Brief overview of discursive writing.

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.”

Here are some tips on making a personal/discursive essay more effective:

Focus on detail. The writer’s job is to show, not tell, what happened. Be sure to use plenty of detail to make this happen and avoid overrelying on adjectives. Strong verbs are often better. Don’t tell the reader that the sunset was breathtaking, describe it. 

Incorporate sensory imagery. When describing a particular event, most writers focus on how a place or situation appeared. This is because most of us tend to be sight dominant when using senses. However, the reader can be brought further into the essay by incorporating a variety of senses: sound, smell, touch and taste, in addition to sight. 

Connect the event/person/place to a larger idea or theme. As you describe this event, person, place, etc., don’t lose focus on the main idea: how the event changed you. This is the thesis of your personal essay, and it is important that you demonstrate how the details come together to create this thesis. Don’t get so caught up in narrating the actual event that you forget to also go into detail on the importance of it. 

Be careful with verb tense. As you shift from the event itself, which occurred in the past, and how it has continued to impact your life, be sure to use the appropriate verb tense and keep it consistent. Some writers will describe a past event in present tense, hoping to make the reader feel more involved. This can be done, but doing it well involves great writing skill. No matter what, be sure to keep the verb tense consistent. When in doubt, stick with past tense for the actual event and present tense to discuss the change.

Samples of discursive writing written in response to a text.

What does it mean to be a sister? 

"I volunteer!" I gasp. "I volunteer as tribute!" 

This is the line that is a jolt to my heart. This is the line that gives me the shivers and the line I immediately recall when I think of  "The Hunger Games"". Why? The answer is simple. Because I am a sister; I am the big sister to a little brother and two little sisters - or as I always referred to them when growing up - 'the guys'. They were 'the guys' and I was Steph - the big sister separated out by age and my own bedroom. I was a lone child until my brother was born when I was five and then my sisters burst onto the scene when I was 7 & 9 respectively. Being older I felt a somewhat maternal need to protect them and much like Katniss I spent much of my adolescence holding  up shields between them and the dangers of the world. My metaphorical bow and arrow mostly fended off playground bullies and the occasional magpie rather than compulsory participation in a fight to the death, but the intention was the same. 

When Katniss takes the stage at the Reaping in place of her sister it forced me to ask myself - what would I be willing to sacrifice for my sisters? How far would I be willing to go to protect them? 

Long before this moment that is the catalyst for the novel, Katniss had been forced to take on a role far beyond her years; when her father died and her mother was traumatised and grief stricken that she cannot care for her daughters. Faced with starvation Katniss has no choice but to sign up for tessera and increase her chances of being selected for the annual Games. 

Clearly I have never had to make such extreme personal sacrifices for my sisters. I recall a time when I was about 18 and my sister was around 12. We were shopping, Miranda was chatting animatedly about the book series she was currently reading and her frustration that the author had not yet completed writing it when she stopped cold. I watched her body go from relaxed to tense in an instant and a fleeting look of horror in her eyes before she made her face impassive. What had caused such a sudden and dramatic change in my sister? I travelled the length of her gaze to see a couple of tweens standing on the other side of the dress rack, giggling, whispering, gossiping. It was immediately apparent that Miranda was the subject of their nasty exchanges. Instinctively I stepped between them and demanded "Is there something you find funny about me?" Shocked to be caught out the girls flushed with shame, shook their heads and expediated their exit from the store. I realised then that perhaps I should have said nothing, perhaps I should have taken the lead from my sister rather than diving in - who knows what the ramifications of my protection were going to be? Fortunately, Miranda felt supported by my actions and the girls actually left her alone from that point. However, my sister is now approaching 30 and I can no longer pave a smooth path for her. I can no longer stand in the way of bullies. When she recently confessed that she had been sexually harassed by a colleague in a senior position I was devastated that there was nothing I could do. This time she had to stand up against the bully herself and all I could provide was an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on. 

