Here’s What I Think

Preparing for AS 1.5 Formal Writing Write an opinion essay

Internal 3 credits

Setting Up Your Writing Portfolio

• This book must stay at school at all times. Your planning, drafts, resources and final pieces will all be kept in this book.

• If your book is taken home you cannot get your credits.• You can do the thinking and resource finding at

home and bring it to school to put in your book.

The Writing Process

Title Page: Glue the diagram into your book. Make it beautiful. Use colour!

Next Page: Personal Writing History. Write a paragraph each for primary school, then Intermediate, then Years 9 & 10 writing experiences and feelings. The last paragraph should be your writing strengths and weaknesses and goals for AS 1. 5

Step One: Prewriting

• What topics in the news have caught your interest this year ?

• What issues drive you mad ?

• In pairs or 4 come up with a list of 6 possible opinion topics to share with the class.

Think Pair Share

• Choose one of the topics, think about it and write a paragraph giving your ideas about it.5 minutes

• Share with a partner 5 minutes• Discuss in a group of 4

Brainstorming

• This is a pre-writing strategy to help you to get ideas.

• Put the topic in the middle of your page and then write around it as many ideas, questions, issues, names and words as you can which come to mind on this topic

• Practice 1: Celebrities

Mapping

• Now look at your brainstorm and think about ways you could organise those ideas under subheadings e.g.

* Celebrity names* Definitions* Behaviour* Positives* Negatives

Thinking Frameworks

• You could use thinking frameworks to help you e.g.

• PMI Plus, Minus, Interesting• 5 Ws and H

Who? What Where? When? Why? How?

Here’s What I Think About

• What parents should know about teenagers• Judging people by what they look like• Do schools prepare us for life?• Should bad drivers be banned from the roads?• Should we allow companies to drill for oil in

our waters?• How to pick a good career for yourself

More Topic Ideas• Should schools install CCTV?• Does Tauranga need a university?• What is your digital footprint?• Arohatia Te Reo!• All NZ students should learn more than one

language• Internet Shopping

A Super Intro • Starts short and sharp or with a shock or

sneaks up on the reader• Sets the scene• States your position• Suggests the scope (what is to come)

Body Paragraphs

Adding evidence

• Statistics E.g. Our NZ Ministry of Health 2013 statistics show that almost 1 in 3 adults (aged 15 years and over) are obese (31%), a further 34% were overweight.A quotation e.g.A wheelchair user, Vivian Naylor, who can't get into a new bank branch in downtown Auckland say its inaccessible design makes New Zealand look like a "Third World" country.

Is That Formal Language?

• No abbreviations: e.g., i.e. etc, &• No contractions e.g. don’t, doesn’t • No informal words e.g. kids, guys, awesome, lol, • Avoid ‘you’ Use instead:• Correct grammar, sentence structure, punctuation• Formal, objective tone• Educated, precise vocabulary• Sentence structure variety

Example

Alcohol can make people stagger about, and it would be stupid to ride a bike after drinking. You get a massive hangover if you drink too much.

Practice

Make the paragraph above more formal

Formal Version

Alcohol can make people unable to balance or to judge distances, and it would therefore be unwise, for instance, to ride a bicycle after taking alcohol. A person who drinks excessively might also suffer from a headache and sickness the following day.

ConnectivesLinking or Signal Words

It is a good idea to use linking words or signal words in your body paragraphs so that the reader knows where you are up to in your argument.