Human rights are the fundamental freedoms and protections everyone deserves, regardless of age, gender, religion, or financial status. Among these, civil rights are important in ensuring societal equality and justice. However, according to Jurist News, global civil rights have grown worse in 2024 and above 60% of countries received failing grades presenting a systemic breakdown in protections for basic rights.
So, writing a compelling essay on civil rights is more than just stating facts. It demands research, critical thinking, and a well-structured approach. A persuasive essay on human rights and gender equality should engage the reader by presenting strong arguments and valuable insights.
Therefore, you can write an engaging civil rights essay by following the 12 tips mentioned in this article. Let’s get started
How to Write a Compelling Essay About Civil Rights? Top 12 Tips
A compelling civil rights essay requires a clear understanding of the topic, a well-defined problem statement, historical context, and a strong objective. Students can develop a persuasive and well-organised essay by following a structured plan and key guidelines. If you find the process hard to crack, a professional essay writing service can help refine your work for maximum impact.
Here are twelve essential tips for writing a persuasive civil rights essay:
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Choose a Focused Topic
The first and foremost step in essay writing is selecting a suitable topic which sparks the writer’s interest and catches the reader’s attention. If you’ve to write an essay on civil rights, start by brainstorming some potential topics and think about historical influencers, civil rights movements, or current challenges related to your topic. By identifying the topic considering your passion, and choosing a unique angle, you can make your essay more effective and easier to follow.
Here, we’ve gathered some examples to let you get some ideas about civil rights essay topics:
- Impact of Civil Rights Movements
- Role of Women Activists in Civil Rights Movements
- Death Penalty and Human Rights
- Role of Artificial Intelligence in Civil Rights Violation
- Civil Rights Movements and Political Parties
Selecting the right topic for your civil rights essay is important because the whole writing process is based upon it. It requires careful consideration, enough availability of data to support your arguments, and strong deliberation. By following specific guidelines, you can effectively express your ideas.
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Narrow Down Your Topic After Research
One of the important tips to write a perfect essay is to find a focused topic. Focusing on an essay topic means narrowing down your research to find a specific topic so that you may develop a deep understanding of it. Additionally, a focused topic helps you get enough data and examples to present your arguments. On the other hand, a broad topic will lead you towards a lack of focus, leaving your readers unsure about what you’re trying to explain.
Here are some steps to guide you on how to refine a specific topic:
- Conduct preliminary research to shortlist a range of topics, concerning civil rights movements and identify the gaps in the literature.
- Set some goals, and start refining your topic related to your topic of interest.
- The next step is narrowing the focus. Let’s suppose your topic is civil rights movements; you can refine it to ‘Role of Women Activists in Civil Rights Movements’. Here, you ask several questions about who, when, where, and why to cover different aspects.
- Conduct a literature review to identify the gaps and strengthen your topic.
- Discuss your topic with your mentors and finalise it.
Civil rights is a broad field covering a wide range of historical and modern-day issues. Therefore, narrowing down your topic of interest is essential to exploring every aspect of it. It also helps you present a well-documented, clear piece of your writing.
Civil Rights Essay Examples
If you want to describe a person who’s a pioneer of any civil rights movement, describe this person’s biography, what drives them to bring the movement, and why you think their role is important.
If want a comparative analysis, select two different historical persons and read the biography of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. These two persons adopted different approaches but had very similar endpoints. Write about their similarities and differences while discussing their major life events and final goals.
If you find more interest in women activists, perform research on Rosa Parks, an NAACP activist, and her refusal to take up her seat on a Montgomery bus sparked a Montgomery Bus Boycott. Another key figure is Fannie Lou Hamer, who spoke more about racial injustice and was the vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party.
Here, you can explore expectations of women in leadership roles or barriers women activists face.
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Ask Specific Questions You Can Answer
At this stage, when you’ve chosen your focused topic, it’s important to start reading about it and gain sufficient knowledge to plan the essay effectively. Getting information from credible resources like journals, books, science magazines, reports, and repositories is a key step before writing. After exploring the literature, find the research gaps and ask concrete questions for what you may get the answers.
