Hello, everyone, and welcome to your lesson on using a model description to create a clear tone.

I'm Miss Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today is to be able to use a model description to inspire a clear tone in our writing.

And our keywords for today are semantic field.

A semantic field is a group of words related to each other in meaning.

Preyed, to be preyed upon is to be hunted or intimidated by a more powerful figure.

Callous, a callous action is insensitive and cruel towards others.

Oppressive, oppressive treatment is harsh, cruel and domineering.

And rancid, rancid food has an unpleasant taste or smell due to being rotten.

I hope these words will help us when writing our dystopian descriptions later today.

Now, in today's lesson, we're firstly going to look at how semantic fields create tone.

So we'll be looking at how an author has used a semantic field to create tone.

We'll then be using a semantic field in our own writing to create a clear tone.

So let's start off with how semantic fields can create tone.

Let's read this dystopian description.

It was a cold November morning and the clouds scowled down upon the tortured city.

The building tops were suffocated by the unrelenting smog as if choking with the weight of their malevolent history.

The taunting clouds began to weep a brutal unforgiving rain, which stung the bare arms of the citizens below.

Cameras preyed upon them as they shivered in the damp of the city.

They trudged onwards through the dark and desolate landscape surrounded by callous orders on posters that dominated every wall.

What do you notice about the adjectives and verbs in this description? Pause the video and have a think.

So what did you notice about all those adjectives and verbs, such as scowled, tortured, suffocated, unrelenting, choking, malevolent, taunting, and so on? You may have said that the adjectives and verbs in this description link to cruelty and therefore, create an oppressive tone.

Let's dig into that a bit deeper.

Someone might scowl if they're angry.

And we know that being tortured and choked and suffocated is a really cruel thing.

Therefore, together, all of these words create a really heavy, dark atmosphere and therefore, an oppressive tone.

So if all of your adjectives and verbs link to a specific idea, for example, cruelty, you have used a sophisticated technique called a semantic field.

So we could say the writer from that earlier description used a semantic field.

So what is a semantic field? A semantic field is a group of words related in meaning, and different semantic fields can create different tones.

For example, a semantic field of cruelty can create an oppressive tone, as we've just seen in the model.

A semantic field of darkness could create a bleak tone, A semantic field of nature, on the other hand, could create a refreshing tone, and a semantic field of childhood can create a nostalgic tone.

Let's have a think.

Wince, scream and wound all relate to the semantic field of? In other words, what idea or theme connects those three words there? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said pain.

Wince, scream and wound all relate to the semantic field of pain.

That is because wince and scream is something you might do if you're hurt and wound is something you might have on your body if you are injured.

Since the words wince, scream, and wound are not related to love or health, they definitely are not part of the semantic field of love or health.

Therefore, all of those words relate to the semantic field of pain.

Using words that relate to a semantic field of light, for example, ray, twinkle, glisten may create a? Pause the video and have a think.

What tone would those three words create? Well done if you said uplifting.

Ray, twinkle and glisten give an uplifting feeling 'cause traditionally, light is a symbol of hope, symbol of wisdom, and has positive connotations.

The words ray, twinkle and glisten do not relate to the past.

Therefore, they don't create a nostalgic tone.

And the words ray, twinkle and glisten do not necessarily create a depressing tone either because they are by nature a source of light, therefore, have connotations of happiness.

Well done if you said that.

Now let's think about how exactly the writer used a semantic field of cruelty in the description we just read to create an oppressive tone.

I want you to annotate how each of the cruel adjectives and verbs in the sentence below create an oppressive tone.

Let's read the quote once more and have a go at this task.

So the quote is, "The taunting clouds began to weep a brutal, unforgiving rain, which stung the bare arms of the citizens below." Your task is annotate the word taunting, the word brutal, the word unforgiving, and the word stung to comment on how those words create an oppressive tone.

Pause the video and have a go at this task.

Let's go through some answers.

So for taunting, you may have said, this word suggests the clouds are mocking the citizens in contempt, trying to break them.

Brutal suggests the harsh, heavy nature of the rain, intending to cause harm to the citizens.

Brutal suggests the rain is intentionally violent.

The adjective unforgiving gives the impression that the rain is like a punishment to the citizens.

And lastly, the verb stung shows the vicious effect of the rain, it's really harming the citizens as it falls on their bare arms. Great job at that task, everyone.

Let's now move on to using a semantic field to create tone in our own writing.

I'm gonna walk you through some steps to show you how you can create a semantic field because whilst this technique may seem a bit tricky when you're first learning about it, it's really easy to break down.

So step one in creating a semantic field is decide on the tone of your writing.

So decide on the mood that you want to create.

