investment, as their college tuition might get cheaper
• It teaches students how to handle money responsibly.
• It increases academic incentives.

Let’s discuss why parents should consider paying students (potentially both K through 12 and college students) for good grades. I’ll list these reasons in ascending order, with #7 being the most important.

Tip : Find Student Jobs on Salarship .

1. It Teaches Students How Motivation Can Help Them Grow

Beyond the immediate monetary reward, giving students money in return for good grades leads them to understand how motivation can make or break their careers.

When students are unmotivated, it cripples their academic potential until adequately addressed . This lack of motivation can result from a pointlessness in pursuing high grades and academic excellence. 

For this reason, when students preemptively understand that earning good grades will lead to immediate monetary awards, it provides a much-needed drive for success . This reward system can help students get on track to a higher grade average with their assignments and also give them the determination to tackle future paid projects after leaving school. 

Parents will also see firsthand what their students can do when given a burst of academic motivation. While their student gets a monetary reward, parents receive the gratification of knowing that their student feels more academically confident. 

2. It Encourages Students To Push for Higher Academic Goals

Another positive byproduct of giving students money for good grades is the likelihood of them seeking even higher academic achievements . These include selecting a more challenging course for the following semester and working extra hard on their next project. 

Admissions Decrypted notes that while not every school system “weighs” classes the same in terms of the GPA (grade point average), some higher-level courses get weighed more compared to standard classes. These become valuable options for students who want to make some extra cash.

Tip : 97,217 Student Jobs Are Available on Salarship .

3. It Promotes a Strong Work Ethic

One of the side-effects of encouraging students to get good grades for a monetary reward is that they’ll appreciate putting in hard work for financial success.

Giving students money can push them to then seek part-time work outside of school to increase their income. This “domino effect” will help them continue putting forth hard work in their academic and non-school endeavors, knowing their efforts will pay off.

This process will also help students understand how to prioritize their academic goals in the long run. If they can successfully balance a part-time job alongside school , they’ll learn valuable time management skills and a mentality for success. 

4. It Gives Students Financial Freedom

All students want to feel more independent. When they earn money for school success, they obtain a win-win form of freedom that encourages them to push ahead while giving them financial leeway.

ConnectUs takes this further by emphasizing that parents should also encourage their kids to use their reward money to make a savings account. This will help them track how much money they’ve earned from their academic successes and will also give them an easy way to determine how much “fun money” they have available. 

When students create a savings account built out of their successes, it will help motivate them to achieve more academic wins. Of course, it will also help them prepare for college and have decent money on hand in their new environment. 

5. It Is a Great Investment, as Their College Tuition Might Get Cheaper

This might come as a shock for parents to read. The idea that giving your kid money will save you money in the future might be an understandably bizarre concept. 

This works because giving kids money in return for good grades will encourage them to pursue scholarships. When it comes to college costs, scholarships are an excellent way to alleviate the cost of tuition. 

If your kid does well enough with their academic success, they could qualify for a merit-based scholarship. Goodwin University defines these scholarships as rewards for a student’s accomplishments, academic or otherwise. Community service efforts can also lead to a student acquiring a merit-based scholarship, depending on the giver’s requirements.

After they’ve graduated from college, your kid will thank you profusely for giving them a reason to pursue strong grades and thus helping them avoid drowning in college debt. 

6. It Teaches Students How To Handle Money Responsibly

It’s important to teach kids early on about handling their money correctly to avoid potential financial issues when they grow up. 

Parents should consider giving their kids money for their grades to help them learn about handling financial assets. This gives them an easy trial for learning the ins and outs of saving money and knowing where and when to spend it. 

Another benefit of this mindset is that it encourages students to equate hard work with earned rewards. For example, let’s say they tell you they want an iPhone, which is certainly not cheap. To help them understand the importance of working for a reward, you can encourage them to pursue good grades with the foreknowledge of earning the money necessary to purchase an iPhone.

You could consider giving more enormous reward sums based on the depth of their assignment. For quizzes and lower-end assignments, you could provide a somewhat meager amount. When it comes to bigger projects, tests, and exams, you could offer to give a substantially larger amount in proportion to the work that went into the assignment. 

7. It Increases Academic Incentives

If a student receives a decent sum of money in return for achieving a high score on standardized testing, essays, and projects, it helps them see the value in pushing for excellent results.

