Here are resources on how to write a discursive essay.

Remember, you should choose an issue which is important to you – one which you are passionate about.

Powerpoint: Planning a Discursive Essay (Skills and Criteria)

Word Document: Planning a Discursive Essay (Structure and Examples)

Links to other sites:

Writing Commons – Many different articles on how to improve your writing.

Relevant and Reliable Sources

Relevance

Always think:

• What information do you want from the source?
• Look initially at the title of the book or article, the contents page and the index if they are present.
• Do they indicate that the information you are looking for is here?
• If so your next step is to skim-read the information to see if it is useful.
• If it seems to be, read over it again carefully.

Reliability

When you are first presented with a written source of information you should consider whether the information is:

• Accurate
• Biased or balanced
• Supported by evidence
• Up to date

Internet Research

When searching on the internet it is particularly important to ensure the reliability of your sources. It can be hard to tell.

• Always check the information on more than one site.
• Access reliable websites e.g.
  • newspapers;
  • BBC,
  • Government web pages etc.
• Use key words to focus on relevant and reliable information and narrow your search.

Remember, to research both sides of the debate. Look at sites that contain arguments both for and against.

Recording Sources

It is essential that you give credit to information and ideas from other sources.

At the end of your essay you must provide a bibliography, or a list of sources you have consulted during your research.

Make sure you keep this record as you go – you may find it very difficult to go back and find sources later.

Plagiarism

You must not copy chunks of information from any text, nor can you copy or paste from a source to a word document.

This is ‘plagiarism’: taking ideas/ passages / sentences from someone else’s work and presenting them as your own.

Instead you must:

• Summarise: sum up the key points, in your own words
• Paraphrase: write down someone else’s ideas in your own words.
• Quote: making sure you reference the material, either with a footnote or in brackets after the actual quotation.

Also, ensure that you lay out the quotation correctly. E.g.:

An article in the Scotsman newspaper suggests that some bar owners allow young people to buy alcohol. However, in that piece one owner said, “it is difficult to tell if young people are over 18”.

If in doubt, come and ask!