Year 12 Homework - Grammar Revision Thursday 24th September

Your homework this week is to revise some grammar terms in preparation for our learning next week. Most of these are terms that you should already know from your GCSE study, but some of them may be new to you. We will go over them in class, but you need to have done this activity first.

Below is a link to a set of revision cards on Quizlet:

Grammar Quiz

You need to revise these terms ready for a test on Thursday 1st October. You have a week to learn the terms (there are different activities you can do to learn them) and I expect you to be confident in them all. Having a quick look at them is not enough - you need to get close to 100% correct!

How are the Kardashians and Lena Dunham changing women's speech?

I heard a nice little piece on the radio over the summer whilst driving my kids to Fountain's Abbey - they were thrilled to be listening to Radio 4 ;)

If you have a spare ten minutes have a listen. It describes how the phenomenon of 'Vocal Fry' has increased recently, led by certain celebrities. You can find it here: Vocal Fry on Woman's Hour

You can also listen to some examples of vocal fry on youtube too, if you have a hunt around.

Y9 Homework set Tuesday 22nd September

Due Friday 25th Sepember

Using the ideas you have gained from Tuesday's lesson, I would like you to write a list of quotations from each person that you have interviewed. What are they likely to have said to you, that you could use in your newspaper report? You need at least two quotations from each person (the victim, the Sheriff and the Boss)

For example:

Mary Lou Hobbs: "It was awful - he just wouldn't let go of my dress."

More about fonts... Graphology

An article from online about font choices. How are individuals being represented here simply by their choice of font?

What Your Font Says About You

There was a time when companies kept graphologists on staff to analyze candidates’ handwriting. Today, many employers are looking at your choice of typefaces to determine your character and suitability for a job. 

So what does your choice of font say about you? A lot more than you think; a recent study by researchers at Wichita State University has revealed that your typeface can reflect your personality type, mood, and attitude. Find out what your favourite font says about you—and when it's appropriate to use it. 

Serif Fonts

These are the fonts with rounded edges on the letters, or extra strokes added to the top and bottom of each character. These details are called ‘serifs’.

·         Times New Roman: Stable, polite, conformist, mature, formal, and practical, TNR is your best bet for business and technical documents, Web text, online news and tests, and spreadsheets. Your all-business font of choice.

·         Monospaced fonts:  Also known as fixed-width, all the characters of this typeface take up the same amount of horizontal width.

·         Courier New: Poor Courier—study respondents deemed it rigid, sad, dull, unattractive, plain, coarse, and masculine, in addition to conformist and mature. You may want to try it for cold, unemotional ‘Dear John’ letters, if at all.

Sans Serif Fonts

These are the typefaces without the embellishments that distinguish serif typefaces—sans means without in French.

·         Arial: Stable and conformist like TNR, this font was also judged unimaginative by those surveyed. Best for spreadsheets, Web headlines, and PowerPoint presentations—so if you’re planning on rocking the company boat at your next meeting, this font could give your ideas authority.

·         Verdana:  Dull, according to respondents. Best for online tests, math documents, computer programming, spreadsheets and PowerPoint. Oh, and instant messaging—we’re not sure why you’d want to appear dull in a text message, but it was ranked second for this purpose.

·         Scripted/fun fonts: Typefaces with a personal, informal touch, designed to resemble calligraphy or handwriting.

·         Comic Sans: The wacky uncle of the font family, subjects described this one as youthful, casual, and passive. Save it for Web graphics, documents aimed at kids, and digital scrapbooking. A fun choice for invitations to kids’ parties.

·         Gigi:  Meet the sex kitten of the typeface universe. Flexible, creative, happy, exciting, attractive, elegant, cuddly, and feminine—these were the adjectives associated with this ornate sans serif font. Also, unstable, rebellious, youthful, casual, passive, and impractical, making Gigi perhaps the most complex typeface of them all. Judged suitable for E-greetings and nothing else, so approach this font with caution.

·         Display or modern fonts: Dramatic, striking fonts, including the grotesque style.

·         Impact: Here’s another font that you may want to use sparingly if at all: the assertive, rigid, rude, sad, unattractive, plain, coarse and masculine Impact. Deemed appropriate for Web headlines only (presumably the scary ones), this typeface is best avoided.

 

The final word on fonts? Feel free to play around with your personal correspondence, but stick to the classics like Times New Roman and Arial, particularly at work. No one wants to read a legal brief in curly, cuddly Gigi.

http://www.readersdigest.ca/home-garden/money/what-your-font-says-about-you/

 

 

This font is called Gigi

 

This font is called Times New Roman

 

This font is called Arial

 

This font is called Comic Sans

 

This font is called Verdana

 

This font is called Impact

 

This font is called Courier New

 

Year 12 Homework Set Thursday 17th September. 
Due Date Thursday 24th September

1. Find two texts. These can be anything - something out of the recycling bin, a newspaper / magazine cutting, something out of your pocket / bag. It can be anything with writing on it.

For each of the texts, write a brief paragraph describing what you think is the Genre, Audience, Purpose and Mode.
* You may be able to find one or two language features that you can link to each of the above. E.g. "The use of adjectives with positive connotations, like "amazing" and "superlative" tie in to the text's persuasive nature, as they serve to create a positive meaning in the mind of the reader. 

2. Start a mind map for each of the language frameworks, so that you can add further information and terms to them as you progress through the course. Add the definitions and examples from the sheet we looked at, and add anything else from your notes so far.