If you’re looking to improve your discursive writing, here are ten questions that can help. The first five are formative prompts – specific, accessible and designed to give you space to experiment with the style. The next five are HSC Craft of Writing -style questions, modelled on the tone and structure of real exam prompts to offer a greater challenge.
Practising across a range of question types strengthens both your confidence and versatility as a discursive writer.
Please note, none of these questions are taken from past papers or trial exams – each one is written to help you explore contradictions, develop perspective shifts, and practise the “wandering” movement at the heart of strong discursive writing.
Use them as warm-ups, writing drills, or full practice responses.
Let’s get started.
This post is part of the Discursive Writing series. If you’re new, you may want to start with What Is Discursive Writing?
Formative Discursive Questions
These questions are designed to be simple, relatable and low-pressure. They help you develop your voice, practise shifting perspectives, and explore everyday ideas without the structure of a formal exam.
The Things We Say vs The Things We Do
- Write a short discursive response exploring one way people often say one thing but do another. You may reflect on yourself, someone you know, or society more broadly.
Why We Avoid the Things We Know Are Good for Us
- Compose a discursive piece exploring why people often avoid habits that would genuinely help them (like resting, asking for help, or starting early). Use personal reflection or observation to develop your ideas.
The Strange Comfort of Routine
- Write a discursive response about why familiar routines feel comforting, even when we sometimes find them boring or restrictive. Consider how routine shapes behaviour, identity, or expectations.
A Small Moment That Stayed With You
- Write a discursive piece reflecting on a small, ordinary moment that unexpectedly taught you something. Explain why the moment mattered and how your perspective shifted because of it.
The Pressure to “Have It All Together”
- Compose a discursive response exploring why so many people pretend to have things under control, even when they don’t. You may bring in personal reflection, observation, humour, or cultural commentary.
HSC-Style Discursive Questions (Exam Practice)
These prompts mirror the tone and style of real Module C HSC questions. They include stimulus extracts, conceptual openings and open-ended ideas that encourage thoughtful, flexible, high-band discursive writing.
Question One
For all the urgency we attach to getting ahead, there’s something meaningful about moments that unfold slowly… So, might we gain more by choosing patience over speed?
THOMAS REEVE
The Slow Hour
Craft a discursive or persuasive piece of writing that incorporates the ideas in the stimulus above. (20 marks)
Note: This question mirrors the structure of the 2024 HSC Module C exam question, but the theme, wording, and stimulus are entirely original.
Question Two
Just before dusk settles, the last light gathers on the surface of the river — a soft shimmer that flickers and then steadies, as if deciding whether to stay. Some evenings it lingers; other nights it disappears quickly, without fuss. From the old footbridge, I watch it quietly and feel something loosen in me — a small reminder that gentle things still exist. Dusk is coming.
— Lena Hart, Between Tides
(a) Use this extract as the stimulus for an imaginative or discursive piece of writing that explores the comfort found in small moments. (12 marks)
(b) Justify how the stylistic choices you made in part (a) demonstrate the comfort found in small moments. In your response, make detailed reference to your writing in part (a). (8 marks)
Note: This practice question mirrors the structure of the 2023 HSC Module C exam question. The extract, author, theme, and wording are entirely original.
Question Three
Late in the evening, as she sat by the open window, she heard the soft creak of the old clothesline swaying in the breeze — a sound she’d grown up with but hadn’t listened to in years. It blended with the distant rumble of passing trains and the rustle of gum leaves, forming a kind of unplanned lullaby. She felt her breathing slow, her shoulders drop, the ordinary noises stitching themselves into a comfort she hadn’t expected. Sometimes, she realised, familiarity spoke louder than anything intentional.
— Isobel Rae, Night Air
(a) Explore how familiarity is expressed by the writer. In your response, refer to at least ONE language device or stylistic feature in the extract. 5 marks
(b) Craft an imaginative or discursive piece of writing that explores the gentle power of familiar sounds. 15 marks
Note: This practice question mirrors the structure of the 2022 HSC Module C exam question. The extract, author, theme, and wording are entirely original.
Question Four
(a) Use the image provided to develop a central metaphor in a discursive response. 10 marks
(b) Evaluate how your understanding of figurative language in The Craft of Writing informed the creative decisions you made in part (a).
In your response, make detailed reference to your own writing and at least one prescribed text from your study. 10 marks
Note: This practice question mirrors the structure and purpose of the 2021 HSC Module C question. The image, theme and wording are entirely original.
Question Five
Compose a discursive piece of writing that begins with the words:
We like to believe we know ourselves well — our habits, our limits, the things we want and the things we refuse. But every so often, something small disrupts that certainty: a comment, a memory, a sudden reaction we didn’t expect. It’s strange how easily we surprise ourselves, even when we weren’t trying to change.
Note: You are NOT required to write out the extract as part of your response.
Note: This practice question mirrors the structure and purpose of the 2020 HSC Module C question. The image, theme and wording are entirely original.
Next Steps: Explore the Discursive Writing Series
This guide is part of a seven-part series on discursive writing.
- Explained Simply: What Is Discursive Writing?
- Explained Simply: What Makes a Good Discursive Response?
- Sample Module C Discursive Response
- How to Write a Discursive Response (Step-by-Step Guide)
- Tips and Tricks for Module C Discursive Writing
- A Complete Set of Discursive Practice Questions
- 38 Discursive Writing Topics (From Easy Starters to Exam-Level Prompts)
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