In the long-term view, this methodology can also help them understand the importance of giving their best effort in future endeavors, especially in their career . Because they know from their school experience that they’ll get rewarded for academic success, they’ll also understand that their jobs will reward them likewise. 

Parents can also consider continuing this reward system when students go to college. Naturally, assignments and projects in college carry a deeper level of intensity and detail required for success, sometimes mirroring future job assignments. 

Continuing the reward system in college can encourage students to push for an even higher level of academic excellence that will help them get noticed by future employers .

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14 Pros and Cons of Getting Paid for Good Grades – Should Students Get Paid

Parents have paid their children for good grades for decades. This trend is now starting to catch on in school districts across the United States as a way to encourage positive behaviors. Cash incentives are one of several rewards that students can earn when their grades for a semester or evaluation period reach specific levels. It is an option based on the scores of standardized tests as well.

Although students certainly welcome the idea of receiving extra cash for doing a good job in school, there is still a question that remains. Is paying them for excellent grades something that helps their academic future, or does it provide harm in the long run that could create unreasonable expectations?

Should students get paid for their development as a way to offset the bonds of poverty, or does it adversely impact them for the challenges that they will face in the future?

There are several pros and cons to consider when paying for good grades that provide a legitimate argument for both perspectives.

List of the Pros of Paying Students for Good Grades

1. Cash and other forms of payment provide an incentive to study. Kids are spending up to eight hours per day in school as early as the first grade. That’s the same amount of time that their parents spend at their job. If adults get paid for their commitment to working, then shouldn’t students receive the same incentive? Money and other valuable rewards are fantastic motivators when there is something that is needed or wanted. Paying for good grades can keep kids and teens engaged with their studies while helping them to avoid the need to work somewhere to support themselves.

2. Paying for grades is an easy way to help underprivileged children. When children come from poor economic circumstances then they are more likely to drop out of school before graduation. This result happens because their family needs them to start working a job. It doesn’t matter what their employment pays because every little bit helps to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. That means there is no time or energy to go to school.

Paying students for grades can help families to make ends meet in this situation. Students typically enroll in more classes when cash incentives are available. Kids feel better about themselves because they are contributing to their overall needs. It also means they’re more likely to maintain a C average or better.

3. There is more financial freedom for students. Many students graduate from high school without any idea of how to manage their finances. Kids often ask for something, and then get what they want. Some might even argue that the parenting perspective from today is that children can have whatever they desire without really needing to work for it. By paying them for their good grades, then students can experience what it feels like to get something after actually earning it. That means more financial freedom occurs because it is easier to recognize the value of each dollar earned.

Parents can expand this benefit by encouraging their students to open a savings account with the money they receive from their good grades.

4. It provides an opportunity for vocational training. Our world operates on the idea that if you put in the work, you should get paid for the results you create. Schools already operate on the idea that putting in hard work gives you the reward of a good grade. That works for some students, but not for others. Offering money as a “paycheck” shows that doing hard work can create tangible rewards as well. For students who want a job and aren’t old enough to get one, this benefit allows them to earn the money for the expensive things they want over time.

5. Paying students doesn’t need to involve only their grades. In New York City, an experimental group of 15,000 students in the fourth and seventh grade were given performance incentives based on the results of computerized, pencil, and paper predictive exams. All fourth graders earned $5 for a completed test and $25 if they achieved a perfect score. The seventh graders had their rewards doubled. The average fourth grader earned $139.43 from the study, while the seventh graders earned $231.55 and both groups so their scores rise.

6. It can help students to start paying for college. If students do receive money for their good grades, then it would create an opportunity for them to start saving for college. Tuition costs continue to rise, even for in-state students, and that can make it more of a challenge to earn a desired degree. Schools could even give the parents the money instead of the kids or deposit the earnings in a savings account that can build in value over the course of their educational career. It might cost more for taxpayers to use this type of system to support public school budgets, but the results could help more kids (especially from poor neighborhoods) find a way to change their overall life circumstances.

List of the Cons of Paying Students for Good Grades

1. It provides a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Paying students for good grades can provide some community benefits, but it doesn’t change the overall problem that faces society. Different children are going to perform better when money is an incentive. Kids who have a desire to learn will continue to benefit from that trait whether they get paid for it or not. A child who has no desire to learn will only work hard when the cash payments have value. If that value disappears, then so does the work ethic.

