Difference between Discursive and Argumentative Essay

Essay writing is a great way of analyzing the critical thinking skills of students. It is an ideal medium to improve the writing skills of students and also encourage them to express their point of view or opinion to others. An essay is broadly categorized into four types, including expository, persuasive, analytical and argumentative essay. Here, we will discuss about the discursive essay and argumentative essay. Both the essays, discursive and argumentative are written after a thorough investigation and observation.

Discursive essay examine and analyze two possible points of view, whereas an argumentative essay argues particular point of view. In other words, discursive essay discusses about two or more opposing perspectives, but argumentative essay discusses about one perspective. While writing these essays, a writer conducts a meticulous research on the topics or issues so as to gather strong evidences to support his or her point of view. Generally, these essays are written on controversial issues or topics. The structure and objective of these essays differ from each other. Let us see how the styles of discursive and argumentative essays vary.

1.  Topic Selection: A discursive essay is mainly written on two or more topics or issues. It presents the two opposing perspectives in a balanced manner. On the other hand, argumentative essay discusses about a particular topic or issue. It gives a set of reasons to convince the reader to a specific point of view.

2.  Writing Style: When writing a discursive essay, a writer presents his or her opinion on the issue or a topic. Besides, it is written in a formal and impersonal way. It starts with an introduction that talks about the topic or issue and each issue must be discussed in a separate paragraph. On the other hand, in an argumentative essay, the writer presents an opinion by using metamorphic strategies so as to convince readers. Apart from this, it is written in a general format, which includes introduction paragraph, body paragraph and the conclusion.    

3.  The Objective of Discursive and Argumentative Essay: The discursive essay talks about the issues or topics that revolve around some kind of controversy whereas argumentative essay are like a debate on a topic. In an argumentative essay, a writer argues on a specific point and tries to persuade the reader on his or her opinion.

Different Techniques of Persuasive Writing

A persuasive writing is kind of writing in which a writer tries to persuade the reader on his or her point of view. In simple words, persuasive writing is a type of writing in which the writer strives to convince the reader that his or her opinion on a particular issue is actually correct and logical. It is the most popular and widely used writing form. In persuasive writing, the writer uses various techniques to support his or her opinion, so as to persuade the readers. Let us understand the different techniques of persuasive writing. 

1.  Use the right tone: Needless to say, what you want to convey is important, but it is also necessary that you convey it by using a right tone. It matters a lot when you are able to influence your readers through your writing skills. 

2.  Establish connection with the reader: Just as we meet lots of people day in day out but we tend to talk more often to the people with whom we feel we have some comfort level same applies while writing. In case you have some mutual connection, establish them at the earliest so that the reader develops the interest.

3.  Switch the role: To excel in persuasive writing, sometimes we need to switch our role from a writer to a reader and have a walk through the writing to check what is appealing in the writing. 

4.  Usage of Impactful words: Persuasive writing becomes more meaningful if you use some impactful words like discount, bargain or some words like wisdom, confidence which will boost the reader’s interest.

5.  Story Telling: The best way to connect with the reader is by binding them to a story in which they also feel involved. But while writing a story, ensures that you emphasize on both sides of the story and not a single sided story.

6.  Simplified Language: Use simple words to explain a thought and amplify that with an example which connects the reader emotionally.

What are the Punctuation Rules

Punctuation mark plays a very significant role in a sentence. Using the correct punctuation at the correct place enhances the readability as well as gives clarity to what is being said. Incorrect punctuation or no punctuation may not give any meaning of the sentence. For example:

I am hungry eating pizza it is raining cannot go to playground for practice.

Now let us add the correct punctuation and see if this makes any difference.

Since I am hungry, I am eating pizza.  As it is raining, we cannot go to playground for practice.

