Lesson video

Hi there.

My name is Ms Richards, and I am leading this year nine grammar unit on non-fiction writing.

Really, really excited to have you joining me.

We've got seven lessons that we're going to work through looking at how we write and construct a piece of non-fiction but using some different grammar elements.

Just to help us really balance our writing and make it really, really exciting.

I can't wait, so let's get started.

Before we get going, you're going to need a pen and paper to write on.

If you have those in front of you, great.

Keep playing the video and we'll get started.

If you need to just pause now, run off and get those bits and press play when you're ready.

So today's lesson is going to think about what is non-fiction writing.

We're going to think about purpose of non-fiction writing, who the audience is for a non-fiction piece, what the form is and what that word means, and then you'll have a quiz at the end to check your understanding.

Nicely, the nicest straightforward.

So let's get going.

What is non-fiction writing? You're in a non-fiction writing unit.

Some of you will have loads of experience in non-fiction writing, turn lots of your teachers and lots throughout your entire education.

Maybe you've studied some non-fiction pieces.

There are lots of really famous bits of writing that are non-fiction.

Some of you though might not be sure, and you might be a bit confused between what fiction and non-fiction is.

So let's look closely at what that word means.

Non-fiction, we can break it into its two parts.

So non means not, or the absence of.

It's not fiction, is the absence of fiction.

That's great, if you know what fiction means.

If you're not sure what fiction means then actually that's not a very helpful definition.

So, fiction is things that are imaginary or invented or untrue.

So lots of the stories that you'll have read and studied with your English teachers or the books that you read for pleasure, those are fiction.

They're imaginary.

They've been invented by an author.

The characters aren't real.

Maybe it's an invented or imaginary world.

They're not true.

So non-fiction is not invented.

It's the absence of the imaginary.

In other words, we're talking about facts.

Non-fiction and non-fiction writing, is things that are factual, that based on real life, real world examples.

So here's our definition then; non-fiction is writing that is true and not imaginary.

It is based on facts or real examples.

You got that? Non-fiction writing is writing that is true and not imaginary.

It is based on facts or real examples.

Okay.

Have a go now, pause the video and complete this sentence, please.

So you've got that definition written down, filling in the blanks.

If you need to, you can always rewind the video and just have another listen to that definition first.

But non-fiction is writing that is blank and not blank.

It is based on blank or real blank.

Pause the video now, have a go, press play when you're ready.

Here we go then.

Did you get it? Non-fiction is writing that is true and not imaginary.

It is based on facts or real examples.

Give yourself ticks if you've got that right.

Pause the video and correct it if you need to.

Fantastic.

Okay, we know what non-fiction is.

So now we want to think about the purpose.

We want to think about why we write these non-fiction pieces? What we're trying to achieve? Well, we write non-fiction to argue, or to persuade somebody to do something, or to inform them or teach them, give them information about something new.

They're the three main types of non-fiction.

They're normally the ones we look at in school.

And they're the ones that you're most commonly asked to write about.

Right, for.

Particularly, even in the real world when you go out and get a job, if you are doing some non-fiction writing, it's often arguing, persuading and informing.

But we can write to instruct, to entertain, to advise or to describe something.

We're going to just think about these three for the purpose of this unit.

But there are lots of others too.

Well, let's think about some scenarios then.

Here is a non-fiction example; a student writing a letter asking their headteacher to extend how long their breaktime is.

So because it's asking and it's a headteacher, someone really important and quite powerful, and it's a student asking their headteacher, so there's a bit of a power difference here, this is a persuasive piece.

Another example then is a teacher giving a speech to parents to tell them the option students can take at GCSE.

So if we look at this, this is that they're being told and we're talking about options.

So it's information, things that the parents might not know, and the teacher's having to tell them because the teacher's really knowledgeable.

So this is an inform, a teach one.

The parents are being informed about the different options.

Okay, have a look at this scenario now.

A politician speaking in a debate to amend a law.

Pause the video and see if you can work out, if this is to argue, persuade or inform.

If you said it was to argue, well done.

You've got that correct.

It's a debate, so they're going to be arguing against somebody else.

Let's have a look at another.

A vet at an event speaking to dog owners about how to check their dog's weight.

Pause the video now.

Is this argue, persuade or inform? And if you said inform, you'd have been incorrect, because the vet has lots of knowledge, when the dog owners maybe have less.

So there talking about giving them in some information.

One more then.

A blog explaining why people should have a holiday in Australia.

Pause the video now, have a think.

This one is to persuade.

Now you might have said inform here, cause you might think that the blog is going to give people lots of information about Australia and inform them or teach them why it's a great country to visit.

But actually, because it's explaining why people should have a holiday there, it's persuading them to go on holiday.

It's persuading them that that's the place they should choose over other destinations.

Fantastic.

So we're starting.

We've started to think about why we write or speak and create these non-fiction pieces.

So now we want to think about who we're talking to or who might be reading them.

The audience is really important, because that helps us shape what kind of language we use, how we speak or how we write based on who's going to be receiving it, or who's being addressed.

So the audience is who the non-fiction text is addressing.

Now that might be an audience that's right in front of you, if you think about your school assemblies, or giving a speech in a class, the audience is immediately there.

But your audience can be a bit further removed as well.

It might be somebody reading something, or listening to something that's been recorded.

