How to plan your discursive essay (2/6) Discursive Writing

Analyzing the Question

Overview: This section covers how to analyze a question for discursive writing.

Analyzing the Type of Question

• Discursive writing questions often ask you to list down problems, advantages, solutions, ways, factors, or other items.

Identifying Keywords

• Identify the type of question and the key words in the question.

Paraphrasing

• Use your own words to paraphrase some of the key words.

Brainstorming

Overview: This section covers how to brainstorm ideas for discursive writing.

Brainstorming Tips

• Brainstorming is dependent on how much you have been exposed to.

• Come up with as many ideas as possible and then select the best.

• Use the Ask Appease technique when you run out of ideas.

Examples

• Perks of being a teenager today could include more money, comfort, and easier to make friends.

• Frustrations of being a teenager today could include social media, technology, stress, and more.

• Synonyms for "teenager" include teens, youth, adolescence, and youngsters.

• Synonyms for "perks" include advantages, merits, benefits, and more.

• Synonyms for "frustrations" include disadvantages, problems, drawbacks, challenges, and more.

Teenagers and the Issues They Face

Overview: This video discusses the various issues that teenagers face today, such as online predators, bullying, environmental damage, education, and social media. It also provides tips on how to create a plan for writing about these topics.

Creating a Plan

• Use bullet points to generate ideas and don't worry about the quality of the points.

• Highlight the points that stand out to you and that you feel comfortable elaborating on.

• Combine points if necessary and discard any that don't seem relevant.

• Create an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Writing Skills

• Use the BTW structure for the introduction.

• Use the PEEL structure for the body paragraphs.

• Use the SERVIN structure for the conclusion.