A discursive essay is an opportunity for you to write about your personal opinion on certain topics. It involves you thinking about the subject matter being discussed and then presenting your balanced view on the subject. This would be your judgement based on your observation supported by evidence of the current happening around you.
In many sense writing a discursive essay is quite similar to writing an agree or disagree essay. But there are some differences.
Because of these overlapping similarities and differences I could understand that they may cause some worry.
However, I also believe that writing about a subject based on your personal views about a topic, is really something that you could enjoy.
As a teacher I feel that you can actually get over this worry of having to write an essay or anything else for that matter. One way to do this, is for you to understand the thing that you fear. Also understand why you feel that way.
Blog content
In this blog I’m going to show you how to write a discursive essay for the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) writing task 2. The content of this blog is as such:
- Types of essays for writing task 2
- What is a discursive essay?
- Discursive essay sample question
- Content points for the essay
- Structure of a discursive essay
- The introduction
- The body paragraphs
- The conclusion
Types of essays for writing task 2
You will have 50 minutes for you to write an extended essay for writing task 2. The extended essay is going to be one of the following. They are either:
- A discursive essay
- An argumentative essay
- A problem-solution essay
The length of your essay has to be more than 250 words and the maximum marks you can get for task 2 is 60 marks.
In this blog we will be focussing on how to write a discursive essay. So, let’s first of all find out the answer to this very basic question.
What is a discursive essay?
These are the criteria that make up a discursive essay.
- In a discursive essay:
- the main idea is to explore the topic of discussion
- present both sides of the argument - for and against
- include discussion of the topic, present ideas and opinions
- there is no direct purpose to convince the reader to agree with your views
When you are writing a discursive essay your main idea is to explore the topic of discussion. And so because of this you are going to be presenting both sides of the arguments.
You are writing to inform. This basically means that you are giving the reader more information about the topic being discussed. Accordingly, you are going to write about content points where you support and also oppose to the topic.
Naturally, this will involve presenting your own ideas and opinions.
Also bear in mind that your purpose of writing is not to convince the reader to agree with your views. So, the way you write your essay will sound like you are presenting your ideas for the purpose of discussion only. You are not writing to influence the reader of your essay.
Let’s clarify this a little bit more by looking at the sample question.
Discursive essay sample question
This is a sample question of a discursive essay.
What is written in the red box is the task that you will need to fulfill for task 2. I would like to highlight here the wordings used in the task given.
In this task it clearly states that you will need to write an essay expressing your opinion on this statement. This is therefore a discursive essay.
Expressing your personal opinion is a must.
So use expressions like “It is in my belief that..” or ” I believe that..” in your elaborations. However, be sure not to overuse these.
Here again, it is evident that the question wants you to do this one thing which is to give your personal opinion on the statement. You can do this by presenting your views to support and to go against the statement mentioned.
In doing this you are giving an unbiased view of the subject matter. You are simply going to present from observation and based on evidence your view of the topic.
The statement made by the fresh graduate in this question is the topic of discussion of your discursive essay.
I will not go through this question here as I have already discussed and talked about this question in another blog. So, do click the link above to find out more about this question and the task that you need to fulfill in task 2 here.
So, once you get your question you are going to first of all, read and understand the topic given. After that, you are going to spend 5 minutes of your time on planning what to write. You will need to come up with three content points for this essay.
Let’s now look at the content points that you can use for this question.
Content points for the essay
These are the content points that you can have for your essay.
- CONTENTS TO SUPPORT
- Relates to job performance- devote time and effort
- Job satisfaction- happiness- quality of life
- CONTENTS TO OPPOSE
- Unemployment rate- not be too choosy- survival
- Job opportunity that pays well
Thes are the two content points to support the topic and two more to oppose.
The first content says that you do agree to the idea that a person’s career choice should be based on the person’s interest.
And the first thing you can say is that this will relate to the person’s job performance. People who have jobs that they love and are interested in, will devote their time and effort on the job.
The next reason you can give to support the statement is that choosing a career that you are interested in would provide you with job satisfaction. This will in turn contribute to your happiness and overall quality of life.
For the points opposing to the statement, you can have two of these points listed here. First you can say that you are aware of the current climate of unemployment in our society.
Unemployment rate is very high especially so now with the pandemic going on. You believe that we should not be too choosy in selecting only careers that we are interested in. This is because there is the need for you to have a job for survival.
Another reason you can give to oppose to the statement is if a person comes across a job opportunity that pays well, then certainly the person should consider taking the job. From these content points, select the best three that you want to discuss in your essay.
Now that you’ve got your content points, you can start writing your essay. Here is the structure of a discursive essay that you need to know.
Structure of a discursive essay
This is the structure of a discursive essay. The number of paragraphs you need to have for your essay is 5 paragraphs.
