“You may not be interested in

strategy but strategy is

interested in you.”

(Leo Trotsky)

“You must first

clearly see a thing

in your mind before

you can do it.”

(Alex Morrison)

“Organising is what

you do before you do

something so that

when you do it, it is not

all mixed up.”

(A.A. Milne)

“It’s not the plan that’s

important, it’s the planning.”

(Graeme Edwards)

GETTING UNDER THE SKIN OF THE SPECIFICATION

KEY QUESTIONS:

Do you know what the

examiner is looking for?

Do you know what an

A* student looks like?

energetic

creative thoughtful

insightful

sophisticated

time efficient

brave

able to write at the speed of light

without having your hand drop off.

accurate

strong voice

interpretative

detailed

engaging

analysis

assured successful

understanding

begins to interpret

explains

perceptive

appropriate

convincing

compelling

relevant

clear

matched

clear

begins to interpret

relevant

explains

understanding

successful

engaging

matched

detailed

perceptive

appropriate

interpretation

analysis

convincing

compelling

assured

A/A*B

WINNING THE MARATHON

Time management model 1:

• 15 minutes to read the three sources

• SECTION A - 1 hour

Q1 (8 marks) 12 minutes




• SECTION B - 1 hour



Time management model 2

SECTION A – READING

Read Source 1 5 minutes







SECTION B - WRITING



LOOKING BACK...

JUNE 2014

GRADE BOUNDARIES:

• A* 57 – 80

• A 52 – 56

• B 47 – 51

• C 42 – 46

What do we learn from

looking at last year’s grade

boundaries?

• We have to achieve just

under ¾ of the marks to get

into the A*... easy!

• 6 out of 8 for Q1-3

• 12 out of 16 for Q4 and Q5

• 16 out of 24 for Q6.

Strategy is everything!

Section A – Question 4

Language comparison:

Analysing language effects

SCRATCH: Spot that language device!

The pairing game!Anaphoric repetition

Paradox

Rhetorical questioning

Personification

Allusion

Understatement

Without a dream,

without faith,

without hope,

there is nothing.

The more I hate

him, the more I

love himHave you ever

wondered how the

stars got in the sky?

Have you ever

wished on a star?

When I was

running late this

morning I

thought, ‘to be

late, or not to be

late; that is the

question.’

Your homework

will rise up and

bite you if you put

it off.

The tornado

made the task of

driving a bit more

difficult.

Results!

anaphoric repetitionWithout a dream, without faith, without hope,

there is nothing.

The more I hate him, the more I love him.

Have you ever wondered how the stars got in

the sky? Have you ever wished on a star?

When I was running late this morning I

thought, ‘to be late, or not to be late; that is

the question.’

Your homework will rise up and bite you if you

put it off.

The tornado made the task of driving a bit

more difficult.understatement

paradox

personification

rhetorical questioning

allusion

Compare the ways in which language is used

for effect in the two texts.

Give some examples and analyse the effects.

16 marks – worth TWICE as much as 1, 2 and 3

Question 4 will ALWAYS be:

Deconstructing the task…

• COMPARE – take examples from one text and directly link (in terms of similarity OR difference) to examples from the other text.

• WAYS – how do the writers achieve what they want to achieve? What techniques do they use?

• EFFECT – how do those examples impact upon the reader?

• EXAMPLES – specific evidence = QUOTATIONS (a specific word or phrase, no more!)

• ANALYSIS – not just simple observations about the techniques used but detailed and perceptive comments.

What do the examiners want?

• ‘full and detailed understanding’

• ‘analysis of how the writers have used

language differently to achieve their effects’

• ‘appropriate quotations … with perceptive

comments’

• ‘focus on comparison and cross-referencing of

language features between the texts’

(June 2014 Mark Scheme)

Where do students go wrong?

• Spending too much time on purpose and audience.

• Merely naming language features.

• Generalised or mundane comments.

• Not going into enough detail about effects.

• Not giving specific examples.

• FAILURE TO COMPARE!

Never under-estimate the power

of the connotation!

‘stumbles from one crisis to another’


of the connotation!

stumbles


of the connotation!

stumblesa sense of action but not

productive, lacking purpose

and direction – clumsy,

awkward, no control, inept

Personification- implies

failure to act

purposefully/productively.

Infers incompetence.

Semantics - implies lack of

control or clumsiness.

