Using punctuation and sentence structures to create impact.

Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Mister Young, and this lesson is all about sentence structures and punctuation.

And in particular how a writer can use these for impact.

I'm super excited because we are going to be looking at one of my favourite stories, which is "The War of the Worlds".

So without any further ado, let's get started.

So in today's lesson will have a very clear learning outcome, which is as follows.

So hopefully by the end of today's lesson, everybody should be able to explain how a writer uses punctuation and sentence structures to create impact.

And just like in any lesson, we have our keywords that we will be visiting again and again in today's learning.

So I do encourage you to make a note of these and jot down their definitions.

And particular to these ones, we are going to be looking at some punctuation terms. And the actual punctuation mark is included in the definition.

So do jot it down if it is something new to you.

So our key words are dash, a piece of punctuation that can be used to signal a pause, usually for dramatic effect.

A colon, a piece of punctuation that can introduce lists, explanations and quotes.

Prediction, a statement about what you think will happen in the future.

Sentence structures, the different sentence types, for example, complex, compounds, simple.

And finally, pace.

And pace refers to the speed at which a story is told.

Okay, so I mentioned in the introduction, I'm super excited to be teaching you on this lesson because we are going to be covering a favourite story of mine, which is "The War of the Worlds", a classic piece of science fiction, which I'm super excited to be studying with you today.

So that really is the focus of our first learning cycle.

We're gonna look at that story, we're gonna look at an extract from it, and we're gonna just try and comprehend that extract as much as possible.

And then we're gonna move into lesson cycle two, which is all about effective punctuation and sentence structures.

So we're gonna look at HG Wells, which is the guy who wrote "War of the Worlds", look at all those fantastic things he does to make that writing as engaging as possible, and in particular looking at his sentence structures and his advanced punctuation.

So without further ado, let's get started.

Okay, so in this lesson we are going to read an extract from a novel called "The War of the Worlds".

What a fantastic title.

So my question for you, and this is a quick discussion question, is to use your prediction skills.

What do you think this story might be about? So pause the video, have a discussion if you're in a classroom, or jot down some notes if you're working independently.

And then do hit play when you would like to see some feedback.

Okay, some lovely discussions taking place there.

Really enthusiastic start to this lesson, which is what I love to see.

So well on to all of you on picking out on specific words there, people focusing on war and worlds and maybe drawing some conclusions based on that.

What I was looking at, if I was using my prediction skills, I would be focusing on the following.

So firstly, I would be picking on the word the, it seems a bit strange, doesn't it? Just to pick on the word the.

It's such an everyday word.

But we actually do learn quite a lot from this in the title, "The War of the Worlds", because it's the definite article the, this could suggest the war is significant.

For example, it isn't a war or one of many, it is the war, which could suggest something fairly significant.

Again, and I heard lots of people picking up on this one.

We've got the word war.

So the title references a war.

So this could suggest the story has themes of violence and conflicts.

Again, we've got this reference to worlds, it doesn't say world, it says worlds, plural.

So this could suggest the story has a sci-fi element involving other planets or worlds.

We are familiar without world, but the fact that it references different worlds could indicate this sci-fi side of that.

And I heard some people discussing that.

So really well done.

And finally, we've got of the, again, some fairly everyday words there, aren't they, of and the but we can learn a lot from them.

And this could suggest that there is some kind of war between these worlds, a large conflict of some kind.

So well done on all your fantastic discussions and if you picked up on any of those things.

Okay, so "The War of the Worlds", by HG Wells, is a classic science fiction novel depicting a martian invasion of earth.

And I strongly encourage you to read this book after this lesson if you are interested in the extract that we read today.

So the story is narrated by an unnamed protagonist.

And remember, a protagonist is the main character.

It explores humanity's struggle against the technologically advanced Martians and the ensuing chaos.

The novel reflects on the vulnerability of human civilization and explores the impact an alien invasion would have on society.

See, I told you it was a good one.

So another discussion question for you then please.

So looking at the synopsis above and synopsis means summary of a story.

What do you think some of the key themes are likely to be in this story? So once again, hit that pause button, have a quick discussion, and then push play when you would like to continue.

Okay, some lovely discussions taking place there.

I'm hearing lots of words flying across the classroom.

Well done.

Or all of you are saying things like war and conflict and potentially violence, but there's also the element isn't there, of survival and loneliness if it is just this one person surviving amongst the Martian invasion.

So well done if you picks up on that.

Okay, so let's read the extract.

So at this point of the story, the narrator is walking back into London weeks after the initial invasion.

He's experiencing hunger and encounters a mysterious red weed.

However, he doesn't find any Martians.

Before we start reading, let's just have a look at some vocabulary.

So the first word we have there is tottering, which means moving in an unsteady way.

Then we have Sheen.

Sheen in this context is a small village where the martians have landed, a small village in England.

