Transactional Writing Revision Sheet Type, Audience and Purpose (TAP) Type: This means what style you are writing in. Is it a letter, speech, article, leaflet, etc. You need to adjust your writing accordingly. Purpose: What do you hope to achieve? I.e. persuade, argue, inform, advise, comment, review. Look these command words up if you don t already know what they mean. Audience: This means who you are writing for. This could be parents, school council, governors, etc. You need to change your formality according to your audience. Decode the question Planning Your plans should be in the form of detailed mind-maps with lots of branches and detail. Bullet point lists are not advisable because it s difficult to add new ideas once you have written them down.
Types of sentences Simple sentence: contains only one piece of information e.g. The cat sat on the mat. Top tip: these can be very dramatic and build suspense. Fragments or minor sentences can also be used for this purpose, e.g. Stop! Compound sentences: contain more than one piece of information. The words and, but and or are used to join two simple sentences together. e.g. The cat sat on the mat and licked his paw. Complex sentences: also contain more than one piece of information. They are made up of several parts or clauses. At least one of these will be a main clause, which contains the main information of the sentence. There will also be one or more subordinate clauses which give extra information about what is happening. The subordinate clause cannot make sense on its own. There are numerous ways of making complex sentences some are listed below: An embedded subordinate clause (this is sometimes called a parachute clause): e.g. The cat, who was eyeing my goldfish hungrily, needed lots of food. Beginning with a subordinate clause: e.g. Eyeing my goldfish hungrily, the cat paced back and forth beside the fish bowl. Surrounding the main clause with subordinate clauses: e.g. Even though he had just eaten half a tin of cat food, Felix paced back and forth beside the fish bowl, eyeing my goldfish hungrily, FANBOY conjunctions The following acronym will help you to remember the conjunctions we use to join sentences together. For And Nor But Or Yet So
WWAASABIE Conjunctions WWAASABIE conjunctions can be used to make complex sentences. Conjunctions are a bit like connectives but they don't usually need commas after them. When(ever) While Although After Since As Because If Even though How to vary the opening of sentences Preposition: e.g. above, below, behind, inside, etc. Adjectives/Adverbs: e.g. scared, brave, / carefully, etc. Wasabi conjunctions e.g. whenever, although, so. Ing words (verbs) pacing, hiding, etc. Transition connectives e.g. Consequently, meanwhile, etc. Using Commas Here are the rules for using commas: to separate a sub clause from a main clause (if the sub-clause is at the start or in the middle) to separate items in a list; to separate the speech from the tag in direct speech; to separate transition connectives from the rest of the sentence; before FANBOYS in compound sentences
AFORESTER Devices Language Definition feature Anecdote A description of an event used as evidence to back up a point. Facts A statement that sounds like it can be proven. Example Just the other day, I was getting ready for school and I realised that I hadn't been keeping track of the time and ended up arriving late. I thought to myself: "If only I had a watch." The concept of time has been part of society for millions of years. Opinions Rhetorical Question Exaggeration A statement that might sound like a fact but is only one person s point of view. A question that forces the reader to think of an idea. An over-the-top statement that helps to emphasise an opinion. Personally, I think it is irresponsible to go through a day without keeping track of time. Am I the only one that feels the need to keep track of time? Nobody wears watches nowadays and that's why everybody is always late. Second Person. Statistics Triples / Tricolons When the writer sounds like they are talking directly to the reader. A fact that uses numbers and figures to back it up. A group of three words or phrases used to emphasise a point. Don't tell me, you aren't thinking the same. You know you need it in your life. It's hard to believe but, according to research, only 35% of teenagers actually own a watch. It's classy, stylish and reliable. Emotive Language Repetition / Repeated sentence openings Words and phrases that make make the reader feel emotions such as joy, shock, worry or nostalgia. Words or phrases that are repeated to drill home a point. Better Words for Said (When quoting facts from experts) reported declared concluded explained claimed My grandfather used wear a watch every day of his life. It was buried with him when he died. This is a watch that will make everyone around you jealous. This is a watch that will help you to keep on top of life's demands. This is a watch that will change your life forever.
Paragraphs Paragraphs should be structured using the traffic light system: Green: Go. This means write a topic sentence that introduces the topic you will explore in your paragraph. Make sure you start a new paragraph if you change topic. Amber: Keep the engine going. This means back up your point in your topic sentence. Develop this idea, offer some explanations or give some evidence to prove your point. Red: Stop. This means write a sentence that clearly shows the paragraph has come to an end. Try to make links back to the topic sentence or offer a kind of conclusion to your point. You might also make links to another paragraph. Check your work back This is the one thing that lets pupils down the most. You could lose a whole grade from sloppy mistakes that can be easily fixed. Try to leave about 10 minutes for this and/or check your work back after each paragraph.