Katniss learns this same truth in the novel. Despite the fact that Katniss did not allow Prim to take tessera, she did not allow Prim to hunt and she even took her place in the Games, she could not prevent Prim from feeling heartache and pain. She could not prevent Prim from having to watch her suffer in the televised games and realistically she could not prevent Prim's name being drawn in a future year. (Add a quote) 

While Prim could be seen as Katniss' ultimate weakness she actually becomes her source of power. When she thinks about giving in, she knows that she can't - for Prim. In Rue, Katniss sees Prim and it is her act of courage and compassion in working with Rue and consoling her through song in her dying moments that ultimately saves Katniss later in the novel. Rue's District partner, Thresh acknowledges the bonds of a wider  'sisterhood' of which he is also part when he lets Katniss go, even though this ultimately means he is closer to losing the Games himself. 

The novel encouraged me to ask "What is the role of a sister? And what should we do to protect each other?" but really it is not just about sisters and blood ties. It is a novel that asks - what is our obligation to each other? What should we do to create a more caring society? Peeta was no relation to Katniss when he risked his own well being to give her bread in her time of need. 

It might seem at face value that the realities for a teenage girl living under a brutal totalitarian regime may not reflect my teenage experience in any way. But, as with all the best Dystopian fiction this is a story with a universal truth at its centre; that we are nothing without human relationships and connection. It taught me that it is what we do to help others that defines us rather than what we achieve on our own and for our own benefit. Being a sister isn't just about looking out for those who you are related to but about reaching out to those who need support. When Katniss and Peeta defy the Capitol with the ultimate act of mutual trust this is the act that destabilises the regime - a regime that only exists if individuals are divided and motivated by self interest. 

I have realised that it is impossible to prevent people I love from feeling pain and facing challenges in their life. But it is entirely possible that by being present, showing love and support that I can help make these problems seem less isolating and less difficult. I started this essay by asking 'what would I be willing to sacrifice for my sisters?' and I now understand that love is not  sacrifice, love is power and strength. 

My Journey with Ponyboy Curtis

 Discursive Essay “The Outsiders” by S.E Hinton

 John Madden was surrounded and it wasn’t going to go well for him. We were all in Grade 4, and he should have been able to beat them off. He was far larger than the rest of us and far stronger. However, there was no meanness in him. None at all. As well, he was what we now call ‘intellectually impaired. They just called him dumb and spastic in those days. He was an easy target and today was going to be the last beating he would receive. It was 1965.

I admired John, although I’m ashamed to say I would have been ashamed to admit that then. There was a gentle goodness in him missing from the seven others surrounding him, jeering and mocking him. Missing from me too, I suppose - but it made John shine. 

Then they jumped on top of him like a stack of falling bricks.

By the time I arrived John was on the ground, crying, calling them to stop and not understanding why they would want to do this. What had he ever done to them? I admit I was frightened as I ran toward his screams because I was outnumbered and because the others were supposed to be my friends. I didn’t know how it would turn out. I hurled myself at them, pulling them off one by one and getting hit myself until finally John was standing, his shirt stained with dirt and tears.

Soon after this, John left our school. I still think of him. That night the TV news ran the usual stories of the war in Vietnam and the usual teachers canned the usual boys. None of it did any good. That is the truth, a truth I have learnt.

 Violence can by physical, psychological or both. The journey of Ponyboy in “The Outsiders” is propelled by violence. It contains gang violence, child abuse and shootings. Not all survive.  The novel opens with Ponyboy on the street just about to be attacked by the Soc gang. Like me, he is scared as they approach him because like me he is outnumbered.

I was sweating something fierce, although I was cold. I could feel my palms getting clammy and the perspiration running down my back. I get like that when I am scared.

 Only the arrival of his Greaser friends save him. It is because Johnny, his friend and a victim of abusive parents, was so badly beaten by the Soc’s before the book opens, that he is carrying a flick knife the night the Soc’s do their best to drown Poyboy. Consequently, Johnny is able to stab and kill Bob to save Ponyboy and to avenge himself. This results in their flight to Windrixville and the saving of the students in the Church fire and ultimately to both Johnny and Dally’s death. Up until the death of Bob, Ponyboy accepts violence as long as it follows certain rules.

Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride and two bit for conformity. There isn’t any good reason for fighting except for self-defence.

 I agree with Ponyboy.

Student Written Examples

In this example a student is inspired by the picture book "Where the Wild things are" to explore what it means to be wild. The piece balances personal opinion and experience with textual referencing.

Where the wild things are 

Being 'wild'. It's often what we call children being mischievous, misbehaving or out of control. It's what we call people when they express their basic feelings and desires, 'childish' traits once 'grown up'. But it is also what we call nature. The wilderness. Full of wild animals and wild bushland. So although in society 'wild' has become synonymous with 'crazy', it also has connotations of being free, natural and unrestricted. So why do we limit the natural wild to nature, and crazy wild to people? What is preventing us humans from being 'wild'? Why are we suppressing our wildness? Because if being wild is natural, it's going to be in each and every one of us somewhere, no matter how deep down it might be buried. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Spike Jonez’s film adaptation address the 'wild' sides of children, how children can be seen as mischievous, misbehaving or out of control, naughty, disobedient or rebellious. They show us the wild side to children that as we grow up, we learn to suppress and how sometimes a break to the natural wild is what we need to calm down, back to the basics of the world. Humans are inevitably wild at heart, even if we pretend that we are fine without nature and disassociate ourselves from the wild environment. Even if we try and deny our wild, even if we call each other crazy for expressing it, even if we try and make out that we are better off, more evolved and further advanced if we abandon our wild sides, we will always be wild at heart. 

 For me, children are the greatest example of what our wild side is like before it has been tamed, they do what they want without really thinking things through. They are wild and free, unrestricted and uncomplicated. A couple of years ago I was fascinated with a book series about brumbies - Australia's wild horses - and I was lucky enough to see a small herd of them down in the Snowy. As they noticed us, the stallion snorted, tossing his mane, and his herd turned and galloped away with him, the chestnuts, silvers and greys of their flanks contrasting the greens and browns of the grass. There was a beauty to their version of wildness, their freedom to live how they want and to just run through the bush away from humans and our strange conformities. This is a beauty you can only ever find in purely wild things, that a horse brought up in captivity could never achieve. When Max’s wild rampage lands him in the confinement of his room, his imagination changes the built structure of his house to the unrestricted wildness of the jungle, only as limitless as his imagination. Sendak has used this to symbolise how the social structures we are surrounded by encourage and force us to confine our wild side within. When children like Max aren’t used to caging their wildness, or don’t understand it, they appear to erupt, their wild emotions tumbling out all at once in an almighty explosion. In Max’s case, they need to escape to the wildness of places like his imagined jungle that are free, natural and unrestricted, just like his emotions. 

 It seems to me that there is a reason Max’s imagined wild escape is one of the most naturally wild places on earth. It feels like Maurice Sendak is calling to children’s wild sides when they read it and saying, “look, you could be out here being as wild as you want!”. Well at least that’s how it was for me, I practically grew up with this book and I loved every last bit of it, I even had a favourite ‘wild thing’. This invitation for being wild that Sendak extends to children encourages them to use their imagination as their escape from the societal structures they are learning control their lives. When Sendak writes “That very night in Max's room a forest grew and grew - and grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around…” the repetition of ‘grew’ emphasises just how hard it is for children and people who need to express their wildness to do so easily. The illustrations that accompany these words show Max’s body language appears limp and distressed at his confinement but then when the forest grows, he becomes excited and lively. Sendak is demonstrating how a trip to the natural wild can calm people down, help them to connect and relax in the wildness. I think it is also a message to parents though, to say that it’s ok for kids to be wild sometimes. And that it is a good thing to take a trip to the wilderness to escape the social conformities and built structures of our society. 

