For HSC students, the discursive mode is probably best defined by what it's not. If you keep a journal or diary, you don't even need to read this post - you're already writing discursively. The discursive mode is the widest, the catch-all, the marker of a humane and intelligent person. You're not trying to sell... Continue Reading →
The 2021 CSSA paper presented several confusing questions to Advanced and Standard candidates. Yes, it was the same Module C question for both Standard and Advanced, which seemed a bit cheap to me. Module C was a little better than Module A (which was nightmarishly meaningless), and had two parts. Part A looked like this:... Continue Reading →
What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around. –George Orwell, ‘Politics and the English Language’ * Once upon a time I had a boss (at a tutoring business) who sent out a fortnightly email. It was a relentlessly – sometimes exhaustingly – exuberant piece.... Continue Reading →
Guard your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speech is but the dealer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts. Alfred, Lord Tennyson Use this warning as a stimulus for a piece of persuasive, discursive or imaginative writing that expresses your perspective about... Continue Reading →
The Craft of Writing 