Year 11 Lessons 13 th January

Starter On the big paper on your desks write down what you will need to show the examiner in a writing question asking you to ‘write to persuade’.

Common errors D grade students made in the WRITING exam They were not secure with different sentence structures. They were unable to construct a coherent argument. They showed an inability to think of arguments to use. They were not always aware of the conventions to use. Their writing was not realistic.

In your books Using the annotations write down your TARGETS below. Then rewrite the task taking the TARGETS into account.

TAP Exam Practice Task Look closely at the following exam style question. What is the TAP? Write an article for teenagers to inform them about the dangers of smoking. Text type Audience Purpose Subject matter

TAP Exam Practice Task Now you know what the question is asking you to do. Make a plan of how you would approach this question. Write an article for teenagers to inform them about the dangers of smoking. Conventions of an Article Heading Subheadings Lively and interesting style What else? Informing Give facts, percentages, etc Expert’s opinions 5 Ws and 1 How Emotive language Problems smoking causes What else? Audience Teenagers = Informal style Need Standard English except occasional slang word for effect What else?

Shared Exam Practice You have been asked to advise the school governors on changes that are needed to your school or college to make it more attractive and provide a better learning environment. Write a letter on behalf of the Student Council. Remember: Step 1 - TAP the question Step 2 - Plan your answer Step 3 - Write your response Step 4 - Check what you have written What are the conventions (rules) of letter writing? You have to use your imagination. Get into character as the first person voice ‘I’. Sound interested and passionate about the topic you choose. “As the elected leader, I…” Be creative! You are showing your writing skills: it doesn’t have to be based on your real school. Use your imagination! Plan the suggested changes before you begin writing. Think of reasons why. Use your imagination! Target audience = formal tone, serious, polite, knowledgeabl e etc What are the conventions of advising?

Powerful Ways of Starting Directly address your reader (challenge) in the form of a rhetorical question, eg ‘As valued Governors in our school, I wonder if you have strolled around our buildings recently? Use an anecdote – eg ‘Last term as part of my work with Student Council, I walked around our school and I was ashamed!’ Statement or point of view. Make up evidence! – eg ‘University research shows that there is a direct link between the quality of environment and quality of education.’ Use of contrast – eg ‘If we look after our homes, why don’t we look after our schools?’

What is my examiner looking for? Your answer does not have to be perfect! Concentrate on aiming high and do your best! You response needs to be focused on the task all the way through, especially in terms of the tone and audience (TAP). Pay close attention to your sentence structure, spelling and punctuation (Writing skills). Make sure your writing makes sense and has a clear beginning, middle and end. (Clear structure). You must use paragraphs and connectives to link your ideas together.

EXAM ANSWER In the exam you will have 30 minutes for each writing answer. We will only get this right if we practice this over and over again until we get it right.