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Year 10
AQA

'The War of the Worlds': How punctuation and sentence structures create impact

I can explain how a writer uses punctuation and sentence structures to create impact.

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Year 10
AQA

'The War of the Worlds': How punctuation and sentence structures create impact

I can explain how a writer uses punctuation and sentence structures to create impact.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Making predictions can help you to comprehend a new text better.
  2. Dashes can be used to add a greater pause for dramatic effect.
  3. Colons are used to separate two main clauses and can introduce lists, explanations and quotes.
  4. Writers use sentence structures and punctuation for emphasis, to change pace and convey emotion.
  5. Use precise quotations to support your analysis of punctuation and sentence structure.

Keywords

  • Dash - A piece of punctuation (-) that can be used to signal a pause, usually for dramatic effect.

  • 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 e.g. complex, compound, simple.

  • Pace - The speed at which a story is told.

Common misconception

Punctuation is only used to ensure writing makes sense.

Punctuation can be a stylistic choice from a writer, contributing to the tension of a story.


To help you plan your year 10 english lesson on: 'The War of the Worlds': How punctuation and sentence structures create impact, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

There are lots of great resources for introducing 'The War of the Worlds'. Consider using images/clips to bring the extract to life (particularly around the "red weed" and its impact on London).
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Teacher tip
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Equipment

There is a copy of the extract from 'War of the Worlds' available in the additional materials.

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Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
supervision-level

Supervision

Adult supervision required

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
A simple sentence has a single clause with a subject and a .
Correct answer: verb
preposition
noun
metaphor
Q2.
What is being described here: 'Fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances or major social or environmental changes.'?
Correct Answer: Science fiction, science fiction, Science-fiction, Sci-fi, sci fi
Q3.
'The rocket launched successfully and it made its way to the moon.' This is a compound sentence joined by a conjunction. What is the conjunction?
Correct Answer: and, And, 'and'
Q4.
'The rocked launched loudly, screeching wildly into the night.' What sentence type is this?
compound
Correct answer: complex
simple
interrogative
exclamative
Q5.
A story's pace refers to the at which it is told.
Correct answer: speed
volume
tension
time
Q6.
What is being described here: 'A statement about what you think will happen in the future'?
certainty
Correct answer: prediction
truth
likelihood

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Who wrote 'The War of the Worlds'?
Correct answer: H.G. Wells
Jules Verne
Mary Shelley
Jonathan Swift
Q2.
'The War of the Worlds' is narrated by ...
Correct answer: an unnamed narrator.
Wells himself.
a Martian who was part of the invasion.
nobody (it is written in the third person).
Q3.
What is being described here: 'A piece of punctuation that can introduce lists, explanations and quotes.'?
Correct answer: colon
dash
ellipsis
question mark
Q4.
In 'The War of the Worlds', the narrator finds London has become like a 'lurid' and 'weird' alien landscape. What is arguably the cause of this?
Correct answer: A red weed that is seemingly everywhere.
The fact that it is now Martians one sees rather than humans.
The complete destruction the Martians have carried out.
The new buildings and structures the Martians have constructed.
Q5.
Look at this sentence taken from 'The War of the Worlds': "And over all—silence." Which of the below best explains the use of the dash?
It is essential for the sentence to make sense.
Correct answer: It adds a dramatic pause which greater emphasises the silence.
It reflects the fact the character is nervously stuttering when he says it.
The writer uses the dash to quicken the pace.
Q6.
In 'The War of the Worlds', the narrator talks of being 'dethroned'. What does he mean by this?
Correct answer: That humans are no longer the most dominant species on Earth.
That the invasion has led to the collapse of the government.
That he has lost everything.
That human society will never be the same again.

Additional material

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