Discussion Text ;

Definition, Generic Structures, Purposes, Language Features

Hello everybody.
Do you ever discuss??? Hmm, I’m sure my friends must be familiar with the
discussion, and often do it. We often discuss to find a solution of a problem faced.
In the discussion, of course there are pros and cons. Because the discussion is
actually to get consensus or agreement from others. We do discussion not only in
the world of education, but we also often discuss for small things like asking for
opinions. Well, actually one of English genre of text is Discussion Text. It brings
the same discourse as when we discuss something.

When we discuss about a matter, of course in our discussion there are various
arguments/opinions. Likewise in Discussion Text, this text has two different
opinions; first, agreeable opinion and, second, disagreeable opinions. Therefore we
must have a broad view of a problem if we want to make a discussion text.

For more details, let’s one by one discuss what we should understand in studying
Discussion Text.

Definition of Discussion Text

Discussion is a process of finding common ground between two different thoughts,
views or opinions. And discussion text can be defined:
Discussion text is a text which presents a problematic discourse. This problem
will be discussed from different viewpoints. Discussion is commonly found in
philosophical, historic, and social text. In other word, Discussion is a kind of
genre used to present (at least) two points of view about an issue.

General structure of Discussion Text

 Issue : stating the issue which is to discussed.
 Argument pro : presenting the point in in supporting the presented issue
 Argument cons : presenting other points which disagree to the supporting
point
 Conclusion / recommendation : stating the writer’ recommendation of the
discourse
Purpose of Discussion text
– To present two points of view about issue or problem.
– To present arguments from differing points of view about issue or problem..

Language feature of Discussion text

 Introducing category or generic participant.

 Using thinking verb; feel, hope, believe, etc

 Using contrastive conjunction; however, on the other hand, but, in other side,
although, etc

 Using modalities; must, should, could, may, etc.

 Using adverbial of manner; deliberately, hopefully, etc

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  Simple present

Examples of Discussion text

Examples of Discussion Text about Nuclear Energy

Nuclear Energy : Advantage Or Disadvantage

Nuclear energy is commonly offered as an alternative to overcome the crisis of
energy. The debate whether the use of nuclear energy is an appropriate choice or
not, has not come to an end. Some people agree with the utilization of it because of
its benefits. Some others, however, disagree because of its risks to the environment.

Those who agree with the operation of nuclear reactors usually argue that nuclear
energy is the only feasible choice to answer the ever – increasing energy needs. In
their opinion, the other sources of energy: oil, coal, and liquid natural gas are not
renewable and safe, while nuclear energy can be sustainable when produced in a
safe way.

However, people who disagree with the use of nuclear energy point out that the
waste of nuclear products can completely destroy the environment and human lives.
A meltdown in reactor, for example, usually results in the contamination of the
surroundings soil and water. Take for example, the blow up of the nuclear reactor at
the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in Russia twenty years ago. The serious
contamination imperiled people and the environment severely.

It is obvious that nuclear energy should be avoided because it really endangers the
environment but what about a less polluted energy instead of nuclear energy. Is
there any alternative energy to overcome the crisis of energy? In my opinion,
nuclear energy is the best choice to overcome the crisis of energy. However,
government should make sure that nuclear reactor’s construction and maintains are
safe.

Examples of Discussion Text about Education World

National Exam: Pro and Contra?

National exam becomes the hot topic in most of discussions among students,
teachers, and parents. Some people believe that national exam is not necessary for
students as a requirement to be able graduate from a school. In other hand, other
people see national exam as an important indicator to know whether students have
mastered all school materials or not. The debate among society about national
examination goes on until now.

For people who agree, national exam is necessary for students as a requirement to
graduate from a school. People who support the national exam explain that the
quality of the Indonesia education will drop without the national exam, so they try
to defend the current system. They also think that national examination can
motivate students to study harder.

However there are people who disagree with the opinion. Those who against this
national exam kept in school education say that it doesn’t need the national exams
because the quality of education does not just depend on the national exam. Further,
the national exam only measures a small portion of students’ competence in specific

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subjects, and does not measure students’ competences throughout the semester.
In conclusion, national examination can still be useful as an instrument to evaluate
or detect the level of students’ cognitive competence in several subjects, on a
national scale. However, it is not fair if only national exam score that judge whether
students pass or not. Government should make a regulation that national exam is not
the only requirement for students to graduate. There should be other requirements
added such as students’ daily score, behavior, and achievement.

Examples of Discussion Text about Technology for Students

Pro and con of Computers for Students

Do you know that most schools and colleges strongly recommend students to have
computers to help them achieve better results of learning. With computer connected
to Internet, students can learn English online. They can make reports easily by using
word processing software. They can play game to get of boredom. However, a
computer can also give negative impacts for a student.