The reality of learning opportunities in the United States is that families with more resources get to send their kids to better schools. Paying for good grades is not going to change the economic depravity that exists in many inner cities. We must change at a societal level more than we need classrooms to evolve.

2. There are questions of morality to consider with this approach. Some see the idea of paying students for good grades as a form of bribery. When someone comes from this perspective, then it will be seen as wrong in any light. Allowing kids to accept the idea of a monetary bribe in exchange for specific results can prove to be detrimental to their decision-making processes in the future. You never know what someone might agree to do in exchange for the promise of another cash payment. That is why it is imperative to teach students the value of good grades in relation to their future expectations.

3. It only works when the reward has some level of value. People work hard at any age when they feel that the reward for their work is consistent with the output they present. Students will work for money as long as the amount that they earn for good grades can meet their needs. If there is no incentive to work harder beyond their basic grades, then they won’t do it. Someone with A-grade capability might settle for C-grade results because that’s the amount of money that they want or need. Anything else is a bonus, but they won’t start working hard for it.

4. The best students will still dominate the cash rewards. The only way that a cash reward system for grades can work is if every student receives an opportunity to earn the same amount. Even when this setup is in place, the students who consistently achieve good grades will still make the most money. Some children may have dyslexia or other learning disabilities that cause them to struggle. Unless there is some way to create a sliding scale of compensation, it may be challenging for some students to maximize results.

If students study harder than those who make good grades and earn less of a financial incentive for their work, then the results of this effort will typically fail.

5. It doesn’t improve student attendance. There have been a handful of studies over the years that have looked at paying students for their attendance and grades. Chelsea High School in Massachusetts was part of the research ground, handing out students a $25 reward for every perfect attendance record during a school term. They ran the program from 2004-2008, but it produced almost no change to the students’ academic performance or overall attendance.

When younger students receive incentives, the rate of students missing 15+ days during the school year does decrease by up to 10%. The value of the reward determines the results. At Stone Creek Elementary School in Georgia, kids could earn a video game console – a much more exciting prospect.

6. Rewards don’t foster the right attitude for learning. When students have access to rewards for their schoolwork and grades, then it changes their attitude about learning. Instead of seeking knowledge, kids begin to wonder what is in it for them every time an assignment comes their way. It sends the message that the reason to work hard and stay in school is to make your bank account fatter instead of growing the knowledge you keep in your mind. That also means dangling carrots in front of the kids creates an attitude of manipulation from the adults in the life of each child instead of teaching them the value of a meaningful education.

7. Incentives rob children of intrinsic rewards of learning. The children who earn rewards for good grades can begin to feel entitled about their payouts. This emotional response will eventually rob the child of their ability to cultivate a new love of learning. It also shifts the sense of responsibility from themselves to others for their own education. Instead of paying for a specific grade that may not represent anything, parents and administrators may find it more useful to help kids develop the personal skills needed to grow in other areas of life.

You can still incentivize children without giving them money. Your home can structure screen time after homework so that you create a when-then culture. “When you get your studies done, then you can have some video game fun. Choose not to rescue them from their poor choices as well so that they will need to organize their time by themselves. Then emphasize the action of learning instead of the specific grades.

8. There is no guarantee that the money would go to useful things. Students might spend their class earnings of cigarettes or drugs instead of toward items they need for their education. Parents could do the same thing if given the funds instead. This disadvantage could occur in any school district or community because drug addiction is not limited to those with financial disadvantages. That’s why a careful accounting of the money and placement in an account or trust that cannot be touched except by a college, vocational school, or authorized apprenticeship program might be the best way to handle this possible incentive.

Verdict of the Pros and Cons of Paying Students for Grades

Going to school is the “job” of the student. It is not the parent’s responsibility to hold down this position and juggle their career too. At some point in life, a child must make their own decisions about their future. When you can show them that there is a reward for good studying habits (whether the grades come with them or not), then you’re setting them up for a positive life experience.

Paying for grades can provide short-term results in some disadvantaged neighborhoods. It can reduce the need for students to drop out to find a supportive job for their families. These issues may be the exception to the rule of financial support.

The pros and cons of paying students for good grades depends on the effectiveness of the solution. There will be some kids motivated by this approach to learning, but there will also be others who are turned off by the idea of this “bribe.” That is why many schools use positive reinforcement and non-cash-based rewards like books, pencils, or clothing as a way to enhance motivation.