Let’s explore a few examples of the movements of civil rights:
Examples of Civil Rights Movements Questions
- What were the key strategies used by civil rights activists to challenge segregation or the system of racial separation?
- What was the major impact of the Civil Rights Act on racial equality in the U.S.?
- How did women activists contribute to the Civil Rights Movement?
- How did media coverage influence public opinion on Civil Rights Movements?
While asking questions, instead of targeting çivil rights in the United Kingdom, break down the topic into sub-topics to make your research effective. You can create a focused, research-driven, and persuasive essay on human rights by asking targeted questions.
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Use a Legal Framework to Support Your Arguments
You can make your civil rights essay more credible by adding legal frameworks. It will strengthen your arguments and enrich them with historical laws and court rulings. Constitutional rights, Supreme Court decisions, and civil rights legislation are examples of legal frameworks.
Example 1: To get a clear idea, explore the 14th Amendment (1968) that suggests equal citizenship rights to all citizens born or naturalised in the U.S. Based on this amendment, activists challenged racial segregation and the argument that ‘separate but equal’ policies are meant to violate basic human rights.
Example 2: Similarly, read about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, where discrimination in public places was declared illegal. You can use this law as a reference to highlight the role of legal proceedings in the protection of voting rights.
Adding legal frameworks to your civil rights essay will make it more logical and persuasive. It will increase the credibility and authenticity of the essay while building a strong foundation for your arguments.
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Start with an Engaging Thought
Your introduction provides your readers with a road map for the rest of the content and develops their interest to read next. Ideally, an introduction should start with an engaging thought that captures the interest of the reader. To write a catchy introduction, you can begin with a thought-provoking question, a piece of striking news, or any statistics related to civil rights.
Here, we explore some examples to get you know how to write a civil rights essay introduction:
- It can start with a question such as ‘How would you feel if you feel denied just because of your skin colour?’
- Another approach is to quote a famous saying such as said by Nelson Mandela, ‘To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.’
- An introduction might be started with striking stats like UNICEF reporting more than 850 million minor girls got married at the age of under 18 in May 2023.
By applying this approach, a writer can easily catch the reader’s attention. An engaging introduction will make your civil rights essay more persuasive, catchy, and impactful.
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Give a Brief Introduction
A strong introduction sets the stage for the reader’s attention, and it is the place where the reader decides whether to read this essay completely or not. According to USC Libraries, an introduction takes the reader from a general to a specific topic by establishing the scope and building the context. A well-written introduction starts with a hook, gives background information, and presents the problem statement.
Here are simple steps to follow:
- Start with an engaging hook which can be in the form of a quotation, an idea, a question, a problem, a news, or a statistic. Example: What if the freedom of speech is taken away from you overnight?
- Next, give some background information relevant to your civil rights topic to get the reader to know the context better. For example, you can build context concerning civil rights movements as ‘civil rights movements have shaped societies by demanding equal rights for every gender without any discrimination.’
- Now, the problem statement is clearly stated. This essay examines the impact of civil rights movements and the challenges activists face in achieving true equality.
While writing the introduction, try to be concise and focused with no more details. Give the main points but keep the description and explanation for the rest of the essay. The major goal should be to convey the central idea of your debate.
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Create Sub-Headings to Improve Readability
A subheading is placed strategically under the main heading within any context. These are the specific titles and usually have a smaller size than the major heading but are larger than the content under subheadings. For example, subheadings can be used as H2 or H3. The major reasons for adding the subheadings are:
Increased Reader Retention
It increases reader’s retention by breaking down content into digestible sections. For example, instead of writing a general topic, you can make sub-sections such as ‘The Role of Martin Luther in the Civil Rights Movement’ or ‘Key Legal Frameworks that Shaped Civil Rights’.
Improved Organisation
It improves the content’s organisation by making it more accessible and well-structured. For instance, if a reader is looking for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a subheading like ‘Impact of Civil Rights Act of 1964’ will immediately grab the reader’s attention.
