Writing a Discursive Essay

Morning all,

Hopefully now you have a better insight into what is required of you when being asked to write a discursive essay. Essentially, you need to use the data provided or even just the question as a springboard, and then bring in relevant ideas from your wider reading to inform the rest of your response.

Keep looking back over the exemplar essay we read on Monday. Although this is a perfectly fine response and would achieve a C/B borderline, we have done enough reading and studying both in and out of class to make some great improvements on this essay.

For those of you who don't have a copy or have forgotten to bring it, follow this link to the PPT used on Monday.

Today I want you to continue to draft this essay; we made a great start on Monday so this shouldn't be difficult. Remember:

• Cherry pick the best bits from the exemplar response to adapt and use in your own answer. 
• Read the examiners comments at the side and at the end of the response and think about the advice they are giving.
• USE THE DATA! Don't neglect the source materials you have infront of you; make sure you analyse it as this is great way to open up the discussion.
• Talk about theory and don't be afraid to dispute it
• Make sure that any claim you make has some kind of evidence to support it
• Be tentative in making points/anaylsis, for example, "It could be suggested..."/"Linguists have argued"/"This could imply..." etc.
• Bring in ideas from the 'Women in the Boardroom' article, and any other wider reading you have done (see articles below)
• Remember - this is a language essay so you'll still need to include linguistics.

This is a great opportunity to develop your writing skills so make sure you are using PEE throughout. If you have any questions or are stuck on anything, please follow this link to the Padlet page I've set up for this lesson and post your question (you can do it anonymously) so others can benefit from the feedback.

Enjoy!