Why we should (carefully) consider paying kids to learn

Professor of Economics, UNSW Sydney

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Richard Holden was previously an ARC Future Fellow.

UNSW Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Over the past 15 years, we’ve seen a decline in the performance of Australian school students on international tests. On the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Australia ranks a disappointing 20th in mathematics and 12th in reading. However you feel about standardised tests like NAPLAN and PISA, it certainly isn’t good news that we’re falling behind internationally.

Over the same period, there has also been a revolution in education research through the use of randomised controlled trials to assess the effectiveness of different education policies. All manner of things have been tried – everything from smaller class sizes to intensive tutoring. And now paying kids to learn.

My coauthors and I did just that in two sets of experiments in Houston, Texas and Washington, D.C. We found if kids are paid for things such as attendance, good behaviour, short-cycle tests, and homework they were 1% more likely to go to school, committed 28% fewer behavioural infractions, and were 13.5% more likely to finish their homework.

Read more: Speaking with: Andrew Leigh on why we need more randomised trials in policy and law

This led to a big increase in kids performing at a proficient level in mathematics and reading. This cost money – we distributed roughly AU$7 million in incentives to 6,875 kids. But measured financially, the approach where we gave students money for a number of things (such as behaviour, attendance and academic tasks) produced a 32% annual return on investment.

Our experiments

In Houston, we paid 1,734 fifth graders to do maths homework problems. We paid the parents too, if their child did their homework.

Some 50 schools were given educational software that fit in with the curriculum. Half (25) of those schools were randomly selected to be in the “treatment group”. This group of school kids got AU$2.80 per homework problem they mastered. Parents of the children got AU$2.80 per problem mastered, and teachers were eligible for bonuses of up to AU$14,000.

The 25 control schools got the identical educational software and training, but no financial incentives.

This randomised controlled trial allows for a simple test of the effect of financial incentives. This works because there are a large number of students in both the treatment and control group, and because they were randomly assigned. Differences in other factors like innate ability, home background, or parental involvement average out.

So to understand the true, causal effect of the cash incentives on test scores we can just look at the difference in average test scores between the treatment and control kids.

This is the same principle underlying pharmaceutical trials. For example, some patients might get heart medication, while others get a placebo (a sugar pill). Researchers then look at the difference in heart functioning to figure out whether the medication works.

This approach is the gold standard for understanding the true effect of an intervention – in medicine, economics, or education.

The financial incentives we used in Houston led to children doing lots more homework, and to a fairly large increase in performance on standardised maths tests. But there was an almost equal offsetting decline in performance on reading tests.

The children responded to the incentives all right – by shifting their efforts from reading, which they didn’t receive incentives for, to maths.

Read more: The best way to boost the economy is to improve the lives of deprived students

The most able 20% of students, based on their prior-year test scores, did way better in maths and no worse in reading. Incentives for the least able 20% of students were a disaster. They did lots more maths problems, did no better on maths tests, and far worse on reading tests.

By contrast, in Washington D.C. we provided incentives for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students on multiple measures, including: attendance, behaviour, short-cycle assessments, and two other variable measures chosen by each school. This led to a 17% increase in students scoring at or above proficiency for their grade in maths and a 15% increase in reading proficiency.

Is it ethical to pay kids to learn?

Paying children to study and behave might sound radical, or even unethical. Yet we provide incentives to kids all the time. Most parents use a combination of carrots and sticks as motivation already, such as screen time or treats.

A legitimate concern is that cash incentives might affect intrinsic motivation and turn learning into a transaction rather than a joy. The evidence from our study showed intrinsic motivation actually increased.

Perhaps the harder question is whether it’s ethical to use an approach that won’t help less advantaged students perform better and develop a love of learning.

The path forward

Nearly two decades of research in the US using randomised control trials has identified the positive causal effect of a range of interventions. These include high-dose tutoring, out-of-school and community-based reading programs, smaller class sizes, better teachers, a culture of high expectations and, yes, financial incentives.

Read more: Smaller class sizes improve student achievement

In Australia, we should be open minded and look at the evidence. This will involve carefully designed randomised trials in Australian schools to determine what really works, and what the return on investment is.

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• Academic performance
• Financial incentives

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Should We Pay Students for Good Grades?

