Coming off of last Saturday’s post on how to write good discussion replies, I figured I would give you the tips I used to write an initial discussion post. In my opinion, the initial post was easier for me to write than the responses. 

Here are my tips:

Read and Understand the Instructions

For this initial post, your professor usually asks you a question (which could either be open ended or have a “right” answer) about a topic that was covered in that week’s course. Make sure you read over the syllabus/announcement for the instructions for this post (they are usually posted somewhere obvious). If you can’t find them, email your professor and ask for clarification. Often, they are looking for about a paragraph (sometimes more) and a reference. They may have criteria for this reference (peer reviewed, textbook, citation style), so make sure you double check that. Before you can get started crafting your initial discussion, you need to know all of the requirements.

As a professor, there are quite a few people who end up losing 40% of their grade because they did not include a reference (where it was stated in the syllabus and the announcement) or they just included a link to a website and did not put it in the required format. Even if they wrote an amazing discussion, the rubric is set up so that the reference costs them 2 out of 5 points. You don’t want to accidentally end up with a 60% just because you didn’t fully read the instructions.

Determine Your Answer

Figure out what you believe about the question, depending on what it is asking. For example, if they are asking if chemical reactions are essential to life, you need to pick whether you believe they are or are not. Or, if you’re in a philosophy course, figure out what theory you agree with more. Or, if you have no idea what you believe, you can always google the question and pick an answer from there. Discussion posts aren’t often about whether you’re right or wrong, they’re just there to get the students to engage and discuss the topic more. As long as you are actively discussing, I’ve never had a professor dock points for disagreeing with me. 

Write Your Paragraph

Once you know what your answer is, you can start writing. The formula I used was pretty easy. Use a sentence to rephrase/introduce the initial question, use the second to provide any needed context for your position, and then in the third sentence, define your position. The remaining sentences are made up of external data for your position. Then, always include a final, concluding sentence. For example:

This week, we studied whether or not chemical reactions are essential to life. As I was reading, I learned that there are lots of different types of chemical reactions. Without all of these reactions, we would not be able to live! It’s estimated that we have 37 trillion billion chemical reactions occurring every second in the human body – and that’s just us (1)! All of the plants (photosynthesis), animals, and ecosystems around us have their own chemical reactions that occur. Chemical reactions are what help clean up oil spills, make medicine, cause pest resistance for plants – so many things (2, 3)! Our life is made up of chemical reactions, and without them, we would not have any life. 

Can you see how I structured that paragraph?

Get Your Data

This step is intertwined with the one above, as you need external data to support your initial claim. This is where knowing what your professor expects comes in handy. Do you need just one source? Can you use your textbook? Can you only use external, peer reviewed sources? Once you know what you can and can’t use, you can find the data to support your claim.

You’ll see in my sample post above that I included things such as (1) and (2,3). These are in-text citations that I used for my external sources. You can’t just put down the information and not use an in-text indicator like that, you have to give the credit to the original author. But you can’t go the other way and copy/paste a full paragraph from your textbook that answers the question. I’ve had a student do that. The discussion is looking at whether you learned something or not, not whether you can find it in your textbook and have your whole discussion be an excerpt from the book. Lastly, make sure you cite your source(s) at the very end of the post, in the format that your professor has specified – this is an easy way to get points, and it only takes a minute or two to get it right.

***

Hopefully this will help if you’re looking for advice on how to write a discussion post. It can be intimidating, especially depending on the question and how confident you feel, but with this template, you’ll only have to fill in a few gaps and you’re on your way to a great post that should get you full points!

Also, feel free to check out last week’s post so that you’re ready to write all of those discussion replies and make it look like you’re engaged in this discussion (even if you’re not!). 

Let me know if you have any comments/questions below or you can contact me here! I love hearing from you!

If you are not 100% sure that you’ll go to Heaven when you die, now is the time to repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you have any questions or doubts about your salvation, click here to learn how you can be saved!