One thing that makes a computer useful is that students can use it to finish some
assignments from schools. By connecting to Internet, they can easily surf and find
any materials related to their lessons and assignments. They have unlimited
resources from all over the worlds. Online libraries are open. A lot of book are free
to download and read online. Finding friends from related field of study is not
difficult anymore. They can work together to boost their best achievement. What
more benefit is they can do all of that just by sitting on the a chair of their rooms.
What amazing world it is, isn’t?

Although a computer has many benefits, it should be considered deeply. A

computer certainly does not promote students to do and move more. A computes
make students have less physical activities. Even not few of them forget to have
lunch while they are playing certain game. They just sit in front of monitors. They
are caught up in the mystique of the smart machines. In short, students who usually
work with computers tend to have a few physical activities and exercises.

So what should students do? Should they avoid using computers? Of course “No”.
Computer will make even greater benefits if physical activities are also promoted to
done by the students.

Example of Discussion Text about Internet Technology

The Impact of the Internet for Students

Internet has helped many people in all elements of life that the internet has
contributed fully in social life. With internet, we can do anything, both the positive
and negative things. As a medium of communication, internet can be used to
communicate with other users worldwide.

Internet presence provides positive benefits for the world of information, but it also
has many negative influences. Many students gain knowledge with the help of
internet. In fact, school assignments are now noticeably easier to find on the
internet. It is undeniable that internet gives effect to students. There is a positive
effect, but there is also a negative influence of internet. It is just like a coin with two
sides, depending on how we deal with it.

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Many positive benefits that can be obtained by students from the internet if it is
used wisely. However, there are also negative effects caused by internet. Here are
some of the negative influences of the internet. Some news, both television and
newspapers spread their child abduction or runaway cases of minors who are started
from friendship or social networking sites on the internet. The nature of a child who
easily trusts anyone allows that to happen.

Pornography is the negative influence of other internet. Not only adults who visit
forbidden sites, but many students are considered frequent visitors to sites that
contain pornographic images or stories. This of course is a very unfortunate
situation. Addiction to online games that hit the students is also a negative influence
of the internet. Addiction and dependency can make the students run out of time and
energy to play. As a result, students’ achievement will decrease.

To counteract the negative effects of internet on the students, there are some things
that must be done. One of them is parents have to always accompany their children
when they’re accessing the internet. This is to ensure that children have access to
the right site. Do not let children engrossed in playing internet, while the parents do
not know the whereabouts of the children. If the internet facility is available at
home, place the facility in a shared room. This is to facilitate parents supervising the
children. If you have to use the facilities at the internet cafe, help the children to
choose the “healthy” cafe. It would be wise, if you know the owner and the clerk
there. This is to make it easier to supervise the children. The last, give the children a
good understanding about the positive and negative effects of the Internet for them.
Thus, you are already complete with castle defense.

It is hoped all parties, including parents, teachers, government and students jointly
prevent negative impacts arising from the internet. The government is expected to
block sites that are not good. Parents are also expected to pay more attention to their
children so that children can continue to be monitored and not fall into things that
are not good.

Terjemahan
Dampak Internet bagi Siswa

Internet telah membantu banyak orang di seluruh elemen kehidupan bahwa internet
telah memberikan kontribusi penuh dalam kehidupan sosial. Dengan internet, kita
bisa melakukan apa saja, baik hal-hal positif dan negatif. Sebagai media
komunikasi, internet dapat digunakan untuk berkomunikasi dengan pengguna
lainnya di seluruh dunia.

Kehadiran internet memberikan manfaat positif bagi dunia informasi, tetapi juga
memiliki banyak pengaruh negatif. Banyak siswa mendapatkan pengetahuan dengan
bantuan internet. Bahkan, tugas-tugas sekolah sekarang terasa lebih mudah untuk
ditemukan di internet. Tak bisa dipungkiri bahwa internet memberikan efek positif
kepada siswa. Akan tetapi, ada juga pengaruh negatif dari internet. Hal tersebut
seperti koin dengan dua sisi, tergantung bagaimana kita menghadapinya.

Banyak manfaat positif yang bisa diperoleh siswa dari internet jika digunakan
dengan bijaksana. Namun, ada juga efek negatif yang disebabkan oleh internet.
Berikut adalah beberapa pengaruh negatif dari internet. Beberapa berita, baik

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televisi dan surat kabar menyebar penculikan anak mereka atau kasus pelarian anak
di bawah umur yang dimulai dari persahabatan atau situs jejaring sosial di internet.
Sifat anak yang mudah mempercayai siapa pun memungkinkan itu terjadi.

