Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Ms. Gayle.

Today our focus is going to be on embedding some of the skills we've looked at already this unit and we're going to try and use a range of grammatical structures in our own writing.

We want to make sure that through a logically planned argument, our writing has a strong sense of cohesion, and purpose, and skill.

So we're going to begin by reviewing some of the essentials of grammar and that'll help you to sharpen your proofreading skills and we will then go on to plan and write our own piece of expressive writing, clearly articulating our opinions.

Remember, communication is key to your success in life and it's a skill which if you practise the right things, you'll get better and better at each time.

I would like you to take a moment to clear any distractions away and make sure you have everything you need at hand.

You'll need a pen and paper for this lesson.

So now I'd like you to write down the title, "Embedding skills to use a range of grammatical structures." We're going to begin with a quiz to check your recall of some grammatical rules.

See if you can apply your previous knowledge by answering some questions and identifying some errors in the questions and sentences you're about to see on your screen.

Are you ready? Is this statement true or false? This statement is false.

A colon does not separate two subordinate clauses.

Remember, a colon can be used after an independent or main clause.

Is this true or false? This is false.

All sentences need a subject but they don't have to have an adjective to modify that subject.

So you'd have a subject and the predicate which is a verb if you were going to have a main clause or complete sentence.

When should you use a semicolon between main clauses? You should use a semicolon between main clauses when the two clauses are closely related to each other and you should use a colon when the second clause explains the first.

For the next one, I'd like you to look at the errors in this sentence and see if you can correct them.

So you should have noticed that the first two words there form a subordinate clause.

They need separating from the rest of the sentence with a comma.

Without doubt, comma, grammar is one of the most important things you will learn at school.

And they missed off here a full stop and a capital letter, as well as a question mark at the end instead of the exclamation mark we had before.

Well done if you spotted all three of those things.

I'd like you to do the same again.

Correct the errors in this sentence please.

Now remember if we're using a semicolon, then we would need to have main clauses on either side of the piece of punctuation.

With a colon, we only need a main clause in front of the colon and we can have a phrase that doesn't make sense on its own, after it.

In this case that's what we've got here.

We're using that phrase at the end of the sentence, emphasising it or directing our reader's attention to it with the colon.

We do not need a capital letter after a piece of punctuation in the middle of a sentence like that, unless it's a proper noun of course.

We do need a capital letter for B because British derives from that proper noun, Britain.

Well done if you got those correct.

How about this one? So in actual fact, you might check all these things.

You know that a sentence is complete if it contains a subject, object and predicate.

That means a verb.

So it contains a verb as well.

And you need to check that it makes sense.

You would put a full stop at the end of it in some cases but you can also end a sentence of course with a question mark or an exclamation mark.

Well done for your efforts there in that quiz.

Make sure you're thinking about those as we go on to do our piece of writing today.

So we've done a little bit of thinking around the key grammatical rules we need to know.

But when we're preparing to write, it can be really, really helpful to remind ourselves of the full writing process.

Now writing always begins with the thoughts and ideas that you generate.

Without that important thinking stage, you'll be most likely to find it difficult to write very much very effectively.

You need to think about the question or topic you're writing about and the content you're going to include.

So you need to think about the relationship you're going to try and build between reader and writer, as well as the content of what you're going to put in.

Once you've generated your initial ideas, you will need to plan with more clarity to organise your ideas into a sequence that makes sense and that is going to be convincing and a powerful connection to your reader's thoughts and feelings.

When you've planned the sequence and structure of your ideas and sketched out the content you're going to include, you'll be ready then to start drafting your ideas.

Now this doesn't necessarily happen on paper because often your draughts might be your thoughts and the ideas that you edit and rework in your mind to make sure you're expressing yourself precisely before you then commit them to paper.

As part of the drafting process and as soon as you start writing your ideas, you need to remind yourself to critique yourself all the time.

Criticise and edit your writing thinking, "Does that make sense? "Is that right? "Is that the best word?", as you go along so that then you can think not only about the accuracy of your spelling and punctuation and grammar, but you can also think about how clearly and convincingly your ideas will come across.

At this point, you might find that you've already begun to write and then the process becomes kind of cyclical in a way because you're constantly thinking, drafting, critiquing, writing until you finished your piece.

So here's a quick reminder of some of the success criteria that you might be aiming for in a piece of viewpoint writing like we're about to do today.

You need to think about the organisation of your writing.

You need to choose vocabulary carefully.

And you need to think about your technical control.

As part of our organisation, we need to make sure that we're using sensibly sequenced ideas to convince and gauge our reader to link and develop those ideas and make sure we're structuring our writing for effect.

As part of vocabulary selection, we need to make precise vocabulary choices to say exactly what we mean.

We can think about rhetorical or linguistic devices, things like pronouns for direct address, or listing or metaphors, or something called anaphora, the repetition at the beginning of successive clauses.

We can think about sustaining style, sustaining tone.

And for technical control, we need to focus on what we've been looking at in this unit which is using a range of punctuation accurately.

So, for the last couple of lessons, we've been considering our opinions on this statement and we've already begun to generate some ideas.