 I think this is why I loved this book so much, because when I was little I was probably what you’d call wild, and in both ways. When I was little I was quite mischievous, my sisters and I were frequently waging war on each other. But I’ve also been camping since I was three months old, I love the bush, I love living away from the city and I loved being able to run around in the bush for hours without my parents watching my every step. Still now, my mum and I will be in the kitchen after school and we’ll sigh and say we need to go camping again. The wild is a part of us and when we are separated for too long it’s like falling apart. So for me, Where The Wild Things Are was one of my favourite books and I was extremely reluctant to watch the film (I avoided it for eight years, we even have it at home) but once I did I wasn’t disappointed.

 Although Spike Jonze’s interpretation of the book was different to mine, I was impressed. The way Jonze portrayed Max’s flight for freedom from his house was quite different to the book, it was full of feelings of anguish and desperation but it soon grew on me and great feelings of empathy swelled up inside me for Max. Through the film, Jonze is able to make the audience empathise with Max more, we get an insight to his background and what his life is like. In his wild plight, the shot angles show Max's dominance over his mother at the table and that the wild in each of us is stronger than what confines us. Max's mum gets frustrated with him and she starts blaming Max for his behaviour, which on one hand is reasonable - after all Max is being naughty, but on the other hand her response is ludicrous. By yelling "What's wrong with you, you're out of control" she is not only putting him down, making him feel horrible, unwanted, crazy and different, which is awful for anyone to experience. She is his mother she should realise that there is a reason he is acting this way and that it's triggered by something - in this case the built up feelings of neglect and resentment that she has caused. Max can't take it, his wild side unleashes and he screams "It's not my fault" because when you get down to it, it really isn't, and he runs out of the house, distancing himself from his mother and everyone that has hurt him. Here the music is howling and emotional, displaying when he breaks away from his constraints, the freedom he has. His wolf suit with the hood up symbolises that he is at his wildest here and in doing so he takes the form of one of the wildest animals. Max finding the wild things comes as a getaway, a relief and a break from the confinements of his mother’s house. I feel here that Jonze is playing on what Sendak was trying to say in the book. That parents should let their children be wild sometimes, let them experience the full wrath of their emotions and that imagination is essential in reconnecting with the wild if there is no wild around.

 In their innocence and youth, children ultimately expose both of our wild sides, our emotions, feelings and desires as well as our need to be surrounded by nature and naturally wild things. How even if we how we are confined by society and our built environment, we will always find a way to break free, either in an emotional explosion or in a flee for the wilderness. Sendak and Jonze encourage us to be wild and to acknowledge the wild yearnings that every human experiences, because ultimately, humans are wild at heart. 

Billy Elliott and Capital Letters

No one person can experience all that life has to offer because every one of us has only a limited amount of time, money, resources and opportunity. It’s a simple fact of life that in one lifetime we can only ever hope to experience a fraction of what’s out there to be experienced. And that’s why we humans need texts! By ‘text’ I mean just about any composition that communicates a story or ideas, like a novel, film, poem or song. By engaging with texts, we encounter people, contexts and experiences far beyond our own limited lives. In fact, that’s one of the most powerful things about texts; they broaden our perspectives of the world and challenge us to see it a little differently.

Through my recent study of Stephen Daldry’s film, Billy Elliot and Omar Musa’s performance poem, Capital Letters, I’ve been challenged to see the world differently by discovering contexts and experiences that are very different to my own. But in doing so, I’ve also come to recognise the similarities between the experiences represented in these texts and my own experiences. Both of these texts tell the stories of people struggling and triumphing over adversities, and in doing so, finding a sense of self, a sense of belonging and identity. And that’s my story too. Actually, I’ve come to realise that it’s everyone’s story. As human beings, we all face hardships and struggles, but it’s in facing and overcoming those struggles that we can discover who we really are.