But our audience in non-fiction is about who the text is addressing, who it was intended for or who was going to be looking at it, listening to it, reading it.

If we go back to those examples, a student writing a letter asking their headteacher to extend how long their breaktime is.

A headteacher is the audience.

They're the one who's going to be reading the letter.

Sometimes people get this wrong, and they look at an example like this and they start to think it should be for students.

We need to look at these really carefully; a student writing a letter asking their headteacher to extend, means the audience is the headteacher.

Our second example, I gave you about the teacher giving a speech to parents, the audience is the parents.

Now this third example is a little bit trickier; a politician speaking in a debate to amend a law.

For the audience isn't obvious there it's not been listed.

So we have to use a little bit of inference here.

It's a politician, it's a debate, it's about the law.

So the likelihood is they're speaking to another politician, somebody with an opposite point of view that they're trying to persuade, because they're debating the change.

A vet at an event speaking to dog owners means that our audience is the dog owners.

They're the ones who are learning and listening.

And then, a blog explaining why people should have a holiday in Australia.

Again, a little bit of inference is needed here.

We might need to think about who would look for a blog.

So it might be people searching for holiday ideas or people who follow travel influencers, and it's going to be anyone interested in a holiday.

Okay, I'd like you now to have a look at the three different scenarios that I've got on the screen.

You're going to pause the video, and write down who the intended audience is for each of these scenarios.

When you're ready, press play and we'll move on.

How did you do? How did you find it? So let's have a look at the answers then.

Number one, the intended audience here would be parents, That is a letter from the headteacher to parents.

It's the parents who were being addressed.

Number two, a village newspaper means our intended audience would be people from that village.

The people who receive the newspaper.

Because it's a village newspaper we're not going to have a large scale of audience for it.

And then the third one that I gave you.

Now, you have to use a little bit of inference here, because our intended audience would be year 11 students who need to prepare and revise for their exams. That wasn't obvious cause it wasn't listed in the scenario.

But we can use our inference that it was a sixth former, and they're talking about revision and GCSEs.

So it's going to be year 11s.

Or might've said year 10, if your school is one that sits some of the GCSEs in year 10, that would be fine too.

Okay, we've covered purpose, we've covered audience.

The next thing I said to you this lesson is going to cover is form.

So form means the format or the type of writing, the style of writing.

There are lots and lots of different types of non-fiction writing.

So, the most common ones, or the ones that we talk about the most at school, and that you're more likely to write yourself are speeches, letters, articles, say newspaper articles, and textbooks.

You might be less likely to write these, but you certainly use them quite a lot in school.

So these are the four most common, I would say, that you will come across in your school career.

What I'd like you to do is you're going to pause the video in a moment and you are going to complete number one.

So fill in the blanks with the examples of non-fiction but the four well-known ones are? See if you can remember the ones I've just told you and then number two, I'd like you to list as many other examples of non-fiction texts as you can.

Right, I'm going to disappear.

So pause the video now, please, complete it, press play when you're ready.

How did you do? So there are four well-known types; speeches, letters, articles, and textbooks.

Then how many did you come up with listing your own? I'd love to know if you've got as many if not more than I did.

The ones that I could think of were blogs, leaflets, essays, travel guides, history books, autobiographies, instruction manuals, even cereal packets.

I know that seems like a really funny one, but your cereal packet is going to have all your ingredients, those are true, they're real.

It might have some instructions on the best ways to make your cereal really exciting, like adding berries or bananas or sprinkling some chopped nuts or something.

It might have some information about where your cereal has come from? Where all the different parts of it were grown? And maybe it's got some information about the company as well.

So actually cereal packets are non-fiction.

And when you start to look in your food cupboards you'll see that there's lots of different non-fiction bits there as well.

I'd love to know if you've got the same ideas or different as me.

Okay, I've got a task for you now.

We're going to see how much you've understood from your purpose audience form.

So you're going to pause the next slide.

Once you've listened to my instructions you're going to have a go at filling in the table.

I'd like you to copy this table down, and for each of the scenarios on the left-hand side, I'd like you to work out what the purpose, audience and form is? When you've had a go, press play, and I went through the answers.

How'd you get on? Hopefully you found it nice and easy, but don't worry if you have to think really hard, cause this is the first time that we've done it and we've gone through it.

So number one was done for you.

That letter was designed to inform them about the non-uniform day and the audience was students.

It was in a letter form.

Number two, the leaflet about the opening of the new restaurant coming to town, that was also to inform but it would inform residents, and the format was a leaflet.

Number three, was a persuasive speech and the audience, the people being addressed were politicians, and as I said, it was a speech.

Our article about our brave firefighter would be to inform.

Now the audience would be the readers of the articles at that newspaper, probably local residents, but we often get articles on a national scale, on our national newspapers too.

And it's in the form of an article.

Lastly, our mobile phone company encouraging you to buy their products, they are persuading you, the audience is you or the reader of that letter, whoever received it, and the form is a letter.

I hope you've given yourself lots and lots of texts there.

Well done.

Do you just pause and correct anything in your table that you need to.

How'd you get on? I hope you did really well with that table.

So the last thing that you need to do then is to do your quiz that will check your knowledge from this lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed it and I can't wait to see you for the next lesson.

Bye.