Week 1 etc.

Dear All,

Welcome to the blog. Each week I intend to provide you with a brief summary of Friday's class, so that you can see what was covered. If you miss a class please try to catch up on the contents, preferably via your colleagues.

Also on the blog I'll post website addresses for relevant texts I think you should read, podcasts that you should listen to and video you might like to watch etc.

Week 1:

Everyone should now have a copy of the Course Summary and a copy - from Novacopias - of the Reading Portfolio. I hope by now you've read all the Sci Fi texts - that is, the Extracts and the Short story.

1) During the class we looked at how to enrich a story, create atmosphere and convey emotions through the use of more vivid precise vocabulary, especially verbs and nouns, rather than relying on adjectives. I gave you a simple story from a writing textbook to improve on by using the vocabulary provided. We also noted how, despite being a rather weak story, it was at least built around a central image, metaphor or symbol...the coming of Autumn and the changing seasons which reflected events in the story....a character being made redundant but being offered a new job and making a new start.

2) I referred you to the section on Narrative writing in the Guide to Grammar and Writing ...just Google it! Here there is advice on Showing vs. Telling with an extract from George Orwell's essay Shooting an Elephant. This also illustrates the technique of controlling time and pace, for example slowing down the pace when describing events that happen quickly.
The site author also stresses the importance of making a point with a story - not leaving the reader thinking "So what?" This is followed by a short story The Sacred Grove of Oshogbo for which I have prepared a worksheet if you're interested.

3) I gave you a copy of Show don't Tell writing exercises with an extract from the gothic fantasy Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake.

4) Descriptive writing - Setting the scene. I gave you copies of two similar extracts + a worksheet to compare the style of writing
RAIN: extract from The Mist in the Mirror by Susan Hill
FOG: extract from Bleak House by Charles Dickens
What to note: Showing rather than telling, few adjectives and the use of precise verbs in both; the details and cultural references, especially in Dickens and the use of metaphor in only ONE of the texts and not the other.

5) We discussed the topic of education, teaching and learning via a selection aphorisms/sayings/quotes and looked at the discursive text in Unit 1 of Language Leader. It would be worthwhile searching for other aphorisms on the topic.