• By Ed Robinson
• May 24, 2016
• CBR - Economics
• Share This Page

Cash rewards can help motivate students to achieve good results—but the effect may not last long enough to get some kids to graduation, according to a randomized field study involving high schoolers and their parents.

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University of Chicago’s Steven D. Levitt  and John A. List  and UC San Diego’s Sally Sadoff  conducted an eight-month experiment—dubbed the “Chicago Heights Miracle”—at schools in Chicago Heights, Illinois, a suburb 30 miles south of Chicago, whose school district has low student achievement and high dropout rates. The researchers set up a program to give money to freshmen who met goals related to grades, standardized-test scores, attendance, and behavior.

A number of recent research studies have looked into whether students respond to cash incentives. Levitt, List, and Sadoff went beyond prior research by involving parents as well as students, and by varying the kinds of rewards, making some fixed and others awarded by lottery.

Over a school year, the researchers paid cash incentives to four randomly chosen groups of students and their parents. Some received monthly fixed payments of $50 for meeting goals, while others were entered into a lottery with a 10 percent chance of receiving $500. The researchers tracked students for up to five years to measure the program’s impact.

Both incentives had a modest impact on students’ performance. Only a quarter of the students in the control group met academic standards, but students who qualified for the incentives did about 5 percentage points better. The results were driven most by students who qualified for the incentives and were on the threshold of meeting the academic standards. They did about 10 percentage points better than those in the control group, and were about 15 percentage points more likely to be on track to graduate during that first year.

However, those effects lasted only two years. In the second year, students who had been on the verge of meeting standards were still performing 12 percent better than their peers who hadn’t received any incentives.

“If the short-term effects had sustained themselves, it would have been at a cost of $1,200 per graduate,” says List. “But since the effects faded out, we do not have a significant impact on graduation.”

Works Cited

Steven D. Levitt, John A. List, and Sally Sadoff, “The Short and Long Term Effects of Performance-Based Incentives on Educational Achievement: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment,” Working paper, May 2016.

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Should Students Get Paid For Good Grades (Essay Sample)

Should students get paid for good grades.

As long as I can recall, bringing home a good report from school would only earn you a big thank you and a pat on the back from your parents.  Today, if you get good grades you receive more than just a pat, its money in your pocket.  I wonder why parents should give their children money because studying is every student’s responsibility. Getting good grades is the fruit of studying hard which should be a requirement for all the students.  Giving children money for good grades does not benefit them in future.

Anyone paid for good grades will soon have many expectations in life. He will believe that any good results need to be rewarded and will always expect something in return.  Such action will not make children try their best. Children will always associate good grades with money, but they will not be proud of their achievement. Studying will lose meaning because learning will lose its value, all these children will be thinking of getting money. For me, students need to set goals and put more efforts to achieve these educational goals.

Giving money for good grades is not helping children challenge their capabilities, children have unique skills that they need to discover, but this cannot be possible if all they do  is  think of money. Money not only kill talents, but also kill the future of many bright children. Parents should not manipulate their children to study using money.  It is wrong to lure children into studying. This gives them the wrong impression about life. Children will grow up thinking that everything in life revolves around money. If parents keep rewarding their children with money because of good grades, most children will be focusing on making money, assuming that money is the ultimate goals in learning but not achieving a better life.

Even though many parents believe that motivating their children by giving them money will help them do well in school, parents expect too much from their children. Not every child can achieve good grades every time. Some children may have learning challenges that need to be addressed instead of being pushed to attain good grades. I believe that each parent should be proud of their child achievement; they should learn to take pride in themselves and encourage their children to work hard without bribing them.  Being proud of your achievement has a bigger affected than just being given money. Money can just last for hours, but pride is something you will carry along for a very long time.

If all students are paid for getting good grades, they will not take learning seriously and at one point fail to see the importance of learning. Being paid for your grade means imparting wrong values to our children. Children will have no sense of pride because all they will want is money. In addition, children will lose sight of what is important in life. Finally, most parents cannot sustain this habit because it might be expensive in the end. Parents are likely to kill their child’s morale since they might not have enough money  to motivate their children.  I believe that children should work hard to get good grades and be proud of themselves, but the ultimate reward for good grades will eventually come in the end this is by getting a good job.

