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Thursday, 3 November 2016

Discourse Markers

 
 
Discourse Markers
 
These go AFTER a full stop and help you to strucure your work.
 
Firstly……
Secondly……
Thirdly……
Finally…….
In the first place…..
To begin with…..
On top of this…..
More importantly………
….but….
….yet….
….whereas….
….while….
….on the other hand…
….by contrast….
However…..
Nevertheless…
On the contrary…….
Instead…..
As for…
Turning to………we find that…..
 For example….
For instance….
Take the case of….
Thus,….
…such as…
…as can be seen…
…as is proven by….
…as shown by
Although…
While it is true that…
Despite the fact that….
In spite of….
Despite this…
In spite of this…
Still….
In conclusion…
In summary..
To sum up….
Overall…
On the whole….
In short…
In brief….

Apostrophes


Apostrophes


Apostrophes have four purposes-

1) To show that one or more letters have been missed out in a word (contractions) eg.

Will not= won’t  I have= I’ve  They are= They’re

2) To show that something belongs to someone (possession)

It is Emma’s pencil.  (The pencil belongs to Emma)

It is Sam’s house.  (The house that belongs to Sam)
If the name ends in an ‘s’ then just put the apostrophe after the ‘s’ eg. It is James’ pen. It is Dennis’ house.
Look below to see how the meanings change depending on where you put the apostrophe-
  My sister's friend's clothes (the clothes belonging to a friend of my sister)
 
My sister's friends' clothes (the clothes belonging to several friends of my sister)
My sisters' friend's clothes (the clothes belonging to a friend of several of my sisters)
My sisters' friends' clothes (the clothes belonging to several friends of several of my sisters)
 
Be careful WHERE you put the apostrophe as it can change the meaning eg.
The pupil’s results (the results belonging to one pupil)
The pupils’ results (the results belonging to lots of pupils)
An apostrophe after the 's' means it belongs to multiple people.
3) Apostrophes for Quoting
If you wrote: Our ‘luxury’ hotel turned out to be a dump the apostrophes would show that you had quoted the word ‘luxury’ from the brochure.
4) Apostrophes for Irony/ Sarcasm
If you wrote: That was a ‘delicious’ dinner then ‘delicious’ would be sarcastic as you put it in apostrophes.

Active or Passive Voice


Active or Passive Voice


Active Voice


The subject is the most important thing. It performs the action (verb), which is received by someone or something (the object) eg.


Emma baked a chocolate cake today.
 
Passive Voice
Sometimes the action that has happened is more important than the person (subject) who did it eg.
The chocolate cake was baked today by Emma.

Alan Peat- Excellent Sentence Types



Here are 25 AMAZING ways to structure your sentences.
 
 
BOYS (But, Or, Yet and So)
She was a good girl, but sometimes she could be really mean.
He could choose to go on, or he could choose to go home.
It was a pleasant day, yet storm clouds loomed on the horizon.
I was dying to have an adventure, so I set off with my map immediately.
 
2A Sentences (Two lots of two adjectives)
She was a short, frumpy woman with ragged, old clothes.
 
Simile (like or as something else)
The stars looked like pin pricks in the sky.
 
All the Ws  (Who? What? Why? When? Where? Was? Will? What if?)
      Why did she not bring her phone?
      What next for the intrepid group?
      Who was lurking in the shadows?
 
List (3 or more adjectives to describe)
It was a dark, cold, moonless night.
 
Ad, Same Ad (Adjective, comma, same adjective again)
It was a dark night, dark in a way which was quite unsettling.
He was a smart boy, smart in a way which made him stand out.
 
3 Bad (dash) Questions
List three things, add a hyphen (-) and ask a question.
Cold, dehydration, sharks- which would kill them first?
Dragons, goblins, trolls- why were there so many threats?
 
Double (ly) Ending
End with two adverbs (-ly words)
He spoke honestly and inspirationally.
 
3 (-ed) Words
Begin with a list of three –ed words (often emotions)
Scared, traumatised and confused, they searched for help.
 
Some: Others
Some people love football: others can’t stand it.
 
Personification of the Weather
Make the weather seem alive by giving it a human feature or emotion.
The wind screamed at the children, warning them to turn back.
The clouds cried down upon the town.
 
Two Pairs (Two lots of paired ideas)
Cold and afraid, lost and tired, they huddled together.
Brave and fearless, strong and handsome, the knight continued his quest.
Paired Conjunction (both/and   not so/as    neither/nor     as/as)
It was not so much the dark that scared him as the creepy house at the top of the hill.
 
The More, the More
The more that they teased her, the more she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs.
 
De: De (Description, colon, detail)
The sharks were deadly creatures: picking off the swimmers one by one.
 
Short Sentences
Game over.
There it was.
 
Verb, Person (Use a verb, a comma, and then a person)
Swimming, Justin had always been terrible at it.
Running, he seemed as though he would never stop.
 
Outside (Inside)
Samantha smiled politely (although inside she was screaming.)
Justin shook his hand (although inside he was incredibly jealous.)
 
If, if, if, then
If he had not agreed to join them, if he had not agreed to but the fireworks, if he had not stupidly set one off, then he would not be in this mess.
 
Emotion Word (Comma)
Petrified, she froze on the spot.
Desperate, she screamed for help.
 
Noun (Burger Sentence)
These use embedded clauses to add extra information in the middle of a sentence.
Emma, who was carrying her heavy books, walked to school.
Justin, who played baseball, forgot his PE kit on the most important day of his school life.
 
Many Questions
Where were the rest of the group? the map? the jewels? the prisoner?
 
Irony
Being sarcastic and using a word in inverted commas to mean the opposite.
This cake is soooo ‘delicious.’
The ‘handsome’ boy turned out to be my friend playing a trick on me.
 
Imagine 3 Examples:
List three things to imagine and then explain using a colon (:)
Imagine a world where there is no Moon, where there are no tides and months were a thing of the past: this is a story about how Earth as we know it changed forever.
 
POSAMS Sentences
Personification
Onomatopoeia
Simile
Alliteration
Metaphor
Senses