Introduction to National 5 English

MAY-JUNE 2020

Welcome to National 5 English! While the school closures mean that your time in S3 is being cut short, you have the advantage of an additional month of National 5 teaching for all your subjects and the intention of the work we are setting is to give you a solid start at some of the basic skills you will need for success at National 5 English.

Course Overview

The National 5 course is made up of an exam (worth 70% of the overall course award) and a folio of writing (worth 30% of the overall course award).

EXAM (May exam - 2021)

Paper 1 – Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation (1 hour, 30 marks) Paper 2 – Critical Reading - Scottish Set Text and Critical Essay (1.5 hours, 40 marks)

FOLIO (two essays completed over time – submitted in March 2021)

Broadly Creative – creative/reflective/personal (1,000 words, 15 marks) Broadly Discursive – persuasive/discursive/informative (1,000 words, 15 marks)

Our intention is to use the time to prepare for the following in relation to course outcomes

1. Folio work – you will be asked to produce the first draft of a broadly discursive folio piece – with a departmental deadline of MONDAY 15TH OF JUNE

2. Unseen Newspaper Analysis for Paper 1– this will help prepare you for the RUAE paper of the exam and will introduce you to a weekly homework task you will be expected to complete throughout National 5

3. Preparatory reading of class texts for Paper 2 - this will vary by class teacher, but you will be advised to read/watch class texts that you will be studying after the Summer when school resumes

For National 5, you are timetabled to be in English 4 X 50 minute blocks in a week. You will not be expected to follow your exact timetable during this time of school closures, but we would expect you to be spending around 3-4 hours a week on the suggested activities to make the most of this additional time. We suggest you divide your time up in the following way-

Folio work (Persuasive Essay) Half of the time (2 out of four blocks)Unseen Newspaper analysis Quarter of the time (1 out of four blocks)Preparatory reading of class texts Quarter of the time (1 out of four blocks)

This is not exact and is a suggestion of how time should be spent – it’s ok if you don’t stick to this rigidly.

Persuasive Writing work……………………………………………………………..….pages 3 to 27

Newspaper Analysis work ………………………………………………………………pages 28 to 47

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THE ROYAL HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH DEPT

PERSUASIVE WRITING UNIT N5

For this unit of work you will:

Research a topic for your persuasive essay using different sources

Make notes from your different sources to prepare for your essay

Learn about persuasive techniques

PUPIL NAME_________________________________ TEACHER___________________________

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CHOOSING YOUR TOPIC

You need to choose a topic that interests you and will provide sufficient depth for N5.You need to ensure that it lends itself to persuasive writing.You need to be passionate about the issue!This website may provide you with further ideas: http://www.debatingmatters.com

MY TOPIC IS_____________________________________________________________________

Possible Topics:Issues related to…

morality religion science technology

health environment equality

politics human / animal rights economy

third world arts/culture poverty law

corporate power entertainment crime the media …The list is endless!

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MY RESEARCH LOG

YOU MUST RECORD THE FULL DETAILS OF EACH SOURCE YOU CONSULT AS YOU WILL NEED TO INCLUDE A SOURCE LIST AT THE END OF YOUR ESSAY Internet: FULL web address eg http://www.patient.co.uk/health/pregnancy-and-smokingBooks: Title, author, publisher, date of publicationNewspaper/magazine: title of magazine, date of publication, author (if known)TV/radio: title of programme, channel, date

DATE SOURCE COMMENT

12/05/17 www.farminguk.co.uk/costingtheearthThis was really useful. The section on organic crops helped me understand the costs to farmers and why food might be more expensive. This site might be biased since it seems to be written by farmers and landowners.

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Use the following pages for notes IN YOUR OWN WORDS. We have included pages for a minimum of four sources, although you may find you have to use more. If so, use additional pages. Research happens in stages. You find out facts, think about and organise the information, then go back to researching if you find you don’t have enough or need to check something is true. You might find that once you have decided on your final essay heading (see page 17) that you have to go back and do additional research.

SOURCE 1Exact location:__________________________________________________________

Notes

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SOURCE 2Exact location:____________________________________________________________

Notes

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SOURCE 3

Exact location:____________________________________________________________

Notes

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SOURCE 4Exact location:_______________________________________________________________

Notes

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YOU ARE NOW READY TO START PLANNING YOUR PERSUASIVE

ESSAY!

You should have researched your topic and have a clear opinion about what you are going to

try to get your reader to believe or do. Remember the purpose of a Persuasive essay is to

PERSUADE!

The first stage is to write a clear statement:

I am trying to persuade my reader…….

Here are some examples:

I am trying to persuade my reader that if you really care about animal welfare you need to

become vegan.

I am trying to persuade my reader to stop using straws in restaurants.

I am trying to persuade my reader that schools should have a period of PE every day for all

pupils.

I am trying to persuade my readers that the mobile phone is the most dangerous invention

of recent times.

Only when you have decided exactly what your purpose

is can you go on to the next stage of

planning and writing.

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The next stage in planning is to decide what the main points in your essay will be. You

should aim for between 3-5 separate points.

These will be the points that back up your statement. These points also need to be

supported with EVIDENCE.

EXAMPLE:

I am trying to persuade my reader that if you really care about animal welfare you need to

become vegan.

Point 1 – Conditions for animals in dairy and poultry farming are terrible. (Cost to animals

of producing milk and cheese)

Point 2 – Health benefits of cutting down on dairy, eggs and meat.

Point 3 – Veganism helps to cut down on the demand for animal testing on cosmetics,

shampoos etc

You need to know what your key points are BEFORE you plan your essay.

MY MAIN POINTS

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USE OF RHETORICAL DEVICES

At this point in the unit you should be thinking about what persuasive techniques you might

use in your essay.

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Below is a list of some of these techniques. Decide which ones you would like to use and

write some example sentences next to the technique that you could use in your essay. This

exercise is designed to get you thinking about how to be persuasive – you will want to use

more examples in your actual essay! If you know of other techniques, you can add these.

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE -

TRIPLES (Power of 3) -

OPINIONS AS FACTS -

SUPERLATIVES –

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE –

PRONOUNS –

FLATTERY –

RHETORICAL QUESTIONS –

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Planning Your Essay : The Introduction

The opening sentence should hook the reader. Try using a shocking statistic, fact or statement to get them interested. Remember, persuasive techniques make your essay more appealing.

Outline your argument and make your stance clear. Briefly summarise your points of argument.

Suggestions on How to Begin Your Persuasive Essay

Here are some options illustrated for the topic of fast food.

1 Use a provocative statement.

Scotland is fast becoming a nation of people who will soon be too obese and too lazy to waddle to MacDonald’s for their daily dose of fat.

2 State neutrally what the controversy is about.

While children are lured to Fast Food outlets by the colourful appearance of the restaurants and theappetising smell of their products, nutritionists have expressed concern about what they see as an unhealthy diet.

3 Summarise the views in a balanced way.

It is difficult to balance the increasing popularity of fast food outlets with the heavy criticisms which are made about them by medical and nutritional experts.

4 Use a quote from an expert.

“There is nothing inevitable about the fast food nation that surrounds us – about its marketingstrategies, labour policies, and agricultural techniques, about its relentless drive for conformityand cheapness.” Such is the claim made by Eric Scholsser, author of Fast Food Nation.

