Discursive writing is exploratory. It takes an idea, a quote, an event, a person or a memory and explores this. It may end with a reflection and draws widely from many sources including the individual’s personal knowledge, understanding and experience. It can come in many forms, such as a creative non-fiction piece, a travel blog, a discussion essay, a speech or a personal essay. 

According to essayist Annie Dillard:

“There’s nothing you cannot do with it; no subject matter is forbidden, no structure is proscribed. You get to make up your own structure every time, a structure that arises from the materials and best contains them. The material is the world itself, which, so far, keeps on keeping on. The thinking mind will analyse, and the creative imagination will link instances, and time itself will churn out scenes — scenes unnoticed and lost, or scenes remembered, written, and saved.”