Writing Across Secondary Subjects

Workshop 2: What are the teaching points ?

May 30 2012

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the traditional Custodians of this Land, where the Aboriginal People have performed age-old ceremonies of storytelling, music, dance and celebration.

We acknowledge and pay respect to the Elders past and present, and we acknowledge those of the future, for they will hold the memories, traditions and hopes of Aboriginal Australians.

We must always remember that under the concrete and asphalt this Land is, was, and always will be traditional Aboriginal Land.

Agenda Workshop 29am: Welcome

Revisiting grammar part 1

Grammar part 2: Sentence structure

11am: MORNING TEA Assessing student writing samples

Quality writing – what does it look like?

- how can we support students? 

1pm: LUNCH 

Designing a quality and substantive writing task

What are the

teaching points ?

NounsA noun is a naming word.

A noun is the name of a person, animal, place, thing or feeling.

There are four categories of nouns.

Common (or concrete) nouns – these nouns name the tangible and visible things. Eg sand, chair, boy, town,

house.

Abstract nouns – these nouns name intangible things or ideas. Eg honesty, justice, love, luck, prevention, research.

Proper nouns – these nouns single out individual or particular cases and are therefore capitalised. Eg Rise Bakery, Mr Brown, Sydney Harbour Bridge, England,

David.

Collective nouns – these nouns refer to groups or bodies of people or animals. Eg orchestra, flock, crowd, committee. (Collective nouns need to be identified for grammatical reasons, particularly questions pertaining to agreement.)

PronounsA pronoun is a word that stands instead of a noun or noun phrase/clause. Eg “she” may substitute for “Agatha Christie”, or “this” may substitute for “the camera I have in my hand”.

There are several kinds of pronouns:

Personal – eg she, we, you, them, I (subject), me (object)

Possessive – eg hers, yours, ours, theirs

Reflexive – eg myself, herself, ourselves

Demonstrative – eg this, that, these, those

Indefinite – eg any(one), each, everyone, some(one), none

Interrogative – eg who, which, what, whose, whom

Relative – eg that, who, which, what, whose, whom

Pronouns can only stand for something that is already mentioned and where there is a CLEAR line of reference between the pronoun and the noun or noun phrase/clause it is substituting.

Subject

Every complete sentence must contain a subject and a finite verb.

The subject of a verb is the person or thing (ie noun) which operates the verb:

On Saturday I go to the markets at 6am.

The wholesale business begins much earlier.

The stalls are closed in the afternoon.

The easiest way to locate the subject is to identify the verb and make it the focus of a question:

Who or what goes? (A: I)

Who or what begins? (A: wholesale business)

Who or what are closed? (A: the stalls)

ObjectIt is important to remember that not all sentences require an object, while some sentences have two objects: one direct and one indirect.

Direct objects answer the question what? or who? after the verb.

He baked a pizza for lunch. (What did he bake? A pizza)

The students did their homework. What did they do? Their homework.

They put their father into hospital. Who did they put into hospital? Their father

ArticlesThere are two kinds of articles: the definite article “the” and the indefinite article “a / an”

The prime function of articles is to signal that a noun is to follow sooner or later.

Eg the brown fox

the proverbially quick brown fox

a sports car

an expensive state-of-the-art sports car.

A or AN

A is used before words beginning with a consonant SOUND and AN before words beginning with a vowel SOUND. Therefore it is “an hour” but “a once in a lift time experience”.

AdjectivesAn adjective is a word that describes, defines or evaluates a noun.

Eg a big room, a windowless room, an awful room, a poky room.

An adjective can tell us much about the noun.TYPES OF ADJECTIVES EXAMPLES

DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVE – draw the reader’s attention to particular objects or persons.

this, that, these, those

POSSESSION my, your, his, its, our, their, David’s

QUANTITY – tell “how many”, “how much”, and “in which order”.

one, two , a hundred, first, most, little, both, every, such, no, either, some.

EVALUATIVE – gives the writer’s opinion of the thing in question.

wonderful, funny, horrible, pleasant

FACTUAL – describes something in an objective way in terms of size, shape, age, colour.

long, smooth, purple, sharp-clawed.

Adjectives cont’TYPES OF ADJECTIVES EXAMPLES

COMPARISON – indicates the relative quality of items.

little/less/least, careful/more careful/most careful.