100 Persuasive Essay Topics

• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Persuasive essays are a bit like argument essays and persuasive speeches , but they tend to be a little kinder and gentler. Argument essays require you to discuss and to attack an alternate view, while persuasive essays are attempts to convince the reader that you have a believable argument. In other words, you are an advocate, not an adversary.

A Persuasive Essay Has 3 Components

• Introduction : This is the opening paragraph of your essay. It contains the hook, which is used to grab the reader's attention, and the thesis, or argument, which you'll explain in the next section.
• Body : This is the heart of your essay, usually three to five paragraphs in length. Each paragraph examines one theme or issue used to support your thesis.
• Conclusion : This is the final paragraph of your essay. In it, you'll sum up the main points of the body and connect them to your thesis. Persuasive essays often use the conclusion as a last appeal to the audience.

Learning how to write a persuasive essay is an essential skill that people use every day in fields from business to law to media and entertainment. English students can begin writing a persuasive essay at any skill level. You're sure to find a sample topic or two from the list of 100 persuasive essays below, sorted by degree of difficulty.

Watch Now: 12 Ideas for Great Persuasive Essay Topics

• Kids should get paid for good grades.
• Students should have less homework.
• Snow days are great for family time.
• Penmanship is important.
• Short hair is better than long hair.
• We should all grow our own vegetables.
• We need more holidays.
• Aliens probably exist.
• Gym class is more important than music class.
• Kids should be able to vote.
• Kids should get paid for extra activities like sports.
• School should take place in the evenings.
• Country life is better than city life.
• City life is better than country life.
• We can change the world.
• Skateboard helmets should be mandatory.
• We should provide food for the poor.
• Children should be paid for doing chores.
• We should populate the moon .
• Dogs make better pets than cats.

Intermediate

• The government should impose household trash limits.
• Nuclear weapons are an effective deterrent against foreign attack.
• Teens should be required to take parenting classes.
• We should teach etiquette in schools.
• School uniform laws are unconstitutional.
• All students should wear uniforms.
• Too much money is a bad thing.
• High schools should offer specialized degrees in arts or sciences.
• Magazine advertisements send unhealthy signals to young women.
• Robocalling should be outlawed.
• Age 12 is too young to babysit.
• Children should be required to read more.
• All students should be given the opportunity to study abroad.
• Yearly driving tests should be mandatory past age 65.
• Cell phones should never be used while driving.
• All schools should implement bullying awareness programs.
• Bullies should be kicked out of school.
• Parents of bullies should have to pay a fine.
• The school year should be longer.
• School days should start later.
• Teens should be able to choose their bedtime.
• There should be a mandatory entrance exam for high school.
• Public transit should be privatized.
• We should allow pets in school.
• The voting age should be lowered to 16.
• Beauty contests are bad for body image.
• Every American should learn to speak Spanish.
• Every immigrant should learn to speak English.
• Video games can be educational.
• College athletes should be paid for their services.
• We need a military draft .
• Professional sports should eliminate cheerleaders.
• Teens should be able to start driving at 14 instead of 16.
• Year-round school is a bad idea.
• High school campuses should be guarded by police officers.
• The legal drinking age should be lowered to 19.
• Kids under 15 shouldn't have Facebook pages.
• Standardized testing should be eliminated.
• Teachers should be paid more.
• There should be one world currency.
• Domestic surveillance without a warrant should be legal.
• Letter grades should be replaced with a pass or fail.
• Every family should have a natural disaster survival plan.
• Parents should talk to kids about drugs at a young age.
• Racial slurs should be illegal.
• Gun ownership should be tightly regulated.
• Puerto Rico should be granted statehood.
• People should go to jail when they abandon their pets.
• Free speech should have limitations.
• Members of Congress should be subject to term limits.
• Recycling should be mandatory for everyone.
• High-speed internet access should be regulated like a public utility.
• Yearly driving tests should be mandatory for the first five years after getting a license.
• Recreational marijuana should be made legal nationwide.
• Legal marijuana should be taxed and regulated like tobacco or alcohol.
• Child support dodgers should go to jail.
• Students should be allowed to pray in school.
• All Americans have a constitutional right to health care.
• Internet access should be free for everyone.
• Social Security should be privatized.
• Pregnant couples should receive parenting lessons.
• We shouldn't use products made from animals.
• Celebrities should have more privacy rights.
• Professional football is too violent and should be banned.
• We need better sex education in schools.
• School testing is not effective.
• The United States should build a border wall with Mexico and with Canada.
• Life is better than it was 50 years ago.
• Eating meat is unethical.
• A vegan diet is the only diet people should follow.
• Medical testing on animals should be illegal.
• The Electoral College is outdated.
• Medical testing on animals is necessary.
• Public safety is more important than an individual's right to privacy.
• Single-sex colleges provide a better education.
• Books should never be banned.
• Violent video games can cause people to act violently in real life.
• Freedom of religion has limitations.
• Nuclear power should be illegal.
• Climate change should be the president's primary political concern.
• Arizona State University Writing Center staff. " Persuasive Essay Structure ." ASU.edu, June 2012.
• Collins, Jen, and Polak, Adam. " Persuasive Essays ." Hamilton.edu.
• 100 Persuasive Speech Topics for Students
• Middle School Debate Topics
• 50 Argumentative Essay Topics
• 40 Writing Topics for Argumentative and Persuasive Essays
• How to Write a Solid Thesis Statement
• Controversial Speech Topics
• How to Write a Persuasive Essay
• Tips on How to Write an Argumentative Essay
• The Ultimate Guide to the 5-Paragraph Essay
• 30 Writing Topics: Persuasion
• Write a Compare and Contrast Essay
• Write an Attention-Grabbing Opening Sentence for an Essay
• How to Write a Great Essay for the TOEFL or TOEIC
• What Is Expository Writing?
• Bad Essay Topics for College Admissions
• How to Write a Narrative Essay or Speech

