Topic: Information structuring

Goals:

• Identify and analsye how nominalisations are used in essays
• Identify and analsye how the passiv voice is used in essays
• Apply these features in a writing task

Lesson Plan

This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

In the first lesson, you looked at how information is organised through discourse structure. In this lesson, you will examine choices of language and register.  

Activity 1

Re-read paragraph 3. Can you find an example of the same word being used in different grammatical roles?

Warmer 

Discuss with a partner: 

• What adverts did you see on the way to school today? What made them memorable?
• What advert have you seen recently that stuck in your mind? Why? 
• What kind of writing and information do we normally see in adverts? 

Activity 1 

In pairs or small groups, read Adverts A and B. Take turns describing each text, and then discuss with your partner: 

Goals: 

• Identify common discourse and register features of advertisements
• Analyse how these features are used to achieve the desired effects 
• Plan, write and evaluate an advert using the same features 

Lesson Plan

Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

Warm-up

What kind of text is an argument or discussion?

What is its purpose?

What makes it different from other texts?

Activity 1

Read the essay on the hand out.

1. What is the topic of the essay? What facts do you learn?

2. What is the author's perspective? How can you tell?

3. How is this text written? What is the tone? Why is it written in this way?

Goals:

• Identify the purpose and tone of encyclopaedia entries
• Analyse the discourse structure and register features
• Produce an encyclopaedia entry using the same techniques

Lesson Plan

Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

Warm up

What kind of text is an encyclopaedia?

What is its purpose?

What makes it different from other texts?

Activity 1

Read the Tiger encyclopaedia entry.

1. What are three facts you learn about tigers?
2. How is this text written? What is the tone? Why is it written in this way?

What three words best describe the tone and style of this text?

In pairs or small groups, explore instances of grammatical foregrounding in Funeral Blues. This could be done by producing an analysis grid, where students examine how a grammatical feature of the text is foregrounded, and most importantly, discuss the potential meaning of the foregrounded feature. How do the instances of foregrounding add to our understanding and enjoyment of the poem?

To get you started, here are a couple of ideas:

Some things I can remember without writing them down. → AnswerI can remember some things without writing them down.

Hardbacks I wouldn’t lend to anyone. → AnswerI wouldn't lend hardbacks to anyone.