SPAG: How many mistakes?! Dear Sir/Madam I am writting you to to give my opinons about the proposed fox cull in my local area. I think its absolutely discusting the way you think you can treat a living creatiure! I dont agree with this proposal and the following letter will share my opinnions. Students will spot mistakes easily – the point being that they need to be extra careful when writing as they all make similar mistakes!

Session 23 Learning Objectives: - understand how to write a formal letter that argues a point of view - revise relevant aspects of DAFOREST

What do you want to achieve today?

Hot topic What do you think the Equality Act (2010) is about? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuIdq_ftQY8

Paper 2 Q5: What form…? - letter - article - text for a leaflet - text of a speech - essay.

Register dial – informal to formal

x3-4 main paragraphs/arguments Task: A cull of urban foxes has been proposed in your local area. Write a letter to your local councillor explaining your views. x1: introduction x3-4 main paragraphs/arguments x1 conclusion

How should my opening paragraph be written? Dear Sir/Madam, I have felt compelled to write this letter to share my views on the recent fox cull proposal, suggested by Northumberland County Council. Outraged, disgusted and concerned: just a few of my feelings about this matter; I intend to detail my views below.

Example paragraph: ‘against’ the cull Foxes are a mysterious and enchanting animal that have graced our towns and cities with their presence; these lovable creatures are bringing life and auburn flashes of colour to our otherwise dull, grey and lifeless urban areas. Only recently, in a local park, I saw a mother and her toddler stop abruptly: they were transfixed by a vixen and two of her cubs. As the fox family passed by, the toddler clearly showed excitement and delight at having experienced such a sight. I firmly believe experiences like this enable children to develop a love and appreciation of wild animals. This is something that your cull would – without doubt – put an end to. Do you still consider your cull to be the correct decision? Range of punctuation accurately Emotive/ambitious/ persuasive vocabulary Persuasive Devices Short sentences for clarity or impact. Complex sentence.

Example paragraph: ‘for’ the cull These animals must be a descendant of the devil himself: they scavenge, they smell and they attack humans (as well as innocent household pets). Statistics from a recent council survey prove that residents under your jurisdiction confirm that foxes are a problem: a huge 87% of residents were in favour of the proposed cull. Last week, my neighbour had her pet rabbit mauled and killed in her back garden. How anybody can say foxes are ‘lovable’ is beyond me. How long before a fox attacks one of our children? Range of punctuation accurately Emotive/ambitious/persuasive vocabulary Persuasive Devices Short sentences for clarity or impact. Complex sentence. You could use this slide as an activity for students to identify the five areas for constructing an excellent paragraph – this way they can consolidate what they’ve just learned from the previous model. If you print in black and white, you can use the slide to check knowledge after the activity.

Example paragraph: conclusion The cull is required. These wild, feral and aggressive animals need their numbers reducing to protect residents in our area. Too many attacks, particularly on infants, have been recorded in the past year. How long are these attacks going to continue, if you – the council – don’t carry out this cull, now? Please consider this letter support for you proposal. Thank you for taking the time to consider the views raised in this letter. Yours sincerely, Range of punctuation accurately Emotive/ambitious/persuasive vocabulary Persuasive Devices Short sentences for clarity or impact. Complex sentence.

What should I include in my letter? Clear viewpoint: either you want the cull of urban foxes, or you don’t; Clear paragraphs linked with connectives; Capital letters, full stops, commas, rhetoric question mark and semi-colons; Accurate spelling; A range of sentence types: simple (short), compound and complex; Vary the opening of your sentences. Ambitious vocabulary: the words ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘sad’, ‘happy’ and ‘then’ are banned! Introduce expectations. Then, use for peer marking criteria.

Assessment Objectives AO5: Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts AO6: you must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

Things to add to your writing to formal writing: Logical cause and effect structures, like ‘If [this]… then this…’/ ‘Because of this … this is the case…’ Modal verbs (that suggest things) – e.g. could be/ might be/ may be/ and qualifiers (that soften things) – e.g. it seems that …/ it appears that …

Assessment: Spoken Language

Plenary: true or false? Persuasive texts tend to use direct address to the reader ‘Writing to argue’ often uses questions (rhetorical or not!) Writing to argue makes frequent use of logical connectives – eg. ‘However’/ ‘Furthermore’/ On the other hand… etc.

Plenary: Independent learning – prepare your spoken presentation for 29th April.