- PARAGRAPH 1
- Introduction
- PARAGRAPH 2
- Reason to support view in topic sentence 1 (TS1)
- PARAGRAPH 3
- Reason to support view in topic sentence 2 (TS2)
- PARAGRAPH 4
- Reason to oppose view in topic sentence 3 (TS3)
- PARAGRAPH 5
- Conclusion
Start your essay with an introduction. The three content points would be made up of two points to support and the third content point would be one that goes against the statement. Lastly is the conclusion of your essay.
Let me just show you how this essay is written.
Introduction
Let’s first of all look at how to write the introduction. These items are what you should have in your introduction.
- INTRODUCTION
- Hook
- Background information of the topic
- Thesis statement
- State your stand (optional for a discursive essay)
Paragraph one will be your introductory paragraph. Start your introduction with a hook. A hook is something that is going to attract or pull in the reader to read your essay.
So, you’re going to write something interesting as the hook. After the hook you’re going to give some background information about the topic being discussed.
This background information will serve two purposes. One is that it will help the reader understand the topic more. And the second reason which is also the most important, is that it gives the reader confidence in your writing.
Giving some background information shows that you have some basic understanding of the topic.
It shows that you know what you are talking about.
You will need to write your thesis statement after that to let the reader know about what to expect in your essay.
And lastly is for you to state your stand. And for this particular question you will say that you agree to the statement made but only to a certain extent. Stating your stand for a discursive essay like this is optional, as really the main purpose of writing the essay is for you to give your unbiased view of the subject.
The body paragraphs
The next thing that comes after the introduction is the body paragraphs.
Content 1 and 2 support the statement
In a discursive essay content 1 and 2 show your support of the statement.
- CONTENT 1
- Use linkers and sentence connectors (To begin with, Firstly, etc.)
- (TS 1) Reason to support view
- Explain your views with evidence and an example
- Closing for paragraph and reinstating TS 1
How you write your content point will be like this. Start your paragraph with a linker or a sentence connector. Examples of linkers and sentence connectors you can use to start your paragraph are such as, ‘to begin with, firstly, first and foremost’ etc.
After the linker and in the very first sentence of your paragraph you are going to write a reason that supports the view.
Next, you are going to explain this view with evidence. Provide an example to clarify this idea. Also explain more about the example and link it back to the topic being discussed. And then end your paragraph with a closing by reinstating topic sentence 1. Now let’s move on to your second content point in paragraph 3.
- CONTENT 2
- Use linkers or sentence connectors (Furthermore, Moreover, In addition, etc.)
- (TS 2) Reason to support view
- Explain your views with evidence and an example
- Closing for paragraph and reinstating TS 2
For the next content point, again you would need to start with a sentence connector. But this time use the sentence connectors that signals the continuation of an idea. You can use ‘furthermore, moreover, in addition’ etc.
Right after this and in the very first sentence of the paragraph you would need to provide another reason for why you support the statement.
After this, explain your view with evidence. Add an example from what you have seen in the media for instance and then provide your personal opinion based on that. By doing this, again you are showing critical thinking of the subject matter.
After this, you will be writing your third content point.
Content 3 opposes the statement given
Going on to the third content point is where you are going to switch your view. Here, you are going to provide a reason to oppose the statement given.
- CONTENT 3
- Use sequence connectors (On the other hand, in contrast, however etc.)
- (TS 3) Reason to oppose view
- Explain your views with evidence and an example
- Closing for paragraph and reinstating TS 3
First use sentence connectors that signal you are going to say something the opposite of what you have said before. It is very important for you to use a sentence connector that signals the contrast of what you have said. These are such as ‘nevertheless, however, etc.
Then, in the very first sentence of your paragraph, you would need to give a reason for why you oppose this view. Explain why you say this with evidence. Provide an example of what you have read in the newspapers as an example.
And moving on to the last paragraph which is the conclusion, you can write something like this.
The conclusion
This is the last paragraph for your essay.
- CONCLUSION
- State the topic of discussion
- Summarise the content points
- Recap your opinion- giving a balanced view
- Closing for the essay
Start again with a sentence connector to signal the conclusion. Use ‘in conclusion or to conclude’ etc. to do this.
And after this, in the same sentence state the topic of discussion again to remind the reader of the topic being discussed.
Then summarise the three content points in your own words. You would need to rephrase the sentences that you have used before. Rephrasing your content points will avoid you from sounding repetitive and also will certainly freshen them up.
Next, remind the reader again of your stand regarding the topic being discussed. Give a recap of your opinion about the topic and provide a balanced view on the matter.
And lastly, provide your ending with a sentence that signals the closing of the paragraph. It should sound like you are closing your essay.
This is how you write a discursive essay. Look out for my other blogs about the other two types of extended essays that you may get for task 2 – the argumentative essay and the problem solution essay.