5 Use an illustration/description to create a picture.

John grins with delight as his mother emerges from the car carrying the tell-tale MacDonald‛s bag. Succulent cheeseburgers, crispy chips, ice-cold Cola – everything a boy could want. His elderly neighbour casts a critical eye over the proceedings, thinking of the food of her childhood: wholesome home-made soups and fresh garden vegetables and no sweets.

6 Use an attention grabbing fact/statistic

Scottish health workers warned a year ago that 25% of P1 pupils had a Body Mass Index above the level which was deemed to be healthy.

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Write your draft introduction below:

Planning Your Essay : Main Paragraphs

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Plan the rest of the structure of your essay.

Write the topic sentences for each paragraph.

Bullet point the detail you will include.

Example:Main Paragraph 1Topic sentence:Hospitals cannot provide the best standards of care today due to vicious cuts in National Health Service funding.

Not enough staff to care for patients’ needs – e.g. elderly patients not able to feed themselves left with no help; food taken away later uneaten. Example of Freda Wilson.

Overworked, exhausted staff who cannot perform to their best ability – human error. Example of case at Good Hope Hospital, Birmingham. Lethal dose.

Patients left waiting on trolleys for hours because beds are not available. Figures from survey.

Use the following pages to write a DETAILED plan for your essay.Main Paragraph 1 Topic Sentence:

Bullet point your ideas and evidence below:

Main Paragraph 2 Topic Sentence:

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Bullet point your ideas and evidence below:

Main Paragraph 3 Topic Sentence:

Bullet point your ideas and evidence below:

Main Paragraph 4 Topic Sentence:

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Bullet point your ideas and evidence below:

Main Paragraph 5 Topic Sentence:

Bullet point your ideas and evidence below:

Planning Your Essay : Conclusion

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Write an effective conclusion.

You should now be ready to write your first draft. This should be submitted to your class teacher by Monday 15 th of June. You should aim for a minimum of 800 words and a maximum of 1000.

See below for some examples to help you get started

Sample Introductions

This should take the following format:

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Open with a quotation/statistic/statement about your chosen topic Discuss why your topic is controversial (if you struggle with this part, maybe it’s the wrong topic!) Indicate in some way whether or not this will be discursive or persuasive

Fracking is extortionate, filthy and a temporary attempt to increase oil and gas security in Scotland. It is dragging us down the wrong route when we should be reducing unsustainable energy consumption, not seeking out more to burn. Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" for short is an extreme form of fossil fuel extraction targeting shale rock in order to recover shale oil and gas. This technique involves drilling into the Earth to form thousands of wells over hundreds of square miles before a high pressure, toxic mixture of water, chemicals and sand is fired at the rock to release the gas inside. What are the effects of this ridiculous struggle to suck the planet dry? And what will the people of Scotland be left to deal with if this goes ahead, and long after it is over? The first thing many of us teenagers do when we wake up is check our phones. Whether it's to scroll through our Twitter feeds, keep up with our snapchat streaks or to reply to our friends who we will see in an hour at school, our natural instinct is to feel around on our messy, unorganised bedside table for that cool, reassuring object that has been a hive of activity during the night. It's hard to imagine a world where iPhones and social media did not exist, where 16 year olds 50 years ago had to read the paper to be informed or play outside to entertain themselves. How utterly awful for them. With this in mind, should modern teenagers be able to own smartphones?

Sample Point Paragraphs

These should take the following structure:

Point Evidence Explain

Fracking will also affect the health of the environment. The UK has a target to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and fracking is completely incompatible with this. The process of fracking causes large amounts of methane emissions and methane is a vigorous greenhouse gas. Methane will be seeping out of pipelines, wells and compressor stations and could potentially add up to 10 percent of the total production. This causes fracking to have a worse effect on climate change than burning coal over a 20-year time scale. Britain should be guiding the world into using renewable energy, not planning to extract more fossil fuels that are inaccessible.

Having a mobile phone, believe it or not, can have a dangerous impact on a teenager’s health. A survey of 2750 11-18 year olds found that 45% of young people are checking their phones during the night. Checking your phone at night affects sleep, as backlights can be bright and trick the brain into thinking it’s daytime which stops the release of melatonin (this

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hormone encourages sleep). If we look closely at this statistic, we can understand that it means 45% of kids are dragging themselves into school in the morning, having had a disrupted sleep and feeling too drowsy to even think about concentrating on their classes. How is that healthy? It is not only unhealthy but it is also ridiculously stupid to assume that teenagers, who enjoy pushing the boundaries at it is, can resist the temptation of going on their phones when they are not supposed to.

Sample Conclusions

This should take the following format:

A final statement regarding the topic A recap of the points made A suggestion of possible solutions to this problem

e.g. Fracking could cost you your health, home and environment. There is no way around the consequences of fracking. There is too much evidence screaming at us, warning us not to fight a battle against our planet because we will not win. Fracking is coming for Scotland and we cannot let it ruin our country. There may still be flaws in renewable energy but we need to stay focused on making this work because in the end, it is the only sustainable option we have. Fracking may buy us time, but are the health consequences to us and our environment worth the economic benefits?

Social media, technology and smartphones are evolving all the time, which is exciting, and everyone should have the chance to enjoy the benefits. However, we must think carefully about the effects they have on each new generation. Parents and educators need to put their heads together and think seriously about the impact that smartphones may be having on young people. Technology has given us power but it is important to remember, that with great power, comes great responsibility.

Example Essay One

Learning a Second Language Should Be Compulsory for Pupils up to the age of 16 in Britain

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British people are notorious for their unsatisfactory modern languages skills, but why is this? Many people who have grown up in Britain with English as their first language seem to have adopted the mindset that they don’t need to learn a second language because ‘everyone else speaks English’. Although, this is true to a certain extent. As 62% of Britain cannot speak another language at all, up to 70% of people in nearby countries like Luxembourg, Holland and Sweden can speak another language, more specifically, English. Being able to speak and understand another language has many benefits to a person’s career and character. In spite of this, there have been serious declines in the number of students studying languages at exam levels, which brings around the question; should learning a second language be compulsory for British students at their A levels or Highers?

A qualification in a foreign language can introduce new opportunities and help boost your career. In fact, it is estimated that a language can help you earn 10-15% more than your current salary. A language does not only look impressive on a CV and show that you are a good communicator, but it is also the foundation for many rewarding degrees such as Law, Politics or English which can expand to a joint degree with a language. Although, you do not need to continue studying a language as part of a degree at university to be eligible for job roles where a second language may be useful. As industries like engineering and technology are expanding day by day, more companies are looking to connect with new contacts worldwide. This gives the opportunity to work with millions more people and boost business even further. Even though you may not be fluent in the language, knowing necessary vocabulary prevents documents from having to be translated many times, which takes longer than it needs to be.

Despite many not seeing the use of another language, there are actually many hidden benefits to the health and mind. For example, researchers have found that speaking two to three languages delays the chance of three types of dementia. In the experiment conducted, participants who spoke two languages were able to reduce their chance of getting vascular/frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease by four and half years. Not only does learning another language prevent these illnesses but it can also improve mental skills like multitasking and your memory. Studies have shown that students learning a second language find it easier to focus on their work and ignore any distractions. As language students are constantly switching between two or more systems of writing, speech and structure, their minds become more skilled at balancing and constantly changing from the languages. This makes them better at multitasking because they’re used to thinking about and doing several things at once. These skills are essential for students to have in school as they will immensely benefit their learning in other classes and help improve overall work ethic.