Having set the background, let us delve a little further to understand the punctuation rules followed in English Grammar. Below are the 10 punctuation rules which are widely followed:

•  Period or Full Stop (.): Most commonly used punctuation in English grammar. This basically plays the role of a knife by cutting a sentence to a desired length and adding meaning to it. In other words periods denote the end of the sentence. Periods are also used in abbreviations when the final letter of the abbreviation is not final letter of the actual word. Sometimes we will find some sentences ending with three dots which indicate that the text is quoted or is left for the reader’s imagination.

•  Comma (,): Commas are mostly used to organize the logical blocks of the sentences. In other words, to group the logical sounded words into one. Commas are mostly used when making lists of items to segregate one list from the other. Sentences beginning with a dependent clause should always be followed by a comma. Series of noun, adjectives, and phrases usually requires a comma.

•  Exclamatory Mark (!) : Sentences ending with an exclamation mark signifies the surprise or astonishment feeling.

•  Question Mark (?) : Mostly interrogative sentences end with a question mark or in other terms, if something has to be asked those sentences end with a question mark.

•  Quote Mark (“”) :  Quotations are normally used in direct speech. When we want to report what has been said without making any changes those sentences should be surrounded by quotes.

•   Colon (:) : Colons are used at the end of a complete sentence to introduce or to give an explanation of the previous sentence. Colon also used to separate hours and minutes when writing time in English.

•    Semi Colon (;) : Sentences not having any coordinating conjunction can be joined with a related independent clause which are of equal importance using semicolon. The semicolon can be used also to separate lists in case the items in the list are already separated by comma.

•  Apostrophe (‘) : Apostrophe is mostly used in case you wanted to make something possessive or to identify a missing letter or to form strange plurals.

•  Hyphen and Dash (-) : Hyphens are used to join two words or parts of words together removing ambiguity or confusions. On the other hand Dash is used to emphasize a specific point in the sentence.

•  Parentheses and brackets (()): Parentheses denoted by round brackets () are used mostly for providing an explanation or adding an afterthought to the main subject. Sometimes parentheses can be replaced by a comma.

Capitalization Rules in English Grammar

Capitalization refers to a writing skill where the first word is written in uppercase and rests of the words are written in lower case. There are few rules defined as mentioned below which govern the use of capitalization.

1. The first word of the document or the first word after the period should be always written in Capital or uppercase. For example, Children have completed their homework. They are playing in the ground now.

The capitalization should not be done if the title immediately follows or precedes a name. For example, Dhoni is the only captain to win two world cup matches.

If the title comes before the name, then it should be capitalized.  For example, I saw Captain Dhoni in the mall today.

2. First word in direct speech should be capitalized. For example, My dad asked “Have you completed the homework?”

3. Brand names should always be capitalized, but the noun following it should not be capitalized. For example, I like Audi Q6 model.

4. Geographical features should be capitalized if they point to a specific attribute.

5. Proper nouns should always be capitalized. For example, names of person, cities, planets, animals, countries, mountains.

6. If an independent clause begins after a colon, then the first letter should be capitalized.

7. Common nouns should not be capitalized. For example cat, church, etc. are common nouns which should not be capitalized.

8. Occupations before full name should not be capitalized. For example, chef Tommy or actress Angelina Jolie.

9. Nicknames should always be capitalized.

10. First word in a complete quotation should be always be capitalized.

11. Relative’s family name should always be capitalized if it precedes a personal name or if they are used in place of personal names.

12. Historical events, specific era should be capitalized always since that will differentiate between the normal regime and special events.

Different Types of Determiners

Determiner is a grammatical form and a type of noun modifier that precedes and followed by the noun. In simple words, it is used in a sentence to give additional information about the noun. These are used before a noun or a noun phrase so as to point out a specific thing, object, place or a person. The role of determiners is to express reference. In other words, determiners clarify what a noun is referring to. For example, He saw the actress (Here, ‘the actress’ means a particular actress) or His father is a doctor (Here, ‘a doctor’ refers to a particular person).  Let us understand different types of determiners in detail.