CLASSIFICATION – places the noun into a particular group. They include adjectives indicating nationality, location, origin and/or the material that something is made out of.

washing machine, art lesson, Australian art, plastic shoes.

Adjectives are usually used before the noun (eg the big, red, steam train), but this has not always been the case and we still have expressions such as “his lady fair” and “life eternal”.

Adjectives can also be used after the verb.

Eg. The building is new. I feel uncomfortable. Tim's backpack felt very heavy. Which painting is famous? The storm remained strong for several days.

PrepositionsPrepositions indicate the location or position of something in time or space. The preposition details an object’s physical location or direction, or a more abstract relationship to other things.

The most common prepositions are:about above across after along around as

at before below beside between

by down

for from in into like near of

off on onto over past since till

than through to under until up with/outEnglish also has a number of complex prepositions:

in front of instead of on top of

out of due to in regard to

next to owing to because of

with reference to in accordance with

Noun Groups / Noun Phrases

A noun group can consist of a single noun or pronoun but can be expanded by adding modifying words on either side of the head noun. The example below shows how a common noun (head noun) can be embellished:

those very fine old Greek vases from the site of an ancient temple

premodifiers head postmodifiers

When there are two or more adjectives, their order is from least to most specific, so that the most definitive one (Greek) is closest to the head, and any evaluative ones (fine) are further away.

Adverbs (such as very) come in front of the adjective they modify.

Postmodification (in a noun group) almost always involves prepositional phrases.

However postmodification of a head noun can also involve a non-finite clause or an adjectival clause. (See Sentence structure)

Kinds of VerbsThere are five main kinds of verbs:

Action/doing – describes physical events that can be observed Eg dance, run, climb, wave.

Saying – verbs of communicating Eg whisper, shout, call, said

Thinking – expresses internal, mental thoughts Eg forget, believe, wish, remember

Feeling – expresses internal emotion Eg like, want, hope

Relating – the verb “to be” and the verb “to have” (the most frequently used verb in English) Eg are, is, was, were, am, has, have

Main Verbs & Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs combine with others to make up a verb group and help to indicate (among other things) tense, number and modality.

Auxiliaries complement the main verb. A verb group (compound verb) may contain as many as three auxiliaries, as well as the main verb.

Eg was/were added

was/were being added

had been added

might have been added

is/are added

is/are being added

probably will be added / probably won’t be added

could be added

First, Second, Third Person

The concept of person separates the person speaking (first person), the one spoken to (second person), and the one spoken about (third person). These differences can be seen in the personal pronouns.

Singular Plural

Subject Object Possession

Subject Object Possession

First person

I me my mine

we us our ours

Second person

you you your yours

you you your yours

Third person

hesheit

Tim

himherit

Tim

hishersits

Tim’s

theywhales

themwhales

their theirs

whales’

Subject-Verb AgreementAgreement means that a verb agrees with its subject in person and in number.

With simple regular verbs, differences in the verb form only occur in the present tense and only when using third person singular and shown by adding s.

Eg I (you, we, they, children) often walk home.

She (he, it, David) often walks home

In compound verbs that use the verb “to be” or “to have”, the verb changes for first person singular and plural as well as third person singular and plural

Eg I am walking home. I have worked there.

We are walking home. We have worked there.

She is walking home. She has worked there.

They are walking home. They have worked ther e.

TenseTense is another reason that verbs change form. Tense tells us when an action takes place – past, present or future. However, there are four ways to construct each of these tenses.

See the table on the next page for examples.

Infinitives

The basic nonfinite form of the verb is the infinitive. Generally the infinitive is signalled by “to-” eg to ask, to go, to decide.

When the infinitive combines with auxiliary verbs to form a verb group, the sentence becomes finite.

eg I wanted to ask a question.

Jane would like to have gone to the party.

It was too late to decide on the matter.

If the infinitive is not combined with a primary auxiliary, it becomes a dependent non-finite clause and must be joined to an independent clause for the sentence to be successful.

ParticiplesParticiples, like the infinitive, are also nonfinite forms of the verb. English has two forms of participles for regular verbs:

1) words ending in “-ing” and,

2) words ending in “-ed”.

