A discursive essay: The only way to cut crime in our country is to make punishment more severe

After you have left your comment on the short video posted in Death penalty or punishment as reform? you can go on to watch this debate Death penalty, luxury prisons and false convictions in which activists, professors, criminal prosecutors, victim advocates, editors exchange thoughts and ideas on the topic. Your task is to write a discursive (for and against) essay titled "The only way to cut crime in our country is to make punishment more severe" and post it in your blog. REMEMBER that skillful writers spend much more time PLANNING their text than writing it. It means that careful planning enhances the quality of writing.

Here are the guidelines (adapted from Writing Help 9) for completing the task:

- PREPARATION: brainstorm ideas for and against hard sentences and softer, more humane punishment, add arguments and reasons to back up the ideas

- PLANNING: make a sketch of your essay, plan the paragraphs:

• introduction: the background of the topic, the situation in your area/country and its possible reasons
• arguments FOR: attitudes and reasons to support the title of the essay, use facts and examples to support your arguments
• arguments AGAINST: attitudes and reasons against the title of the essay, use facts and examples to support your arguments
• conclusion: your personal opinion on the topic

- WRITING: Use your plan to write the essay. Choose key vocabulary and linking words (there are many listed in Writing Help 9), find synonyms (for eg. in the Thesaurus), try to use formal grammatical structures and expressions such as passives and impersonal structures It is feared/believed/thought/claimed etc. Remember that this is a formal text the audience of which could be newspaper/magazine readers for eg. So don't use contractions and informal expressions. Your opinion should be stated only in the closing paragraph.

- CHECKING: Read your essay. See if it really expresses what you had in mind. Evaluate your writing according to these questions and make the necessary changes:

• How well does your essay flow?
• Have you used a variety of linking expressions in all the paragraphs? Can you add more linking words and this way eliminate short sentences?
• Check the style of your essay. Can you make some sentences more formal by using passive or impersonal structures?
• Check your essay for grammar, vocabulary and spelling mistakes.

Finally read your classmates essays and leave a comment on two of them in which you agree AND disagree with ideas expressed in the text.

The deadline for completing both tasks is 24 February.