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Topic: Analysing purposes and viewpoints

Understanding what writers are saying, why they are saying it and the language tools they use to say it is central to making sense of language, so in this topic we look at how readers can identify purposes and viewpoints. The resources focus on the nuts and bolts of language and how they help to build a bigger picture.

An Introduction to Genre

Lesson Plan

Goals:

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An Introduction to Genre

Activities

Activity 1

Writing is an activity by which we achieve different goals. There are so many different types of text, we give the different types their own names. The names we give to different texts are called genres.

What kind of written or spoken text would you find the following sentences and phrases in? Give an answer for each one.

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Analysing representation - The Da Vinci Code paratext

A lesson analysing representation in an interesting short text

After the acknowledgements and immediately before the main text of the novel, The Da Vinci Code has a short text titled 'Fact' that asserts the accuracy of certain elements of the novel:

Fact:

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Analysing representation in romantic fiction

Lesson plan for Mills and Boon exercise

Goal

  • Use linguistic tools to analyse representation in romantic fiction

    Lesson plan

    Gathering the noun phrases and verbs relating to particular topics in a text can be a good first step in analysing the representation of those topics. This lesson uses blurbs from the Mills & Boon website to discuss how those texts represent gender and how that might suit its readers.

    Give students the blurbs and have them read out.

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    Formal and informal: Activity

    working with register variation

    The concept of register is about the idea of appropriate language, which is shaped by context. Thinking about context is a fundamental part of language analysis, and is a useful 'way in' to exploring language choices and meanings. 

    Being able to vary your register is an important skill.

    In this activity we will start by looking at two real letters. One of them is a personal letter and the other a business letter. You can download them, or read through them here:

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    Genre of Advertisements

    Lesson Plan

    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

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    Genre of Advertisements

    Activities

    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: 

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    Genre of Argument and Discussion 1

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Discuss the tone and purpose of argument and disucssion in essays
    • Identify the discouse structures and organisation features
    • Analyse how grammar contributes to organisation

    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

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    Genre of Argument and Discussion 1

    Activities

    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?

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    Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

    Lesson Plan

    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. 

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    Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

    Activities

    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?

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    Genre of Encyclopaedia Entries

    Lesson Plan

    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

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    Genre of Encyclopaedia Entries

    Activities

    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?

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    Genre of Narratives and Recounts

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Distinguish recounts from narratives
    • Identify the discourse structure and features of register used in narratives
    • Re-order a narrative by following the appropriate 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

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    Genre of Narratives and Recounts

    Activities

    Activity 1

    Today, we're looking at the genre of storytelling. Narratives and recounts are two ways of describing events.

    What do you think is the difference between narratives and recounts?

    Narratives and recounts both relate events that took place in the past and which occur in a logical order.

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    Genre of Newspaper Articles

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Identify and analsye the discourse features of newspaper articles
    • Identify and analsye the register features of newspaper articles
    • Apply these features in writing 

    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

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    Genre of Newspaper Articles

    Activities

    Warmer 

    Discuss with a partner: 

    • What was the last newspaper article you read? What was it about? 
    • Why do people read newspapers and news websites?  
    • What features do we expect to see in a newspaper article? Why are they used? 

    Activity 1

    Read Article A. Discuss the following questions: 

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