Discursive Writing

What is the purpose of discursive pieces of writing?

• To discuss a wide range of ideas

• to discurse and discourse

• to push one argument

• to analyse how an event has shaped the world

which of the following DO NOT belong at the beginning of a discursive piece of writing:

• expert quote

• fact/statistic

• anecdote

• decisive argument

What discursive technique/s are used: "I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us black people in America".

• grouping of three

• anaphora

• repetition

• emotive language

• all of the above

What technique is used? "We sit there, against the backs of our chairs now, a little disappointed with each other's company. Perhaps disappointed is too strong. Disconcerted might be the better word. We are looking at each other across a gulf of incomprehension. We are concerned that one of us is a liar and the other a denier."

• simile

• repetition

• exaggeration

• personal pronoun

What is this an example of: "Homework is boring, dull and uninteresting"

• anaphora

• hyperbole

• group of three

• anecdore

What is the most significant technique in the following excerpt: "I am George Floyd. I am Ahmaud Arbery. I am Tamir Rice. I am Eric Garner. I am Philando Castile. I am Alton Serling. I am Oscar Grant. I am Trayvon Martin. I am Emmett Till."

• anecdote

• awkward

• historical references

• repetition

Which persuasive technique is this: when you pick holes in your opposition's argument so that your point of view sounds better.

• rhetorical questions

• criticise other points of view

• groups of three

• emotive language

What technique is the following: "On May 26, I woke up to the news that an African American man named George Floyd, 46 years old, was killed 12 blocks from my home - in front of Cup Foods, an Arab-American mom-and-pop corner store my family and i would infrequently patronise, one of the only ones still standing in our expeditiously gentrifying neighbourhood."

(a)  

what is this an example of? "95% of pupils feel that there is too much homework."

• fact and statistic

• hyperbole

• emotive language

• opinion

Which of the following provides the BEST description of the STRUCTURE for a discursive text?

• clearly stated opinion that is repeatedly reinforced

• a conversational and informal structure

• an open-ended, loose structure

• descriptive detail and offering more than one viewpoint