iGCSE Transactional Writing

  1. Introducing Transactional Writing
  2. Addressing and engaging
  3. Transactional Tasks
  4. Transactional Writing: Coursework
  5. Tighten up techniques

โ†ง

Introducing Transactional Writing

LO: To consider how we can approach a transactional writing task.

What does transactional mean? How is it different from descriptive or narrative?

Have you written anything transactional recently?

FYI: Ms. Rahman & Mr. Bruges are marking and moderating your exams now - we will aim to give feedback next week.

Transactional = (adjective) relating to exchange or interaction between people.

Writing with purpose

We write for many reasons:

  • To entertain
  • To express
  • To inform
  • To persuade

When we write transactionally, we are aiming to communicate information.

List as many forms of transactional writing as you can think of.

Why might this be the most useful thing you learn at school?

What does it look like?

This is a real email, sent by a real teacher to a real parent (not of someone in this class!).

Teachers send dozens of these every day.

Summarise the purpose of each sentence in this email. Why has it been included?

Sentence Purpose
1 "Dear Mr Smith," To greet the parent
2 "Thank you..." ....
3 "In answer..." ....

Dear Mr. Smith,
Thank you for your email โ€“ I hope you are keeping well.
In answer to your question, students will be completing a creative writing task for the summer assessment.
To aid your child's revision, I have uploaded our recent sequence of lessons to our Teams page.
Please let me know when your child has accessed the information, and I will follow up with him.
Best wishes, Mr Bruges

Plenary: writing replies

Imagine you are Mr. Smith. You would like to persuade Mr. Bruges to provide some extra homework for your child.

Write a reply to the email.

Think:

  • Are you following the rules of politeness?
  • What is the purpose of each of your sentences?
  • What sort of language would be appropriate?

Dear Mr. Smith,
Thank you for your email โ€“ I hope you are keeping well.
In answer to your question, students will be completing a creative writing task for the summer assessment.
To aid your child's revision, I have uploaded our recent sequence of lessons to our Teams page.
Please let me know when your child has accessed the information, and I will follow up with him.
Best wishes, Mr Bruges

Addressing and engaging

You've just received this email. Write a polite response, declining the offer of extra homework..

Dear Student,

Reviewing your recent work in the end-of-term assessments, we are recommending that you receive additional homework to complete over the Summer Break.
This work will be provided to you on Teams.
Please respond to this email confirming your receipt.
Best wishes,

Rewrite the above email to be more persuasive.

Different Tones, Different Types

Transactional writing is all about relationships: between the writer and the reader. We write transactionally because we want to communicate something, and receive something in return (even if that something is just 'acknowledgement' or 'understanding').

So the way we write depends on who we're writing to.

๐Ÿ…ฐ๏ธ Hi Ms Rahman,
When you get a min, could you send me that Y10 data?
It's the stuff we talked about the other day. Need it ASAP.
Thanks

๐Ÿ…ฑ๏ธ Dear Ms. Misra,
I hope you're having a good afternoon.
When time allows, would you be able to share the previously-discussed Year 10 data-sheet?
Many thanks,

๐Ÿ…ฐ๏ธ and ๐Ÿ…ฑ๏ธ ask for the same thing; how do they differ?

Scenario: The Lost Laptop

You, stupidly, have left your laptop somewhere.
There are only three places it could be:

  1. Your best friend's house
  2. The Principal's Office
  3. The local McDonald's

How will you get it back?

Write three emails - one to each place - asking for the laptop to be returned. Remember to tailor your tone to the person you're writing to!
Your email should be no more than five sentences long.

The Lost Laptop

Compare your responses to your partner's. What sort of language have they used?

Which was the most difficult email to write, which was the easiest?

Plenary

How do we determine how formal to make our writing? Who might we be writing to? Draw this spectrum line into your books and add names/organisations/people to it.


๐Ÿฉณ INFORMAL <-------------------------> FORMAL ๐Ÿ‘”

Write two invitations to your birthday party: one to the most formal recipient on your line, and one to the most informal.

Transactional Tasks

LO: To consider how the exam-board frame the transactional writing questions

Think back to your last lesson. Write down three ways we determine the level of formality in our writing.

How might formality change the attitude of the person you're communicating with?

Purpose, Audience, Context แ—งยทยทยท๐Ÿ‘ป

Why we're writing is important, as is who we are writing to, and for what reason.

The easy way to remember this is:

  • PURPOSE: why we're writing
  • AUDIENCE: who we're writing to
  • CONTEXT: what extra information

...whenever you start writing, always check you know what these are

1๏ธโƒฃ A letter to your boss, asking for some extra holiday time

2๏ธโƒฃ A text to your friend, suggesting a film to watch later

3๏ธโƒฃ A speech to be delivered to parents at the school's open day

Write the P/A/C for each of the scenarios on the right, and how formal it should be

Transactional Writing: Coursework

LO: To begin planning our final piece of coursework

Write down three persuasive techniques you can use in your writing to convey your point of view

Write a short paragraph convincing the school to let you wear non-uniform.

Assignment requirements

  • A 500-800 word piece of writing to discuss, argue and/or persuade in response to a source text
  • The source text may consist of facts, opinions and/or arguments which can be selected, analysed and evaluated by the candidate and can be integrated into their own views.
  • Candidates respond to the text by selecting, analysing and evaluating the ideas and opinions in the source text

How is this different from your descriptive and narrative writing?