Pornografi adalah pengaruh negatif internet lainnya. Tidak hanya orang dewasa
yang mengunjungi situs terlarang, namun banyak siswa yang dianggap sering
mengunjungi situs yang berisi gambar atau cerita porno. Hal ini tentu saja
merupakan situasi yang sangat tidak menguntungkan. Kecanduan game online yang
melanda siswa juga pengaruh negatif dari internet. Kecanduan dan ketergantungan
dapat membuat siswa kehabisan waktu dan energi untuk bermain. Akibatnya,
prestasi siswa akan menurun.

Untuk melawan efek negatif dari internet pada siswa, ada beberapa hal yang harus
dilakukan. Salah satunya adalah orang tua harus selalu menemani anak-anak mereka
ketika mereka mengakses internet. Hal ini untuk memastikan bahwa anak-anak
memiliki akses ke situs yang tepat. Jangan biarkan anak-anak asyik bermain
internet, sementara orang tua tidak mengetahui keberadaan anak-anak mereka. Jika
fasilitas internet yang tersedia di rumah, tempatkan fasilitas tersebut di ruang
bersama. Hal ini untuk memudahkan orang tua untuk mengawasi anak-anak. Jika
harus menggunakan fasilitas di warnet, bantulah anak-anak untuk memilih warnet
yang “sehat”. Akan bijaksana jika Anda tahu pemilik dan petugas di sana. Hal ini
untuk memudahkan untuk mengawasi anak-anak. Yang terakhir, berikanlah anak-
anak pemahaman yang baik tentang dampak positif dan negatif dari internet bagi
mereka. Dengan demikian, Anda telah lengkap untuk melindungi anak- anak Anda
dari dampak negatif internet..

Diharapkan semua pihak, termasuk orang tua, guru, pemerintah dan siswa bersama-
sama mencegah dampak negatif yang timbul dari internet. Pemerintah diharapkan
untuk memblokir situs yang tidak baik. Orang tua juga diharapkan untuk lebih
memperhatikan anak-anak mereka sehingga anak-anak dapat terus dipantau dan
tidak jatuh ke dalam hal-hal yang tidak baik.

Example of Discussion Text – Social Network for Youth

Social Network Influence on Youth

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites are now technological
applications that are popular among teenagers as well as children. With this website,
we can expand either of kinship or friendship with the wider community, not only in
the scope of the neighborhood itself, but from different walks of life, environmental
and social status. It becomes a necessity for young people to have it.

Therefore, social networking sites have resulted in both positive and negative
impacts. The positive impacts of social networks are we are able to have many
friends, able to bring together the kinship that has not seen or has dropped out, able
to share the information, able to find out a place to vent, able to be a place to deliver
our hobby such as writing, to make promotion, and able to avoid stress.

The negative impact of social networks for teens and children are the social
networking sites they have. They will feel addicted and do not care about time, do
not care about the surroundings, lack of socialization with the environment, waste of
money and credit, prone to dispute or misunderstanding, often social media can be a

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place that the fraud can be occured, and social media can damage the health of the
eye of children or people who use them.

The conclusion that can be drawn is that social networking does have many
benefits, but it can not be denied that social networks also have a wide range of
hazards and other consequences like many boys and girls open social networking
sites during school hours.

Therefore, the teens and the children should use social networks wisely and be able
to sort the time between learning and opening the social networking sites so they
will not regret the impacts later. At school, the students should have a training or
socialization from adolescents, such as the teachers, so that later they are able to
understand how the devastating impact of social networks on an ongoing basis so
that it might be expected that the teens can be aware of and understand their
obligations or duties as the students.

Terjemahan
Jaringan Sosial dan Pengaruhnya pada Kalangan Muda

Facebook, Twitter, dan situs jejaring sosial lainnya merupakan aplikasi teknologi
yang sekarang populer di kalangan remaja maupun anak-anak. Dengan adanya
website atau jejaring sosial seperti ini, kita dapat memperluas beberapa hal, baik
memperluas kekerabatan atau persahabatan dengan masyarakat luas, tidak hanya
dalam lingkup lingkungan itu sendiri, tetapi juga dalam berbagai lapisan
masyarakat, lingkungan dan status sosial. Jejaring sosial sekarang menjadi suatu
keharusan bagi orang-orang muda untuk memilikinya.

Oleh karena itu, situs jejaring sosial telah memberikan dampak positif maupun
negatif bagi orang – orang yang memilikinya. Dampak positif dari jejaring sosial
yaitu kita dapat memiliki banyak teman, dapat menyatukan kekerabatan yang belum
terlihat atau telah putus, dapat berbagi informasi, dapat menjadi tempat curhat,
dapat menjadi tempat untuk menyalurkan hobi kita seperti menulis, dapat membuat
promosi, dan dapat menghindari stres.