Semantic field. No strategy. (Links

with ‘collapsed’ a little later)

onomatopoeic – potential harshness of

the ‘t’ and ‘b’ are softened by the ‘l’.

Lack of power behind the sound.

Writer’s viewpoint is

apparent – feels the

music business no

longer has a

meaningful strategy

The thing about language comparison...

Similarities

Differences

Using the same language feature, with the same effect

Using the same language feature, with different effects

Using different language features and achieving different effects

Using different language features, yet achieving similar effects.

• words and their connotations

• language type – bland, evocative, figurative etc

• techniques – rhetorical questions, assertion etc

• sound quality – alliteration, sibilance, rhyme etc

• semantic fields

The most important thing is...

...to begin comparing straight away!

Both...

Look at Source 1 and 3 together. Using the

chart to help you, make some notes about how

they use language in similar and different ways.

From the B to the A*

Both texts use contrasting language to convey important differences of ideas. Source 1 contrasts the everyday image of ‘ripping out your favourite popstar’s picture ’ with the idea of ‘turning your bedroom into a hall of fame makes you a critic’. The pairing of these two opposites, one informal and the other formal, elevates youthful enthusiasm to expertise.

• Why is it good?

• Add a perceptive comment about HOW the language creates the contrast and WHAT EFFECT it has.

From the B to the A*

Both writers also use exaggerated description for comic effect. In

Source 3, the writer makes fun of herself; Hart tells us that that ‘there aren’t many 6ft 1in Balinese women’ and that the locals were ‘concerned about what exactly the creature being presented in front of them was’. The word ‘presented’ carries connotations of Hart being offered up as a present or sacrifice for the locals whilst ‘creature’ brings into question her humanity.

• Why is it good?

• Add a perceptive comment about HOW the language creates the humour and WHAT EFFECT it has on the reader.

A* exemplar paragraph

Whilst both writers use contrasting and exaggerated language for comic effect, with the simple act of “ripping out your favourite pop star’s picture” and Blu-taking it to your bedroom wall being elevated to a “rite of passage” and Hart jumping up and down with a ‘monkey [in her] cleavage’ both creating strong images in the readers’ minds, it is Hart who, in my opinion, does it better. Perhaps this is because she contrasts her loud and chaotic image with that of ‘bowing worshippers’ in the temple. This phrase carries connotations of calm spirituality and is therefore at great odds with a 6ft 1in British woman having a fight with a monkey. This vivid contrast and the resulting incongruous tone has a lasting impression on the reader.

Break time!

Place your

questions in the

Question Box

at the front of

the auditorium.


Information retrieval and inference:

Reading with real understanding


Explaining thoughts and feelings:

Reading between the lines

The small but important difference between

Questions 1 and 3

Question 1:

Read Source 1. What do you learn/understand about

Steve Lamacq’s views on the music industry and

today’s teenagers?

Question 3:

Read Source 3. Explain some of the thoughts and

feelings Miranda Hart has during her trip to Bali.

implied meanings: reading between the lines

implied feelings: tracking how they develop, shift and change

Moving from the B to the A*

paraphrasing

quoting at great length

offering language analysis

commenting on the

reader’s feelings

making quick assumptions

based on superficial readings

BOTH QUESTIONS:

Detailed engagement with the

subtleties of the text.

Your own developed

interpretation is crucial.

Perceptive comments.

Short, embedded and relevant

quotations that push your

argument forwards.

QUESTION 3:

Explaining and exploring the

subtleties of the writer’s thoughts

and feelings as they shift, develop

and change throughout the piece.

BOTH QUESTIONS:

Clear and accurate

understanding of the texts.

Beginning to interpret but not in

any detail.

Sound comments made but

often quite obvious.

Relevant quotations but only in

support of comments.

QUESTION 3:

Clear explanations of the writer’s

thoughts and feelings.

Question 1:

Read Source 1. What do you learn/understand about Steve

Lamacq’s views on the music industry and today’s teenagers?

OVER TO YOU!

Find 3 parts of the text that you think tell you something about Steve Lamacq’s views on the music industry for today’s teenagers?

HINT:

This may require you to look beneath the surface of the words used.

“Heroes are high maintenance. The larger the

character, the bigger the gamble – and with

sales decreasing, it would take a brave

entrepreneur to risk their whole operation on

someone who could split up a band over the

wrong filling in their sandwich.”