Although many students see learning languages as an academic obligation, they will immensely benefit from the social advantages. Studies conducted by the Department of Psychology at Illinois State University have found that students who are learning another language or are bilingual, perform better on standardised tests. So on average, students learning a second language tend to be smarter than monolingual students. Jonay Suárez, Head of Marketing at Wibbu, believes that speaking another language makes us more confident. Once a student becomes confident in their school years, they will continue to utilise this skill into their career and adult years. Suárez says that when you feel yourself

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progressing in a language and reach your goals, you become more self-assured and will keep learning, continuing to gain and improve more skills.

When it comes to learning languages, not everybody agrees with Jonah Suárez. Some believe learning languages is a waste of time and it won’t benefit your career as most of the world’s professionals already speak an adequate amount of English. This mindset has been projected onto many native speakers of English and can be seen today by looking at the amount of students studying languages today. The numbers have been firmly declining, especially in the number of students taking a GCSE language course. An analysis conducted by the BBC show that, in England, there has been drops between 30 and 50 percent since 2013. The results they received from English Schools are also comparable with Scottish and Welsh schools. In Scotland since 2014, the study shows that there was a 19% decline in National 4 and 5 language entries and in Wales entries for a language at GCSE have dropped by 29%. When it comes to working with world professionals, it is too risky to rely on everyone else to know an adequate amount of English. It is clearly a much safer decision for everyone to know a sufficient amount of the language they may be communicating in.

Regardless of British people’s beliefs that the rest of the world are practically fluent in English, or are expected to be, learning languages is now more vital than ever- due to business expansion and mental or social benefits. With Britain leaving the EU, language skills are essential for helping trade deals and businesses. With many British students not being shown the countless advantages of multilingualism and numbers of students taking languages constantly in decline, now is a better time than ever to improve our language education system. Students should be taught languages at a younger age and be required to continue learning it, with the possibly of taking up another, until they have the sufficient skills to enhance their future education or career and benefit first hand in their life from the advantages.

957 words

Bibliography:https://www.theguardian.com/money/2010/aug/28/learning-foreign-language-boost-careerhttps://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/09/learning-foreign-languages-should-be-compulsory-says-reporthttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47334374https://www.europelanguagejobs.com/blog/english-who-speaks-it-best.phphttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/01/britain-learning-languages-brexit--educationhttps://wibbu.com/learning-language-can-improve-confidence/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/opinion/sunday/the-superior-social-skills-of-bilinguals.htmlhttps://www.alzheimers.net/speaking-two-languages-delays-dementia/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/03/27/learn-foreign-language-benefits-bilingualism/

Example Essay Two

The US and Iran; Lets Stay out of it

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We’ve all heard the rumours going round that world war three is about to kick off, and that the US is having a ‘political scrap’ with Iran, after taking out one of their military leaders. It is a matter that took up space in all the newspapers for over a week, and got everyone worrying about the near future. If you don’t already know, president Donald Trump ordered a drone strike the killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. Though nothing has come of it, and it has all seemed to calm down a bit, it is still possible that major conflicts could break out all across the globe as a consequence. Suggesting this does happen, do we really want the beloved UK participating in a worldwide quarrel that doesn’t even involve us? Do you think we should jump in on a matter that isn’t even any of our business? And do you think our government is fit to so? Shouldn’t we just stay out of it?

If the UK decides to involve itself in this conflict, it will put the country at a huge risk of attack. Iran has been allies with Russia, since times dating back to 1521. Furthermore, Iran has recently helped Russia develop its drone technology in return for other military systems they require. Therefore, there is no doubt that Russia and Iran are strong allies. So if the UK decided to take sides, particularly the side against Iran, then that would be siding against Russia. That wouldn’t be very smart, as Russia is one of the most powerful nations on the planet, and they would not hesitate to attack. Yes, the UK is strong, but it is highly unlikely we would be able to fend off Russia in the event of an invasion. Do you think it is accurate to suggest that the UK would be best to stay out of this?

As the world slowly creeps towards full automation, and technology keeps evolving every second, we all have heard about the new state of weaponry that is nuclear weapons. If the UK gets itself involved in the current situation, there will be massive nuclear threats, not only to us but to the whole world. If the UK starts to support another country, then others will do the same. And due to the rise in popularity of nuclear weapons, this political disturbance could prove to be a motive to launch one of these nukes. And with mutually assured destruction set in place, it would almost be guaranteed that there would be an all out nuclear war.

Another reason that the UK shouldn’t intervene in the current US and Iran conflict is because our military is not as well equipped as either of theirs. The US military budget in 2015 was $598.5 billion, whereas the UK was only $56.1 billion. Our military simply isn’t well enough equipped for a situation like this. In the event of an invasion, our military would be overpowered and we would be forced to a surrender. We aren’t strong enough or ready for a conflict to break out, so there is absolutely no way we should even think about involving ourselves in this situation.

If our government decided to involve the country in the current matter, it is possible that we could lose valuable allies to the UK. For example, some of the UK’s allies include Australia, Canada, India, France, Netherlands, Belgium and more. If a major conflict were to break out, and we did something that one of these countries disagreed with, we could lose that ally and the trade deals that they offer us. That may not sound too bad, but if you think about it, an entire eighth of the UK’s imports are computers and technology. If we lose a certain ally, it is possible we lose that import too, leaving us with outdated technology in the future. We also import $30.3 worth of pharmaceuticals including Calpol and medicine. That is an import

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that we cannot afford to lose, and by intervening in the US’s business with Iran we are putting that important import on the line. Is it really worth the risk.

Finally, it is most definitely possible and very likely that there would be a war breaking out if the UK got involved. Yes, all the social media posts and numerous memes about world war three could be more real than you think. Even the doomsday clock has moved closer to midnight than ever before, and it is accurate to assume that this has had a big effect on that. Look at the First World War. All it took was one man getting assassinated and the entire world was immediately signed up for war. Considering there’s already been a man assassinated, there is a more than a high chance of a war breaking out. If there was a war, it would be preferable if it was just the US and Iran participating. But, if the rest of the world decides to get involved, then it would be (hence the name) a world war, which is a lot worse as seen before. World peace is currently on a thin line. With the US president excessively on twitter, it could take one bad tweet, or the protests in Iran, it could take one impatient police officer to fire upon protesters. Or it could take one other country making a bad decision, which the UK government is in great condition to do so.

There is no doubt that the UK has a lot to bring to the world, but there are things we simply shouldn’t partake in. There is a difference between helping and getting in the way, and there are things that are better off when the UK isn’t involved, especially when there is risk of being invaded, losing allies, nuclear threats, and another major war. The two quarrelling countries will be better off without the advice of the UK.

991 words

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/42555015

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/tensions-iran-escalated-200103075922283.html

Example Essay Three

Working too hard might kill you.

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‘What is the meaning of life?’ A question to which the answer has been incomplete for centuries but is now taking on another meaning. It seems that, in this life, we are mere toys on a conveyer belt, passing through the stages of life just as we should; school, work, retirement, but our attitudes towards our work life might be going down the wrong route. It’s no secret that humans like to work and rightly so. Working towards goals and targets gives us a purpose and can make us feel happy but is it the only thing we are born to do? It seems pointless when you put it into perspective. Surely we should be spending time with loved ones or doing things we enjoy. No?