For example, you could decide to create a tone, an oppressive tone for a dystopia, you're usually looking at a negative tone of some kind.

Step two is think of a word that characterises your society to demonstrate this tone.

In other words, what about my dystopian society is going to make the reader feel a sense of oppression? Well, the dystopian society will be very cruel.

It'll be a cruel place to live, and that is going to create an oppressive tone for the reader as they are reading through my description.

Next, I want you to find several adjectives and verbs that link to that idea of cruelty or whichever idea you've chosen.

So for example, brutal, callous, vicious, and unrelenting are adjectives that relate to the idea of cruelty, and punish, torment, scowl, stalk and preyed are verbs that link to the idea of cruelty.

You are then going to disperse those adjectives and verbs throughout your writing to create a semantic field, which will reflect the tone.

So I'm going to put the word brutal, callous, scowl, preyed throughout my writing where I feel it's most relevant in order to create a feeling of cruelty and give the reader an oppressive tone.

And it looks something like this.

The building tops were tormented by the unrelenting smog, which scowled, and so on.

Let's practise finding appropriate adjectives and verbs to fit our semantic fields.

I want you to sort each adjective and verb below into the appropriate semantic field.

So those verbs and adjectives at the bottom there, they either fit the semantic field of secrecy or they fit the semantic field of decay.

Pause the video and have a go at sorting the adjectives and verbs.

The words obscure, whisper, veiled, stealthy, hid and crept, they fit the semantic field of secrecy.

Let's unpick one of those words and explain why it fits the semantic field of secrecy.

Well, being stealthy is to move in a way so no one can hear you, to move quickly and quietly, and you might do that if you want to keep what you're doing a secret.

Now let's look at the semantic field of decay.

The words rot, wither, mouldy, erode, crumble, fester, rusty and rancid fit the semantic field of decay.

Now let's unpick one word there and see why it fits.

We said that rancid is an unpleasant smell.

Now, that smell might occur if there is a piece of food that is decaying.

Therefore, the word rancid fits the semantic field of decay.

Well done on that task, everyone.

Now, what tone do you think the writer could create by using all of those adjectives and verbs in the semantic field of secrecy? What mood or feeling would the reader get if all those words were used? Pause the video and have a think.

You may have said that by using all those adjectives and verbs, such as obscure, whisper, stealthy, hid, crept, and veiled, the reader could succeed in creating a mysterious tone because they've used the semantic field of secrecy.

Let's have a go at answering that question for the semantic field of decay.

What tone do you think the writer could create by using these adjectives and verbs, such as rot, mouldy, fester, erode? What mood or feeling would the reader get if those words were used? Pause the video and have a think.

You may have said that these adjectives and verbs may create a bleak tone.

In other words, a gloomy, depressing tone via the semantic field of decay.

Well done if you said anything along the same lines.

Now, I want you to put all that knowledge into practise.

I want you to write a dystopian description that creates a bleak tone by using the semantic field of decay.

You've got all the words that could relate to the semantic field of decay on the right-hand side.

So remember to consult that if you need some help.

You can also use the image to guide you.

Think about picking out what the walls look like, what's on the floor, what the weather might be outside of that place, who might live there, what smells might there be, what sounds might there be? I want you to remember to still use a range of sentence structures and punctuation in your work.

You could use simple, compound and complex sentences.

You could use declarative, interrogative, and exclamatory sentences, and you could use a semicolon, a colon, a dash, et cetera.

Good luck on this task, everyone.

I look forward to seeing what you've written.

Pause the video and have a go.

I now want you to reread and self-assess your work.

Identify where you've used a range of simple, compound and complex sentences, used a range of declarative, interrogative, and exclamatory sentences, used a range of sophisticated punctuation, such as dash, semicolon, and colon.

Used a semantic field of decay to create a bleak tone.

Remember, you can find the semantic field of decay by looking for all the words that you've used from the decay word bank.

And lastly, where have you created a bleak tone elsewhere in your writing that could be from different vocabulary that you wanted to use? Pause the video and self-assess your work.

Great job on your task, everybody.

I hope you're really proud of the writing that you've done today.

So what have we learned? We've learned a semantic field is a group of words related in meaning.

We've learned that linking your adjectives and verbs to a specific idea can help you create a semantic field, and you've successfully created a semantic field of decay today.

Well done.

We've also learned that different semantic fields reflect different tones.

So hopefully by using a semantic field of decay, you've successfully, you created a bleak tone for the reader, and therefore, you have learned that you can use the semantic field of decay in order to reflect a bleak tone typical of the dystopian genre.

Great job on all your hard work today.

I look forward to seeing you next time.