How to write a discursive piece quiz

Writing that argues a fixed position with structured rhetoric

An exploratory genre between essay and personal reflection that moves through ideas conversationally without committing to one resolution

Writing that summarises someone else's argument

Writing in dialogue form

Discursive uses bullet points

Discursive uses associative logic (one idea leads to a related anecdote) rather than thesis-evidence-conclusion structure

Discursive has no paragraphs

Discursive is always in first person

The moment the writer turns to face the reader

Around two-thirds of the way through, the piece pivots: something previously framed one way is reframed

A change in font

Switching from past to present tense

I have been thinking lately about identity and what it means to be myself.

In conclusion, identity is complex.

The dog had been barking for an hour when I realised I no longer knew whether I was the kind of person who would notice.

Identity is a topic many writers have explored.

A repeated quote from a prescribed text

Bringing the opening image back at least once in the middle and again near the end, with shifted meaning each time

Re-reading the piece aloud

The same paragraph repeated

The writer ran out of time

Discursive writing inquires rather than concludes; ending on a held moment, question, or image is genre-appropriate

Endings are not marked

The marker will write the conclusion

William Shakespeare

Helen Garner

John Marsden

Tim Winton (primarily known for fiction)

Summarise the creative piece

Name the discursive form, identify structural choices made (framing image, recurrence, turn), and reference a prescribed writer's craft technique you used

Apologise for any weaknesses

Explain what the piece is about

Big topics like war, climate, and grief usually crush the discursive form in 600 words because the subject overwhelms the genre's small-scale attention

Big topics are forbidden by NESA

Big topics are too political

Big topics require more words than allowed

300 to 500 words

Around 900 words (600-800 creative piece + 150-250 reflection)

1500 to 2000 words

As long as the writer wants