War Horse

War Horse

L/O: to write a review of a book

Success Criteria: I can…

• understand and use paragraphs correctly

• check my work very carefully for capital letters,

missed words and correct punctuation

• create simple, compound and complex sentences on

my own

• plan my work and refer to my plan

• write a review that has an introduction, a main section

and a conclusion.

Writing a Review of “War Horse”

You are going to write a review of

War Horse.

Aim to write 5 paragraphs.

We will look at how to plan this piece

of writing.

Planning Your Writing

Stage One: Thinking

1.What are you writing about?

2.Who are you writing for?

3.Why are you writing? To entertain?

To inform? To amuse? To

persuade? To excite?

Planning Your Writing

Stage Two: Outline

Once you have your ideas, you need to

organise them into some sort of shape or

plan. From your topic web (stage 3) you

should see that some points have fallen

naturally into separate areas or paragraphs

for your article. If some areas seem short of

details you could carry out some extra

research by looking at the text again.

Planning Your Writing

Stage Two: Outline

Paragraph 1: Introduction

Paragraph 2: Background to the story

Paragraph 3: Summary of the book – characters, perspectives, etc.

Paragraph 4: Personal view of the book

Paragraph 5: Conclusion

Now organise your topic web into a series of notes on

each paragraph.

Planning Your Writing

Stage Three: Notes

Produce a topic web of

all of the information you

will include in your

article.

Planning Your Writing

Stage Three: Notes – Topic Web

Book Review

of

War Horse

1. Introduction

______________

______________

______________

2. Background to

the story

______________

______________

______________

3. Plot summary

______________

______________

______________

4. Personal View

______________

______________

______________

5. Conclusion

______________

______________

______________

Planning Your Writing

Stage Four: First Draft

Check that your ideas are grouped together

sensibly and that they make sense.

Now write up your notes, in rough, in carefully

arranged paragraphs. Refer to your “How to

write a book review” notes.

Then go back and add evidence, opinion

phrases, etc.

Planning Your Writing

Stage Five: Neat Copy

When you are finally happy with the

organisation of your rough draft, the next

step is to make sure your spellings and

punctuation are correct. Once you are

happy with this, you are ready to write up

the final draft.

Recap

Stage One: Thinking

Stage Two: OutlineParagraph 1: IntroductionParagraph 2: Background to the storyParagraph 3: Summary of the book – characters, perspectives, etc.

Paragraph 4: Personal view of the bookParagraph 5: Conclusion

Stage Three: Notes (topic web)

Stage Four: First Draft

Stage Five: Neat Copy

Personal Opinions

In my opinion …

This makes me feel …

I think that …

To me …

When I was reading this, I thought …

From my perspective …

My view is that …

I believe that …

From my point of view …

I consider…

The most exciting part…

The characters were excellent

The ending was really exciting…

The best part was…

Evidence

Back up any opinions, thoughts, etc. with

evidence.

e.g.: Topthorn was always there for Joey.

Better to say…

Topthorn was a good friend to Joey. When Joey

first joined the army, he was frightened but

Topthorn often stood next to him to comfort him

and they soon became good friends.