Transactional writing tasks are asking you to communicate an idea to a specific audience, for a specific reason. When you tackle one of these tasks, it is a good idea to remember a few things that can help you strive for success. T A P Text Type, Audience and Purpose: WHAT are you being asked to write (what form)? WHO are you writing for or to? WHY are you writing this piece? Understanding these three things is imperative. Take this task, for example: Your headteacher has made the decision to introduce a strict ban on mobile telephones for all students during school hours. Write her a letter to your headteacher explaining your thoughts on this idea. Compare this to: Your headteacher has made the decision to introduce a strict ban on mobile telephones for all students during school hours. Write a speech to deliver to your school council, arguing why this is a bad idea. On the surface, the two tasks are very similar. However, the first task is actually asking you for something completely different. If we TAP the tasks, you can see, immediately, the differences: Task 1: T - A letter A - The headteacher P - To express my thoughts and opinions Task 2: T - A speech A - The school council (a group) P - To argue the decision So, with just a small bit of time taken, we are immediately a lot clearer on our approach to the task. We now know WHAT we have been asked to do, WHO we are writing for and WHY we are writing. You'd be surprised how many people fail to do this! FORMALITY Once you know who your audience are, you can then make a decision about the formality of your writing. If you don't know your audience, then you can't tailor your language and style accordingly! For example, your language would be very different in a speech to your headteacher than it would be in an article for teenagers. Don't forget formality! D A F O R R E S T Direct Address Anecdotes Facts Opinions Repetition Rhetorical Question Emotive Language Statistics Triples (Three in a row) DAFORREST is a useful acronym to remember when you're writing non-fiction. I will put together a more detailed post explaining the nuances of this in the future, but for now, it's a good idea to familiarise yourself with these techniques. DAFORREST techniques are all proven to draw in an audience, and ensure that you keep them hanging on your words. SUCCESS STORY: Aiden P Task: There is a plan to build a new supermarket on a playing field in your local area. Write a speech to present at a public meeting, giving your views on this idea.
Aiden's work was the highest-marked in the year at this mark point. It's important to recognise Aiden's successes in order to improve your own work. 1. Clear introduction Aiden uses a clear introduction to explain to the audience why he is there. Immediately, he establishes the reasons for the speech and we as readers can see from the opening statement that Aiden has written a speech. That's not to say that it doesn't need work - "Hello" isn't exactly a great opener and doesn't establish formality particularly well. However, this overview statement has led us quite nicely into Aiden's speech and clearly establishes his viewpoint. 2. Clear structure Aiden has clearly planned this speech to be concise and to-the-point. He begins with an anecdotal account of the village of Glendale, explaining with some vivid detail the benefits of a supermarket on the village. Note words like "thriving", which immediately show a strong grasp of language and appropriate vocab. Pitfalls here often include:
Note that Aiden's speech isn't long. It's concise and clear, which is much better. 3. Appropriate and sophisticated vocabulary Aiden's words are not overly ambitious. They are appropriate and succinct, meaning that the audience clearly understands his message without feeling patronised. A problem many students have is that they get lost in fancy language and the overall meaning of their words is lost. Be careful of this! Less is more, as the saying goes. 4. Appropriate tone Aiden's tone is friendly, yet firm. Too many students make the mistake of mis-judging the tone and therefore mis-firing when it comes to crafting the speech. Go back to your TAP and explore what it is you've been asked to do. If you're writing to persuade, then threatening your audience, or using negative language isn't going to get you what you want! You need to show the examiner that you are aware of what is being asked of you, and remember - you're being marked on your ability to communicate effectively, at the end of the day. 5. A well-rounded speech Aiden's speech has a clear beginning, middle and end. This is due to clear and detailed planning. You can see that before he began to write, he had a clear direction. This is why planning is essential. Too many times, I see students losing track of their ideas due to poor planning. Remember: Proper planning prevents poor performance. 6. Excellent SPaG Finally, Aiden's speech uses punctuation accurately and effectively. This means that he doesn't haemorrhage marks because he can't handle a semi-colon. 40% of the marks you get in this piece are for SPaG, and if you can't SPaG correctly, then you can't get more than 6/16. Aiden gets 10/16 marks because his punctuation is accurate and controlled. To earn more, he needs to begin using punctuation for effect - to manipulate and control the reader's speed and the tone of the piece overall. TL;DR In a nutshell, for those of you skimming this piece, what you need to remember is to TAP, walk through DAFORREST and create an effective PLAN, with a little sprinkle of SPaG for good measure.
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In a Nutshell...Paper 2 is a BEAST of a paper. In it, you have to read two non-fiction pieces, before analysing the language and structure of one and evaluating the success of a writer's techniques in the other. To finish, you have to compare the two texts thoroughly, looking at methods and techniques. Archives
May 2017
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