Your Guide To Writing A Great Discursive Essay

So, you’ve been writing essays all through your college life, and just when you thought you had written them all, boom! Another one pops out, the discursive essay.

You are now at a loss wondering, where in the world did this “curse” essay come from soon? Who even sat down and out of his five senses, came up with such an absurd type of essay? But before you start cursing everything out of this essay, you might reconsider sitting down and reading this remarkable article.

Inhale, exhale, that’s right. I hope the curse is now dispelled. Let’s get down to it and see the blessings out of this cursive essay, oh sorry, discursive essay.

Shall we?

Discursive Essay: Definition

It comes from the most common word, “discuss.” Remember those times your teacher would place you in groups and tell you to discuss a specific topic or mathematical problem? Well, a discursive essay is just that.

A discursive form of writing is a discussion on a given topic. It is more of an exploration of ideas. It is opposed to arguing either for or against a subject of interest. As a writer in this type of essay, you will give the two sides of the story than in conclusion present where you stand.

What is the Goal?

It is intended to give a precise objective and balanced picture of the two sides of the story.

What Tone is used?

Since it is a formal essay, the tone is also required to be official. The third-person point of view is therefore used analyzing your arguments and bringing out your opinion on the topic.

Formal word choices complement the precise tone. Here is a sample of that:

Instead of writing: “He’s accepted the job offer,” you write: “He has accepted the job offer.”

As simple as that. The simple trick here is to avoid contractions when writing words. Another example would be:

Instead of: “Visited the beach last week. Lots of catching up”, write: “We visited the beach last week. There is a lot of catching up to do”.

But here’s the catch, ensure that the tone is balanced. Failure to this will distort your whole discursive essay. Nobody is ready for that, are you?

All right and clear? Let’s move to the next part swiftly.

The discursive essay format is like that of most other essays. What I mean is that it has a catchy introduction, a precise thesis statement, a well-paragraphed body, and a conclusion. If you still have a problem with these, then looking at several discursive essay samples would come in handy.

Discursive Essay and Argumentative Essay

Most people find it tedious, making a clear cut between these two types of essays. Nevertheless, rescue is here.

These differences can be in two aspects:

1. Structure
2. Purpose

Are you ready to rid of that confusion once and for all? Then tilt your eyes to the following explanations.

In terms of structure, a discursive essay employs a more impersonal and formal style, unlike the argumentative essay type.

The purpose of discursive writing is to give a dependable and objective evaluation of a particular topic of interest. The same may not apply for an argumentative essay.

You are solely responsible for objectively evaluating the topic and not trying to convince the readers on the side of the story.

But there’s more!

Main Types of Discursive Essays

In this well researched and detailed post, our emphasis will be on two types of this essay kind as follows:

Opinion Essays: The author gives their opinion regarding a matter raised in the introductory paragraph. Supporting evidence should be presented in the body of such an essay. You should avoid too much sarcasm in this type of essay.

For and Against Essay: It is an essay presented in the form of debate by incorporating points of view that propose or oppose. However, objectivity remains paramount in discussing the given aspects.

Essay Suggesting a Solution to a Problem: It points out a problem and gives explanations of the many ways to curtail the problem. Your opinion as the author should be summarized distinctly in the conclusion.

Imagine you are in a restaurant having been served so perfectly by a waiter and he’s standing there waiting to clear the table. What can you read from the face of the waiter? A tip, right?

Well, I’ll also be generous enough to give you, not one, but five topics to help you start your discursive essay today.

Top 5 Discursive Essay Topics

1. At what age should one get married?
2. Is technology a blessing or a curse?
3. Should homework be banned in schools?
4. Discuss the effectiveness of Genetically Modified Organisms on agriculture.
5. Are school uniforms of any significance?
6. Drinking water daily is the key to healthy living.
7. The pros and cons of staying up late at the night
8. Nurturing talents in schools
9. Computer games and their effect on children
10. Should alcohol be illegalized?

There are many more topics one can think of and come up with a top-rated discursive essay. It should, however, be one that you are comfortable writing about at any time.

Students who may encounter stress when it comes to such an essay can seek professional writing assistance.