However irregular participles may end in “-en” or “-n” or may have a change of stem vowel for others.

Eg rolling taking blowingringingrolled taken blown rung

As with the infinitive, when a participle combines with auxiliary verbs to form a verb group, the sentence becomes finite.

Eg I was rolling down the hill. (past tense) I am rolling down the hill.

(present tense) I will be rolling down the down. (future tense)

These holidays will be remembered forever.

Adverbs / AdverbialsAdverbs are the most varied class of English words, with a variety of syntactic roles. Adverbs can do much more than modify (add information to the meaning of) verbs.

Adverbials can be an adverb or an adverbial phrase

Adverbials can modify verbs by specifying the time or place of an action, or the manner or conditions in which it was performed. Adverbs of extent (degree) can modify verbs, adverbs or adjectives.

TIME – when? Eg. tonight soon then yesterday before lunch

TIME – how long? Eg. forever overnight until noon for a week

TIME – how often? Eg. twice never in the evenings

PLACE – where? Eg. here downtown upstairs under the chair

MANNER – in what way? Eg thoughtfully quickly well without trying

MANNER – by what means? Eg thereby with a broom by car

MANNER – like what? Eg similarly differently in comparison

CAUSE – why? Eg thereforeconsequently because of bad weather

EXTENT – to what degree? Eg. largely partly totally

Adverbials can have the effect of either softening or intensifying the words they modify:

DOWNTONERS fairly rather somewhat

INTENSIFIERS extremely most so

Adverbs modify…

* Verbs

sang sweetly arrived late stepped sideways

* Adjectives

very bracing too sunny nearly impossible

* Other adverbs

rather soon most diligently quiet brilliantly

Where to place the adverb

As a general rule, place the adverb where it sounds best in the sentence:

The cat stealthily advanced on the bird.

or The cat advanced stealthily on the bird.

or Stealthily the cat advanced on the bird.

or The cat advanced on the bird stealthily.

But do not place an adverb between the parts of an infinitive if there is a satisfactory alternative:

The cat tried to advance stealthily.

rather than

the cat tried to stealthily advance.

Where to place the adverb cont’

Even though the previous examples illustrate that a writer has some choice as to where to place an adverb in a sentence, there are instances when this affects the meaning of the sentence.

Eg He caught a surprisingly bad cold. (modifying bad)

He surprisingly caught a bad cold. (modifying caught)

He, surprisingly, caught a bad cold. (parenthetic-comment on he)

ConjunctionsConjunctions are cohesive devices that operate within sentences. They may join words, phrases or clauses. Conjunctions are always placed at the beginning of the clause. There are two types of conjunctions:

1) Coordinate conjunctions

2) Subordinate conjunctions

Coordinate ConjunctionsCoordinate conjunctions are used to link two words, phrases or independent clauses together. There are only a limited number of coordinate conjunctions:

and, but, or, nor, [and] so

bread and butter (words) over the hills and far way (phrases)

My mother laughed but I cried (clauses)

Subordinate ConjunctionsSubordinate conjunctions link dependent and independent clauses. Complex subordinate conjunctions are made up of more than one word. Different types of conjunctions are used to express different types of relationships between ideas. For example:

PLACE where, wherever

TIME after, since, whenever, before

MANNER as, by, like

CAUSE because, as, so that, in order to

CONDITION if, unless, in case

CONCESSION although, despite, while, since

Conjunctions and Connectives

Connectives and conjunctions perform very similar functions.

Conjunctions, however, only operate within a sentence.

Connectives, on the other hand, form links between sentences and other longer stretches of text. While conjunctions are at the beginning of a clause, connectives can be freely placed at various positions within the sentence.

Karratha was planned as a mining town in 1968 to help house the work force of a mining company. Roebourne, on the other hand, was founded in 1866 as a service centre for the pastoral and pearling industries.

ModalityModality is a term used to describe a range of grammatical resources which express the degree of probability or obligation.

While modality can be expressed using nouns, adjectives and adverbs, modality is more commonly expressed using modal verbs.

A modal auxiliary verb is used in conjunction with a main verb

If we are tentative about doing something we can use low modality. Eg I might go.

He could be angry.

You may want to look into it.

If we have a high degree of certainty, we can use high modality . Eg I must go.

He will be angry.