Billy Elliot’s journey to discovering his unique identity involves struggling through a range of adversities. As the film begins, Billy is facing crippling poverty brought on by the miners’ strike which has devastated the small town he lives in, and grief following the death of his beloved mother. But Billy has one salvation, one thing that brings joy to his life, and that’s dance. Stephen Daldry demonstrates Billy’s passion for dance from the very first moments of the film, dynamically cutting between full shots, mid shots and close ups of Billy dancing on his bed, capturing his enthusiastic body language and ecstatic facial expressions as he moves to the music. Daldry’s choice of diegetic music, Cosmic Dancer by T-Rex with the lyric, ‘I danced myself right out the womb’, also speaks to Billy’s innate love of dance and signals to the audience that the creative urge to dance is going to be the key to Billy discovering his true identity. But it’s also going to be cause of his greatest adversities.

Billy’s struggles with adversity mostly arise because he clashes with the world around him. I can relate to this, because like so many young people, Billy is at odds with his world because it has expectations of him that don’t mesh with Billy’s own desires. While Billy has a creative drive to dance, the world around him demands that he do things that are thought to be traditionally masculine, “like boxing, or football, or wrestling,” as his father, Jackie, says to him. But when Billy enters the boxing ring early in the film we can see that his creative urges are too strong. As the bell rings, Billy immediately responds to the upbeat, jaunty diegetic music, and begins to perform his own creative interpretation of boxing, a dance. George’s dialogue, “you’re a disgrace to them gloves, your father, and the traditions of this boxing hall,” shows the audience the challenge that Billy is facing as someone going against the grain of his society.

Through my study of this film I’ve come to understand that the only way to triumph over adversities is to face them head on and that doing so can create turning points in our lives. Daldry represents these ideas in the ‘dance of defiance’ scene. As Jackie enters the boxing hall and discovers Billy dancing, Daldry shoots the two characters with a low angle full shot, accentuating Jackie’s size and giving him power in the frame. The audience anticipates that Jackie is about to explode, but instead, Daldry flips our expectations with an over the shoulder shot of Billy capturing his defiant facial expression and body language. As the diegetic music builds behind him, Billy begins to dance. This moment is a turning point in his relationship with his father who changes his attitudes literally overnight as a result. By facing his struggle head on, Billy has been able to take a crucial step forward in his journey towards the self. And that’s a message that I can take forward into my own life.

Omar Musa’s performance poem, Capital Letters, also explores the role that creativity can play in helping young people to overcome their adversities and discover a sense of self-worth and identity. Like Billy, Musa was pretty poor growing up and he had people in his life who sometimes weren’t too nice to one another, people who “took to relationships with mallet and saw”. Musa’s use of a violent metaphor in this line reminds me how lucky I was growing up to be surrounded by positive, respectful relationships. But Musa also reminds me to see the good in all people when describes these “self-destructive” but “wondrous” people using the oxymoron, “talented vandals”. This line challenges his audience to see people differently, to recognise that a person is never just one thing. In fact, Musa’s poem is all about seeing people and the world differently.

Musa challenges his audience to recognise the “beauty in the streets” by using the language and images of the tough suburb he grew up in and filling it with wonder. This can be seen in the visual imagery of “fishtails & donuts, the silver cursive that slanted off tyres” which characterises a car doing a burn out as if it were a work of art. It’s an unusual way to talk about the rough and tumble of the streets but it reminds me of that old saying about beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

By seeing the world in this way, Musa says he “found that something”, something that would make his life worthwhile and guide him towards his true identity, just like Billy did. For Musa that something was music, specifically hip hop. The language and style of hip hop is found throughout Musa’s poem, but he really steps up that style with the use of alliteration and assonance in the line, “I found it on beats, breaks, tapes and acetate”. The alliteration of the strong ‘b’ and the assonance of the ‘A’ sound work together to create a strong rhythm in the line and build the excitement in his performance. In the next line Musa starts listing the artists he was inspired by as a young writer and performer, and I am reminded of the importance of inspiration and aspiration in a young person’s life as a way to get through their adversities and begin the journey towards the self.

We all deserve the chance that Musa and Billy had - to overcome our struggles, to find out who we really are, and to experience as much of the world as we can. The texts we read, watch, listen to and enjoy have a role in that journey too. By challenging us with new perspectives, ideas and attitudes, texts broaden our understanding of human experiences. In other words, they broaden our understanding of one another, and of ourselves.