During your academic journey, you might have to write a discursive essay at some point. Teachers assign these essays to check the capabilities of students in a specific writing style. But most of the students don’t even know what is a discursive essay and how to write it well. If you are also on the same page tackling this essay, don’t worry. We’re here to help you understand the process through our easy guide.

According to Merriam-Webster, the word “discursive” comes from the Latin term “discursivus,” which means “running about” or “related to the conversation.” It’s connected to the verb “discurrere,” which means “to run about” or “to discuss a wide range of topics.” Simply put, it means covering a lot of ideas or opinions thoroughly and systematically in your essay.

Crafting a good discursive essay goes beyond just stating arguments. It’s about creating a thoughtful piece that grabs your reader’s attention. This puts pressure on students which leads many of them to get essay writing help from professionals. In return, these experts being highly experienced in their fields offer the best suggestions to make sure their essays are well-written and high-scoring.

Here, we will discuss the basic essay structure for discursive writing and also explore some essential points that you must consider while writing your essay. But before going into its depth, let’s discover what this essay is all about.

What Is a Discursive Essay?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “discursive” means involving discussion. A discursive essay is all about discussing a topic from different angles without making a one-sided opinion. It involves showing all sides of an argument and offering objective evidence. The writing style is impersonal, meaning it doesn’t lean towards any particular viewpoint to keep things neutral.

As the writer, you need to be cautious and not strongly support one side. Your goal is to keep your personal opinions out of the discussion. If you start taking a strong stance, your essay might end up sounding more like an argumentative essay.

Top 10 Discursive Essay Topics 2024

Finding good essay topics encourages you to explore different aspects and perspectives, fostering deeper and more critical thinking. The range of topics for discursive essays is vast, and here’s a list you can refer to anytime.

1. Explore different thoughts on using telehealth in nursing homes.
2. High school students sharing their personal opinions on the use of AI.
3. Discuss the ethics of stem cell technology.
4. Discuss the role of the United States in regulating government.
5. Examine the effects of rising inflation on society.
6. Explore different perspectives on the death penalty.
7. Should kids under 10 have cell phones?
8. Is technology a positive or negative force?
9. Share your views on how social media affects young people.
10. Provide supporting evidence for the impact of violent video games.

Controversial subjects work well for discursive essays because they challenge you to approach emotional topics with rational and objective thinking, showcasing your ability to discuss them thoughtfully. After selecting your topic, conduct thorough research, exploring it from various angles and then move towards the writing process.

What is the difference between argumentative and discursive Essays?

Purpose

Discursive Essays: Aim to give a fair and balanced view of a topic. Even though it should be impartial, you can still use facts and research to discuss both sides of the issue.

Argumentative Essays: Try to convince the reader to agree with your viewpoint. This type of essay relies on solid research to both persuade and educate the reader, but it’s less emotional than a persuasive essay.

Structure

Discursive Essays: Have a more formal and impersonal style. Start with an introduction, discuss each point in separate paragraphs, and include a powerful issue sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.  There may not be a distinct thesis statement, and the conclusion might not clearly support one side over the other.

Argumentative Essays: Follow a general essay style. Craft a clear thesis statement in the introduction, explain it in the body paragraph, and then restate and develop it in the conclusion. The goal is to persuade the reader to agree with your position. Here, you should outline supporting evidence and respond to objections as well.

Approach

Discursive Essays: The author looks at the subject from many angles, providing a fair analysis of the claims and rebuttals.

Argumentative Essays: The author makes a compelling case, backs it up with facts, and tries to persuade the reader that one side of the debate is superior to the other.

Tone

Discursive Essays: Your tone and style of discussion should be more neutral rather than being on one side. Here, the writer cannot show his strong point of view on any side of the argument.

Argumentative Essays: They are totally opposite to the above ones as they convince the reader in favour of one point. Writers usually make it more forceful by outlining a definite position and pointing in favour arguments to it.