Despite the feeling of purpose working gives us, the hard work we put in can have detrimental impacts you may not know about. Our bodies produce a stress related hormone called cortisol and when in excess, your physical and mental health can be damaged. It interferes with your memory, your body’s defence systems, and decreases bone density. The extra cortisol can also lower our serotonin levels (the chemical in our brain that makes us happy) which eventually leads to depression. Blood pressure skyrockets and cholesterol increases. Working over time can also lead to premature heart problems; heart attacks and disease. Around seven people every two seconds die of stress related health problems. Sweating the small stuff doesn’t seem worth the bother now, does it? It seems ironic that we spend most of our lives working towards things, striving for that higher position, when it is that very same work that can kill you.

Being at work all the time has more disadvantages than the tangible ones you think of immediately. The popular saying, ‘the best things in life are free’ rings true when it comes to this as it is your relationships with people that make you happy. Research has shown that spending time with loved ones cuts stress as your brain recognises a support system and through the communication with them, your stress is relieved. Although communication in the workplace has been proven to improve social skills but, like anything in excess, spending too much time there distances you from family and friends. This inevitably leads to feelings of loneliness which could lead to possible mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety . The levels of stress we experience when under pressure make us irritable which we can all agree is unpleasant. So why would people put themselves under that stress when it makes us miserable? The answer is simple. Money.

In today’s society, we are the most profit driven that we have ever been and it is our desire to make more “moolah” that is harming us. Today’s society makes us feel as if we don’t have enough “stuff” and our desire to keep up with the current trends is feeling our money addiction. The obsession with money pushes us to work for harder, longer hours but these hours don’t pay in happiness. In Finland, they have reduced the working week to four days and the results shocked many. Despite the opposition from outraged British politicians, the outcome of the experiment resulted positively. Productivity increased by 40% and 77% of the population working a four day week said they experienced a better quality of life. Health care workers also reported to feel happier and healthier when only working for four days. It seems a no-brainer that we should all follow the Finnish way of living, especially with such significant improvements but it seems that people still aren’t convinced. Are you?

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In light of recent events, our country is working to become more environmentally conscious and a reduction our work can have other advantages. With cuts to the working week, the necessity of travel is not so high meaning our country’s carbon footprint would be reduced, without having to do much at all. Employees would have more time on their hands, allowing them to cook rather than buy ready meals or convenience foods; plastic-wrapped, high calorie options. By giving people time, it could significantly change our ways of living for the better.

Picture the scene; You are nearing the end of your life and you are reminiscing on your life and your memories. You will, most certainly, not remember all the things you bought but rather the things you did and the people you met. Your experiences matter more than just the mundanity of your working life. Try to fill your life with exciting, interesting things and strive to be not only a diligent worker but a happy human with a fulfilled life.

To conclude, we are slowly working our way to our deaths by continuing this battle for work, just for the credit of being able to say we put our hearts and souls into our careers rather than life itself. Although it is the longest thing we will ever experience, life is short. We need to take a step back, relax and wake up to what life is all about. It is not about our work. It’s about spending quality time with those you want to, about friendship and doing what you truly want to do. Of course you need a source of income but it needn’t be the centre of your life. Hopefully, one day not too far away, humanity will realise what a short life we have and make the most of it. Truly.

916 words

Bibliography

Tuesday 14 January 2020https://fitforwork.org/blog/benefits-of-working/https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_overtimehttps://allhours.com/part-time-advantages-disadvantages/

Tuesday 28 Januaryhttps://www.theguardian.com/money/shortcuts/2020/jan/06/finland-is-planning-a-four-day-week-is-this-the-secret-of-happinesshttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/09/22/349875448/best-to-not-sweat-the-small-stuff-because-it-could-kill-you?t=1580201581258

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National 5 English – Weekly Newspaper Analysis

Learning intentions –

to regularly engage with the reading of quality newspaper articles to increase your understanding of audience and purpose to develop your ability to put someone else’s ideas in to your own words to increase your awareness of literary techniques and their use in context to develop and improve your own persuasive writing skills

Rationale

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Paper 1 of the National 5 exam is Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation. In this paper, you will be given a broadsheet newspaper article and you will be given a set of questions to answer, worth 30 marks. There are different questions types which will require you to demonstrate a variety of skills. You will be taught specifically what these skills are, and how to approach different question types, by your teacher when we return to school.

For now, we would like you to familiarise yourself with the kind of writing you are likely to come across in the exam. In order to do this, we expect you to read at least one broadsheet newspaper article a week and complete a series of tasks on each one. In the exam, the articles are ‘unseen’ which means that you will not have been taught the content before. Reading an unseen article a week will help you to develop your ability to approach any article with the same set of skills. This ongoing exposure to high quality journalistic writing will also help you to improve your own writing.

Broadsheet vs. Tabloid

The reason we specifically ask you to focus on broadsheet journalism, is because that is what you will come across in the exam. The language in a tabloid tends to be simpler and therefore less suitable for analysis.

The following table will help you to understand which newspaper to focus on and which to avoid.

Broadsheet Tabloid (‘red tops’)The Times / Sunday Times

The Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph

The Observer

The Scotsman

The Guardian

The Independent

Daily Mail

The Mail on Sunday

Daily Express

The Sun

Daily Mirror

Daily Star

Some of you may have physical broadsheets available at home but if not, many are available online. Pressreader, which you all have on your iPads, will be a really useful resource for

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this throughout the course. However, free access to this needs to be on School or council Wi-Fi. Alternatively, keep an eye on the school website for information on how Pressreader can be accessed using a City of Edinburgh Library card.

Here is where you can access suitable online articles for free in the meantime –

https://www.telegraph.co.uk http://www.theguardian.com/uk https://www.independent.co.uk https://observer.com https://www.scotsman.com (limits to how many articles you can read on website).

They have a free app with saveable content

For the first four weeks, the article is provided for you with guided questions. However, if you want to start using articles you find yourself straight away, then that is perfectly fine.

The Task

Once a week you will asked to complete the following tasks-

ADVICE ON EACH AREA CAN BE FOUND BELOW

Purpose

1. Find a suitable broadsheet newspaper article2. Identify article and source – if online, you should provide a link3. Identify the purpose of the article – Why was it written? What

were the writer’s intentions? Provide some evidence to support your answer

4. Identify the intended audience of the article – Who was this written for? Who might it interest? Provide some evidence to support your answer

5. Make a bullet-pointed list of the writer’s main arguments, using your own words as far as possible

6. Identify one example of imagery and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

7. Identify one example of interesting word choice and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

8. Identify one example of sentence structure and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

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All written texts are created with some sort of purpose in mind. For example, a leaflet about a tourist attraction is written with the purpose to inform people about the attraction but also to promote it. Most novels are written with the purpose of entertaining the reader. An article arguing against leaving the EU would be written with the purpose to persuade. This table illustrates some types of text and the likely purpose they will serve.

Purpose What it does Examples of form/source

Likely evidence

To persuade Wants you to do or think something

adverts, opinion pieces One-sided argument, persuasive language techniques

To inform Tells you about something

Newspaper article, website, government leaflet

Lots of facts/figures/statistics

To entertain Makes you feel amused, relaxed or absorbed

Short story, poem, joke, novel, play

Often fictional content, use of humour, dialogue etc.

To instruct Tells you what to do Recipes, worksheets, instruction manuals

Often presented in stages/bullet points, language such as ‘firstly’, ‘secondly’ etc.