You ought to look into it.

ModalityHere is a list of more modal auxiliary verbs.

HIGH MODALITY(certainty)

MEDIUM MODALITY

LOW MODALITY(uncertainty)

mustought to

willhas to

shouldcan

need to

maymightcouldwould

Other examples of modal devices include:

Modal adverbs: possibly, probably, perhaps, maybe, rarely always, never, sometimes, naturally, often certainly, definitely, usually, seldom

Modal nouns: possibility, probability, obligation, necessity, requirement

Modal adjectives certain, possible, probable, obligatory, determined, necessary, required

Modality cline/ continuum

Sample modality continuum: Degrees of assertiveness

It must be It will be It may be

It must certainly be It will probably be It may possibly be

It must always be It will usually be It may sometimes be

High modality Low modality

Examples of ModalityRunning will be good exercise. (Modal auxiliary)

Perhaps we might travel next year. (Modal adverb + modal auxiliary)

It is probable that he will be late. (Modal adjective + modal auxiliary)

It is a possibility that he could be late. (Noun and modal auxiliary)

In dialogue, modality is often used to make speech realistic and characters seem authentic. For example: “You must go for a bushwalk,” Mum insisted. “You might like it even better than watching television,” she added.

In writing, modality indicates degree or qualification of a writer’s perspective and, as such, modalities of probability are more effective. For example: Dan wondered if he might be able to avoid his mother’s demands. He could possibly pretend that he hadn’t heard her. She was definitely becoming more absent-minded lately, so she probably wouldn’t pursue the matter.

It is perhaps necessary to.. It is sometimes important to.. Maybe not everyone should… We will hopefully come to accept.. It is quite probable that… It is possible that… It is usually the case that.. They often need to… It would be dangerous to…

It is impossible to… It is really important that… We ought to finish… We must certainly attempt to… It is totally clear that… It is definitely time to… It is impossible to feel… It is not impossible that… It is necessary that all of us….

Simple Modality Terms

There is a possibility that… We should probably all.. It is possible only a few Evidently, … One can reasonably state that… It is likely that…. It is highly unlikely that… Hardly any cases exist of… It is typically stated that… It is often maintained that… It is readily accepted that… Scarcely any birds… These timid animals seldom venture forth… No species has ever survived…They should be prevented from…

They ought to be stopped from… It is obvious that… It is outrageous that… It is essential that… It is vital that… It is crucial that… It is completely unacceptable that… It is extremely advisable that.. It cannot be denied that… X was a vital/crucial invention which changed science forever. X was a highly significant discovery which improved medicine to an immeasurable extent.

More Sophisticated Modality Terms

ModalityConsider the effects:

• The proposed shopping centre will certainly lead to increased traffic congestion.

• The proposed shopping centre will probably lead to increased traffic congestion.

• The proposed shopping centre could lead to increased traffic congestion.

• The proposed shopping centre might lead to increased traffic congestion.

Passive Voice

Passive voice is when the subject of the verb undergoes the process or action rather than being the active participant.

Example: The dog bit me. (Active voice)

I was bitten by the dog. (Passive voice)

Because active voice plays down the agent (or makes it invisible), it is not the stuff of lively narrative. Yet in many instances it is very useful, particularly in its agentless form (without the by phrase), because it avoids saying who is responsible for the situation.

Example: The employment of staff with less than six months service will be terminated. (by ???)

We, the senior management, will terminate the employment of staff with less than six months service. (Active voice)

Cohesion:Word Chains

A word chain is a series of different nouns/noun groups or verb/verb groups that link a text together by describing the same content. A word chain can also be achieved by repetition of the same word.

On the next two slides 3 sets of word chains have been identified.

1) Nouns and noun groups forming word chains for ‘bags’ are bolded and highlighted in pink.

2) Nouns and noun groups forming word chains for ‘supermarkets’ are underlined and highlighted in green.

3) Verbs and verb groups forming word chains that present the view of plastic bags being harmful are italicised and highlighted in yellow.

Can consumers kick their plastic bag habit?

Each year Australians throw away six billion plastic bags. That’s 12,000 bags a minute, most discarded after one use.

The bags clog waterways and kill thousands of sea birds, sea mammals and fish each year. Turtles, dolphins and killer whales mistake them for jellyfish and die of intestinal blockage.

