Writing composition, Year 9: audience, speech and story

'Well good'

HintFind the phrase you would only say to a friend.

The whyEverything else in the letter is formal: 'request permission', 'hold a charity sale'. Against that, one piece of playground slang jars. A formal alternative would be 'I would be very grateful'. Keeping a tone consistent matters as much as choosing it.

tone

HintWe use the same word for the sound of a voice.

The whyReaders pick it up from word choice, sentence shape and how directly they are addressed. The same facts can be delivered in a friendly, a cold or a sarcastic way, and the reader's response will follow.

Who will read it?

HintPicture the page being opened at the other end.

The whyFormality, warmth and vocabulary are all chosen to fit a particular reader. A note to a friend, a notice for infants and a letter to a councillor could carry the same information and share almost no wording.

B

HintAsk which one sounds like a person and which like an office.

The whyOpening A is formal, accurate and completely wrong for the moment: its distance reads as coldness. Matching tone to audience sometimes means choosing warmth and plain words over formality.

sorry

HintWrite out in full the word that the slang version shortens.

The whyThe message is the same; the audience has changed, so the abbreviations and slang go. 'I am sorry, but I cannot come tomorrow' says to a teacher exactly what the text says to a friend.

A listener cannot go back and re-read

HintThink about what your eyes are able to do on a page and your ears are not able to do in a hall.

The whyA reader who loses the thread of a long sentence can start it again. An audience gets one chance, so a speech keeps each sentence to an idea that can be held in the mind while the next one arrives.

Repetition helps listeners follow and remember

HintThink about how the chorus of a song works.

The whyHeard words vanish as they are spoken, so a repeated phrase gives the audience something to hold on to and builds a rhythm they can feel. What looks clumsy on a page can sound powerful in a hall.

Pause

HintFor a second, no sound should come out at all.

The whyA script for speaking is marked up for delivery. A slash for a short stop and underlining for stress are common, and they let the speaker rehearse the timing instead of leaving it to luck.

Say it with emphasis

HintMake it land harder than its neighbours.

The whyMoving the stress changes the meaning: 'THIS must stop' picks out the problem, 'must' insists, and 'today' sets the deadline. Marking the word in advance means the speaker decides which meaning the audience hears.

aloud

HintUse your voice, not just your eyes.

The whyThe tongue trips where a sentence is too long or a phrase too stiff, and the ear hears what the eye passes over. Anything you stumble on, rewrite as you would actually say it.

Foreshadowing

HintA shadow falls ahead of the thing that casts it.

The whyIt prepares the reader, so that when the event comes it feels both surprising and right. A storm gathering, a casual warning or a frayed rope mentioned in passing can all do the job.

Flashback

HintFilms often signal it with a blur or a change of colour.

The whyIt lets a writer start in the middle of the action and supply the background when the reader is ready to care about it. The danger is confusion, so the step into the past has to be clearly marked.

perfect

HintThe verb is built with 'had'.

The whyThe past perfect places one past event before another, so 'had loved' tells the reader we have moved further back. Writers often use it for the first sentence or two of a flashback, then slip into the simple past once the shift is clear.

That the two lovers will die

HintRead the last three words of the line literally.

The whyKnowing the end changes how every scene is watched: each hopeful moment is shadowed by what is coming. Shakespeare gives up surprise in exchange for dread. 'Star-cross'd' means opposed by the stars, that is, by fate.

The bridge will fail at a crucial moment

HintA detail planted on purpose has to be paid for before the end.

The whyA hint that never pays off is a loose end, and readers feel cheated by it. The planting works best when it is quiet: mentioned once, among other details, so that the reader half forgets it until the moment arrives.