Audience

Closely related to the writer’s purpose is the readership a piece of writing is aimed at. Meaning, who did the writer create this text for? For example, an article about feminism is more likely to interest women more than men. An article about TikTok is more like to appeal to younger readers. Consider audience carefully, and take into account several factors:

Audience Groupings ExamplesAge Teenagers, young adults, middle-aged,

elderly, childrenGender Male, female, transgender, non-binaryOccupation Educators, medics, tradesmen etc.Interests Football fans, consumers, film lovers,

scientists, historians etc.Nationality British, Scottish, American, French, Gaelic-

speaking etc.

The evidence for target audience will usually be based on what the article is about and therefore who might this topic interest or who might the issue being discussed most affect. Additionally, you can look at the language – simpler language is more likely to appeal to a younger audience for example, use of slang/informal might be more likely to appeal to teens etc.

Understanding – Using your Own Words

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A large proportion of the marks available in the Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation paper in the National 5 exam are awarded for being able to demonstrate your ability to select information from the passage and put it in to your own words. This is normally around 50% and sometimes more. Therefore, this is a really important skill to master.

1. The first step in this process is to read the whole article. Consider, what is the article about? What is the writer’s overall argument? For example, an article about climate change and how our government isn’t doing enough to stop it in its tracks.

2. The second step is to consider individual points made about this issue. e.g. more should be done to encourage recycling, not enough being done to reduce pollution from cars in urban areas etc.

3. Find where these ideas occur in the article – copy these down word for word or highlight on article if this helps.

4. Now go through and try to change these in to your own words as far as possible

e.g. ‘We need to speed the transition to the solar panels and wind turbines that engineers have worked so mightily to improve and are now the cheapest way to generate power.’

Renewable energy needs to start being used more quickly because they are less expensive than other fuels

So you can see here, the key ideas have been extracted a put in to different words

Here is another example –‘Shopper numbers should also be restricted, promotional displays pared back to give customers more space and product demonstrations avoided to deter clustering.’

The following should be done to stop people gathering in groups There should be limits on how many people can visit stores at a time There should not be any events showing off how items for sale work There should not be any special presentations of items on sale

We would expect you to find at least four key ideas in each of the articles you read and put these in to your own words – you can use bullet points. These do not have to be written in full sentences. A few things to avoid when using your own words –

Remember – use your own words as far as possible – there are some very specific words, for example for body parts, that there tends to just be one word for. Don’t worry if you can’t find your own words for everything

You could use a thesaurus to help you get started with this initially if you are finding it difficult – and then gradually remove this support as you start to find it easier. There are lots of these available online e.g. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-thesaurus

Avoid using different forms of the same word e.g. run, runner, running, ran etc. – these are too similar, but could be replaced with sprint, jog etc.

Analysis

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You are going to be asked to identify three examples of the writer’s use of language for each of the articles you read. This will help to prepare you to answer the analysis questions in the RUAE exam paper.

Each week, you will be looking for a minimum of the following. We would encourage you to look for more than that, but this is the minimum expectation.

One example of imagery One example of word choice One example of sentence structure

Imagery

Imagery is the use of visually descriptive or figurative language in written work to enhance the reader’s understanding and appreciation.

The three main imagery techniques of you will need to be able to identify and analyse for National 5 RUAE are SIMILE, METAPHOR and PERSONIFICATION.

SIMILEA comparison where one thing is described as something else, using ‘like’ or ‘as’.

‘He was as subtle as a brick.’‘Her hair was golden like the sun’

METAPHORA comparison where something is described as if it actually is something else.

‘The hospital bed was his prison.’‘Her words were a dagger to his heart.’

PERSONIFICATIONA comparison where an inanimate object (something non-human) is described in human terms.

‘My alarm clock yells at me to get out of bed every morning.’‘The popcorn leapt out of the bowl.’

When analysing imagery, it is important that you deal with both sides of the image to fully show your understanding of it.

The thing being described What it is being compared to

A simple way to approach the analysis of imagery is to ask yourself the following question – WHAT is being compared to WHAT and WHY?

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Word Choice

Word choice is a very simple concept – you are being asked to think about why the writer has chosen to use specific words, over others, in the context of their writing i.e. what they are trying to say or show.

The English language is very rich and there are lots of different ways of saying the same thing, i.e. words with the same DENOTATION, and each different word carries its own shade of meaning or what we refer to as a CONNOTATION.

The following tables demonstrate this concept.

Word DENOTATION CONNOTATIONdrizzling rain very light rain, won’t soak youpouring rain heavy, constant rainbucketing rain extremely heavy rain, you’d be soaked

Word DENOTATION CONNOTATIONfine happy nothing bothering you, contentdelighted happy really pleasedecstatic happy over the moon, out of your mind happy

To analyse word choice, first consider the connotations of the word you have selected. Then think about why the writer might have used that word in this context.

e.g. ‘Climate change is destroying our planet and is harming the lives of so many vulnerable and innocent creatures.’

The writer uses the word ‘vulnerable’ which has connotations of weak and defenceless to emphasise how much they are in danger from climate change and that they can do very little to defend themselves.

e.g. ‘Boris Johnson’s career is potholed with scandals, betrayals and mendacities that would have undone many another politician, but he somehow always bounced back.’

Boris Johnson’s career is described as being ‘potholed’ as potholes are faults in a road that can cause damage and therefore the writer is trying to show that his career hasn’t been perfect and has been quite damaging to the county.

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Sentence Structure

Sentence Structure simply means how a sentence is built up or constructed.

When you are asked to analyse examples of sentence structure techniques, you are being asked to consider the impact the writer’s use of sentence structure has on their argument and on you as a reader.

NOTE – when you use different sentence structure techniques in your own writing, try not to overuse them. The impact can be lost if they aren’t used sparingly.

Sentence Structure techniques can be broken down in to four main categories. Sentence Length Sentence Type Patterns occurring within sentences Punctuation

Sentence LengthShort sentence Used to emphasise an

idea or to show a sudden realisation

She was dead.

Long sentence Used to show the complexity of something, the extent of something or to show other feelings such as boredom

The teacher had been droning on for hours about how important it was to study, how it would affect our future and how we shouldn’t be wasting our lives on social media or worrying about trivial things like fashion and make up and who was going out with who etc.

Series of short sentences

Used to build tension by drip-feeding information to the reader

It was him. The man. The one from her dream.

Sentence TypeCommand When the writer gives the

reader an instruction to involve and engage them

Imagine it was your child facing homelessness.

Rhetorical Question When a question is asked, which doesn’t require an answer but is designed to make the reader think

What sort of world are we living in?

Minor Sentence A sentence without a verb – used to draw attention to its contents.

Brilliant. I just missed my bus.

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Question + answer When the writer asks a question, and goes on to answer it. Adds authority to their voice like they have all the answers.

What is the point of staying at home? We should all be staying at home because, simply put, it saves lives.

Patterns occurring within sentences Repetition When a word or phrase is

repeated for emphasisHer mother hated slime. She hated the mess, she hated the texture and she hated the very idea of it.

List A series of words, phrases or names grouped together for a reason, usually to emphasise the amount or variety of something.

The reasons why many people turn vegan is to make their diet healthier, to help protect the environment and to be able to tell all their friends about it.

Inversion When the expected order of a sentence is changed to shift the emphasis.

Five times I have asked you to be quiet.

(vs. I’ve asked you to be quiet five times)

PunctuationExclamation mark ! Used to show emotions such

shock/surprise/anger/excitement etc.

It was the best news she had ever heard!