There is a very thin line separating these two types of essays, and that’s why students often make mistakes when writing such kinds of essays. To save themselves from these blunders and complete their task excellently, they mostly prefer to get discursive essay help from professionals. These experts offer great support to students to make their essays more refined and polished to guarantee academic success.

Structuring a Discursive Essay – Easy Guide

Students who start writing their discursive essays mostly ask similar questions, such as whether their essays have any format and organisation guidelines or not. Its simple answer is that every type of essay or academic writing has its specific structure and format that you must follow.

To write your essays well, you should discuss your topic from various perspectives becoming an all-rounder. Following is the basic discursive essay structure:

Introduction

Students often wonder how to start writing this essay. Well, we understand that it seems tricky, but it’s easy and straightforward as well. The main thing is that you should follow the proper criteria for writing this successfully. What you should cover here includes:

• Start writing your introduction with an engaging hook to grab readers’ attention. It primarily includes a question, fact, or a famous quote.
• Secondly, the most important thing is your thesis statement which you must add here in a very clear way.
• Here, you should introduce your topic well and also provide some background details relevant to your subject of discussion.
• One last thing that you should carefully attempt is to avoid using general terms at the beginning and make it more focused and unbiased.

Main Body

When working on the main part of your discursive essay, keep in mind that it is the central and very crucial part of your essay. Before writing, you should be prepared with your arguments and the relevant proofs from the literature. After that, carefully go through all the aspects of the issue and remain unbiased when presenting different views.

Save your personal opinion for the conclusion but it should also not be on one side only. Here, you should add arguments in separate paragraphs and also add some relevant proofs of them that you can find from literature and scholarly papers as well. Furthermore, there are some more tips that you should follow here:

• Suppose you have 3 arguments to write in 3 different paras. State them but make your language and style very neutral like cover it from all the different angles.
• Build your arguments separately in each paragraph and also support them with evidence and facts.
• You should also present opposing points of view in a clear and neutral way.

After writing this middle part, let’s move forward towards the last section of your essay.

How Do You End a Discursive Essay?

So, reaching this point, it seems like you’re almost done with your writing. But that’s not actually true because the final part of the conclusion still remains. Here, you should summarise everything that you already have discussed earlier and share your own perspectives on it. But try to keep it short and to the point, as it should not look similar to the parts of the above essay.

When it comes to expressing your points of view, you should give logical answers and also reference evidence from body paragraphs. Keep this last section minimal as one paragraph is the ideal conclusion in discursive essays.

Furthermore, your conclusion should bring everything together. Unlike a persuasive essay, you don’t have to rigidly follow the formula of restating the thesis, reiterating themes, and making a statement about your experience. Instead, connect the various perspectives explored in your essay. This essay aims to look at a subject from different angles, not persuade a single viewpoint. Take your reader back through the different perspectives you’ve covered.

Top 10 Key Points to Compose Your Discursive Essay Perfectly

Composing a meaningful essay that engages your readers is just as important as providing viewpoints in a persuasive type of essay. Students studying and writing these essays often look for guidance to write their essays perfectly. That’s why, we have come up with the following 10 essential components that you must add to your discursive essay composition:

1.     Clear Thesis Statement

Summarise your major points of contention or position in a succinct and understandable thesis statement at the start of your essay. It helps your readers to navigate your essay easily and understand your points very well.

2.     Well-Structured Introduction

As we have mentioned above, you should make your introductory part very strong and engaging. It is the area that will pique your reader’s interest in your work. To make your introduction interesting, try using a hook, like a thought-provoking question. You clearly write this part to make sure everything goes smoothly.

3.     Fair Presentation of Arguments

This is the thing we are discussing from the start your discursive essay should cover the subject from a variety of angles. To do this, you have to keep your wording neutral and present all sides of the dispute like a third person. This methodical approach shows that you are aware of how complicated the problem is.

4.     logical Paragraph Structure

Wondering how many paras should be there and how you will set them? Don’t worry, it is very simple as you can make 3 to 5 depending on the word count and topic requirements. You should divide your writing into coherent paragraphs.