1.  Articles:  Articles are the most popular determiners. A, an and the are the articles that are used in a sentence to specify a noun. ‘A’ and ‘an’ are indefinite articles as they indicate a group of noun in the sentence. ‘The’ is a definite article that specifies a particular noun in the sentence.

For example:

• The statue of liberty is the symbol of freedom.

• He is an artist.

• She has a famous writer.

2.  Quantifiers: The quantifiers are used to define the quantity like a little, a few, more, most, much, enough, many, much, any, etc.

For example:

• I have enough chocolates.

• He has many friends.

3.  Possessives: Possessives are one form of determiners that shows ownership or possession of a noun. My, our, his, her or there are possessive determiners.

For example:

• This is my dress.

• His mobile phone is very expensive.

4.  Demonstratives: These determiners describe the location and position of a noun from the speaker’s point of view. These, that, this and those are demonstrative determiners.

For example:

• This car is mine.

• These books are good for test preparation.

5.  Interrogatives: Interrogative determiners are used in the sentence for asking questions. Whose, what and which are interrogative determiners.

For example:

• Which fruit do you like the most?

• What would you like to have for dinner?

Kinds of Subjunctive Mood in English Grammar

In English grammar, the mood indicates the attitude of the writer. There are different types of mood in English grammar such as imperative mood, indicative mood and subjunctive mood. The subjunctive mood is a verb form that is used in a situation which is not factual or doubtful. In simple words, when the verb is in the subjunctive mood, then it expresses different states of unreality or unreal situations, including wish, opinion, emotion, judgment, action, possibility, demand, regret, proposal, etc. It starts with the word ‘if’ and commonly found in a clause.

Uses of Subjunctive Mood

• It is used after a wish, if, as if.

• It is used after the different types of verbs such as recommend, ask, suggest, command, insist, propose, etc.

• It is used after the expressions such as it is important, it is necessary, it is desirable, etc.

Subjunctive statements mostly denote an action which is in the future and hence the tenses will be applied in a different manner. In other words, tense of indicative verbs may be changed, but the tense of subjunctive verbs indicating a futuristic action does not change.

For example:

• I wish finance minister could give more tax rebate.

• I suggest he implements the design as given in the magazine.

When ‘if’ clause is used as a subjunctive verb, the statements become trickier. As there is no surety of action being performed, we cannot have any tense. For example, if I were to become VP in next 10 years, I would make changes in the work culture.

People often tend to make an error when they use “to be” in the subjunctive mood. The correct usage would be to use “be” in the present tense and “were” in the past tense irrespective of the subject.

For example:

• It will be good if hearing of the case is postponed.

• If I were rich, I would buy the palatial building and build a swimming pool on top floor.

Basic Elements of Short Stories

A story is a one form of narrative that gives a specific kind of pleasure to listeners and readers. The different characters and their actions make a story interesting for the readers. It is the inquisitiveness of listeners and readers that empower the writer to write an interesting story. Stories have different genre like comic story, tragic story and values in action stories, teaching stories and vision stories. Similarly, short stories are categorized into various types. A short story is small work fiction, which is created with the help of imaginary characters. Let us understand the basic elements of short stories.

1.  Setting: In a short story, a setting refers to the place and time in which the story takes place. Setting plays an important role in many short stories. It illustrates the geographical location, time period and weather condition of the story.

2.  Character: A character is a person or an animal that are identified in the story through their actions and dialogues. In simple words, characters are those persons who are represented in a dramatic work. In the story, the central character is recognized as a protagonist and the person who opposes the central character is known as the antagonist.

3.  Plot: A plot is series of events that are arranged in a proper order by the writer. Usually, a plot consists of a beginning, middle and the end part. A short story normally has one plot.

4.  Conflicts: The conflict refers to the struggle or problems between two characters or things. It is an essential part of a short story and without conflict there will be no plot. In a story, the central character may struggle against other character, society, and natural calamity or against his or her emotions and feelings.

5.  Theme: It is the main idea or belief in a short story. It depends on the writer that how he narrates the story.