Lesson video

Hello everyone.

It's Mr. Brown here with your English lesson for today, and we are going to be writing.

We're going to be writing the introduction, and it's the introduction of a persuasive letter all about school uniform, a persuasive letter to the Prime Minister, trying to convince them to make school uniform compulsory for everyone.

So we've got a lot to do today.

Let's get started, shall we? The outcome for today's lesson is I can write the introduction of a persuasive letter about school uniform.

The key words we will use are layout, formal, introduction.

Let's say those words together, my turn, and then your turn.

Layout.

Formal.

Introduction.

Fabulous.

Well done.

Let's look at the definitions.

The layout of a text refers to the way the information is organised on the page.

Formal refers to a style of writing, which is serious, impersonal, and factual in tone.

An introduction is the opening paragraph of a nonfiction text that encourages the reader to read on.

We will start our lesson today by preparing to write and then move on to writing the introduction itself.

We are writing a persuasive letter to the Prime Minister to persuade them to make school uniform compulsory across the United Kingdom.

This is a formal letter, and therefore should be written using a formal tone.

Formal writing can be identified by its serious, unemotional and impersonal tone.

Formal tone is the effect created by choosing serious and factual language.

This is a formal letter, and therefore should follow the standard way to structure a formal letter.

There are three areas we need to carefully adhere to when writing a formal letter, the address and date, the greeting and complimentary close, and the paragraphs.

Let's look at an example of the address, date and beginning of a persuasive letter to see what we're aiming for.

So as we can see there on the right side, we have the sender's address in the top right corner, aligned right, then the date.

Then we have the recipient's address, so the person who the letter is being addressed to, who is receiving the letter.

And finally, we have the greeting, "Dear Prime Minister" with a comma at the end.

In today's lesson, we'll be focusing on the introduction of our persuasive letter.

The introduction is the opening paragraph of a nonfiction text that encourages the reader to read on.

And here we have an example of an introduction and I'll read it to you now.

"My name is Mr. Brown and I'm a teacher at Oak National Academy.

I have noticed that there are many schools across the country that do not require their pupils to wear a uniform.

Consequently, I am writing to ask you to make school uniform compulsory, as I believe this will have a hugely positive impact on children throughout the United Kingdom." Now, a formal letter has specific layout features.

The sender's address and the date that the letter was written on should always be at the top of your letter.

And this makes it easy for the person who received your letter, the recipient, to know who it was from, when it was sent, and how to get back in touch with you.

The sender's address and the date should be laid out in this way.

The sender's full address, including postcode, should be on the first line, using separate lines for each new line of the address.

The date should immediately follow beneath this, and they should be in the top right corner of the page aligned to the right.

And there, you can see an example of how that looks.

The sender's address is in the top right corner, aligned right, and then we have the date.

Let's check our understanding.

The sender's address should be aligned to which side of the page? Is it, A, left, B, right, C, central? Pause the video and decide left, right, or central now.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

The sender's address, so this is the person who wrote the letter, should be aligned to the right.

Well done if you said B, the right.

A formal letter has specific layout features.

The recipient's address should be below the sender's address and below the date.

However, this time it is aligned on the left hand side of the page, laid out in exactly the same way as the sender's.

So there you can see we have 10 Downing Street, London.

The sender's address is in the top right side, then the date, then we have the recipient's address.

The last layout feature to include before you begin your introduction is a greeting.

Most formal letters will start with "Dear" before the name of the person that you are writing to.

Don't forget to use capital letters for their name as it is a proper noun.

You can choose to use first name and surname, or title, so Mr, Mrs, Ms and surname.

So I would be Mr. Brown, so that doesn't have my first name in, just my title and surname.

However, if you don't know the name of the person you're writing to, you must just use "Dear Sir or Madam." Now we are writing a letter to the Prime Minister, so we can use "Dear Prime Minister." Whichever way you write your greeting, it must be followed by a comma, and you can see "Dear Prime Minister," and I put a comma after it.

So we now have the sender's address in the top right corner aligned to the right, the date immediately below that, then beneath that, but this time on the left side, we've got the recipient's address, and beneath the recipient's address, we have our greeting, "Dear Prime Minister" with capital letters for the person's name or their title, and a comma at the end.

What piece of punctuation always comes after a greeting in a formal letter? Is it, A, a full stop, B, a comma, C, a dash? Pause the video and decide, A, full stop, B, comma or, C, dash now.

Welcome back.

Let's see if you found the right answer.

So what piece of punctuation always comes after a greeting in a formal letter? It is, of course, a comma, B.

Well done if you said B.

Let's move on to a practise task.

Begin writing your formal letter to the Prime Minister, ensuring you follow the layout structure you have learned in the lesson so far.

Don't forget to include these things starting from the top.

We have the sender's, that's your address, at the top aligned to the right.

So you will put to your personal address.

You can use your home address or you can use your school's address.

The date the letter was written underneath your address and again aligned to the right.