Every paragraph needs to revolve around one distinct idea, with a seamless flow from one to the next. It helps you to improve the consistency of your work overall and makes it simple to read.

5.     Use of Persuasive Language

To support your points, use persuasive language. In addition, you should make your claims clearly by supporting them with strong arguments, examples, and persuasive writing styles. This keeps the reader interested while also supporting your position.

6.     Thorough Analysis and Supporting Data

Provide comprehensive analysis and pertinent supporting data to bolster your claims. This might contain data, research findings, professional quotations, or actual case studies. Keep in mind that a strong argument strengthens the validity of your assertions and gives your discursive essay writing more authority.

7.     Acknowledgement of Counterarguments

Give credit to competing theories and points of view. Responding to counterarguments shows that you have a thorough grasp of the subject and enables you to support your own stance by carefully arguing against competing viewpoints.

8.     Cohesive Language and Transitions

Make use of transitions to lead your readers from one idea to the next skilfully. Using coherent language guarantees that your essay flows well, avoids misunderstandings, and upholds the argument’s flow.

9.     Sentence Structure Variation

To improve your discursive essay’s flow and readability, use a variety of sentence patterns. To keep readers interested, switch up your sentence lengths and start each one differently to avoid boredom.

10.  Strong Conclusion

In the conclusion, repeat your thesis and briefly discuss your key arguments. Encourage readers to think through the ramifications of your arguments by providing a solution or a call to action. Your audience is left with a lasting impression by an engaging finish.

Conclusion

We all know that differentiating between types of essays is not a child’s walk in the park. And you have to struggle a lot to meet the demands of discursive essay writing. But now, by following the above-mentioned easy guide along with essential parts in your discursive essay composition, you will be on your way towards a successful essay.

It will also help you improve the overall quality of your writing in addition to engaging your readers. However, students often turn to an online essay writing service provider for assistance when encountering challenges. Their professional essay writers help students easily create well-structured and high-quality essays.

FAQs

How Many Paragraphs Are in a Discursive Essay?

Typically, it’s good to have at least five paragraphs in this type of essay. But it should be well-organised, just like many other essays but with its specific arrangement. Here, each paragraph should discuss its own argument starting and concluding everything within it making a complete dish to serve. Moreover, you should also back up your arguments with the right evidence and examples.

What are the Three Types of Discursive Essays?

Writing a discursive essay encourages deep and critical thinking by examining various aspects and viewpoints of a topic. There are three main types of discursive essays:

1.     Opinion Essay

In this type of essay, you should express your opinion on a topic and support it with arguments. In addition, address counterarguments before concluding, explaining why they are unconvincing.

2.     For and Against Essay

Present reasons both in favour of and against a particular topic. You should also share your own preferences and opinions before concluding.

3.     Essay Suggesting a Solution to a Problem

Outline a problem and propose multiple solutions. Moreover, you should conclude it by expressing your opinion on the best solution and explaining why.

What are the Characteristics of a Discursive Essay?

The major characteristics of this essay show that it explores a topic from different angles thoroughly. The following are some features of a discursive essay:

• Explores topics
• Balanced approach
• Objective tone
• Multiple perspectives
• Structured format
• Thorough research
• Acknowledges counterarguments
• No strong personal opinion
• Conclusion without strong bias
• Encourages critical thinking

In short, what you have to do is do extensive research on the topic and find relevant arguments and counterarguments. Then, discuss these points in your essay in a neutral way without making your perspective in one direction.

How Do I Start a Discursive Essay?

You should start writing your essay with an introduction just like any kind of academic writing. This starting point of your essay should have the following:

• An Engaging Hook: Start with an interesting hook or statement to grab the reader’s attention.
• Contextualisation: Give a quick overview of the topic and why it matters to set the stage.
• A Clear Thesis Statement: Clearly state the main argument. A discursive essay, usually signals that you’ll explore various viewpoints without firmly taking one side.