Higher English Discursive Essay Topic Ideas?

Does anybody have any ideas? I have been told to do something really unique so I interest the marker. I can't think of any bar the traditional animal testing etc. Any help?

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Reply 1

BigChimp

A really fascinating topic that many people will do is racism.

Seeing as the Euro 2012 has just went underway you could maybe develop an idea of how most of eastern Europe is still living in the past. You could discuss what governments do to prevent this and discuss various laws in Ukraine? You could also talk about the police force over there who would turn a blind eye to a racially aggravated attack! It's an in depth topic that you could really go into depth about. Racism will be a widely used topic I can almost guarantee it but I'm sure Eastern Europe and more specific ideas wont be.

I am sorry if this was a waste of your time, I am also trying to get some ideas flowing n my mind!

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Reply 2

aroy45

Original post by itsc0ntagious

Does anybody have any ideas? I have been told to do something really unique so I interest the marker. I can't think of any bar the traditional animal testing etc. Any help?

Do something current! Jubilee, Euro 2012 racism, Worlds actions towards Syria. It's always interesting to write about and loads of information available

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Reply 3

DragonWalnut157

Go with something that's relevant and current; like the above poster said about the Jubilee or Syria. Also make sure that your arguments are convincing, they don't need to be overly complex just for the sake of it.

Alternatively you could always go for a random topic that hardly anybody will have chosen. My two discursive essays last year were on the importance of tea in Britain and the other on drag queens; I sent away the latter in my folio :P

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 4

Quick-use

Original post by DragonWalnut157

Go with something that's relevant and current; like the above poster said about the Jubilee or Syria. Also make sure that your arguments are convincing, they don't need to be overly complex just for the sake of it.

Alternatively you could always go for a random topic that hardly anybody will have chosen. My two discursive essays last year were on the importance of tea in Britain and another drag queens; I sent away the latter in my folio :P

What da hell? :shock:

Really, really random! Nice, nevertheless :sexface:

Last year I did mine on whether or not the American Dream was a delusion for the working class, a telescope causing unnecessary headache :wink:

What I would recommend is doing it on something really interesting for you. I absolutely hated my topic and I struggled with points as I didn't really have an opinion on it. From the very beginning, think of a broad topic, something interesting and then do some research on it, pinpoint a very specific area of the topic you'd like to focus on and make general arguments against and for (keep it simple). And then from the evidence you've already gathered get down to the knitty-gritty stuff. :smile:

Do it on something you're interested in and will enjoy very much so! :smile:

Reply 5

Sami'

I've wrote one of goal line technology and the mistreatment, captivity of animals.

Reply 6

TheFOMaster

I wrote a discursive essay on the PSN hacking scandel a few years back.

Reply 7

iloveparis

I was thinking of discussing how children are becoming too sexualised. Would this be unique and interesting enough?

Reply 8

rawragee

Mine was "Is there a need to breed?", which was basically about why people choose to have and not have children.
I would recommend doing something that you can be knowledgeable about on both sides, in mine I felt it easier to explain the reasons why people don't have children because I'm not at the stage where I do think about having children (being only S5) so had to ask several mothers for opinions etc which took ages!

Reply 9

itsc0ntagious

Original post by BigChimp

Wow! Those are some great ideas but my teacher specifically told us that we can't do racism incase it offends the marker in some way or something. It's so hard! There is also a lot going on in Brazil as I learned from doing int 2 Mods in 4th year!

Reply 10

itsc0ntagious

Original post by DragonWalnut157

I'm not allowed to do the Jubilee or Syria either. I was thinking of doing the dangers of social networking sites. How does that sound?

Reply 11

itsc0ntagious

Original post by iloveparis

I was thinking of discussing how children are becoming too sexualised. Would this be unique and interesting enough?

That sounds great and quite different! :smile:

Reply 12

DragonWalnut157

Original post by itsc0ntagious

I'm not allowed to do the Jubilee or Syria either. I was thinking of doing the dangers of social networking sites. How does that sound?

That could work if you approach it from an interesting angle, not the rabble about paedophiles and the like. You could refer to much more basic principles like how it can cause disruption amongst friends and how universities can view your fb page (I don't know that for certain, but I'm sure I read it on tsr somewhere)

Also about your question about how the folio works - It accounts for 20% of your final grade and is marked out of 50. http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/46172.html < That's the SQA grade calculator. Each element is marked seperately before being put into that and the final percentage given xD
Good luck with your essay!!

Reply 13

rawragee

Original post by nerd434

Can I ask, with Higher does your folio get a specific grade and then it becomes a percentage of your overall grade? Or do you just get marks/a percentage which is added on to your close reading and critical essay marks?

Yes it does, you submit two pieces which will get graded separately out of 25, then averaged. So if you got 17 and 19, you'd get 18/25 overall. The folio has a 20% weighting of your overall grade, there's a grade calculator here I think http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/46172.html :smile:

Reply 14

iloveparis

Original post by itsc0ntagious

That sounds great and quite different! :smile:

Thanks! I might do it :smile:

Reply 15

karasteel

Ive just started higher English today, struggling for inspiration, want to start getting a draft now so not cramming next to the deadline. Was thinking of "are prostitution laws outdated in a modern age?" Would this be allowed? its just that its a hot topic in Edinburgh just now as the new amalgamated police force are trying to close all the saunas which have operated for years with a blind eye policy.

Reply 16

Memetics

Original post by itsc0ntagious

Does anybody have any ideas? I have been told to do something really unique so I interest the marker. I can't think of any bar the traditional animal testing etc. Any help?

If you have the time, you could do something you have absolutely no opinion on and try to form one as you research it. I once did mine on why Zoos are bad. I really have no definite feelings on the topic,but managed to get one mark off full marks for it :smile:

Or you could just think of something completely unorthodox. Someone in my class did one on why his favorite sandwich was the best and why no other sandwich should even be compared to it and he got a good grade.( Juding from your avatar,maybe you would be interested in doing one on why Pikachu is the out and out best Pokemon :pika:

)

Edward Snowden's case could also provide some heated, on topic discussion, which shows that you care about current affairs.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 17

Koalabearish

I done mine on animal research, supporting the idea of it - and it was a hard one, but it paid off. My friend had wrote about abortion (hers discussive, mine persuasive). There is plenty of different things, do you take modern studies? I was going to use ideas from that, eg should immigration control be tightened. You'd be surprised at how much there is to that argument!

Reply 18

dramaqueen45

You want to do something different.. Something that not many people have done or will be doing! :smile:

for my discursive essay last year I did 'what is the appropriate age for motherhood'! Nobody in my class did it and I think it must have paid off because it was marked 23/25 :smile:

go luck on finding your title!

Reply 19

upthelooda

Im repeating higher english this year, I took it over 2 years! I want to change my discursive essay completely! I started doing the holocaust, but I really want to bring it up to date and more current! so I'm thinking sexting/ask.fm and stuff like the deaths and dangers, but im not sure how to split it into paragraphs? can someone help me??? please.