Ellipsis … Used to show a sentence trailing off or a break in a sentence. Can show an interruption or can be used to show uncertainty or nerves

I’m sorry I didn’t do the homework. My…dog ate it.

Colon : Introduces a list, a quotation, an example or a clarification of a point

Here’s what she had to say on the subject: ‘It’s a big change for everyone but we are slowly adjusting.’

Semi-colon ; Can separate items in a complex list or can act as a link between similar or contrasting points.

Some say Boris Johnson is a terrible Prime Minister; others say he’s just what this country needs.

Dash - Introduces extra information, an explanation or an example.

There was so much to do here – she couldn’t wait to explore.

Parenthesis, , - - ( )

Used to offer additional information or can also be used in a humorous way to insert a comment from the writer.

The main thing I dislike about mushrooms (well hate if I’m honest) is the slimy texture.

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To analyse sentence structure, consider how a technique works in general, and they apply this to the context.

Week 1 – Superstition

STEP ONE – READ THE ARTICLE

SUPERSTITION 1. Tennis players are a funny bunch. Have you noticed how they always ask for three balls

instead of two; how they bounce the ball the same number of times before serving, as if any deviation from their routine might bring the world collapsing on their heads?

2. But the superstitions and rituals so beloved by the world’s top players are not confined to the court. They take even more bizarre twists when the poor dears get home after their matches. Goran Ivanisevic got it into his head that if he won a match he had to repeat everything he did the previous day, such as eating the same food at the same restaurant, talking to the same people and watching the same TV programmes. One year this meant that he had to watch Teletubbies every morning during his Wimbledon campaign. “Sometimes it got very boring,” he said.

3. Could it be that these multifarious superstitions tell us something of deeper importance not only about humanity but about other species on the planet? The answer, I think, is to be found in the world of pigeon. Yes, really. These feathered fellows, you see, are the tennis players of the bird world. Don’t take my word for it: that was the opinion of B. F. Skinner, the man widely regarded as the father of modern psychology.

4. Skinner’s view was based on a groundbreaking experiment that he carried out in 1947 in which he placed some hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food “at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird’s behaviour”. He discovered that the pigeons associated the delivery of the food with whatever chance actions they happened to be performing at the moment it was first delivered. So what did the pigeons do? They kept performing the same actions, even though they had no effect whatsoever on the release of food.

5. I know, I know. This is nothing compared with the weird behaviour that goes on at Wimbledon, but do you see the connection? The pigeons were acting as if they could

e.g. Everyone can do their bit to help the planet: we can recycle as many materials as possible, we can shop at refillery stores, we can bring our own reusable bags to the supermarket and we can walk for shorter journeys rather than taking the bus or car.

The writer uses a colon to introduce a list to expand on his statement that we can all contribute to saving the planet. The list that follows emphasises the amount and variety of things we can all be doing to help stop climate change and emphasises how we can each make a difference.

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influence the mechanism delivering the Trill in just the same way that Ivanisevic thought that he could influence the outcome of his next match by watching Teletubbies. To put it a tad formally, they both witnessed a random connection between a particular kind of behaviour and a desired outcome, and then (wrongly) inferred that one caused the other.

6. But did Ivanisevic really believe that his superstitions were effective or was he just having us on? Well, let’s hear from the man himself — this is what he said when asked if he had ever abandoned a ritual when it stopped working: “I didn’t. They do work. I won Wimbledon.” So, he really did believe. And what of the pigeons? They were, unfortunately, unavailable for interview.

7. Even cricketers, perhaps the brightest and most sensible sportsmen of all (well, that’s what they tell us), are not immune to superstition. Jack Russell, the former England wicketkeeper, was among the most notorious, refusing to change his hat or wicketkeeping pads throughout his career, even though they became threadbare and smelly, something that really got up the noses of his team-mates.

8. But this raises another, deeper question: why do so many of us maintain rituals of various kinds when they have no real connection with the desired outcome? Or, to put it another way, why is superstitious behaviour so widespread, not just within our species but beyond, when it seems to confer no tangible benefits? It’s here that things get really interesting (and just a little complex). And, as with most interesting things, the answer is to be found in deep evolutionary history.

9. Imagine a caveman going to pick some berries from some bushes near his rocky abode. He hears some rustling in the bushes and wrongly infers that there is a lion lurking in there and scarpers. He even gets a little superstitious about those bushes and gives them a wide berth in future. Is this superstition a problem to our caveman? Well, not if there are plenty other berry-bearing bushes from which to get his five-a-day.

10. But suppose that there really is a lion living in those bushes. The caveman’s behaviour now looks not only sensible but life-saving. So, a tendency to perceive connections that do not actually exist can confer huge evolutionary benefits, providing a cocoon of safety in a turbulent and dangerous world. The only proviso (according to some devilishly complicated mathematics known as game theory) is this: your superstitions must not impose too much of a burden on those occasions when they are without foundation.

11. And this is almost precisely what superstitions look like in the modern world. Some believe in horoscopes, but few allow them to dictate their behaviour; some like to wear the same lucky shoes to every job interview, but it is not as if wearing a different pair would improve their chances of success; some like to bounce the ball precisely seven times before serving at tennis, but although they are wrong to suppose that this ball-bouncing is implicated in their success, it does not harm their prospects.

12. It is only when a superstition begins to compromise our deeper goals and aspirations that we have moved along the spectrum of irrationality far enough to risk a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder. Take Kolo Toure, the former Arsenal defender who insists on being the last player to leave the dressing room after the half-time break. No real problem, you might think, except that when William Gallas, his team-mate, was injured and needed treatment at

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half-time during a match, Toure stayed in the dressing room until Gallas had been treated, forcing Arsenal to start the second half with only nine players.

13. When a superstition that is supposed to help you actually hinders you, it is probably time to kick the ritual into touch. With a rabbit’s foot, obviously.

Answer the following questions -

1. Identify the purpose of the article – Why was it written? What were the writer’s intentions? Provide some evidence to support your answer

2. Identify the intended audience of the article – Who was this written for? Who might it interest? Provide some evidence to support your answer

3. Make a bullet-pointed list of the writer’s main arguments, using your own words as far as possible

Try and pick out at least four points the writer makes about superstitions

4. Identify one example of imagery and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

Ask yourself – how does the writer feel about superstitions? Is he trying to say they are a good thing or a bad thing?

As a starting point, think about which group of people the article mainly talks about i.e. sportspeople. Also think about what the article focuses on – superstitions. Are superstitions unique to sports?

Analyse one of the following – ‘providing a cocoon of safety in a turbulent and dangerous world’ (paragraph 10) ‘it is probably time to kick the ritual into touch.’ (paragraph 13)

Here is an example of one point he makes –

‘But this raises another, deeper question: why do so many of us maintain rituals of various kinds when they have no real connection with the desired outcome?’

Syed wonders why superstitions are so common when they normally have nothing to do with what the person wants to achieve.

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5. Identify one example of interesting word choice and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

6. Identify one example of sentence structure and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

Week 2 - QWERTY is the key to our love of language

STEP ONE – READ THE ARTICLE (sections in bold, highlighted or underlined will help you with part 2)

People grumbling about e-mails and tweets don’t get it. Technology enriches the written word.

Jonathan Franzen, the American novelist, is in rage against the machines. He objects to the way that modern gizmos, screens and keyboards are affecting the written word. He wants to make some corrections.