Increased Readability
It increases the readability score and prevents the overloading of information. As mentioned by CSUN, readability measures how easy it is for the reader to understand the content. Subheadings help in improving readability by making your writing more presentable and conveying the central message to the reader in their first read.
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Cite References from Credible Sources
Citing references in a piece of content is essential because it enables readers to locate the original source of information and confirm the credibility of the writing. This ensures you’ve produced your writing after reviewing the literature instead of relying on your own opinions.
However, you should consider following key steps while adding references to your civil rights essay.
- Cite credible sources and quote examples from real-life historical events.
- Use authentic data to support your arguments.
- Discuss case studies and relevant research studies.
- Reference recent statistics or news related to civil rights.
Some useful resources for getting credible information for a civil rights essay are the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court website, the NAACP, Google Scholar, and online journals and research institutes.
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Choose the Correct Language and Vocabulary
In an essay writing process, language and vocabulary play an important role in making a lasting impact on readers. The language you’ve used in the civil rights essay should be appropriate and fit your audience because the use of inappropriate language can damage your credibility and make your writing ineffective.
The following tips might be helpful to make your writing effective:
- Avoid slang and casual phrases for example, it’s not correct to say racism is horrible or racism has ruined the lives of people.
- To demonstrate the topic, include precise terminologies for civil rights, such as discrimination, equality, activists, and legislation.
- Maintain a natural tone throughout the essay and make sure that the language is respectful and inclusive.
A strong essay contains logic and fact-based information. Professional language and maintaining a respectful tone will add value to your writing. Always consider that a well-written civil rights essay is to inform and inspire the readers.
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Write a Persuasive Conclusion
The conclusion is the last part of any essay and allows you to summarise the issues you’ve discussed in the main body. It is always written at the end and demonstrates the importance of your essay. Writing an essay on civil rights is essential to draft a conclusion that leaves a lasting impression on the readers.
Here are a few steps for penning a thought-provoking conclusion:
- Restate the problem statement but don’t copy the main content. Try to present the same ideas differently.
- Briefly describe the key points you’ve discussed in your civil rights essay, but don’t introduce new concepts or ideas.
- Highlight the relevance of your essay by highlighting the gaps you’ve found in the literature already available on civil rights.
- End up your essay with an engaging thought that can be in the form of a question, a call-to-action, or an inspiring thought.
An outstanding conclusion acts as a guide for readers. It plays an important role similar to the structure of the essay. A well-written conclusion is always concise and aligned with the tone of the essay. Hence, it inspires the readers and makes a long-lasting impact on them.
What Are the Main Points of Civil Rights?
Civil rights are the sets of rights that guarantee equal social opportunities for everyone without any discrimination. One key point of civil rights is protection from discrimination based on ethnicity, skin colour, gender, or national origin. Another point is to give equal access to public education, services, and voting rights. Civil rights also protect the freedom to express, give the right to privacy, the right to a fair trial, and the right to the safety of the life of a human being.
What Are Some Examples of An Essay About Civil Rights?
Essays on civil rights can be of different types. Civil rights essays can be written in the form of a historical perspective, a biography, or a comparative analysis. Some examples of civil rights essays are:
Students researching civil rights topics can benefit from diverse resources, including academic journals, historical records, and expert analyses. Additionally, they can get captivating ideas for civil rights topics by consulting top-rated essay-writing firms in the UK. These firms often provide well-researched samples, topic suggestions, and writing guidance, helping students refine their arguments and develop unique perspectives on key civil rights issues.
Conclusion
Writing about civil rights demands much more than just listing historical facts and integrating legal frameworks. A writer should select a focused topic on which enough data is available to support the arguments. The introduction of a civil rights essay must be engaging to grab the attention of the reader.
A well-written essay on civil rights features a captivating intro, sub-headings, references, a concise conclusion, and the use of correct vocabulary throughout the writing. By following specific steps mentioned in the articles, one can produce a winning copy of the civil rights essay.
Author Bio
Guy Jefferson is a professional essay writer with a strong knowledge of civil rights movements. He loves to help students gather reliable information and understand complex historical events. Students passionate about writing can get help from him and produce an outstanding essay.
