Language Matters

Today Year 11 were given notification of the very first English assessment task.

This task has two parts and Mr Moran spoke to the year group as a whole about the requirements of the task.

Below is a series of notes I took during his presentation.

Please add any questions that you have regarding the assessment task below this post and not on edmodo. Your questions may seem silly to you, but they will be thoughts held by your peers. Be brave, speak up and help our class achieve as a group.

Looking at the outcomes for this task is an essential activity – these are what we hope you will achieve by the end of the activity.

For your outcomes, a couple of points are important:

• link your texts through the concept ‘conflict’ OR through techniques OR through purpose/effect
• show you understanding of HOW techniques ‘shape meaning’ – this means discussing why the way it is written/composed affects your perception of: the text; the composer; the world of the text; yourself; other people; your world
• include quotes that actually support your argument(s) – they must match your discussion of the concept ‘conflict’ and help to create a logical sequence in your argument

PART A: (Representation)

Your goal with the graphic organiser is to create a POWERFUL STUDY AID. It is also meant to show how you have organised your ideas BEFORE writing your essay. The idea is that it should help you visualise and organise the information. These types of study aides will become instinctive as you prepare for assessments and examinations. The information that you include on your graphic organiser should easily be converted into well-constructed paragraphs.

Mr Moran suggested that you number the paragraphs on your graphic organiser, or order them on the representation to help you to better organise the logic of your essay. You may also like to make room for your ‘verbs of doing’ and ‘conjunctions’ (see below).

PART B: (These ideas are relevant to Part A also, as this information will be included on your graphic organiser)

Mr Moran spoke for an extended period on the importance of discussing ‘HOW composers have used the language features of their chosen for to represent ideas about conflict.’ We refer to ‘language features’ as ‘techniques’ at our school. When discussing the effects of techniques, you are discussing the way that the composer has used certain techniques to translate their ideas. This HOW is the WHY of S.T.E.W. You must ask yourself: WHY has this technique been used? WHY is this technique effective? Discuss what effect the technique has on the responder (e.g. ‘the metaphor enlivens the readers’ imagination’) – it does NOT mean explaining what has happened in the text. Better responses will EVALUATE the importance of the concepts for the responder.

Another feature of essay-writing that is essential when writing an integrated extended response is the use of ‘conjunctions’ – I refer to these as ‘transitionary phrases’. These linking phrases come BETWEEN paragraphs to show the relationship between texts. For example, ‘A parallel can be drawn between …’, ‘A similar idea is explored in …’ These linking phrases are important sign posts for your reader to help them follow the logic of your argument and to understand the connections between your texts. This technique is essential for writing an integrated response.

In regards to academic writing, Mr Moran briefly touched on the use of nouns to drive your statements. We have spoken in class about ‘nominalisation’ (def: turning a verb or adjective into a noun. E.g. ‘We discussed a tax cut’ becomes ‘Our discussion concerned a tax cut’) and this must be demonstrated in your essay AND graphic organiser. Consider what the concept or idea is that you want to discuss in your paragraph. This should be an abstract noun and will come at the beginning of your opening statement.

A final feature of academic style writing is the use of ‘qualifiers’ before important nouns. Your textual analysis will require a discussion of techniques (mentioned above) and these become important nouns in your paragraphs. To create a more effective discussion of techniques, you should add a ‘qualifier’ to the noun. This assists your explanation of the impact of the technique on the responder. Examples: ‘driving rhythm’; ”grotesque imagery’; ‘confessional tone’. The abstract nouns – rhythm, imagery, tone – have been described better by the use of a qualifier – driving; grotesque; confessional. The use of qualifiers are a hallmark of a good writer.

Length was something students were interested in. Mr Moran suggested that 900 words should be the maximum length for the essay. He felt that under examination conditions in Year 11, no more could be expected and therefore a prepared response should not exceed this limit. I think this limit is great for Advanced – often students feel that the more they write the better. This is a false assumption. Advanced students write in a verbose manner – this means using too many multi-syllable and long sentences to express ideas that could be expressed succinctly. Often students try to sound clever and trip up on their words. Use your language effectively, say more with less words. Aim for ‘lexical density’ in your writing, basically this means using more ‘content’ words and less ‘filler’.

A list of ‘ingredients’ for a good S.T.E.W paragraph were put up:

• Quote
• Technique
• Verb of doing to describe effect
• Effect
• Purpose
• Evaluation
• Link

These are some things to think about when planning your essay. Of course, the first four are essential and the last four combine often in your responses. We are blessed to have a class of very clever and diligent students, and as a consequence you mostly do this naturally. However, it is essential that these ingredients are evident within your essay.

It is recommended that you use the ‘Marking Guidelines’ for both tasks to guide your responses. They are both very user-friendly.

Finally, the point was made that teacher feedback will cease 48 hours before the assessment task is due.

NOTE: Discussion about how many thesis points or s specific essay structure was NOT discussed. This will be covered in class on Thursday.