Download Different styles of writing: personal accounts

Different styles of writing: personal accounts
Learning objectives
♦
To analyse different forms of personal account writing including diaries, autobiography
and newspaper columns in terms of writer, genre, audience and purpose.
♦
To produce a piece of extended personal writing which reflects the ideas discussed and
learned from the lesson.
Knowledge
♦
To widen awareness and knowledge of different writers and styles including Samuel
Pepys, Anne Frank, Fergal Keane, Kevin Lewis, Erwin James and Hillary Clinton.
Skills
♦
Reading prose for meaning and making inferences about the writer, genre, audience and
purpose.
♦
Making purposeful and useful annotation.
Resources
Diary Extracts
1. A Life Inside by Erwin James.
2. Letter to Daniel by Fergal Keane.
3. Diary of Samuel Pepys.
4. Diary of Anne Frank.
5. It has to get worse before it can get better by Kevin Lewis.
6. Living History by Hilary Clinton.
7. Dear Raed by Salam Pax.
Starter
Introduce the session and learning objectives.
Use some quotes and discuss with the students:
1. “I always say, keep a diary and some day it'll keep you.” Mae West
2. “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” Pablo Picasso
3. “On what?” [when asked if he had ever thought of writing an autobiography] Chris Eubank
4. “I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead.” Samuel
Goldwyn.
What are their feelings about writing diaries, journals, etc? Why do people write diaries? What
other types of autobiographical writing do they know about? (blogs are recent types of diary
writing) Whose journal/autobiography have they read and would recommend?
Activity
Using the extracts from a variety of pieces of personal writing, ask students to discuss and
annotate one or more of the extracts in groups. If they do this on OHTs then they can easily
present their work to the rest of the class.
Use the questions below to direct annotation.
1. What genre would you say the extract is written in? What features of the extract have
helped you in making this decision?
2. When do you think the extract was written? What evidence are you using for your
decision?
3. What do you learn about the writer from the extract?
4. What do you think is the purpose of this piece of writing? Who or what is the author writing
for – who is the intended audience? What evidence are you using to make this judgment?
Feedback
Each group feeds back on their extract, guiding the rest of the class in noting down key
annotations. Discuss any other points of interest arising from the extract.
Producing a piece of personal writing
Before beginning their piece of extended creative writing, students need to consider:
♦
Who are you? You could write as yourself, or as someone famous, or as someone you
know.
♦
What and who are you writing for? In other words, what is the purpose of your piece of
writing? Who is your audience?
♦
What form or genre are you going to use, and why?
♦
How are you going to keep the interest of your audience?
Page 2 of 3
Sharing of work
Students could select an extract from their piece of writing to read aloud to the group. The other
students should then try to infer who the writer is, what they are writing, who for and why.
For further thought
What happens when you take a piece of writing from one genre and put it into another? What
changes, and why? For example, the popular ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ first appeared as a
newspaper column in The Independent. Helen Fielding, the writer, then turned her columns into a
novel. Following the success of the novel she then went on to write the screenplay for the film of
her novel of her columns…
How would the audience and purpose of Fielding’s work change in each of these manifestations?
Extension
Read some of the books and pieces of writing mentioned during the lesson and recommend ‘good
reads’ to your classmates.
Or….why not start your own blog?!
Page 3 of 3