Discursive Essay: How to Write a Discursive Essay With Examples

A Discursive Essay Writing Guide for Students

At some point in the student's academics, they will come across discursive essay writing. It is unavoidable whether the stream of students is law, science or even arts as every student has to do it.

Discursive essay are also one of the most important types of academic writing. It not only teaches the students about research and analytical skills but also allows them to showcase their own opinions of the topic itself.

But all of these don't change the difficulty of writing it. Discursive essay are as tough as they are important and if you are looking at this article it means you need help with it. Don't worry by the end of this article you will know the method to write it. But first, let's understand what it is.

What is a Discursive Essay?

A discursive essay is a type of discursive writing where the students choose a topic and then research deeply about it. Then they write both the advantages and disadvantages of the topic they have chosen and conclude it by stating their individual opinions on it based on the collected evidence.

In simpler terms, a discursive essay is just academic writing where the students research some topic and then present their unbiased opinions. The main objective of this type of essay is to tell your reader that the arguments that you are presenting are both valid and unbiased.

Types of Discursive Essay

When it comes to making a discursive essay the students would normally need clarification about the type of writing style they should be adopting. To help the students we have mentioned the major types of discursive types here.

• Opinion essay: The name itself should be an explanation enough. Opinion essays are a type of discursive writing where the writers present their opinions subtly and then give evidence to support them. The writers even give counterarguments to make their case strong.

• Problem-solving essay: The readers can see the theme here right? The name again explains the essay itself. In this type, the focus is on a problem and explains the reason why it even arose. Then the author will present solutions to it and end it with a strong call to action.

• Compare and contrast essays: These types start with presenting two or more topics. Then the writer will compare and contrast them explaining both the similarities and differences between the topics. This allows the readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of both topics. This type of writing is also one of the most common ones among all discursive writing styles

• Cause and effect: Another very common type of discursive writing style. If the students read the articles online they would have come across this type many times. In this type of writing the students would explain some phenomenon and then explain its effects to give the readers an understanding of it.

• Argumentative: Now normally there is indeed a difference between the discursive and argumentative essay but that is an inherent difference in the essays. However, the argumentative mentioned here refers to the style of writing these assignments. The writers will present some topics and give strong arguments in support or against them and then mention some counterarguments. These arguments will help the readers to understand the topic.

• Exploratory: The opposite of the argumentative type. In this type, the author will just investigate the topic and leave the conclusions to the readers themselves. This type is preferred more when the author doesn’t wish to advocate any specific type.

How to Write a Good Discursive Essay?

Now that the students are aware of the discursive essay meaning and its types then the next step would be for them to understand how they can write a good discursive essay. For that purpose, we have written a few Do’s and Don’ts through which students can write a good discursive essay. These are as follows.

Neutrality

• Do: Maintain an Impersonal and formal tone while writing the arguments to give an objective and unbiased opinion.

• Don’t: Don’t use any emotional tone while writing and avoid being subjective at any point.

Relevant Sources and Research

• Do: Research extensively through the relevant sources only. Make sure that the information and proof collected are from an updated source.

• Don’t: Don’t use any information without a proper source behind it. There is no place for personal Opinions in discursive writing.

Clarity

• Do: Write clearly and concisely that leaves no doubt to the reader. The statements should be easily understandable to the readers.

• Don’t: Avoid any ambiguity in the essay. Don't let the main statement be misunderstood by the readers.

Suitable arguments

• Do: Support each of the arguments with a suitable and credible example. Make sure to give more than one such argument too.

• Don’t: Don’t forget or intentionally avoid the counterarguments. Give solid counterarguments with sufficient proof to make your case even stronger.

Structure and guidelines

• Do: Follow the structure given in the blog after confirming it with the college or academy. Make changes if the guidelines mention it.

• Don't: Avoid making any changes if the guidelines don't explicitly mention them.

How to Structure a Discursive Essay?

Now comes the main part of the article, the structure of the discursive essays. Like any other academic writing, a discursive essays has a fixed format that the students have to follow through. If you weren't aware of this structure or the format of it then there is no need to look any further since it's explained right here.

Introduction

Now this is how you start the discursive essays. Think about what would make your teacher or professor interested in reading your work and then use those thoughts here. In case you can't decide then that's fine too since we will provide you with the steps for it. First of all, choose a topic that would make the teacher interested. Choose something trendy from the academic field or something hard that would show how much effort you had put in.

Next, start your introduction with something that would hook your readers. Then explain about this topic and give the readers a concise idea of the essay itself. Give a short explanation of the problem and use some quotations and Rhetorical questions. Give both sides of the argument and then move on to the next part.

Main body

For this portion, the main goal is to give different arguments for the title while keeping a cohesive flow in each part. Each paragraph should present a different topic but they should all be focused on a similar goal, the main opinion of the essay.

For these arguments too make sure to follow a simple intro and evidence format. Basically, for each of the arguments first mention the argument itself and then mention the evidence that you researched. Also, use published case studies and academic writings for your research and use them as examples.

Now this step depends on the research itself. If you have researched and found 3 arguments in support of some point and just against it then those arguments in support have to be mentioned first. Then finally mention the counterarguments.

But in case there are counterarguments for each then mention them right after the arguments themselves. The format for the main body is mostly dependent on the students so there is some freedom to make changes. But just make sure to be unbiased.

Conclusion

Now you conclude your discursive essays with this final step. In conclusion, there aren't many things that the student should be mindful of and neither is there a format here. The students just need to mention their essay summary here and give the conclusion from each of the arguments. Then you can give your personal opinion based on the evidence provided. Remember to just summarise the findings, don’t give any new points and don't repeat any point either, just mention them once.

Discursive Essays Example

For the student's convenience, we have also given an example that follows the format mentioned. The students can use this example to work more efficiently.