Language Paper 2: Non Fiction Writing: Second Lesson

• 

This lesson is similar to your last language lesson, but will look at a different example and discuss some different techniques that you can use.
In this lesson you will:

• Revise different persuasive devices
• Identify and consider the effect of the persuasive devices
• Begin to use persuasive devices in your work for effect
  • In your GCSE English Language exam, you will have to complete a piece of Non fiction writing. This could be a speech or a letter for example. In your writing you must demonstrate that you can write for a specific reason and argue your ideas clearly.

You will need:

• A downloaded copy of the speech that we will be looking at today
• Something to make notes with – either pen/paper or on a computer / device.

emma-watson-speechDownload

TASK ONE:

Open the speech by the Emma Watson. She gave this speech in 2014 to the UN as part of the launch of a campaign working to achieve equal rights for men and women,

1. What is the purpose of her speech? How do you know this?
2. As outlined above, her audience was the United Nations. However who specifically do you think she was aiming this speech at? Age? Gender?

TASK TWO:

Emma Watson uses many persuasive devices in her speech. Below is a list of some of the persuasive devices that she uses. Find an example of each device and explain why she has used this device. There is sentence starter to help you on the first one. Use the internet to help you if you are unsure what a specific persuasive device is.

• Repetition (specifically anaphora)
  An example is “…………….” The writer has done this to show us/ teach us/ guide us/ emphasise/ highlight that………
• Direct Address:
  An example is “…………….” The writer has done this to show us/ teach us/ guide us/ emphasise/ highlight that………
• Repetition of a personal pronoun (specifically ‘us’):
  The writer has done this to show us/ teach us/ guide us/ emphasise/ highlight that………
• Anecdote:
  An example is “…………….” The writer has done this to show us/ teach us/ guide us/ emphasise/ highlight that………

These are just some persuasive devices that writers use. We will cover a lot more before your exams. It is important to only use persuasive devices when you want to create a specific effect or meaning. Overusing devices can make your work hard to understand.

TASK THREE:

Now we you are going to write a paragraph using one of the persuasive devices above. We are going to focus on this question:

Write a speech persuading the government to make the weekend longer                                                                       

Step 1: Decide one reason why the weekend should be longer (you can argue that the weekend shouldn’t be longer if you prefer!)

Step 2: Decide which persuasive device you are going to use in your paragraph. The choices are below too!

• Repetition (anaphora)
• Direct address
• Repetition of a personal pronoun (us)
• Anecdote

My example is below. Can you guess which persuasive device I have chosen to focus on?

Imagine a world where you had the time to relax more often, where you could have more than two lay ins a week, where you could spend more time with your family. That’s the world that we could have if we extended the weekend to three days.

TASK FOUR:

Now it is your turn! Write 1 paragraph persuading the government to extend the weekend. You must use one device that we have looked at today. Some possible ideas and sentence starters are below to help you get started!

Ideas: everyone would be less tired and more productive, people would spend more time with those they love, people would have more hobbies...

People need…

Science suggests that…

It is vital that…

Imagine…

Well done everyone! Don’t forget to upload your work onto SMH and share it with your teacher.

Creative Writing Workshop

In this post, I’ll be sharing the resources used by Miss Pickup at the recent Easter revision session (Monday 12th April).

You can download the resources to use for your revision and to help you practice creative writing in preparation for your language paper 1 exam.

The powerpoint below gives you some example creative writing questions and a helpful list of tips and advice.

Revision Task One:

Download, read and answer the questions on this sheet:

Task 1 Analysis The Perfect Storm

This is a really interesting example of descriptive writing which should give you a really good idea about how to write descriptively.

Revision Task Two:

One of the most crucial elements of creative writing is sentence variety, and being able to write using a variety of sentence structures and types.

Use the document below to practice writing interesting sentences. You could take one simple, dull sentence and try rewriting it in several ways. Or, try to write different sentences using the different structures given:

Task 2 Sentence Upgrades Paper 1 Jumbo

Final Revision Task:

Have a go at a past paper question. Remember to think carefully about how you plan and structure your ideas. Use the ‘sentences upgrade’ sheet to help you write a variety of sentences. Also, check the slides for some key tips:

Main Task The Question for Today Pollution Theme

 

Five Tips for Descriptive Writing

1. Be consistent.

Your teachers may have told you about how to write and whether or not to choose to write in the first person or third person, the past or present tense. Whatever you choose, keep this up throughout your whole piece.

Here’s a reminder of what pronouns you will you use depending on your style of writing.

It’s worth remembering that some of the best descriptive writing will use words like it and its rather than any personal pronouns. To write descriptively, you don’t always have to imagine there is a person there to see and experience what you’re describing.

2. Make sure your sentences are complete:

When writing creatively, lots of students end up writing sentences like this:

“Cars speeding along the streets at the speed of light”

Do you notice how this sentence has no tense? You don’t know if the cars are speeding in the present or the past. This student needs to use small words like these to help their work stay absolutely clear:

 be (am, are, is, was, were, being),

do (did, does, doing),

have (had, has, having),

Make sure you have picked a clear tense, and stuck to it throughout. Make sure your sentences are complete by correct using the words listed above.

3. Use prepositional phrases to help organise your work.

It’s really important to use a variety of sentence openers in your wok. This helps the reader stay interested and also shows that you are thinking carefully about variety in your work.

Too often, descriptive writers end up repeating certain words like ‘‘The/There/They/he/she’ to stay their sentences. This can make your work really list like and repetitive. One way of avoiding this is by using prepositional phrases, these help direct the reader through your work, and help them imagine what your describing.

Examples of prepositions: 

Beneath, behind, over, beside, near, above, next to, across, along, following, inside, near, opposite, outside, towards, with, without.

Preopisitional phrases:

• Near the beach….
• Opposite the trees…
• Outside the shop….
• Without a care in the world….

This document, which gives you lots of interesting ways to start sentences may also be helpful.

4. Avoid stating feelings and sensations too much.

When using the senses to describe, we often use words like ‘feel/see/hear/smell/tasted’. When we use these words, we are telling the reader what a certain feeling or sensation is like. It’s often much more interesting to be shown what this is like. Take the following example:

“He could smell the gorgeous baking smell of the pizza in the oven.”

This is quite boring, and simply tells the reader what the person could smell. But, this could be rewritten in a more interesting way if this writer chose a different word then ‘smell’. For example:

“The gorgeous baking smell of the pizza invaded his defenseless nostrils.”

Much more interesting!

5. Don’t just state things, describe them!

• “The building looked like it was losing a war.”
• “There was an exciting atmosphere”

After reading these two sentences, you can probably see that this isn’t very descriptive. This student is just saying what things are like rather than actually describing them.

Read your work carefully. Look for times that you name an object instead of truly describing it. Also, look for places you describe a mood or an atmosphere. Do you describe the small details and develop the description fully?

The building looked like it was losing a war. Could be rewritten as:

Bullet holes peppered the exterior of the building. Thanks to years of careless neglect, the clear grey of the concrete had darkened, artificially ageing this once great monument.