And then we have lurid.

If something is lurid, it is unpleasantly bright in colour.

Okay, so let's read the extract.

"For some time I stood tottering on the mound regardless of my safety.

Within that noisome den from which I'd emerged, I fought with a narrow intensity only of our immediate security.

I had not realised what had been happening to the world, had not anticipated this startling vision of unfamiliar things.

I'd expected to see Sheen in ruins, I found about me the landscape weird and lurid, of another planet." Okay, so how does the narrator feel at the start of this extract? Quick question for you.

Pause the video, have a chat, and then push play when you would like to continue.

Okay, great conversations there.

Well done to everybody who picked up on that idea of surprise.

The narrator expects to see London in ruins.

That's certainly what I would expect if there was an alien invasion.

However, he is more surprised at the fact that the city of London seems to resemble an alien planet.

It doesn't seem destroyed at all.

So well done if you picked up on that.

So we could say the narrator seems unconcerned with his safety on the mound too.

He seems compelled to look at Sheen, the village he has been hiding in.

He's surprised to see that rather than destroyed it now looks like an alien landscape.

And well done if you were able to pick up on that.

Okay, A quick check for understanding for me then please.

So the narrator expects to find Sheen in ruins, but instead finds it what? Is it entirely untouched, like the landscape of another planet, noisome and dangerous, or amazing and breathtaking? Hit that pause button, have a go, and then push play when you would like to continue.

Yep, you're absolutely correct.

It is like the landscape of another planet.

Everyone was shouting out the answer.

I'm gonna have to make these more challenging as we go through the lesson today.

Well done for getting that one.

Okay, let's read on with this extract, but before we do, let's just have a look at some vocabulary.

So we've got the word brute.

A brute is a beast or an animal.

We've also got the word navvie, a manual labourer, somebody who works manually.

And finally dethronement.

So dethronement refers to remove someone from a position of power.

So let's continue that extract.

"For that moment I touched an emotion beyond the common range of men, yet one that the poor brutes we dominate know only too well.

I felt as a rabbit might feel returning to his burrow and suddenly confronted by the work of a dozen busy navvies digging the foundations of a house.

I felt the first inkling of the thing that presently grew quite clear in my mind, that oppressed me for many days, a sense of dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an animal among the animals under the Martian heel.

With us it would be as with them, to lurk and watch, to run and hide, the fear and empire of man had passed away." Again, another fantastic piece of writing here from HG Wells.

So my question for you then is, the narrator compares himself to a beast or a rabbit.

Why does he do this? Really challenging question, this one.

Really keen to see how you get on.

So hit pause, have a discussion or drop down some notes if you're working independently.

And then push play when you would like to continue.

Okay, fantastic conversations and well done to everybody who are linking the narrator to that feeling of powerlessness that animals have, particularly in the face of humans.

So we could say the narrator uses this metaphor and it's certainly a metaphor because he's not literally a beast or a rabbit to show how the Martians have now supplanted human dominance.

The narrator talks of a dethronement and that humans will forevermore have to resort to lurking, watching, running and hiding just like a rabbit.

Great job if you picked up on that.

My task is now for you to complete that extract, which can be found, found in the additional materials.

So I would like you to read the extract from "The War of the Worlds" and complete the following questions.

And those questions are, how does the narrator feel? What does he do about it? The narrator speaks about a dethronement, what does he mean by this? What impact has the red weed had on the landscape? What eventually happened to the red weed? What impact has the alien invasion had on human civilization? And what does the narrator become convinced of in the final paragraphs? Some really challenging questions there, but really excited to see how you get on with it.

So hit pause, complete that task and then we will feed back very shortly.

Great job on that.

I'm super impressed by everyone's approach and your hard work to this.

You know, reading comprehension is a critical skill in English and tasks like this will only help you improve and improve and improve.

So let's see what you could have put.

So for that first question we've got how does the narrator feel? What does he do about it? Well, we could have said the narrator feels an intense hunger.

That's what comes across straight away.

He satisfies it by taking growing produce from gardens and at one point gnawing on the skulls of animals, to no avail.

So that sheer hunger of the narrator really comes across here in this extract.

Well done if you picked up on that.

The narrator speaks about a dethronement.

What does he mean by this? Well, we could have said the narrator uses this word to suggest that humans are no longer the most dominant species on earth.

They have been dethroned from their kingly position by the Martians.

A species that seem more advanced in every way.

And I think deferment is a really great way of capturing that essence.

Question three, what impact has the red weed had on the landscape? Well again, we could have said the red weed has grown profusely.

That means kind of everywhere.

It seems to grow at enormous rates with great fecundity whenever it encounters water of any kind.

Again, what on if you picked up on that in your own work? Question four, what eventually happens to this mysterious red weed? Well, we could say it appears that the red weeded was ill-equipped to deal with the bacteria on earth.

