Essay On Discursive Essay Writing

1. Introduction

The standard of writing among FCE students, whether it’s weekly/monthly written tasks or end of term exams, clearly highlights that many students lack the necessary skills to become more able writers. Nunan (1999:271) “Producing coherent written discourse is an effort for many English mother tongue speakers” but “for second language learners the challenges are enormous.” This situation isn’t helped when “writing is mainly relegated to a homework activity” Hedge (2005:13). Moreover, students submit a ‘final’ version, when it’s usually their first draft. With teachers treating it as a ‘final product’, the vital stages of revision and evaluation are forgotten thus encouraging students to repeatedly submit the same standard of work and so little improvement, if any, occurs.

The exam was comprehensively revised for 2015, the compulsory question is now discursive essay writing. From experience this is a weak area, many are not familiar with writing in this genre in their L1 and are unaware of the processes involved that gradually coalesce into a final version. For this reason, I will examine the difficulties

I argued that in order to help students we must develop their skills in writing through a process genre approach. “Given that writing is a process and that what we write is heavily influenced by the constraints of genres” Harmer (2004:86). It’s imperative that these elements are included in writing activities. I argued that without the ‘drafting and redrafting’ students are unlikely to improve. Moreover, “Teaching and learning are joint enterprises involving both teacher and student in a partnership” White&Arndt (1991:2). Both must fulfill their roles in this partnership, and though essay writing will continue to be challenging, I believe both teacher and student can become more motivated and see writing as communicative, rewarding and