Braodsheet review- homework instructions

BROADSHEET REVIEW

 

Choose a quality piece of journalism, from a broadsheet newspaper, which is comment or opinion-based.  Good papers to use include: The Herald, Scotsman, Times, Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, Scotland on Sunday, Sunday Herald, Observer on Sunday etc. You can use an on-line article if you wish.

 

•     Read through the article and then complete the following:

 

1.   a summary of the main point / argument of the article, including date, paper and journalist’s name (try to include purpose and audience if you can- why it was written and who it was written for!)

 

2.         a summative analysis of key features of the writer’s craft

a.         tone and register

b.         word choice and imagery

c.         use of humour

d.         use of anecdote / statistics / expert witness

e.         structure, including linking paragraphs, contrasts and developments of argument

f.          specific use of rhetorical skills such as hyperbole and understatement, antithesis, climax and anti climax

 

3.A brief conclusion evaluating the success of the piece.

 

One of these should be completed every 2 weeks, due in on a Wednesday.  After the initial few, they should not take you longer than 15 minutes. As you get more and more feedback, your reviews should become better and better with time! Note form is acceptable if clearly headed.

HIgher homework- due Friday 23rd

•Revise notes


•Complete Scottish text questions below:

The Cone Gatherers by Robin Jenkins – Passage 3

The following section of text comes from the opening of Chapter Five and gives further elaboration on the character of Neil.

In Neil, so canny about admitting happiness, all the hindrances had vanished, one by one, like the early mists over the loch. Now, in the warmth and splendour he sang softly the sad Gaelic song that had been his mother’s favourite: it was about a girl who, though without tocher or dowrie, still did not lack sweethearts. He sang it Gaelic, although his knowledge of that ancestral language was grown meager and vague.

Among those hindrances to happiness had been the big gamekeeper. He could not forget Duror’s quiet, inconceivable hatred; and all last night he had felt that his and Calum’s argument over the trapped rabbit would in some way be sensed by the gamekeeper, strengthening his vow to have them driven from the wood. In the morning sunlight, however, that fear of their desperate pity being detectable in the dead fur and glazed eyes seemed ridiculous. Duror would come to the ride, pick up the rabbit, and put it into his bag, without even thinking about them. Indeed, according to what Mr. Tulloch had said, the gamekeeper had enough to worry him in that his wife had been an invalid for many years. If they kept out of his way, they would not be troubled by him; and how much more out of the way could they be than at the top of this ninety-foot larch?

Another hindrance had been the constant sight of the mansion house chimneys, reminding him of their hut, which to him remained a symbol of humiliation. But this morning he remembered what Mr. Tulloch had said about the lady: she was rich and high in rank, but she was also generous and just; and her son, the thin boy in the red cap, had waved to them and shouted in a friendly voice. Those people represented the power of the world, and so long as he was humble it would be benignant. He and Calum would be humble. In spite of his bitterness, humility and acquiescence in public had always been his instinctive defence: so far it had been successful enough.

The greatest and most persistent obstacle was, of course, the fear of what would become of his brother if he were to die. Though he was a healthy man, except for his rheumatism in wet weather, he could meet with any of a number of likely accidents: a fall from a tree, for instance; a wound from axe or rutter, followed by lock-jaw; pneumonia after a day’s soaking on the hill; even an adder bite. Once, when suffering from a suppurating finger caused by a splinter from a fence stop, he had been chafed by Mr. Tulloch for looking so solemn and frightened over what, by manly standards, was a trivial injury. He had confided in the forrester, who had listened with a smile of sympathy, and assured him there was no need to worry about Calum, who would always find a place at Ardmore. Neil had learned that even kindness made promises it could not fulfill, but he had been grateful to Mr. Tulloch and afterwards his heart had been lighter. In the larch tree this morning, when he examined that promise anew, he found it fresh and sound.

Practice Questions on Passage 3

 

1.       2.       3.         4.       5.

Analyse the writer’s use of language in the first sentence of the extract (lines 1-2) to effectively convey Neil’s state of mind.     Show how word choice is used in lines 7-17 to express Neil’s initial perception of Duror as a ‘hindrance’.     Referring closely to lines 18-26, explain clearly in your own words Neil’s interpretation of the Runcie-Campbell household and his course of action towards them in response.     Analyse the effect of sentence structure in lines 27-39 in revealing Neil’s thoughts as they develop.     Discuss how well the presentation of Neil’s character in this section reflects his development as a character in the rest of the novel.

3       2                          2       3         10       (20)

Have a great holiday!!!