LEAH BOLETO:Hi I’m Leah Boleto and I’m a BBC reporter. In my job I often report issues that generate discussion, and it’s important that I provide the facts and give the audience a balanced view.
BILL TURNBALL:Good morning Leah, what’s the report say then?
LEAH BOLETO:Good morning Bill…
We’ve taken over Media City today…
Hello guys, Leah here, live in Rio.
When you’re writing your discussion piece, there are a few things you need to remember.
You need to pick a topic to discuss, for example let’s take the topic of school uniform. It’s a topic that affects all of us at some point in our lives, so the purpose of this piece will be to discuss why some people love to wear it, and others don’t.
When writing a discussion piece, you need to write it in the ‘third person’ so that you remain ‘objective’. That just means you’re not biased to one part of the discussion, and don’t distract the reader from the topic.
When writing in the first person you say ‘I’, ‘Me’, or ‘We’. “I hate school uniform”.
When you write in the ‘second person’ you use words like ‘You’ and ‘Your’. “You love school uniform”.
When writing in the ‘third person’, you can use words like ‘They’, ‘He’ or ‘She’. “They can’t make up their minds about school uniform”.
Firstly you need to examine the main points you’ll be writing about. So you’ll say within this piece you’ll be considering why some people believe wearing school uniform is a good idea, but also why so many others dislike the idea.
When I was at school I hated my school uniform, but that was my opinion, and in discussion based writing you need to examine all the arguments, ‘for’ and ‘against’.
It’s also important to use supporting evidence. I wouldn’t be able to say everyone in the UK wears school uniform, I wouldn’t have anything to prove that. So you’ll have to do some research which you can quote as ‘statistic’ to support your argument, and justify why this piece is worthy of discussion.
So I think I’m just about ready to write my discussion. Remember you have to be balanced on both sides, so you can choose to present your argument ‘for’ wearing a school uniform first, followed by an equal number of arguments against. You can call those ‘counter-arguments’.
The first point I’d like to make in favour of this argument is… “‘They make you look smart’”.
“‘Wearing a school uniform reduces the pressure of having to keep up with the latest fashion’”.
In addition, now this is a ‘connecting phrase’ which signals you are about to make a new point, so “‘In addition it also gives you a sense of school pride by wearing your uniform’”.
At this point you can see that the argument is very unbalanced and one-sided. Here we need to signal that we are considering the other side of the argument.
You can use words like ‘However’, ‘Despite’, ‘Meanwhile’, ‘Alternatively’ and ‘Since’.
So here goes… “‘Alternatively, some people would argue that wearing school a uniform is, well, unfashionable, and it’s just an expression of conformity. Although you could argue that a school uniform offers a sense of school pride, wearing one could identify you to your school rivals.’”
I’m jotting down my thoughts as bullet points, but in the finished discussion pieces, I will write in paragraphs.
Now I’ve found a fact here, more than 90% of secondary schools in England insist on uniform. I found that fact on an online news site, but I have to make sure that same fact is checked out on other resources. Maybe you’ll pick up a book, do an internet search, or speak to an expert. You have to do all of that to make sure it’s correct.
Once we have considered both sides of the argument, it’s then we can summarise what we’ve discussed. At this point we need to give reasons for why we have decided on the argument we support. You can use phrases like ‘In conclusion’, ‘To sum up’, or ‘On balance’ to demonstrate that you are coming to the end of your discussion.
“‘In conclusion a uniform might not be something everyone loves, but it does offer a sense of unity, and it can take the pressure away from fashion at school. Therefore, despite being unpopular, I think it’s here to stay’”. Job done.
Video summary
Newsround presenter Leah Boleto explains how discursive writing requires an understanding of the difference between facts and opinions, and how to use connecting phrases and statistics.
Leah outlines how to research in different ways to find supporting evidence, such as statistics, which will justify your arguments.
She also demonstrates how to summarise information and write a closing statement.
This short film is from the BBC series, The Facts About Non-Fiction.
Teacher Notes
Ask pupils as a group to come up with arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ wearing a school uniform.
They can then watch this short film and check if they predicted the same reasons as Leah.
Set them the challenge of writing their own discussion piece on a topic using all the techniques outlined by Leah.
You could also use the detailed explanation of writing in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person as part of a grammar lesson about pronouns.
This short film will be relevant for teaching English at KS1 and KS2 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 1st and 2nd Level in Scotland.
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