Assessment objectives

Writing Reading
The style you write your response in The ideas and evidence you take from your source text
Effective style. (W1) Successfully evaluates ideas and opinions, both explicit and implicit. (R1, R2, R3)
Secure overall structure, organised to help the reader. (W2) Assimilates ideas from the text to give a developed, sophisticated response. (R3, R5)
Wide range of vocabulary, used with some precision. (W3)
Effective register for audience and purpose. (W4)
Spelling, punctuation and grammar mostly accurate, with occasional minor errors. (W5) 15 marks each for both Writing and Reading
๐Ÿ“ท by Josh Withers

Looking at an exemplar

"Should we ban teenagers from using social media?"

Exemplar answer ๐Ÿ’ฏ

Source text ๐Ÿ“ฐ

๐Ÿ“ท by Myznik Egor

Choosing a source text

Choose a source text from the selection, or find your own!
Files on teams ๐Ÿ“ฐ

  • You should choose a source text on a topic you are interested by.

  • You will need to read and understand the journalist's point of view, then decide to what extent you agree or disagree with them.

  • Use the table on the next slide to help break down the ideas.

๐Ÿ“ท by Elena Mozhvilo

Analysing your source text

  1. Summarise the main argument in a SINGLE sentence
  2. Pick out and highlight five main points being made by the writer
  3. Note down your agreement/disagreement with each one, weighing up your point of view
The source says........... I think....................
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Typing up your draft: sentence starters & targets

  • Rhetorical questions:
    • "Surely you would agree...?"
    • "How could any one think...?"
    • "Would you be pleased if...?"
  • Equivocating connectives:
    • "Although it's fair to say....., I'd argue..."
    • "Whilst I recognise....., wouldn't it..."
    • "Your point about..... is a valid one, but misses a crucial detail: ...."
    • "On the one hand,...., but on the other...."

I have...
โ˜‘๏ธ Typed my work into the Google Doc
๐Ÿ”ฒ Made a clear point for my argument at the beginning of every paragraph
๐Ÿ”ฒ Referenced +2 quotations per para
๐Ÿ”ฒ Addressed the journalist directly
๐Ÿ”ฒ Used a range of connectives and sentence styles
๐Ÿ”ฒ Used rhetorical devices like questions, repetition, triplets, similes, hyperbole...

Tighten up techniques

Read this real world example of a letter to a newspaper

To what extent do you agree?

A real world example

  • Short sentences
  • Embedded quotations
  • Direct and to the point
  • Equivocating balance of agreement and disagreement

Weasel words

Weasel word (noun) words and phrases used to make vague claims sound like facts.

Write your own weasel-worded sentence, arguing against homework

Why might a writer choose to use words like this?

Persuasive Techniques ๐Ÿš€

Research and write a definition and an example for as many of these devices as you can

  • Pronouns
  • Opinion
  • Direct address
  • Personal anecdote
  • Emotive language
  • Rhetorical questions
  • Facts as opinion
  • Exaggeration
  • Commands
  • Triplets & threats
  • Metaphor & simile
  • Alliteration
  • Repetitions
  • Statistics

  • Rank the techniques in order of effectiveness

Final submissions: language

In your Google Drive folder, you should have:

  • Descriptive final draft
  • Narrative final draft
  • Transactional final draft

Today, I will come round and give feedback for you to work on with the Transactional

If you are missing any drafts, speak to me now! We are now way past the submissions deadline.

In your transactional, have you... โ˜‘๏ธ
Proof-read and reviewed all your spelling? ๐Ÿ”ฒ
Used a range of sentence structures and starters? ๐Ÿ”ฒ
Clearly stated your overall argument in the opening? ๐Ÿ”ฒ
Used a range of persuasive techniques? ๐Ÿ”ฒ
Quoted the article multiple times in each paragraph? ๐Ÿ”ฒ

Purpose, audience and context

| ๐Ÿ“‚ Link to
Submission Folder | | :---: | | [A Jha](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vwfZdcuLQm0ItR_3dCHTi-y3zZTOFc9r) | | [A Sharapov](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1X1SBA6ogGHiyI8kJTpAUQ86bGymSbDXc) | | [A Hoffman](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uB7ZRKn-w5XzGYiepUIb7DhGGPUMZ1cn) | | [A Hamouda](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jDQGaGZe4pPWHyYzEz3byE_AiU0KIUA7?usp=drive_link) | | [A Farook](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AtP1y-BTVK99PYTiY7mMTSv2cZ5ebzfc) | | [A Aurakzai](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-8rB5gjHk17c1XD7O5LtsRoDUjJOGPmE?usp=drive_link) | | [I Balaguer](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JvXx8seMDAjAS84Z1kjqm0rFnt1I6an6?usp=drive_link) | | [J Solomon](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14c2BRoUVe1jHl2QoCiwsWG8Hu2f3DGp_?usp=drive_link) | | [J Elmahdy](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ifzncM-NIX0JltrMxHLZqt1ZIc5H88vl?usp=drive_link) | | [M Gulyaev](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OMeQiPJgnO-j9aehKLguG1E2B2vnnECU?usp=drive_link) | | [M Matharu](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VUeS0UnGR0rdcm9wy2lsDPvmMmFgwA35) | | [P Boiocchi](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ofOdz6Dc-5n6O4Qnvid43kYhXa4vtQbE?usp=drive_link) | | [R Murphy](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YiODtRgElCzURQQ98nz4mhrao8yWMxU-?usp=drive_link) | | [S Rafiei](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CGVnzz-b2C4f1_wG8cXLTEohJlAfW7lE?usp=drive_link) |