Franzen seems to object to just about every form of modern digital communication. Recently he railed against Twitter: “Unspeakably irritating ... the ultimate irresponsible medium.” Before that, he attacked e-books as “just not permanent enough” and incompatible “with a system of justice or responsible self-government”. Before that he clobbered Facebook: “All one big endless loop ... we like the mirror and the mirror likes us.”

Mr Franzen’s pronouncements reflect a fear, shared by many writers and readers, that digitisation is a threat to literature itself, that the world is becoming so swamped with e-distractions, Facebook and Twitter, that we may forget how to read big books with paper pages that sit on shelves.

Analyse one of the following – no tangible benefits (paragraph 8) compromise (paragraph 12) irrationality (paragraph 12)

Analyse one of the following – The answer, I think, is to be found in the world of pigeon. Yes, really. (short sentence,

paragraph 3) Even cricketers, perhaps the brightest and most sensible sportsmen of all (well, that’s

what they tell us), are not immune to superstition. (parenthesis, paragraph 7) Some believe in horoscopes, but few allow them to dictate their behaviour; some like to

wear the same lucky shoes to every job interview, but it is not as if wearing a different pair would improve their chances of success; some like to bounce the ball precisely seven times before serving at tennis, but although they are wrong to suppose that this ball-bouncing is implicated in their success, it does not harm their prospects. (repetition/semi-colon list, paragraph 11)

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The digital revolution has indeed transformed our relationship with words, but mostly for the better. We are communicating in writing as never before; we are now able to speak instantly across cultures and among languages, and millions are alert to the importance of written words in a way once restricted to an intellectual elite.

So far from killing off literature, e-mail, social networking and digital publishing may be creating a generation of humanity that is more closely in touch with words than any before it. Words are surging around and across the world in an extraordinary, unstoppable blizzard, written and read at a rate and on a scale that is mind-boggling and quite new: more than 100 billion entries a day on Facebook and more than one billion tweets a week. E-book sales are soaring in the UK.

In 1995 the average mobile telephone user sent one message every two and a half months. Today, the Philippines holds the record for texting: 27 per user per day. In Scandinavia, more than 85 per cent of the population communicates by text. Some 294 billion e-mail messages are sent every day, or 2·8 million per second.

These are communications that, until recently, were made by telephone, by letter or face to face; or not at all. These messages may be ungrammatical, misspelt, slang or spam. Language purists shudder at the way text-speak mangles, simplifies and abbreviates. But these are nonetheless written words, deliberately chosen.

I am not suggesting that a texting teenager will necessarily move on to War and Peace, but since words cost money and time, word selection and word understanding are growing, not diminishing, in cultural importance. We write almost unconsciously as part of our everyday lives and we are reading and writing more and more words, as the technology enabling us to do so grows ever faster.

The machines are certainly changing the way we read and write. Many digital readers are magpies, skipping from one shiny object to the next. With so much information available, we tend to skim and browse through what one infuriated Franzen character calls “a trillion bits of distracting noise”. Franzen famously writes with the internet disconnected, and believes no good novelist could write otherwise.

But the multifaceted nature of digital life can enhance as well as distract from the written word: the recent app of T. S. Eliot’s classic poem ‘The Waste Land’ offers not just the text, but also critical notes, Ezra Pound’s annotations and the sound of Eliot reading his own poetry.

Franzen insists that a printed book is “permanent and unalterable” (a view contradicted by book burners, censors and bowdlerisers down the ages), whereas “a screen always feels that we could delete that, change that, move it around”. But as a writer of nonfiction, I relish the opportunity to return to a text and amend and refine it after publication, as additional historical evidence emerges. As a digital phenomenon, the book is not pickled in literary aspic, as Franzen seems to want, but a continuous work in progress.

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Twitter imposes a strange but fascinating discipline of its own. E-mail and text are forging new language and usage. And the very layout of the computer keyboard, now an immutable if arbitrary fact of world culture, may be shaping our perception of words.

The layout of the QWERTY keyboard may mean we attach more positive meaning to words with letters located on the right-hand side of the keyboard (ie, to the right of T, G and B), because for the right-handed majority they are easier to type. We know how a word is spoken can affect its meaning. So can how it’s typed.

The keyboard layout we all use today was invented in 1868 by a newspaperman from Milwaukee. In the old alphabetical layout the typewriter tended to jam because certain commonly used combinations of letters were close to each other. The QWERTY layout led to faster typing and fewer typos, but was also intended to make life easier for Remington salesmen demonstrating the new typewriter, since TYPEWRITER can be tapped out using only the top line.

The QWERTY keyboard was flawed—other layouts are less likely to cause repetitive strain injury—but it stuck, and now, as millions of words are communicated through the fingers of computer-users every day, it may be altering the nature of language itself.

The typewriter made writing easier and for ever changed the way the written word was produced. The same is true of modern technological vehicles for reading, writing and connecting. Instead of resisting Twitter, Facebook, e-book, text and blog, readers and writers alike should embrace each new advance in the deployment and enjoyment of words.

The e-book will not harm reading any more than the camera damaged the art of painting. The emoticon will not, in the end, prevent readers from absorbing the deeper emotions of a Jonathan Franzen novel.

As the history of the keyboard shows, when a new writing or reading technology takes root, it is very hard to control, shift or delete. We live in a QWERTY world, and there is no going back.

STEP TWO – ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. Identify the purpose of the article – Why was it written? What were the writer’s intentions? Provide some evidence to support your answer

2. Identify the intended audience of the article – Who was this written for? Who might it interest? Provide some evidence to support your answer

3. Make a bullet-pointed list of the writer’s main arguments, using your own words as far as possible

4. Identify one example of imagery and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument Examples in bold

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5. Identify one example of interesting word choice and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument Examples in italics

6. Identify one example of sentence structure and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument Examples underlined

Week Three - Stop sneering at working-class youth at play in Magaluf and Ibiza

STEP ONE – READ THE ARTICLE

It’s interesting to see that the Guardia Civil in the Balearics have invited British police to help patrol notorious districts in Ibiza and Magaluf. The proposal is partly about the UK police helping to enforce new laws, specifically regarding the drunken sexual and violent behaviour of British holidaymakers.

It’s to the credit of the localities that they’ve committed to these changes, risking lucrative revenue. Also, that they’ve targeted companies, many UK-based, who specialise in the kind of pub crawls that led to the infamous “mamading” incident in Magaluf last year, when an inebriated 18-year-old female was tricked into fellating 24 strangers for a “holiday” (a drink). However, I’ve long felt that curbing of tourist behaviour is only half the story – what also needs to change is the vindictive attitude of those who make sneering at a particular breed of British holidaymaker an annual national sport. I’m talking about the pungent whiff of snobbery directed towards the young British working class on holiday.

As a card-carrying old bat, mother of two, I’m not pretending that I’ve any interest in wild alcohol-fuelled holidays, or that I look upon scenes of youths lying unconscious in foreign streets with anything other than prissy pearl-clutching anxiety (“Hope someone is looking after them!”). However, what I refuse to feel is judgment.

Just as fit people have what they’d term “muscle memory”, I appear to have “hedonism memory”. I might not use my ghost muscles like I used to, but they still spring into action when, say, I feel I’m being encouraged to sneer at drunk holidaying Brits, not just by reporting in the media, but also by the sort of people who gloat over it.

