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Higher English Coursework
“Broadly Discursive” Portfolio
Portfolio Requirements
Higher English – two pieces
- 1300 words and each piece is marked out of 15. One has to be 'broadly discursive' and the other 'broadly creative'.
- Overall, the Folio is worth 30% of your overall mark. Do your very best and make it count! NB – You are allowed detailed feedback on one full draft of each folio piece. It is therefore very important that you spend time and effort on this first draft as it is the only one your teacher can give you feedback on. You can, however, have informal discussions and help with your planning before you submit a draft.
Which one should I do?
- If you are interested in purely factual information , pie charts, graphs and pictures, then report writing is for you.
- If you feel really strongly about something and want to voice your own opinion , then persuasive writing is the best option for you to express your point of view and passion about a particular topic.
- If you find a topic interesting and fascinating but are not sure which side of the argument you are on, because both sides have valid points , then write an argumentative/discursive essay. It’s more balanced and two-sided. The most commonly chosen type of writing is persuasive.
You have to do research – you can’t wing it!
- Whatever you decide to write about, you will need to do some research. You may have your own opinions, but you have to back it up with evidence.
- You should look at a variety of sources as this will allow the examiner to see how much work you have done collating your arguments together. Here are some tips: ✓Summarise lengthy arguments from your sources ✓Use a variety of sources, e.g. YouTube, magazine articles, newspapers etc. ✓Find statistics that strengthen your arguments ✓Do not copy! This is plagiarism and it’s not worth getting disqualified because you couldn’t be bothered putting things into your own words. ✓Note down all the sources you have looked at, even if you don’t directly take information from it, it can still be added as part of your bibliography.
Choosing a Topic
Topic ideas #folioinspo Twitter https://debatingmatters.com/t opics/ Love Island/Jeremy Kyle Citizen cards TV License to be scrapped Distance learning for education rather than classrooms Cyberbullying SPL should be revised Harsher consequences/fines/charges for celebrities who commit crimes Review of the criminal justice system Plastic pollution Ban on energy drinks Schools having therapy pets Negative effects of bodybuilding
But what am I aiming for?
- Look at the next slide for positives and negatives in an existing essay
Task 1
- Make a shortlist of three topics for your discursive essay (you don’t need to decide which type of writing you will use yet)
- Using skimming and scanning techniques, find at least four sources for each of your topics. You do not have to read the sources fully at this stage. It is good enough to know the main ideas
- Write a short paragraph for each of the three topics, explaining what you would write about if you chose this topic.
Task 1 Example: Example (time taken: 8
minutes!)
- Topic 1: Jaffa cakes are biscuits and not cakes
- https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/jaffa-cake-or-biscuit-explained- mcvities-new-pineapple-flavour- 1379214
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine- 38985820
- https://metro.co.uk/2015/05/25/jaffa-cakes-are-not-cakes- 10 - reasons- why-the-jaffa-is-a-biscuit-5194703/
- https://mcvities.co.uk/products/jaffa-cakes I plan to argue that Jaffa cakes are biscuits and not – as the name suggests – cakes. This will be a persuasive essay looking at the definition of a “cake” for tax purposes as well as popular opinion. I will then use data from the McVities website to emphasise my opinion that Jaffa cakes are not biscuits.
Task 1 - continued
- Make a shortlist of three topics for your discursive essay (you don’t need to decide which type of writing you will use yet)
- Using skimming and scanning techniques, find at least four sources for each of your topics. You do not have to read the sources fully at this stage. It is good enough to know the main ideas
- Write a short paragraph for each of the three topics, explaining what you would write about if you chose this topic.