Today we're going to develop and organise these ideas into a detailed plan which we're then going to write up in full.

Now as I mentioned, our focus today begins with the thinking and planning stage so I'd like you to think about and remember some of the ideas and opinions you've already thought about this unit surrounding wellbeing.

Once you've done that, we can get ready to plan.

Before we do, let me remind you of some principles of expressive writing and viewpoint writing that might be helpful for you to remember.

Firstly, rhetoric is the art of persuasive speaking or writing and it's used by political campaigners, by even advertisers to this day to try to convince, persuade and encourage support in the public for a certain point of view.

Often, the art of rhetoric is broken down into three appeals, ethos, logos and pathos, and these come from Greek words and we'll talk about what those mean now.

Ethos is the appeal to ethics.

That's where we convince the audience of an author's credibility or character.

You might do this by making your motivations as the writer clear, explaining why you might be someone with the confidence or authority to speak about that particular issue.

And the aim is to convince the audience to evaluate your own beliefs so they can respect you and your viewpoint.

Logos is the appeal to logic.

That's where you're using logic and reason to convince the audience.

So wherever you use facts, statistics or any other form of evidence and use that to draw a conclusion, you are using a logos in terms of your rhetorical argument and it can be really, really convincing and difficult to argue against if you've got your facts, if you state your facts clearly.

Finally, pathos is the appeal to emotion.

That's where we persuade our audience by targeting their emotions.

For instance, you might find that you're trying to use emotive language to try to create sympathy or share a celebration, maybe rouse anger or inspire them with hope.

So you can think of a speech that you've ever seen that made you feel something.

Maybe it made you angry, or sad or upset.

What was it that that speaker did that appealed to your emotion? I'd like you to pause the video and explain to me those three rhetorical appeals that we've just introduced.

What do they mean? Why are they convincing? So as we begin to plan our writing next, let's think about how those three appeals, ethos, logos and pathos, might apply to this statement.

What are the logical reasons that you might make the claim that wellbeing is a valuable possession, just as important as academic attainment or success? Thinking about ethos, what are your personal credentials, motives or characteristics or experiences that mean that you should be listened to on this topic? And thinking about pathos, what emotional triggers might you be able to tap into in order to communicate your ideas with the reader? So I'd like you to note down any ideas that you might include in your content in response to that statement.

Remember to focus on what you know.

Why is wellbeing a valuable possession and why is it important? Try to think of at least three things that you can include in your writing.

If you struggle to think of any ideas, don't worry because here's a few examples that you could use or equally, you could use them to enhance what you've already got written down.

So I might talk about how putting a higher value on wellbeing could reduce mental health crisis in schools.

And I also argue that students who are well rested and have a healthy work-life balance will perform better academically anyway.

I might talk about the fact that you can work hard, but at the same time, also value your wellbeing.

And I'm going to suggest in my writing that schools could do more to support students' wellbeing.

There could be more time dedicated in the day to help us to think about how we prioritise ourselves and our wellbeing.

So if you've got your ideas written down now, it's time to think about sequencing your ideas into coherent paragraphs and linking them together.

You'll want to begin with an introduction which is important in hooking and engaging your reader.

The main substance of your argument comes in the key points you might make.

You might begin with logos perhaps, emphasising the facts or the reality of your situation.

Then you might want to think about pathos and perhaps you could use a anecdote, a short story or example that connects with your reader's emotions.

Point three might be a new idea or you could try to make some acknowledgement of a counterargument maybe.

To conclude, you should then reassure your reader that your opinions are valid and worthy of consideration and you might try to leave them with a lasting impression based on your argument.

So here, you can see that I framed the sequence of my ideas into questions to support your planning.

And if you like, you could think of them as sort of subheadings to support your thinking.

So in my introduction, I might reflect on the bigger picture.

Why is wellbeing important and what is my viewpoint on it? In point one, I might think about what is the reality of teenage wellbeing? In my point number two, how easy is it to improve your wellbeing? In point number three, is wellbeing really more important than success? And then for my conclusion, I'm going to think about what I want my reader to do.

What's going to be the takeaway message, the key idea of this piece of writing? And I've thought about that because I've considered the sequence of the ideas that I want to include and the content I want to include so the effect of my writing is strengthened.

And if I'm thinking about the three rhetorical appeals, it's sometimes sensible to put logos at the beginning of the essay.

You want to have your key points and key evidence presented early on to establish your credibility.

You want to appear like you're somebody who knows what they're talking about.

You might include some emotional content and put pathos in the middle of the essay to ensure you're keeping that emotional engagement with your reader.

And then at the end of the essay, you want to appeal to the big picture, to the actions or the solutions and you want your reader to buy into you and your ideas.

So, we're going to spend some time thinking about the introduction.

What is the purpose of a introduction? The purpose of an introduction is to give an overview of your line of argument.

You establish your relationship with the reader and create a particular tone.

You then create a soft springboard to link into the next paragraph and it could drop your reader into a particular scenario to give them a clear insight into the world that you're describing maybe.