Lamacq’s awareness that the

music industry is more

cautious about spending on

unpredictable characters as

they are less likely to recoup

their money

Aware that such

characters can be

high risk due to big

egos and petty fall

outs

The industry feels

financially insecure

about the very

characters that

Lamacq feels would

turn over a higher

profit

a) Start with what you KNOW

b) Then ask yourself what it IMPLIESThe necessity for a big commitment is

implied as he uses a term often referring

to a domestic partnership – could be

patience as well as funding

Lamacq’s view is that today’s music industry is out of touch with what

fans really want: “The larger the character, the bigger the gamble”,shows the industry’s insecurity about investing in Lamacq’s brand of egotistical hero, but Lamacq feels it is precisely this type of unpredictable ‘hero’ that leads to fans’ obsession and consequent spending. Having said this, he tempers his criticism by acknowledging that due to ‘decreasing sales’ it would take a ‘brave entrepreneur to risk their whole operation’ by launching a band whose members could self-destruct before a profit was made. Nevertheless, Lamacq’sprevalent viewpoint is implied in the statement ‘Heroes are high maintenance’: the industry should nurture its highly strung heroes in the same way a husband or wife nurtures a difficult spouse, emotionally and financially, if they want the partnership to be a success. Thus, we see that Lamacq’s view is that the industry is failing due to not giving the fans what they want.

Blue = embedded quotation

Red = what we imply/learn

Green = the link between the first point and the next.

Notice the

tentative tone!

Question 1: A* exemplar paragraph

Now you try it!

1. Start with what you KNOW for sure.

2. Explain what it IMPLIES or suggests.

3. Make it clear what it is that you therefore LEARN about Mitchell’s views on the ‘health and fitness levels of today’s children’.

4. Provide a LINK to your next comment.

Be

tentative!

Question 3:

Read Source 3. Explain some of the thoughts and feelings Miranda

Hart has about her trip to Bali.

I had never really considered Bali as a holiday destination before. In my backpacking

years, which took me well into my thirties due to a distinct lack of earnings, I feared it.

Mainly because I assumed I would encounter rafts of public-school boys and girls

usually seen on the King’s Road. They would be in Bali on a stopoff as part of their gap

yaaaar. I also feared the activities I might witness or get caught up in. They would

primarily involve the making and wearing of many a beaded necklace (or neckli, if you

will) while downing 25 local beers and thinking it “totes hilaire” that Bunty and Robbo

spent two days in a Balinese hospital with alcohol poisoning. But this year, I had the

opportunity to get away in January for some winter sun and thought: “Come on, Hart,

let’s explore, let’s brave Bali.”

CERTAINLY, when I arrived at my hotel in the southwest of the island — one of the most

unspoilt coastal parts — I was faced with a truly beautiful 180-degree ocean view from

the rather majestic hotel lobby. I love that sense of an endless expanse of sea, so

restful. The hotel, the Anantara Bali Uluwatu Resort and Spa, had all you needed for a

‘collapse after a long year and remain as horizontal as possible’ type of holiday. So

there I was — set to do nothing for a week and “like well chillaxio”, as the King’s Road

posse might say. Perhaps I need to do Bali properly, I thought to myself. Right,

Miranda, it’s time to Eat, Pray, Love.

Question 3:

Read Source 3. Explain some of the thoughts and feelings Miranda

Hart has about her trip to Bali.

I had never really considered Bali as a holiday destination before. In my backpacking

years, which took me well into my thirties due to a distinct lack of earnings, I feared it.

Mainly because I assumed I would encounter rafts of public-school boys and girls

usually seen on the King’s Road. They would be in Bali on a stopoff as part of their

gap yaaaar. I also feared the activities I might witness or get caught up in. They would

primarily involve the making and wearing of many a beaded necklace (or neckli, if you

will) while downing 25 local beers and thinking it “totes hilaire” that Bunty and

Robbo spent two days in a Balinese hospital with alcohol poisoning. But this year, I

had the opportunity to get away in January for some winter sun and thought: “Come

on, Hart, let’s explore, let’s brave Bali.”

CERTAINLY, when I arrived at my hotel in the southwest of the island — one of the most

unspoilt coastal parts — I was faced with a truly beautiful 180-degree ocean view from

the rather majestic hotel lobby. I love that sense of an endless expanse of sea, so

restful. The hotel, the Anantara Bali Uluwatu Resort and Spa, had all you needed for a

‘collapse after a long year and remain as horizontal as possible’ type of holiday. So

there I was — set to do nothing for a week and “like well chillaxio”, as the King’s Road

posse might say. Perhaps I need to do Bali properly, I thought to myself. Right,

Miranda, it’s time to Eat, Pray, Love.