Argumentative Essay - Should students be paid for good grades?

AmberAngel 4 / 13   Mar 17, 2012   #1 Hello ^^ I have an argumentative essay titled 'Should students be paid for getting good grades". Please give some advice in any areas or point out my errors. I am open to all comments since this is my first time doing an argumentative essay. This essay is due soon so I really need help. English Argumentative Essay - Should kids be paid for good grades? In childhood, children get a candy for a job well done. In school, students get a treat for a job well done. In society, adults get paid with money for a job well done. However, it seems that students are getting paid for getting good grades lately. Cash incentives are used to motivate students to study harder and achieve better grades. The question now is should students get rewarded with cash for good grades? Yes, I agree that students can get motivated to study if they are paid for good grades. Providing a monetary reward enables the students to focus and study in class. However, I strongly feel that they should not be paid for their good grades. One school in Chicago implemented this policy to reward students based on their grades. However, after one year, the school was forced to discontinue this policy due to the lack of funds. Though this policy is effective, it is short- lived; the cost of this policy is not possible for schools to uphold. Some may argue that reducing the amount of cash rewards the students receive would solve the problem. This would also result in the decrease in effectiveness of this policy. As students do not find the cash reward appealing, they would not be motivated to study, which diminishes the purpose of the policy. Thus, this policy would not be sustained for long. Based on a study made by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, money is not a very effective motivator. If a task is simple, straight forward and involves only mechanical skills; then a higher pay would result in a better performance. However, if the task is complicated that requires conceptual, creative thinking and involves rudimentary cognitive skills; it would not be successful at all. Instead, it would be the complete opposite! Many studies have also proved that recognizing student's accomplishments is the ultimately the best motivator. According to Sylvia Rimm, a child psychologist, consistency plays a much more major role in achievement than money does. For example, top students would also try to maintain their results with consistent effort. Whereas, others who failed give up easily as they find that there is no hope in them getting rewards and compliments. Therefore, money is not a good motivator. Studying is students' responsibility. Students should study because they want to, not forced to. It is also wrong to lure students into studying by using cash as it gives them an idea that everything revolves around money which is a bitter truth that they are too young to learn. This monetary policy encourages the wrong things. Students may get so caught up in focusing on making more money that they assumed getting good grades is purely for the money and not for learning. Hence, this policy would lose the real purpose of learning in life and also diminishes the purpose of school. Students would lose their interest in learning once the rewards are gone. Moreover, students would not take learning seriously and see not point in learning. Studying benefits one and the good grades one attains would come in handy to land a job and decide one's future. Being paid to study teaches the wrong values to students. They would not be determined to strive harder to get the grades for themselves and not for the money. They would have no sense of satisfaction because all they want is more money. They would lose sight of what really matters. A science research done by the Royal Society of Art shows that there are three factors that would lead to better personal performance and personal satisfaction. The first factor is autonomy, the desire to be self-directed, to use our judgment and creativity to direct our lives. Second factor is mastery, the urge to excel. People practice and spend time doing things because it is fun and satisfying. Last factor is purpose - a transcendent purpose that goes beyond profit. Students should be motivated by these three factors to achieve better grades. In conclusion, students should not be paid for getting good grades. In the process, they are being taught the wrong character attributes and confused themselves with what matters and does not matters. Moreover, the policy cannot be sustained due to the lack of funds and studies have also proven that money is a bad motivator. Thanks for taking you time to read and/or comment! Bye!