So that's the date you write the letter, so today's date.

And the recipient's address, but this time aligned to the left.

And then finally a greeting with a comma and aligned to the left.

So now it's over to you.

Pause the video and write the start of your formal letter to the Prime Minister, ensuring you follow these layout structures that you've learned in this lesson and do this now.

Welcome back everyone.

Let's have a look at how you got on.

Did you remember all of these things? Did you remember to put the sender's or your address at the top aligned to the right? Well, yes, we've got that there on my example.

You can see it says Oak National Academy, 1 Scott Place.

Did you put the date the letter was written on underneath the address and aligned to the right? Ah, yes, I have done that, I can tick that off.

You do the same on yours, tick along.

The recipient's address aligned to the left.

Did you remember to include that? Well, I have, so I can tick that off.

And finally, a greeting with a comma and aligned to the left, so the person's name who I'm writing the letter to, with "Dear" in front of it.

"Dear Prime Minister." Your letter is to Prime Minister as well, so it should look exactly the same as that.

I can tick that off too.

Well done if you completed all of these things.

Let's move on now to writing the introduction of our persuasive letter.

When we write, we always try to do these things, plan and say each sentence before we write it, use punctuation where we know the rules, showcase each sentence type we know, write letters neatly on the line in joined handwriting, use spelling strategies to spell words accurately, and check and improve our writing when we think we have finished.

And then here is the success criteria you will use to guide your writing today.

I have written my introduction in a formal tone.

I have included an introductory sentence.

I have included a sentence setting up my argument.

I have included a sentence sharing the purpose of my letter.

These four things are what you need to do in today's lesson.

You should have a plan to use when you're writing your introduction.

Now, if you don't have your own plan, you can use this one, and you can see I've got notes to guide me through writing an introductory sentence, a sentence setting up my argument, and a purpose of my letter sentence.

And the notes I have for my introductory sentence, it just says, "Mr. Brown - teacher at Oak National Academy." For the sentence setting up my argument, I've got "noticed many schools across UK don't require uniform." And for the sentence revealing the purpose of my letter, I've got, "Consequently, make school uniform compulsory - positive impact across the UK." Let's check our understanding.

Which of the following should I use when doing a piece of writing, A, success criteria, B, plan, C, felt tips? There might be more than one correct answer.

Pause the video and decide now.

Welcome back.

Okay, let's have a look.

So when you're doing a piece of writing, you should use your success criteria and plan.

No need for felt tips.

Well done if you said A and B.

Here is a model of the introduction.

We can check it against the success criteria.

So you can see I have my success criteria and here is my model.

Let me read it to you now.

"My name is Mr. Brown and I am a teacher at Oak National Academy," and I have capital letters for the title Mr, my surname, Brown, and Oak National Academy, because they're all proper nouns.

"I have noticed that there are many schools across the country that do not require their pupils to wear a uniform," full stop.

"Consequently, I'm writing to ask you to make school uniform compulsory, as I believe this will have a hugely positive impact on children throughout the United Kingdom." Okay, so now let's use our success criteria to have a look through and see how I got on.

I have written the introduction in a formal tone.

Well, yes, there's an example of a fronted adverbial, which is quite formal.

It's a fronted adverbial of cause, "Consequently," but it's something that you would use in a formal letter.

An introductory sentence, I've got, "My name is Mr. Brown." Yep, that's there.

A sentence setting up the argument, that will be where I say that I've noticed there are many schools across the country.

And then finally, I've included a sentence sharing the purpose of my letter.

Well, that will be where I say, "I am writing to ask you to make school uniform compulsory." Very clear, very precise.

Okay, it's over to you now.

I would like you to write the introduction of your formal letter using your plan and success criteria to help you.

You have four things in your success criteria to be able to do to make your writing successful today.

Pause the video and have a go at writing your introduction now.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

So, here is my example, and we're going to use the success criteria to go through and see if I managed to tick everything off.

So we have got, written my introduction in a formal tone.

We said yes, "Consequently" does that.

I can tick that off.

I have included an introductory sentence, that would be, "My name is Mr. Brown and I'm a teacher at Oak National Academy." I've included a sentence setting up my argument, so that's where I say, "I've noticed there are many pupils across the country, schools across the country that do not require their pupils to wear a uniform." That would be setting up my argument.

And finally, a sentence sharing the purpose.

Well, that is, "Consequently, I am writing to ask you to make school uniform compulsory, as I believe this will have a hugely positive impact on children throughout the United Kingdom." Everything ticked off, and I'm sure you did the same.

Let's summarise the learning we've done today.

A formal letter should be written using a formal tone.

A formal letter has specific layout of features.

The sender's address and the date the letter was written on should be at the top right of your letter.

The recipient's address should be below the sender's address and aligned left.

An introduction can contain three sentences, an introductory sentence, a sentence setting up the argument, and a sentence sharing the purpose of the letter.

Brilliant work today.

That's the introduction of your persuasive letter complete.