Tracking the writer’s thoughts and

feelings1. Fear ‘I feared it’

2. Out of place ‘public school boys and girls...gap yaaaar’

3. Condescension ‘“totes hilaire”...Bunty and Robbo...alcohol poisoning’

4. Brave ‘“Come on Hart, let’s explore, let’s brave Bali”’

5. In awe of nature ‘endless expanse of sea’

6. Acceptance ‘Perhaps I need to do Bali properly’

7. Idealistic ‘Eat, Pray, Love’

Exemplar response – what’s so good about it?

At first we are told that Miranda Hart has felt afraid about going to Bali ‘since her thirties’. We learn that this is perhaps because she thinks it will be full of the sort of people that she will not get along with or that intimidate her due to their perceived wealth and class. The phrase ‘rafts of public school boys and girls’ gives us the impression that she feels overwhelmed when around them whilst the mimicking of their voices with ‘gap yaaaaar’ suggests she is trying to contain her fear that she is so different by making fun of them instead. This fear of being the outsider then develops into condescension as she describes the sort of silly things this group of people might do in Bali such as making a ‘beaded...neckli’ or getting ‘alcohol poisoning’ and finding that ‘“totes hilaire”’. However, I believe that behind this ironic humour and condescension still lies a deep-seated fear of being judged as not worthy by this sector of society. Nevertheless, she tells us that she still has the strength to turn that fear into bravery when she says ‘let’s explore, let’s brave Bali’.

The moment she arrives at her resort, the previously negative feelings of intimidation are quickly turned into profound feelings of awe at the wonder of nature. The phrase ‘that endless expanse of sea’ tells us that she is deeply affected by her surroundings and is therefore beginning to relax and open up to the opportunity that this holiday might offer her. Furthermore, Hart is surprised to find that she soon considers that ‘perhaps I need to do Bali properly’. This phrase of acceptance is in stark contrast to the self-preserving ironic humour of before. Nevertheless, she still feels the need to protect herself a little as we can see when she references the famous novel ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ which is about an idealistic woman travelling the globe to find herself. I believe this is done ironically so that she can still keep some of her self-protective veneer of humour intact.


Heading, sub-heading and picture links with text:

Writing perceptively about presentation

Getting to grips with presentational devices

• Presentational devices are

features used in addition to

the writing.

• They are not to be viewed as

mere decoration but as

playing a vital role in

enhancing what a writer

wishes to communicate.

• Most non-fiction texts will use

presentational devices to help

the reader understand the

writer’s argument or point of

view.

KEY QUESTION:

What do the presentational

features ADD to the meaning of a

text?

Explain how the headline, sub-headline and

picture are effective and how they link with

the text.

8 marks

The question WILL be:

‘perceptive and detailed’

A – A* criteria:

• presents a detailed explanation and interpretation of what the

picture shows and its effect.

EXAMINER TOP TIPS:

• Move beyond just commenting about colour

• Consider the atmosphere and mood of the image too

• Consider the ‘sound’ of the image (?!) and how it’s created

• Look out for shapes

• Look out for symbolic images

• Think carefully about connotations – go MACRO

Overall, what are the effects and what might have been the writer’s intention?

Effects/Intention?

A* Connotations – MACRO

A Symbolic images

B Shapes

C ‘Sound’

D Atmosphere + mood

E Colour

SCALE OF ACHIEVEMENT

ShapesSymbols

Connotation

MACRO

Atmosphere

Mood

Sound

Explain how the headline, sub-headline and

picture are effective AND how they link with

the text.

8 marks

The question WILL be:

Mixy-matchy time!

Action Man

wilderness

clinging

hapless apprentice

slipped and slid like a baby deer

trepidation and barely

tamped-down panic

the Black Cuillin Traverse, a

2,000-ft high ridge

tied a rope to a rock he’d

jammed into a crevice

SCRATCH: Bells and Horns!

Section A:

What is the examiner is looking for?

Our FIVE TOP TIPS in five minutes

1. In all questions, suggesting more than one interpretation or effect can earn big marks!

2. Question 2: Think outside the box and be creative when exploring the effects of the image and headline – GO MACRO!

3. Question 2: Don’t forget to make links between the image and the text itself. How do they work together?

4. Question 3: Tracking how the thoughts and feelings develop throughout Source 3 is a great way to earn more marks.

5. Question 4: Make sure you are making constant and explicit comparison throughout your response, including the ways in which the language effects are different.

