Which action should you avoid taking when looking for an argument topic for your college essay? If you aren't assigned a topic, you might brainstorm for major issues that interest you. If your teacher asks you to take a position on a specific current event, you could begin mapping out your stance and looking at opposing viewpoints. If you are assigned a topic by your instructor, you should write about the topic you have been assigned. If you aren't assigned a topic by your instructor, you could wait until you see what other students are choosing for topics and steal one of their topics so that you can copy the rest of the research and writing they do all semester