When this happens, I have an image of middle-class folk salivating with Victorian glee at working-class “yoof” losing it. Convinced that these marauders are different to their own delightful progeny – not realising (naive, clueless fools) that many of their children are behaving similarly, albeit in different settings. Another non-realisation: that these “difficult times to be young” they’re always wailing about, on behalf of their own offspring, are also being experienced by those young people they’re smugly gawping at as they vomit on Mediterranean pavements.

I’ve noticed this time and again. While young people from the middle classes at least receive sympathy for their tougher reality, there is no such compassion or leeway afforded to their working-class counterparts. Why not? They’re under just as much pressure, probably more.

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Where these holidays are concerned, they’ve probably worked dead-end jobs, saving hard for their good time – if they want to get blotto, who could blame them?

As with the grotesque mamading incident, the true responsibility lies with the host districts and, specifically, those companies who cynically exploit the gullibility of young people, who’ve not yet learned how to handle intoxicants.

While some might raise issues of “free will” and “self-responsibility”, how much do these concepts register when you’re young, green and trashed? Certainly, the majority of these holidaymakers look young enough that it makes sense for companies to behave responsibly on their behalf.

It’s good, then, that this is now happening in places such as Magaluf – that, there at least, large groups of our young people will no longer be actively encouraged to make idiots of themselves and worse.

Even if some behave recklessly, it doesn’t mean that they should be mocked and dehumanised by censorious rubbernecking fellow Britons. They’re just young people making mistakes; same as it ever was. Before changes such as those made in Magaluf, this behaviour was facilitated by host districts and holiday companies who provided the drinking culture because they wanted their money.

So join the annual “sneer-a-thon”, if you must, but remember – those vomiting, scapegoated young tourists aren’t causing the problems alone.

STEP TWO – ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. Identify the purpose of the article – Why was it written? What were the writer’s intentions? Provide some evidence to support your answer

2. Identify the intended audience of the article – Who was this written for? Who might it interest? Provide some evidence to support your answer

3. Make a bullet-pointed list of the writer’s main arguments, using your own words as far as possible

4. Identify one example of imagery and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

5. Identify one example of interesting word choice and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

6. Identify one example of sentence structure and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

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Week Four - 45 years after the Equal Pay Act, there’s still a long way to go

STEP ONE – READ THE ARTICLE

I was 10 when the Equal Pay Act was passed. It was pretty inspiring stuff. So much so that when, as a member of the girls’ choir at St Mary’s church in Guildford, I heard that the boys in another local church were getting at least twice as much as us, my friends Bryony, Lesley and I wrote to the rector and complained. He didn’t take it well. In his next school assembly he condemned us in an address about “greed and avarice”.

If only we young girls had known that, 45 years later, this inspiring piece of legislation would have got so bogged down that women would still be paid almost 10% less than men on average if we work full time and over 19% for all employment, full time and part time combined. The time has come for a new Equal Pay Act. Frankly, women have been waiting long enough!

The principle behind the Equal Pay Act is that if an individual woman finds a man doing similar work and being paid more she can take her employer to a tribunal and get paid equally and compensated. Sounds simple enough. But in reality this law has been hamstrung by a series of stupid loopholes that have developed over the years.

Did you know that if a man takes your job and is paid more than you, you can’t rely on that as evidence of discrimination? Did you know that if the man you find who is paid more than you for similar work for the same boss, works in another building, there can be a serious argument that he is not “a fair comparator”? Clearly, we need to sweep these away for a start.

But even if the current law worked as intended, there is something actually wrong with the system. Our current law relies on individual victims of discrimination bringing change by enforcing a form of contract on a piecemeal basis. If they win a case they only win it for themselves and sometimes there is a settlement where the woman is bought in exchange for a gagging clause. There is no power to read across to all women treated in the same way by the organisation, or to look at the company to see if discrimination is systemic. What we really need is profound culture change and radical legislation.

We should not have to rely on individual women chipping away. First, it should be accepted that it is all our responsibility to drive this change. We should treat women taking complaints as whistleblowers and a valid complaint should trigger a requirement on organisations to audit how they pay people, look again at the skills required to do the jobs and do proper evaluation studies. This should be done externally by people properly accredited to do the task and their work and plan for change should be overseen by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Tribunals should be able to order these reviews

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as part of their findings at the end of the hearing or even at the start as part of the pre-litigation negotiation.

We should encourage organisations to change themselves through proper skills audits, but the other important driver is to encourage negotiation. However, there has been a spate of cases recently where trade unions have come to an equal pay settlement with the employer, only to find themselves sued by disgruntled women. Any new Equal Pay Act should have a code of conduct that will inspire confidence in collective agreements and there should be additional guidance from ACAS where necessary.

Tribunals should have their procedures streamlined. Cases frequently take years and the more complex ones can take five years just to deal with a preliminary point. Complex cases should attract senior judges to ensure that they move quickly through the system.

A new Equal Pay Act is also urgently needed as the old one never envisaged an employment market as we have today, with its fractured employment practices and insecure working. We need a fresh act to restore and strengthen guarantees on terms and conditions for public sector workers transferred to the private sector, close loopholes in agency worker regulations and create statutory rules against sham self-employment.

Radical though a new act along these lines would be, we have to be honest and accept it won’t deal with two of the major causes of inequality: in my opinion, we still have not done anything like enough to allow people to work flexibly to balance their work and home lives; nor have we dealt with one of the most entrenched causes of the pay gap between men and women, which is the type of jobs that women do. Nearly two-thirds of women are employed in 12 occupational groups, most of which relate to their traditional family role (caring, catering, cleaning, teaching, nursing, clerical work, etc.). To misquote Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin: “We’re coming out of the kitchen, but we just haven’t got very far as yet.”

But that should not hold us back from making the changes we need. In fact, we should kickstart the move towards a new system by having a set of rules that will last five years – time-limited provisions to accelerate progress. We should waive fees for those taking equal pay claims; they are our whistleblowers and should be encouraged. Companies that do a full skills audit and act on it should have a defence to any claim during those five years. And for this five-year period, compensation for failure to pay equally should be limited to two years back pay, as stated in the original act.

This deep-seated problem needs focus, political will and an acceptance that this is a problem we all have responsibility to tackle. This choirgirl is now middle aged – and is impatient to see the problem resolved before she hits retirement.

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STEP TWO – ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS1. Identify the purpose of the article – Why was it written? What were the writer’s

intentions? Provide some evidence to support your answer

2. Identify the intended audience of the article – Who was this written for? Who might it interest? Provide some evidence to support your answer

3. Make a bullet-pointed list of the writer’s main arguments, using your own words as far as possible

4. Identify one example of imagery and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

5. Identify one example of interesting word choice and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

6. Identify one example of sentence structure and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

YOU SHOULD NOW BE READY TO LOOK FOR YOUR OWN ARTICLES. YOUR TEACHER WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW THESE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED E.G. EMAIL,TEAMS, ONENOTE ETC.

You should let your class teacher know as soon as possible if you are having difficulty with any aspect of this weekly task or if you are having difficulty finding suitable articles. We are here to support you.

1. Find a suitable broadsheet newspaper article2. Identify article and source – if online, you should provide a link3. Identify the purpose of the article – Why was it written? What were

the writer’s intentions? Provide some evidence to support your answer

4. Identify the intended audience of the article – Who was this written for? Who might it interest? Provide some evidence to support your answer

5. Make a bullet-pointed list of the writer’s main arguments, using your own words as far as possible

6. Identify one example of imagery and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

7. Identify one example of interesting word choice and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

8. Identify one example of sentence structure and analyse how it helps the writer’s argument

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