SECTION B – THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCURACY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9lG1rbwlqk&feature=watch_response









http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFTvAF2xAL0&feature=related





A/A*6 of your 16 marks for Q5 and 8 of your 24 for Q6!

• Exactly the same criteria used, whether awarding

out of 6 or 8.

• Uses complex grammatical structures and punctuation with

success;

• Organises writing using sentence demarcation accurately;

• Employs a variety of sentence forms to good effect

including short sentences;

• Shows accuracy in the spelling of words from an ambitious

vocabulary;

• Consistently uses standard English.

PLEASE PUNCTUATE THIS SENTENCE:

a woman without her man is nothing

A woman, without her man, is nothing.

A woman: without her, man is nothing.

PUNCTUATION IS POWERFUL!

RAISE YOUR GRADE INSTANTLY!

The semi-colon

What is a semi-colon?

A small piece of punctuation that looks like this

;( please don’t be scared of me!)

The colon

What is a colon?

a) A part of the stomach

b) A piece of punctuation that looks like this

:

The semi-colon:

Why is it used?

1. To connect two clauses (statements) when they are closely related. The only rule is that the clauses must make sense on their own.

For example:

A* English students work very hard; they are

also very sexy.

2. To separate items in a list when the items are

long phrases and to use a comma might lead

to ambiguity.

For example:

There are lots of things you can to do ensure success

in the exam: try reading lots of practice texts so that

you feel confident handling the texts provided; remember to read the question carefully before you

start; proofread your answers for accuracy,

particularly in Section B.

The colon:

Why is it used?

1. To introduce a list or long quotation.

2. To add emphasis or explanation to a point by

putting it on its own.

For example:

There’s only one way I can describe you: fabulous!

The Humble Comma

• Sometimes a low scoring divider of items in a

simple list;

• But, sometimes as powerful as the semi-colon

and colon for manipulating your reader – also

known as ‘creating effects’.

Delay your most important information to the

end of a sentence for impact

Like this example from the opening of Kafka’s

‘Metamorphosis’:

One morning, on awakening from troubled

dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his

bed, transformed into a monstrous insect.

Punctuation not only leads to readers

understanding your meaning, but feeling it:

For sale: baby shoes; never worn.

Here it deliberately clouds the meaning, thus

creating a powerful impact.

Imagine the senior examiner emails a final judgment

on your script, having been asked for advice on

whether to award a B or an A* for your Hemingway-

esque response.

• The email is hurriedly sent off. Examiners are

busy people so the punctuation is neglected.

Did you achieve A* or not?

• don’t give the candidate an A*

• Don’t give the candidate an A*!

• Don’t! Give the candidate an A*!

STILL NOT CONVINCED ABOUT THE

IMPORTANCE OF ACCURACY?

Why it pays to proofread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFTvAF2xAL0







Lunch time!

Place your

questions in the

Question Box

at the front of

the auditorium.

Section B – Question 5

Inform, Explain or Describe:

Writing succinctly, with flair

Let’s take a look at what’s happened so far...

NOVEMBER 2014

• Your school or college website is asking for contributions from students about

their time at school. Describe a memorable event from your school days and

explain why it has remained unforgettable.

JUNE 2014

• There is going to be a Summer Festival in your area and the organisers are asking

for ideas about what to put on. Write a letter to the organisers which describes

what you would like to include and explains why your ideas would appeal to the

community.

NOVEMBER 2013

• Your local newspaper is to feature the topic ‘Being Outdoors.’ Write a short

article for the paper which describes your experience of the outdoors and

explains the benefits the outdoors can have for you.

GENRE... (AUDIENCE...) PURPOSE... SUBJECT... = GAPS

Where do students

go wrong?

• Misreading the question requirements.

• Presuming the examiners want a dull, standard response!

• Writing far too much.

• Overly anecdotal responses.

• Over-reliance on Source material.

• Weaknesses of sentence structure and demarcation.

• ‘lively and controlled’

• ‘individual and evocative’

• ‘original, personal writing’

• ‘tailored vocabulary choices’

• ‘sentence variety’

• ACCURACY!

What do examiners

want?