I like to call these a drop paragraph and that's where you're dropped into a moment and given an anecdote rather than explanation of your viewpoint.

So here's an example on your screen.

Breathe in.

And out.

Deep, lung-filling breaths.

With each inhalation, you bask in the effortless bliss of freedom following a long day at school.

The evenings stretches languidly out before you until you jolt in a sudden, anguished realisation; Homework due tomorrow.

Your stomach twists, your heart flickers and that knot of anxiety in your chest tightens.

Isn't it time you were allowed a little time to yourself? Today's young people need to start prioritising wellbeing over academic expectation.

So here you can see that I tried not just to say "I agree that wellbeing is important because" because that's quite dull and uninspiring.

I want to really capture my reader's imagination so I'm using a carefully selected range of sentence structures, those short fragment sentences.

I've got really emotive images being presented and described.

But at the same time, I'm firmly establishing my line of argument and my opinion.

You can tell from reading this paragraph what my key, overriding viewpoint is and it's particularly clear in that final line.

My key line of argument is most firmly established by a close of that opening section.

Today's young people need to start prioritising wellbeing over academic expectation.

And so that's something you need to consider.

If you are trying to capture your reader's imagination in your opening paragraph, make sure your overall viewpoint is still clear.

So, just to summarise some of the things that we've seen there in that model paragraph that you could consider in your writing, we're using our sentence construction and punctuation to have particular effects.

So for example, I try to use colons to emphasise some contrast.

The evening stretches out languidly before you until you jolt in a sudden, anguished realisation, colon, homework due tomorrow.

So that calmness is really suddenly interrupted by the colon and I realised I've got my homework due tomorrow.

I've tried to use personal pronouns and rhetorical questions for that conversation with the reader, that direct address that is really powerful in persuasive writing.

Isn't it time you were allowed a little time to yourself, for example.

I've tried to use lists.

Again, it's one of those lists that helps me to be descriptive and to capture the reader's imagination.

Your stomach twists, your heart flickers and that knot of anxiety in your chest tightens.

There's also imagery being used there, that sort of metaphorical language that can help to engage our readers.

And then also as we mentioned, there's some short fragment sentences.

Breath in.

And out.

Again, just to emphasise the idea of mindfulness.

So there's lots of things that we can think about as we're writing that opening paragraph.

It's really important to engage your reader right from the start.

I would like you have a go now at writing your introduction and think about how you can show your viewpoint in the way that we just practised there.

So remember to give an overview of your line of argument, establish your relationship with the reader, create a springboard to link into the next paragraph and you could drop your reader into a scenario like the one that we just described in that model paragraph.

Well done.

I'd now like you try and link into your second paragraph.

Now, in the second paragraph, you're trying to develop the relationship with the reader.

Introduce maybe logical reasons or examples or evidence for your viewpoint.

I'm not going to show you a model for this one 'cause I want you to have a little go at doing this yourself but you can use that prompt question that I showed you earlier to describe what is the reality of teenage wellbeing.

And remember you're trying to use that direct address, build that relationship with the reader and introduce facts, opinions or evidence for your viewpoint.

Well done.

So now it's time to link into the third paragraph and that's where we develop that relationship with the reader.

We try to introduce logical reasons, examples or evidence that you have for your viewpoint and it's really important to connect to your reader's emotion, perhaps using emotive language, imagery or rhetorical questions.

You might give advice, you might make suggestions and you might use anecdotes or short stories to illustrate your ideas.

Remember, we're thinking about why wellbeing is important.

Have a go now at writing your third paragraph and you might use the prompt heading on your screen.

How easy is it to improve your wellbeing? Well done.

Time now to link to your fourth paragraph and that's where you might consider maybe acknowledging, or rejecting, or critiquing a counterargument using logic or reason.

So if someone thinks differently from you, maybe someone's saying, "Well actually no, "school is important actually," how could you acknowledge that whilst also saying "We can still support our wellbeing and our schoolwork"? You need to continue to develop that relationship with your reader, try and strengthen your credibility as writer by showing an awareness of all sides of the debate, not just ignoring the fact that other opinions do exist.

Okay, it's time to write your fourth paragraph now.

Is wellbeing really more important than success? How can we balance academic work and school work with looking after yourself and prioritising yourself? Well done.

You're doing really well.

I'd now like you to link into your conclusion.

So with a conclusion, we're trying to make our viewpoint clear, restating what we said right at the beginning of our piece of writing.

We're trying to broaden the scope of our argument into big ideas in terms of seeing the bigger picture of wellbeing.

We're trying to leave our reader with a lasting thought or emotional impression.

What do you actually want them to do as a result of this piece of writing you've done? And try to link on to ideas from earlier in your writing.

So you might think about reinforcing some points that you've already made in your conclusion.

Off you go, having at writing your conclusion now.

What do you want your reader to do? Well done.

You've worked really hard there.

So once you've finished, check your spelling, punctuation and grammar, think about how effectively you engaged the reader and give yourself a big pat on the back.

Thank you for your focus and I hope you enjoy the rest of your learning today.

Please remember to complete the quiz at the end of the lesson.