A discursive piece explores an idea from different points of view. The reader should be able to follow your thinking and understand why you reconsider an earlier view.
For English Advanced students sitting the 2027 HSC, The craft of writing can ask for imaginative, discursive, persuasive or reflective writing, or a combination of these. The question may have two parts and may include a stimulus or an unseen text. Follow the form the question asks for, because you may not get to choose it. NESA English Advanced examination requirements
Our 2027 English syllabus guide covers the other course changes.
What makes a piece discursive?
NESA's English glossary definition describes discursive texts as exploring ideas without directly trying to persuade readers to agree with one position.
You can express a view, ask a question or admit that you are unsure. You might begin with a short story, use it to discuss a broader idea, then reconsider what you first thought. The reader needs to be able to follow how one thought leads to the next.
You do not need equal numbers of paragraphs "for" and "against" an idea. In this example, the narrator follows a map and starts to wonder whether the quickest route is always the best. A friend's deadline then gives the narrator a reason to think again.
The practice task
Part A: Write a discursive piece for a senior school magazine exploring what we gain and lose when we choose the quickest route. Consider more than one perspective.
Optional Part B: Explain how one choice in your response helps you explore the prompt.
We wrote the tasks and response for this guide. They are not NESA questions, and the response has not been marked by an external examiner. The narrator and events are fictional.
Annotated example: The long way home
The comments between passages explain how the narrator's thinking changes. They are not part of the response.
My phone tells me the walk will take eleven minutes. It has also found a route that takes thirteen, though it presents this information in grey, as if embarrassed by the suggestion. I choose eleven. I am going home to do nothing in particular, but apparently I need to get there quickly.
Halfway down the road, the little blue line directs me past a narrow side street. At its entrance, someone has put a chair beside a pot of mint. There is no shop sign and nothing that looks like a destination. I wonder who sits there. Then the phone vibrates, and I turn right.
I like being told where to go when I am late or caught in the rain. If I have walked so far that my shoes hurt, I want the shortest route to a bus stop. On a day like that, I have little interest in what a detour might teach me.
It is a relief to let the map make a small decision for me. It tells me which road to take and how long the walk will be. When I have already made enough decisions for one day, I am glad to have those answers before I leave.
The eleven-minute and thirteen-minute routes put the topic in an everyday setting. Describing the phone as embarrassed by the slower route adds a small joke and makes the voice conversational. The last sentence of the opening paragraph raises the question the piece explores: why hurry when there is no need?
The narrator then admits that directions are useful when tired or late. This gives the reader a reason to consider another view before the discussion moves on.
Still, I wonder what counted as the problem.
The map had answered the question I asked: how to get home quickly. I had entered an address without asking what I might notice between school and home, so I could hardly expect it to tell me.
My friend is annoyed when I suggest we walk a different way one afternoon. She starts work at five. I have a spare half-hour, but she would have to rush to change her clothes and apologise to her manager if we took the detour. I had thought about how I wanted to spend the time without considering what it would cost her.
The friend has a reason to hurry: she needs to get to work. Taking the longer route could make her late. The narrator now has to recognise that not everyone has time for a detour.
I still think the slower route could be worth taking when there is time. But I cannot recommend wandering as though everyone has an empty afternoon ahead of them.
Nor am I sure I would enjoy being lost. In the version of the story I tell myself, an unexpected turn leads to a good conversation or a remarkable view. It might lead to a locked gate. I would probably stand there looking at my phone, annoyed that the walk was taking so long.
Yet the chair stays with me. On Friday, with no particular deadline, I look down the side street again. The chair is empty. The mint has escaped over the rim of the pot, and a small handwritten notice asks passers-by to take some. I pull off a leaf and rub it between my fingers.
My phone is still in my hand. I could check how much time this has taken, but I put the leaf in my pocket and walk on. I still know little about the other side streets, though I now know something about this one.
The imagined locked gate gives the narrator another reason to hesitate: a slower route could be disappointing. The narrator returns "with no particular deadline", which shows that the friend's point has changed the decision. There is now time to stop and notice the mint.
The chair and mint connect the ending to the earlier walk. The narrator has learnt something about one side street and can still use the map. The piece does not need to claim that every detour is worthwhile or that everyone should stop using navigation apps.
Connect one thought to the next
Adding "on the other hand" will not develop a discussion if the next paragraph just repeats a familiar claim about technology. Each new paragraph needs to add a reason to reconsider the earlier view.
You could open a discursive piece in many ways. A short story works here because the writer keeps returning to it as the narrator's view changes. You can also end by returning to an earlier image, as this piece does with the chair and mint, once you have shown why the narrator sees it differently.
Revise a paragraph that jumps to advice
Compare the paragraph about the friend with this simpler version:
We should all take the slower route sometimes. People are too busy, and slowing down helps us appreciate life.
This version moves straight from saying people are busy to telling them what to do. The task asks what we gain and lose, but the paragraph does not consider what someone might lose by taking a slower route.
A useful revision comment would be: give someone a reason to need the quickest route, then let that reason change the narrator's view.
For example:
I suggest the slower route to a friend who starts work at five. I have a spare half-hour, but the detour would leave her rushing to get ready and apologising for being late. I still want to see where the side street leads, though I am less sure I should ask her to come with me.
The work deadline explains why the friend needs to hurry. The narrator still wants to explore the side street, but now understands why the friend might not come. The next paragraph can explore that doubt.
We wrote both versions for practice. They are not real student drafts and have not been given marks. When you revise your own work, find the belief the narrator questions. Then check that the next paragraph takes that doubt into account.
A short reflection on a writing choice
For the optional Part B, a response might say:
I gave the friend a work shift so the narrator would question whether everyone has time to take a slower route. The detour could make the friend late, which the narrator had not considered. Their conversation suits the school magazine audience and gives the narrator a reason to think again. This affects the ending: the narrator explores the side street when there is time to spare, without suggesting that everyone should do the same.
This reflection names a writing choice and explains how it helps answer the prompt. Follow the instructions in your own task, including any requirement to discuss texts you have studied.
Change the prompt, then change the piece
Suppose the task asked how unfamiliar places change our sense of belonging. If you replaced "quickest route" with "belonging" in the introduction, most of the response would still answer the old question.
You would need to change what the piece explores. The narrator might first feel unable to enter the side street. You could then explore what makes a place feel familiar, whether someone feels welcome there and how a small encounter can change that feeling.
Plan the revised piece before writing it. Decide which details still help answer the question, which need to change and what the ending needs to say.
If you are considering English Advanced tutoring, bring a prompt and a recent response so we can discuss your writing. Ask where your response adds a new thought and where it repeats a point you have already made.
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