Dampak negatif dari jejaring sosial untuk para remaja dan anak-anak adalah situs
jejaring sosial yang mereka miliki itu sendiri. Mereka akan merasa ketagihan dan
tidak peduli tentang waktu, tidak peduli dengan lingkungan di sekitar mereka,
kurangnya sosialisasi dengan lingkungan, jejaring sosial hanya membuang-buang
uang dan kredit, jejaring sosial dapat menjadi tempat yang rawan sengketa atau
kesalahpahaman, sering terjadinya penipuan di jejaring sosial, dan dapat merusak
kesehatan mata anak – anak atau siapa pun yang menggunakannya.

Kesimpulan yang dapat diambil adalah bahwa situs jejaring sosial memang
memiliki banyak manfaat, tetapi tidak dapat dipungkiri bahwa jaringan sosial juga
memiliki berbagai bahaya dan konsekuensi lain seperti banyak anak laki-laki dan
perempuan yang membuka situs jejaring sosial selama jam sekolah masih
berlangsung.

Oleh karena itu, para remaja atau anak – anak harus menggunakan situs jejaring
sosial secara bijaksana dan mampu memilah waktu antara belajar dan membuka
situs jejaring sosial yang mereka miliki sehingga mereka tidak akan menyesali

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dampaknya di kemudian hari. Di sekolah, para siswa harus mendapatkan pelatihan
atau sosialisasi dari orang yang lebih dewasa seperti para guru sehingga nantinya
mereka dapat memahami bagaimana dampak buruk dari jejaring sosial secara
berkelanjutan sehingga mungkin diharapkan bahwa para remaja dapat menyadari
dan memahami kewajiban atau tugas-tugas mereka sebagai siswa.

Pros and cons of Computers for Students

Do you know that most schools and colleges strongly recommend students to
have computers to help them achieve better results of learning. With computer
connected to Internet, students can learn English online. They can make reports
easily by using word processing software.  They can play game to get of boredom.
However, a computer can also give negative impacts for a student.
One thing that makes a computer useful is that students can use it to finish
some assignments from schools. By connecting to Internet, they can easily surf and
find any materials related to their lessons and assignments. They have unlimited
resources from all over the worlds. Online libraries are open. A lot of book are free
to download and read online. Finding friends from related field of study is not
difficult anymore. They can work together to boost their best achievement. What
more benefit is they can do all of that just by sitting on the a chair of their rooms.
What amazing world it is, isn’t?
Although a computer has many benefits, it should be considered deeply. A
computer certainly does not promote students to do and move more. A computes
make  students have less physical activities. Even not few of them forget to have
lunch while they are playing  certain game. They just sit in front of monitors. They
are caught up in the mystique of the smart machines. In short, students who usually
work with computers tend to have a few physical activities and exercises.
So what should students do? Should they avoid using computers? Of course
“No”. Computer will make even greater benefits if physical activities are also
promoted to done by the students.

CATATAN GENERIC STRUCTURE CONTOH DISCUSSION TEXT

TENTANG PRO DAN KONTRA KOMPUTER UNTUK SISWA
Bagaiamana dengan contoh pendek teks diskusi  tentang sisi baik dan jelek sebuah
komputer bagi para siswa diatas? Kenapa tulisan tersebut bisa dimasukkan sebagai
contoh disccusion text?

Mari kita lihat schematic structure nya.

Generic
Structure Content of Elemnt
Pada paragraf pertama jelas dinyatakan bahwa teks diatas
menyajikan sebuah pemikiran tentang manfaat dan sisi
Stating issue negatifnya sebuah komputer bagi siswa

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 Paragraf kedua disampaikan beberapa alasan kenapa komputer
itu memeng penting bagi pelajar. Dengan komputer para pelajar
bisa dengan mudah meraih prestasi yang lebih baik. Apalagi
dukungan koneksi internet, para siswa bakal mempunyai sumber
Argument for dan rferesi yang hampir tak terbats untuk digali dan dipelajari
Paragraf ke empat menjaikan keseimbangan sudut pandang
dengan memberikan paparan sisi negatif dari komputer pagi
pengguna setianya. Pengguna berat komputer akan cenderung
Argument mengurangi kegiatan fisik. Mereka lebih suka menghabiskan
against waktu di depan monitor dari pada olah raga misalnya.
Paragraf penutup beisis saran terbagik yang harus dilakukan
setelah mengetahu duah hal yang berbeda terhadap satu masalah.
dalam hal ini seharusnya sisiwa tetap direkomendasika
menggunakan komputer sekaligus berkegiatan dan olah raga
Recommendation fisik.