Year 13 English Language: Retaking your AS coursework?

If you are a Year 13 Language student retaking your ENGB2 coursework, here’s how the process is going to work:

Step 1

Come to the after school session on Tuesday 15th March from 4.00pm to 7.00pm with a copy of your coursework (printed and available electronically – e.g. attached to an email) and make decisions about how much change your folder from last year requires. (You won’t necessarily need to stay until 7pm, but we’ll be here until then to help out.)

Step 2

Attend a pre-arranged appointment with your teacher and bring your first draft to be discussed. (If you are assigned to work with Mrs Spowage or Miss Carr, these appointments will take place during the day on Thursday 7th April. If you are being supervised by Mr Shovlin, your appointment will take place on Friday 8th April.)

Step 3

Submit your new coursework folder on 20th April for final assessment.

Any questions?

Speak to your Language teacher!

Want to see a couple of impressive leaflet exemplars?

You’ve come to the right place!

We asked students in Year 11 to complete the following (rather tricky) Unit 2-style task:

The charity Age UK – which provides services for people aged 60 and over – wants to encourage older people to make the most of the internet.

Write a leaflet for Age UK in which you give advice to older people on how to get online and use online services (e.g. social networks).

The two exemplars you’ll find below are both very strong pieces indeed – with the language tailored to the target audience effectively, and an appropriate use of the form. There are a few technical errors in each piece which lower their SSPS mark (out of 7), but they’re nevertheless worth a read.

See what you think!

Top Grade Leaflet Exemplars.pdf

Audience positioning

A Level Language students!

Writing about positioning is always a great way to secure high marks for AO3, and the article you’ll find below – by experienced examiner Dan Clayton – is a brilliant dissection of how positioning can work in texts.

You can find the full article – along with plenty of other great stuff – on the emagazine website – full log in details and links here.

Dan Clayton on Positioning and Stance.pdf

Studying Lord of the Flies?

LOTF

Why not treat yourself to these ready-made ringtones?

We’re particularly partial to the first one.

You can download the ringtones by clicking here.

 

Gillette: the best that sexism can get?

Year 12s! Now that you’ve considered whether or not our language is inherently misogynistic, let’s have a look at some advertisements from Gillette – the UK’s number one shaving brand.

Watch the clips below, and then answer the following question in a 200-300 word comment on this post.

What assumptions do the Gillette advertisements make about men and women?

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Is the English language misogynistic?

Right then, Year 12! Following our work on language and sexism, I’d like you to consider to what extent you agree with the following statement:

The English language systematically degrades and devalues women.

Pop your response in a comment on this post. No more than 250 words, please – being succinct is a skill you need to master!

Mr Shovlin

 

 

Grammar Police Promotions: The Results

GP

The results are in!

651 of you attempted our Grammar Police Promotions Test; only 78 of you achieved the pass mark of 10/10 – and of that 78, only 30 managed it on their first attempt!

We will be issuing certificates over the next week to all students who achieved the pass mark on their first attempt. These students are now official Grammar Police Sergeants.

If you weren’t successful this time, do not be disheartened. Below, we’ll discuss the answers to the trickiest questions in the test.

The Tricky Questions

1

Here, the correct answer was the semicolon – as you shouldn’t use a comma to separate two main clauses.

If you’d like to know more about semicolons, look no further.

2

Almost 2/3 of our applicants got this question wrong. The correct answer is ‘bear’.

‘Bare’ can mean not covered or unsupported or basic.

The meaning we needed was tolerate – and for that, we needed the word bear.

3

This was a rather difficult question, and the correct answer was There is a comma splice, which 57.3% of you worked out. Comma splicing is when we join two separate sentences with a comma, when we should be using a full stop or a semicolon.

If you got this one wrong, have a look here for guidance on how to avoid comma splicing.

4

Almost a third of you got this one wrong. We needed the verb affect, and not the noun effect. (Effect can be a verb, but it has a very specific meaning that most people don’t use.) You can find more information on this here.

5

More people got this one wrong than right. We needed the spelling fazed, as to faze means to disturb or unsettle. To phase is to carry out in gradual stages.

Thank you to all of our applicants – regardless of whether or not you’ve been successful this time – and don’t forget to keep an eye out for your next opportunity to join the privileged ranks of the Lutterworth Grammar Police!

 

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Chief Superintendent Shovlin