Writing: Creative and Discursive Essay
Writing: Creative and Discursive Essay tests sustained writing: narrative or descriptive writing, and argumentative or discursive essays.
Planning
- Spend five minutes on a plan: angle, four or five paragraph topics, examples.
- Creative: establish setting and voice early; use concrete sensory detail; keep tense and point of view consistent; give the story a conflict and a change.
- Discursive: state a clear thesis; support with two or three reasons and examples; include a counterargument and rebut it; conclude with a position, not a summary.
- Cohesion: topic sentences, linkers, pronoun reference; vary sentence length.
Worked example
Topic: 'Traditional initiation schools should receive state support.' A strong plan: introduction defines initiation schools and states a qualified thesis; paragraph 2 gives cultural continuity and identity; paragraph 3 gives skills and social responsibility; paragraph 4 concedes the risk of abuse and argues for regulation, not abandonment; conclusion restates the qualified position. Reasoning: the essay argues rather than describes, and the concession makes it credible.
Traps
- Narrative with no conflict or change.
- One-sided argument with no counterargument.
- Informal contractions and slang in an essay.
- Repeating the same point in different words.
- Ignoring the key word in the topic.