Bags contaminate kerbside recycling, can hang around for up to 1,000 years, and cause problems for landfill.

For years there has been debate but little action. The big supermarket chains say they are making headway: Coles staff are now supposed to ask customers if they need a bag. The company has designed calico bags, and tried box systems.

But according to the industry’s own code of practice for supermarket bags, we have been going backwards. The supermarkets promised to increase the items in a bag, but last year 4.21 units were packed into the average plastic bag, which can take eight units. In 2000 that figure was 4.48 units.

Surveys by Clean Up Australia show that about 70 per cent of consumers worry that plastic bags harm the environment. Coles and Woolworths each spend $20 million – roughly a cent a bag – on plastic bags every year.

Critics say it costs supermarkets more in checkout time if customers use their own bags, but the supermarkets disagree. Would a levy on bags hurt the plastics industry? While there would be some loss of business, supermarkets get 80 per cent of their bags from places such as South-East Asia.

Cameron McDonald, a sales and marketing manager with the Andrew Kohn company, which supplies plastic bags to Coles, said the community was worried about the single-use checkout bag and his company was ready to respond. “We don’t have an emotional bond to the survival of the checkout bag,” he said.

There are alternatives. One is the biodegradable plastic bag, which has cobalt in it. The cobalt breaks down the plastic within one and three years. Another is corn starch bags that biodegrade in four to six weeks.

Former Olympian Ron Clarke, now president of the Council for Encouragement of Philanthropy in Australia, proposes a sliding scale of levies: five cents for corn starch bags, 10 for the longer-term biodegradable bags, 15 for plastic bags. But “zero waste is what we should be aiming for.”

CohesionThe control of multiple threads and relationships across the text, achieved through the use of referring words, ellipses, text connectives, substitutions and word associations.

Grammatical elements:

• pronoun referencing

• connectives- time

- cause

- addition

- contrast

• use of conjunctions to join clauses

- additive (and); contrastive (but ) & time (then)

- causal ( so, because, consequently)

CohesionPronouns

Instead of constantly repeating a noun or noun group we replace it with a pronoun:

Joe ran around the school in a panic. He was lost.

The magpie would not stop pecking at my boots. This was beginning to worry me.

The magicians had convinced themselves that they were invincible.

CohesionConjunctions and connectives are cohesive devices that operate within and between sentences. Different types of conjunctions are used to express different types of relationships between ideas.

CohesionSubstitutions – using ‘all purpose’ words to replace verb or noun groupsReplacing a verb eg I told him to leave. And he did. Repacing a noun eg I’ve two umbrellas. Would you like one?Replacing a clause eg She was very tired. Yes, I thought so.

Ellipsis – omission of words that repeat what has gone before;these items are simply understood

eg The project will be innovative. To be involved will be exciting. (Ellipsed in the second sentence: in the project)

Word sets – class and sub-class, or whole and part clusters of words eg services/army; marsupial/possum.

CohesionAntonyms - words opposite in meaning to provide contrast

Synonyms - words with similar meaning

Repetition – certain words are repeated

Collocation - words that typically occur together eg river, bank, water, reflection, pebbles; salt and pepper

Nominalisation

• the process of forming a noun or a noun group from a verb or clause• the agent is removed so the writing becomes more objective, compact and abstract• e.g destroy becomes destruction

people who develop land for profit becomes developers

Nominalisation of a verb: eg Water vapour condenses when the air temperature is reduced. Condensation results from a reduction in air temperature.

Nominalisation of a clause: eg Students like using mobile phones so they spend too much money on them. The popularity of mobile phones has led to unnecessary expense. University students rioted and looted stores. Rioters looted stores.

Nominalisation

Forming nominalisations

Nominalisations can be formed by adding a suffix to a verb

• Frustrate/frustration (suffix –tion)• Argue/argument (suffix –ment)• Propose/proposal (suffix –al)

Nominalise these sentences:

She encouraged the cast and they performed brilliantly.

After the Romans settled Britain many roads were built.

Nominalisation

She encouraged the cast and they performed brilliantly.

Her encouragement of the cast resulted in a brilliant performance.

After the Romans settled Britain, many roads were built.

After Roman settlement of Britain, construction of roads commenced.