It has fallen down due to some cankering disease, which has meant it now rots where it previously grew.

For five, what impact has the alien invasion had on human civilization? The narrator encounters a ruined landscape.

He talks of a heat ray used by the Martians and the desolate ruins and blackened trees it seems to have caused.

The narrator also encounters no other humans.

Instead finding several skeletons picked clean or flesh, this really dark landscape full of trauma and death that he encounters.

FInally, and I hope you got this one, what does the narrator become convinced of in the final paragraph? Well, the narrator becomes convinced he is the only human left on earth.

The skeletons he encounters only convinced him of this further, he believes the Martians have exterminated life in Britain and have gone on to other countries to do the same.

So why not if you picked up on any of those in your own pieces of writing, and as I said before, I strongly encourage you if your interest has been peaked by this, then do go to your library.

Do try and access this story online because it is a fantastic read.

Okay, we've made it through learning cycle two.

So we have learned a lot about "The War of the Worlds" and now we're gonna analyse it.

In particular, we are going to look at punctuation and sentence structures to sometimes overlook things I'd say.

And we're going to look at how HD Wells, the writer, uses them to a great, to a great effect to engage us as much as possible in this story.

So let's get cracking.

So we are going to look at how Wells uses punctuation and sentence structures to achieve particular effects.

And in particular, we are going to focus on developing an answer to the following question.

That question is, how does Wells use punctuation and sentence structures to show the narrator's emotional state? So I would strongly encourage you just to pause that video, quickly write down that question because that is going to guide us for the remainder of this learning cycle.

So I'll give you a few seconds to do that.

Okay, now we've got that question written down.

We have a discussion question on the board in front of us.

That question is, what are some different punctuation and sentence types that a writer might use to achieve certain effects? Pause that video, have a discussion, and then push play when you'd like to continue.

Okay, some lovely discussions taking place there.

It is lovely to hear you recapping and revisiting things you already know.

I saw lots of different punctuation terms flying around the classroom and lots of different sentence structures as well.

So really well done.

So let's look at that extract again.

Let's look at that one more time.

Now we've got that question to guide us.

So we are going to look at punctuation and sentence structures and how they show the narrator's emotional state.

And remember that emotional state, I would say, is fear, panic, surprise, and maybe even this element of like loneliness and desperation as well.

So let's read it again.

"For some time I stood tottering on the mound regardless of my safety.

Within that noisome den from which I'd emerged I had thought with a narrow intensity only of our immediate security.

I had not realised what had been happening to the world, had not anticipated this startling vision of unfamiliar things.

I'd expected to see Sheen in ruins.

I found about me the landscape weird and lurid, of another planet." Okay, so let's look at the specific things that Wells does in terms of his sentence structure and punctuation to make this so engaging.

So firstly, we've got lots of subordinate clauses.

Remember, subordinate clauses don't make sense without the corresponding main clause.

So Wells uses lots of these subordinate clauses.

And I would say these add additional details to the main clause and further emphasise the narrators fear, isolation and bafflement.

So things like "Regardless of my safety", "Within that noisome den", "Weird and lurid", all these little subordinate clauses, really just bring out that emotional state of the narrator.

I think this is a really good example of this from HG Wells.

And again, we've also got this dash.

So bringing it back to the punctuation, we've got this dash to heighten the drama.

So he says, "I had expected to see Sheen in ruins", dash, "I found about me the landscape weird and lurid of another planet." So I would say we are kind of invited to wonder what Sheen now looks like because of that dash, something very small, but I think it has a very powerful effect.

We understand that the narrator is surprised by what he sees and that dash really helps Wells accomplish that in his writing.

So what on if you were able to identify that yourselves.

And finally, we've also.

Carrying on the punctuation theme, we've also got this ellipsis.

And ellipsis is three dots at the end to reveal or leave something unsaid.

So we could say that the ellipsis expresses an incomplete thought , almost as if the narrator does not know what to make of this new environment.

The incomplete fall adds to the mystery.

So we feel the mystery of the protagonist and I think that ellipsis is really good at achieving that.

Okay, let's continue.

"Here I found some young onions, a couple of gladiolus bulbs and a quantity of immature carrots, all of which are secured and scrambling over a ruined wall, went on my way through scarlet and crimson trees towards Kew." Kew is a place in London.

"It was like walking through an avenue of gigantic blood drops, possessed with two ideas, to get more food and to limp as soon and as far as my strength permitted, out of this a curd unearthly region of the pit." So same question.

What is going on here in terms of sentence structures and punctuation that makes that so effective at showing this narrator's emotional state? Well, a couple of things are going on, I'd say.

Again, we've got subordinate clauses, "Scrambling over a ruined wall as soon as and as far as my strength permitted".

Again, these add significant detail to the narrator's situation, making him seem desperate.

And I'd even say animalistic.

