Death, Obituaries and Satire

Exploring Obituaries

An obituary is a text found in newspapers and, increasingly, online which outlines the life and achievements of someone who has recently died.

As with all texts, there are some key linguistic and stylistic features which are common to this form of writing:

Purpose: to inform the reader about someone's life and achievements; to show respect for a person's life and to give a truthful account of their life.

Audience: reader interested in the life of that person - often well known; can be interesting to find out about people you didn't know about; part of the newspaper - towards the back - adult audience - broadsheet reader.

Structure & Discourse: written mode; introductory paragraph with the name, age, date / reason of death, overview of what they were well known for (this can be over a couple of paragraphs before starting the chronological account of a life); predominantly past tense. Present tense used to describe the family left behind e.g he is survived by...../ he leaves a wife and two children....; paragraphs reflect different aspects of the person's life; clear discourse markers to denote a chronological structure e.g then. after that, in 2006; starts with birth and parentage > education> marriage / relationships> key jobs > key interests>reference to the funeral; third person.

Lexis & Semantics: proper nouns with names and places important in the person's life; lexical field of family; lexical field of area person was involved with e.g business, art etc; positive use of lexis; adjectives to describe character and achievements; modified formal - accessible lexis. Not reliant on imagery.

Grammar: declarative in mood - informative in tone; use of embedded clauses to add information about the person; starts sentences in a variety of ways e.g with subordinate clauses; sometimes use of quotation in direct speech; no contracted forms;

Phonology: an obituary in a newspaper might have a headline - alliterative, pun (if appropriate) but phonological features are not a specific feature.

Read through the example obituaries below and aim to identify as many features as you can:

Peaches Geldof

Sargy Mann

Major General Walsh Obituary


Exploring Swift's 'A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General' 


Jonathan Swift Work

A Satirical Elegy Cut Up

Extension reading: Guardian Article on the poem

She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron

Hello

Today you will be exploring and analysing the poem 'She Walks in Beauty' by Lord Byron.

1. Spend 15 minutes researching Lord Byron. What makes him an interesting character? Which literary period is he associated with? What are the key features of that period? What is a 'byronic hero'?

2. Read the poem carefully and annotate thoroughly. How is the woman presented? What attitudes does the speaker have towards the woman? You can use the framework for guidance or you can use the more specific questions attached here. You can choose the level you work at. Perhaps start off with the challenge and then move on to the focussed questions.

3. By the end of the lesson you need to have a summative paragraph on the speaker's attitude to the woman.

EXT: Continue your work from last week finding points of comparisons between the poems with the theme of love.

Your first focus should be on creating a summary of each poem with a focus on the different attitudes and themes considered in each poem about love.

There is a Garden in her Face

Dear All

Today you will be exploring the poem 'There is a Garden in her Face' by Thomas Campion. The aim of the lesson is to understand some of the Elizabethan ideals of beauty and how this has an impact on some of the images the poet uses. You will also be focussing on the different linguistic and literary devices used throughout the poem. Finally, I would like you to make connections with other poems we have studied.

Task 1: Read the poem. Who is the speaker? Who is he describing? What do we learn about the speaker and the person the poem is about?

Task 2: How does the person described match the Elizabethan notions of beauty? Refer to Elizabethan Beauty 1 and Elizabethan Beauty 2

Task 3: How is the poem structured? What rhythm does it have? What is the rhyme scheme? How is the structure repeated? What effect does the rhyme, rhythm and structure have?

Task 4: Create a collage of images from the poem and write quotations underneath the images you have chosen. Aim to illustrate the poem in as much detail as possible.

Task 5: Find examples of declarative tone; positive adjectives; colour imagery; imagery of wealth and exoticism; alliteration; simile; metaphor; dynamic / violent verb; anaphora; discourse marker to show opposition;

Task 6: Find a range of thematic AND linguistic connections to other poems we have studied which share the theme of love. Think about similarities in how the poets present their ideas and attitudes to love.

Enjoy!

Nina

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Hello!

Let's do some Shakespeare!

Today you are going to do some research on sonnets, finding out about the structure of a Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet and about the themes associated with the form.

You will explore two of Shakespeare's sonnets: Sonnet 73 and Sonnet 130. Your objective is to be able to compare and contrast how Shakespeare presents the theme of love in these sonnets.

We will work through the tasks on this PPT.

Sonnet Sorting Task

Linguistic Prompts

Have fun! 😄

Love and Relationships Essay

Dear all


You should now have notes on To My Dear and Loving Husband and the article on What are the Tricks to a Happy Marriage?


Using your notes, write response to the following task:


How is the theme of relationships presented in To My Dear and Loving Husband and What are the Tricks to a Happy Marriage?


You have the lesson to complete the task.


Nina

Comparative Writing

Hello

Lots and lots to do today! There is a real focus on building up comparisons between texts as well as continued focus on analysing a text closely. By the end of the lesson you should be able to show me at least two well constructed paragraphs!

Task One

In pairs, look through your notes on To My Dear and Loving Husband and How do I Love Thee?

Add any notes to your framework.

Task Two

In pairs, write an overview of each poem. This would form an introduction to a piece of writing on the texts for example to respond to the question: How is the theme of love presented in To My Dear and Loving Husband and How do I Love Thee?

Make sure you comment on the following (GRAMPS):

Genre - what type of text is it? Fiction? Non-fiction? Literary? Crafted? Where is it from? Where would you find it?

(W)riter - when were they writing? Male? Female? Is this important?

Audience - who is the text aimed at? Why would they want to read the text?

Mode - is it written? Are there spoken elements?

Purpose - what is it for? What does it do? Does it have more than one purpose?

Subject - this is the most important bit! What is the text about? What are the key themes, ideas and attitudes presented in the texts? What are the key similarities and differences to the txts? Make sure you explicitly link to the title of the essay.

Task Three

Read the text on Happy Marriage. Copy and paste the text into a word document and annotate thoroughly using the framework as a guide.

This text was used as a comparison with the Anne Bradstreet poem. You can read the mark scheme for some more ideas.

Task Four

Write at least one comparative paragraph discussing how the theme of marriage is presented in the texts.

Happy comparing!

Nina

A2 Commentary Writing

• Read through the different exemplar commentaries and complete the table in the link below:

Exemplar Commentary Task

• Write or revisit a commentary for the obituary task (or another one if your prefer - you could redo the exam one). Aim to write a more comprehensive version of it, focussing on why you have chosen specific lexical and semantic choices in particular.

• Text Adaptation Task: Writing in the Tropics

Radio 4 is running a series of programmes on the theme of 'World Cities'. Using information from page 274 (third paragraph) to page 275 ( before the break), write an introduction to and a segment of the programme based on the theme of noise.