A* EXEMPLAR

JUNE 2014

There is going to be a Summer Festival in your area

and the organisers are asking for ideas about what to put

on.

Write a letter to the organisers which describes what

you would like to include and explains why your ideas

would appeal to the community.

Glastonbury, Edinburgh, Glasgow. Birth places of the greatest festivals the world has ever

seen. The collective emotional energy generated by these events is phenomenal – in fact,

it cannot be described; it can only be experienced. With this in mind, let me explain what I

would like to bring to our local community Summer Festival: the emotion, the experience,

the excitement.

Music can do many things. However, above all else, it is universally known as being the

ingredient that brings people together, unites a population in their love of a good melody, a

catchy beat and an opportunity to forget, for one, sublime moment in time, the negativity

of life. So, it is time to think big about our Summer Festival’s headline band! A well-known,

successful name is just the ticket to bring the local community flocking, particularly if that

name appeals to a broad spectrum of ages and interests. Securing a ‘meet and greet the

artist’ event for local competition winners would also add a much needed boost to our

publicity. Add to this, a wide selection of locally-sourced, culturally-driven food and

refreshments, local entertainers and street artists and a good measure of positivity, and

we have the recipe for success!

Let the music play.

Question 5: A*exemplarNB: This is the first half of the exemplar only:

It’s all about establishing

atmosphere!

Make the decision BEFORE

you start writing.

Write an entry for your blog describing a memorable

journey and explaining why it was so unforgettable.

Our journey was one I’ll never forget. As we wound our way through the back streets of London, I knew that my life would never be the same again.

My mind went through the motions again: mirror, signal, manoeuvre. But at that moment, the pedestrian crossing loomed up in front of us.

‘Don’t worry’, soothed the driving examiner. ‘I thought you performed that emergency stop very successfully.’ My heart thumped as I waited to hear the result.

TRIED AND TESTED DEVICES

one word sentence

sounds

senses

light and dark

weather (pathetic fallacy?)

Figurative language:

• simile

• personification

• metaphor

Variety of sentences:

• simple

• compound

• complex

• subordinate openers

Break time!

Section B – Question 6

Persuade or Argue:

Writing precisely and with passion

Let’s take a look at what’s happened so far...

NOVEMBER 2014

• The following statement has appeared in an article on a Lifestyle website: ‘Nobody with any sense would want to live in a dirty, noisy city when they could live on a small island surrounded by fresh air and natural beauty.’ Write an article in reply, which argues your views on the points made in the statement.

JUNE 2014

• The following quotation is from an article in a national newspaper: ‘Young people today have become obsessed with social networking sites which are a bad influence and can take over their lives. These sites should be banned.’ Write an article in reply in which you agree or disagree with the quotation.

NOVEMBER 2013

• ‘Talent shows like The X Factor provide cheap television, gossip and nothing of any value. There are better programmes than these.’ Argue for or against the views expressed in this quotation. Your piece will appear on the entertainment pages of a website.

GENRE... (AUDIENCE...) PURPOSE... SUBJECT... = GAPS

What do the examiners want?

• ‘energy, enthusiasm, fierceness...’

• ‘irony, satire, humour...’

• ‘well-crafted discursive pieces’

• ‘a variety of devices’

• ‘free-flowing natural writing’

• ‘convincing and compelling’

• ‘extensive and ambitious vocabulary’

Nov 2013 Mark Scheme

Nov 2013 Examination report

The art of rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of using language to

communicate effectively and

persuasively, and to exert power over

the listener or reader through this art.

The art of rhetoric is ancient!

It has been studied and honed over

millennia by scholars, monarchs and

politicians alike. Its history stretches

from the Ancient Greeks through great

Kings and Queens and right up to

modern-day politicians.

Plato

Aristotle

Winston Churchill

Barack Obama

Boris Johnson

The Rt Hon Michael Gove

I have a dream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vDWWy4CMhE

The three building blocks of rhetoric:

• Ethos gaining the reader’s trust

• Logos appealing to the reader’s sense of logic

• Pathos appealing to the reader’s emotions

SPEAK to each other!

Say something that

appeals to your

partner’s rhetorical

senses.

‘One size [does indeed] fit all’

“The media are to blame for the glut of

talentless nobodies with dubious morals on our

screens: they make celebrities, millionaires and,

hence, role models of them. It is time it ended.”

Argue FOR this view

in a newspaper article.