He's crawling and scrambling and it continues that metaphor of being a beast or rabbit, that we saw earlier on.

And again, dashes, we see these dashes again to slow the pace and introduce this ominous description of the setting.

It is given further impact by being introduced in this way.

So I think that is a lovely way, it's quite menacing isn't it, to talk about, he's walking through an avenue of gigantic blood drops describing this red weed and those dashes there, that pause really adds to the drama and the tension.

And I think it's a really great device used by Wells.

Again, finally, the use of the colon is effective at showing the narrator's desperation.

The list emphasises the two things it is essential he does.

Get food and limp away from danger.

So remember, a colon can introduce a list in this way and I think it's really effective at highlighting just a couple of things that the narrator needs to achieve.

So once again, well done if you picked up on anything similar in your own discussions.

Okay, let's read the final bit.

The aspect of the place in the dusk was singularly desolate, blackened trees, blackened, desolate ruins.

And down the hill, the sheets of the flooded river red tinged with the weed.

And over all, silence.

It filled me with indescribable terror to think how swiftly that desolated change had come." So last time, third and final time, I'm gonna hand it over to you.

Pause the video and discuss that question.

How does Wells use punctuation and sentence structures to show the narrator's emotional state? And if you're working independently, just jot down some ideas and then do hit play when you would like to continue.

Okay, great work on that.

It is lovely to see you applying your knowledge of sentence structures and punctuation to this extract.

It is a really tricky thing to analyse these things.

And what I'm hearing and seeing is a fantastic example of that.

So very well done indeed.

Some of the things you could have put are as follows.

So we've got another colon and it's introducing another list.

And this is really effective at showing the narrator's dismay at what he sees.

We get an indication of the narrator's horror with the repetition of desolate and blackened.

So imagine that he's walking into London, all he can see is blackened trees, blackened ruins, this sense of destruction and despair.

And the colon is really effective at achieving that.

And we also get this dash, the dash here creates a dramatic pause.

The silence is emphasised as a result.

We get an understanding of the narrator sheer terror at seemingly being the last surviving human in London.

And imagine how terrifying that must feel, after an alien invasion being the only person walking the streets of London.

And again, that silence is really a hallmark of that.

That is what you would hear.

There's no one around, it's absolute silence.

And that dash really emphasises that narrator's loneliness and isolation.

So well done if you picked up on that in your own work.

Okay, check for understanding for me then please.

"I found about me the landscape weird and lurid of another planet", which part is the subordinate clause? Pause the video, have a go, and then push play when you would like to continue.

Okay, great job it is, weird and lurid.

Well done if you picked up on that.

And of course that is subordinate because that just doesn't make sense on its own.

We could say I found about me the landscape of another planet.

That totally makes sense.

However, weird and lurid on its own just doesn't make sense.

So that is the subordinating clause to that sentence.

Great job of picking up on that.

Okay, we have arrived at our final practise task of today's lesson.

Now is your chance to put everything that you have learned into practise, and I'm sure you are going to do a fantastic job.

So what we have then we have a table below.

I would like you to answer the question, how does Wells use punctuation and sentence structures to show the narrators emotional state? And I would like you to use this table in front of you.

So this will help you develop your points.

So these are some sentence starters to introduce your point, to develop your ideas and draw conclusions to your arguments.

So it should help you to give that real cohesion to your writing, which is exactly what we want.

So super excited to see how you get on with this one.

Super excited to see what you've learned.

So do hit pause and then push play when you would like to crack on and see some feedback.

Great job on that.

As I said before, that is so hard to do, to analyse sentence structures and punctuation in terms of their impact is one of the most challenging things to do in English.

So I'm super impressed at how hard you've approached that task and how hard you have worked on it.

So now we have some time for some self-assessment.

So I would like you to self-assess your answer.

Did you use discourse markers at the start of your sentences? Did you analyse the impact Wells's punctuation had on the narrator's emotional state? Did you analyse the impact Wells's sentence structures had on the narrator's emotional state? And did you use precise quotations from the text to support your analysis? If you did all of that, then my goodness, that is going to be a fantastic piece of writing.

If you have forgotten one, then don't have any fear whatsoever because you can just jot that down as a target for next time.

But really, first rate effort on that task, well done.

Wow, what a fantastic lesson.

We have reached the end and we have learned an enormous amount today.

So let's remind ourselves exactly what we have learned.

So we have learned, making predictions can help you to comprehend a new text better.

Dashes can be used to add a greater pause for dramatic effect.

Colons are used to separate two main clauses and can introduce lists, explanations, and quotes.

Writers use sentence structures and punctuation for emphasis to change pace and convey emotion.

And finally, use precise quotations to support your analysis of punctuation and sentence structure.

Okay, it's been lovely to teach you today and I very much look forward to teaching you on another lesson in this sequence.

So thank you very much and goodbye.