Section C of O-Level English Paper 1 is where a lot of students lose marks they did not need to lose. The essay itself is not the problem. The problem is usually that students start writing before they know what they think, and end up with three paragraphs that repeat the same idea in slightly different words.
A discursive essay is the most forgiving option on the paper if you plan it properly, and the most punishing if you do not. Here is how to do it well.
What Examiners Actually Want in a Discursive Essay
Continuous Writing is worth 30 marks and is assessed on two things: Content and Language. Content covers relevance to the question, development of ideas, and organisation. Language covers accuracy, vocabulary, sentence variety and register.
For a discursive essay specifically, examiners are looking for:
- A clear position or clear framing of the debate, stated early
- Genuine engagement with more than one side of the issue
- Specific, real-world support rather than vague generalisation
- Logical paragraphing where each paragraph makes one distinct point
- Controlled, formal register throughout
Note the difference between discursive and argumentative. An argumentative essay pushes one side hard. A discursive essay explores the issue, weighs perspectives, and then arrives at a reasoned conclusion. Questions phrased as "What are your views on..." or "To what extent..." invite the discursive approach.
Step 1: Spend Ten Minutes Planning
With Paper 1 running one hour fifty minutes, a realistic split for Section C is ten minutes planning, thirty-five minutes writing, five minutes checking. Ten minutes of planning feels uncomfortable when the clock is running. Do it anyway. It is the single highest-return habit in the whole paper.
Unpack the question first
Take a question like: "Social media does more harm than good to young people. What are your views?"
Underline the key terms and interrogate them:
- Social media: which platforms? Content sharing, messaging, algorithmic feeds?
- More harm than good: this is comparative. You must weigh, not just list harms.
- Young people: define this. Primary schoolers and JC students are very different.
Students who skip this step write a general essay about social media. Students who do it write an essay that answers the actual question, and that is where Content marks live.
Generate ideas across categories
If you stare at a blank page hoping for inspiration, you will produce whatever comes first, which is usually the most obvious point. Instead, run through fixed lenses:
- Individual, family, community, nation
- Social, economic, ethical, practical, long-term
For the social media question, that quickly produces mental health effects on the individual, misinformation at the national level, economic opportunity through content creation, and the ethical question of who is responsible for regulation. Pick your four strongest and drop the rest.
Decide your line of argument
Write one sentence at the top of your plan that answers the question directly. For example: "Social media is harmful largely because of how it is used and how it is designed, not because it exists, so the harm is real but not inevitable."
That sentence is your spine. Every paragraph should visibly connect back to it.
Step 2: Structure the Essay
A reliable five to six paragraph shape:
- Introduction: contextualise the issue in two or three sentences, then state your position clearly.
- Body 1: your strongest supporting point.
- Body 2: a second supporting point from a different angle.
- Body 3: the counter-argument, taken seriously.
- Body 4: your rebuttal or qualification, showing why your position still holds.
- Conclusion: restate your position in fresh words and end with a forward-looking thought.
Build each paragraph properly
Use a point, explanation, evidence, link structure, but make the explanation the longest part. Most students write one line of explanation and then rush to an example. Examiners reward reasoning.
A compressed sample:
Beyond the obvious concerns about screen time, the deeper harm lies in how algorithmic feeds reward extremity. Platforms optimise for engagement, and content that provokes outrage or insecurity is more engaging than content that is measured. A teenager therefore does not encounter a neutral sample of the world; she encounters a curated stream designed to keep her scrolling. In Singapore, where students already contend with intense academic expectations, that constant comparison compounds pressure rather than relieving it.
Notice there are no invented statistics. Precise reasoning beats fake numbers, and examiners can tell the difference.
Step 3: Language That Lifts Your Band
- Vary sentence openings. If three paragraphs begin with "This shows that", rewrite them.
- Use discursive connectives accurately: "admittedly", "conversely", "that said", "crucially", "by contrast".
- Avoid absolutes like "everyone" and "always". Hedge with "tends to", "in most cases", "arguably".
- Keep register formal. No contractions, no slang, no rhetorical questions stacked one after another.
Step 4: The Final Five Minutes
Check for the errors that cost the most marks: subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, singular and plural nouns, and punctuation around connectives. Read the last sentence of each paragraph and ask whether it still points at the question.
Discursive writing is a trainable skill, not a talent. Plan hard, reason clearly, and the marks follow.
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