chalumeau /   Mar 17, 2012   #3 **try to write the introductory paragraph again. Try to make it about 4 to 5 sentences. One school in Chicago implemented a policy to reward students based on 1) their grades. However, after one year, the school was forced to discontinue this policy due to the lack of funds. 2) Though this policy 3)is effective, it is short-lived; the cost of this policy is not possible for schools to uphold. Some 4)may argue that reducing the amount of cash rewards the students receive would 5) solve the problem. 6) This would also result in the decrease in effectiveness of this policy. 7) As students do not find the cash reward appealing, they would not be motivated to study, which diminishes the purpose of the policy. 8) Thus, this policy would not be sustained for long. 1)Too vague. Be more specific. e.g. for A's and B's. Where's the citation? 2) I prefer "although" to "though" at the beginning of a sentence. 3) Tense switches here. Maintain tense or transition appropriately. Citation? 4) The use of "may" is weak here. Remove. Think about creating another paragraph here. 5) Would it "solve the problem" or "lengthen the program's duration?" 6) You are trying to make a "however" point, but you are unclear. 7) Conditional sentence without the conditional tense. "If students do not find the cash reward appealing, they would be less motivated to study." 8) Conclude with a summation that the program is impossible to sustain in a large urban school district. Based on a study 9)made by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, money is 10) not a very effective motivator. If a task is simple, straightforward and involves only mechanical skills 11); then a higher pay would result in a better performance. 12) However, if the task is complicated that requires conceptual, creative thinking and involves rudimentary cognitive skills; it would not be successful at all. Instead, it would be the complete opposite! Many studies have also proved that recognizing 13) student's accomplishments is 14) the ultimately the best motivator. According to Sylvia Rimm, a child psychologist, consistency plays a 15) much more major role in achievement than money does. 16) For example, top students would also try to maintain their results with consistent effort. Whereas, others who failed give up easily as they find that there is no hope in them getting rewards and compliments. Therefore, money is not a good motivator. 9) "Made by" to "by researchers at the" 10) "an ineffective motivator." 11) Change the ";" to "," 12) "On the other hand, if the task requires creative thinking and other higher cognitive skills, then performance is not correlated with pay." 13) students' 14) Remove "the" 15) Change "much more major" to "more important." Citation? 16) Change to "She found that students previously rated as 'high-performers' showed consistent effort to maintain their status, whereas students rated as 'low-performers' showed less effort to maintain theirs." 17)"It is also wrong..." Try to avoid this construction in an argumentative essay. Labeling something as "wrong" does not make it wrong. 18) Avoid run-on sentences. "...to lure students into studying by using cash as it gives them an idea that everything revolves around money which is a bitter truth that they are too young to learn." Break up this sentence. 19) "Students may focus too intently on outcomes and assume that good grades equal earnings, not learning." Suggestion 20) I enjoyed reading about the three factors. They make sense. Overall, I feel that you have good evidence and research, but your analysis is a little weak. Try to ask yourself questions about the studies you read. Can you think up a scenario and apply something you learned to solve it? Also, try to stay in the present tense as much as humanly possible. Very good start.

tipi 5 / 12   Mar 18, 2012   #4 this introductory is contradictory as be sure they should be paid for good grade or should not be paid. Yes, I agree that students can get motivated to study if they are paid for good grades. Providing a monetary reward enables the students to focus and study in class. However, I strongly feel that they should not be paid for their good grades. i did no go further checking, please be sure in what direction are writing read twice and thrice your writing try to find mistakes yourself at first. Type a essay daily in computer and edit yourself.

sharadarige 15 / 25   Mar 18, 2012   #5 I liked the essay and the way you expressed it. Nice points you have covered

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