Revising and thinking of exams being around the corner can get extremely gloomy, tiring and boring, so while i was looking through handouts for Psychology, i came across this and it just made me laugh.

How do you write a discussion in an essay?

A discussion is a sort of argument. The key feature of a discussion is that at least two different points of view are represented. In a good discussion, each side makes its points clearly, and offers evidence to support its views. Here is an example:

Cat: Cats are brilliant. They are intelligent pets and very loving to their owners. Everyone should have a cat.

Dog: No they shouldn’t. Cats aren’t clever or loyal.  They’re just selfish. They don’t love their owners; they just hang around to get fed.  Dogs are better. 

Cat: Dogs? They’re awful. They smell and they slobber everywhere. They’re way more stupid than cats. Cats can look after themselves.

Dog: That just proves my point. A cat doesn’t care if you’re around or not. It’s just freeloading off you. A dog shows loyalty because it depends on you.

A discussion in a psychology essay works in the same way. For a particular issue, there may be two or more different points of view. If you are discussing the issue in an essay, you need to lay out clearly the different points of view and the evidence they have in their favour. You should then try to draw a conclusion about which of the two views wins the argument.