UNIT 3: “I’d Rather Walk the Plank

UNIT 3: “I’d Rather Walk the Plank”

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Reading and Viewing

1. Comprehension – more practise! 2. Understand and identify various elements relating to style. 3. Answer questions dealing with the writer’s attitude and idiomatic usage. 4. Compare and evaluate a verbal text with a visual text. 5. Evaluate the effectiveness of advertisements by analysing the design, symbolism and logo.

Writing and Presenting

Revise and practise transactional writing genres and formats.

Language Structures

1. Direct and indirect (reported) speech. 2. Sentence structure and analysis.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this unit is to revisit some of the reading and viewing skills and build upon these. There are also further comprehension and visual literacy exercises. The concept of style is further developed and more insight is required in the analysis of advertisements, based on the knowledge candidates already have.

The same reading and discussion of answers apply as before. Writing is a skill that must be practised frequently and consistently, and the only way to remember formats, register and other important aspects of the transactional writing process is to practise regularly. This can be done by reading about issues in the press and writing letters to the editor, writing SMS messages and e-mails occasionally to learn the jargon and format. The format of an e-mail receives little thought usually because you simply fill it in as you go along. Without the computer generating the format, will you remember what is included and where?

Transactional writing relating to the set works is a good way of learning different formats.For example: Harold’s diary entry after meeting Queenie again, a dialogue between James and Mary about her use of morphine, a report on Harold’s trip to visit Queenie. The list is endless once you start exercising your imagination!

The advertisements relating to the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup are worth exploring together before (or after) the candidate writes their paragraph.