Where does it...

a) lay out the problem?

b) identify the solution?

c) provide the evidence?

d) develop the relevance of the problem for society?

e) provide an echo to the proposed solution?

And...

a) Can you count how many tones it adopts?

b) Spot all the devices?

An

A* exemplar

Try out the score card in

your booklets!

There are more than 500 celebrities residing in Britain; or rather five hundred people we treat as celebrities. I know this because I counted every ‘famous’ name cited in the tabloid gossip columns and celebrity magazines for a month. Many of them have absolutely no discernible talent except misbehaving in nightclubs, making quite shockingly bad television or just being monumentally stupid. In our culture, we do not seem to be amazed that celebrity news often makes the headlines, ousting world events. The paparazzi have exacerbated this craze by blurring the line between private citizen and public persona. I say, the time has come to put a stop to it all: let us influence the paparazzi instead of being puppets to the media; let us use our own technology to influence the choices the media puts in front if us, even if it means not clicking when confronted with a photo and caption posing some banal query about a ‘celebrity’s’ latest break up.

There is a circular logic to the cult of celebrity: it has become hard to tell whether the media is simply giving us what we want or if we are blindly consuming the information they give us; but one thing is certain… consumption of media is no small activity in Britain and the US. Through the many media channels now available to us, celebrities come into our home regularly and share parts of our lives with us. They are often with us at dinner, talking to us in the background of our home lives and, sometimes, they tuck us in as we drift off to sleep. When they take on such a powerful role in daily life, we feel connected to them and thus, we want to know about their lives in the same way we would a close friend, even though we have never met them.

Why is this such a problem? Obsession. And with what are we obsessed? Celebrity culture these days is synonymous with alcoholism, drug abuse, adultery, rape, promiscuity and even murder. Search engine rankings consistently show celebrities of dubious character near the top of the list of top search terms. Not only can these rankings elevate the talentless to an A list, like Anoushka, the quite impressively dim and talent-free loser of Big Brother who was greeted like Elton John at a major movie premiere, but they also reflect that an obsession with celebrities can itself distort our own moral priorities. In a three part channel 4 series created by Piers Morgan, a young mother called Holly Daly admitted to spending sixteen hours a day on the internet chatting about boy bands. She once queued seven hours while eight months pregnant to meet One Direction, a duty she considered well worth it because Harry Stiles tossed her a bottle of water when she “became a bit ill”. In spite of her newborn child, she cannot imagine a life not dominated by One Direction: how screwed up is that?

Perhaps our obsession with celebrity culture is an all too human trait. Certainly, our obsession is nothing new and isn’t going anywhere, so perhaps the answer is to use our search engines to obsess about the good, as in morally good, and the truly talented. A bypass is needed to stop the bad blood from circulating into our homes and only we can provide the cure, because the media needs to make money and they do that by giving us what they think we want. So come on! It is time to apply our minds, not our lipsticks. Google the good and Bing the benevolent. That way, maybe, just maybe, by the time our children are our age, the heart of the media, and hence the heart of our homes, will be saturated with the best role models instead of the worst and society will be saved from the brink of a moral cardiac arrest.

Section B:

What is the examiner is looking for?

Our FIVE TOP TIPS in five minutes

1. Don’t even think about handing your exam paper in without having done a thorough accuracy check!

2. Question 5: A focused and succinct response is required for this shorter writing task – keep it to one page of well-crafted writing.

3. Question 6: Those responses that are written with conviction, humour and a strong voice tend to be the most impressive.

4. Question 6: Structure is everything in this piece – make sure each section you write carries its own signature style.

5. Questions 5 and 6: Subtle paragraph links earn big marks.

SCRATCH: Putting it all together!

FINAL MESSAGES• This is the ‘bleep test’ of GCSE

English Language!

• Stick to your timings!

• Read the question and highlight/annotate it to ensure you know what it’s asking you to do.

• Read the three texts VERY carefully before starting any answers and annotate as you go whilst keeping the focus of the question in mind.

• Proof-read all your answers, particularly those for Section B.

• Practice makes perfect...smile when your teacher gives you a practice paper!

The ultimate blooper!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loWFypHb48k

FINAL MESSAGES

And remember...

You want an A* not a B.

So go into that exam as an A* student!

brave

insightful

sophisticated

time efficient

accurate

english language a & a star conference march 2015 (2)

Education

minutes q4

minutes q6

minutes q1

minutes q2

minutes q3

minutes section b writing

sources section

hour q5