hello and welcome back to another gcsc revision lesson now I made this lesson specifically for the edexel gang in another words for those of you who are going to be sitting the English language paper 2 exam according to the Ed Exel syllabus I want to show you guys how you can craft a perfect response for Section B which is the transactional writing question now this question carries a massive amount of marks it's worth 40 marks in this entire paper therefore you do need to allocate a significant amount of time to this part of the exam and of course even going into the exam you need to be able to anticipate what questions and what forms of writing you should be questioned on so that you can prepare in advance know the form know the layout and also most importantly know what to talk about okay now remember when it comes to transactional writing for the Ed Exel exam you always get a choice of two questions okay you always get two questions it can either be an article a letter or a speech whatever right you're given a choice of one question question number eight and then another question question number nine pick one don't do both okay now when it comes to this portion of the exam remember that you should try to spend at least 45 to 50 minutes on this question simply because it counts towards 40 marks of this overall paper therefore it will make or break your mark now this particular part of the exam always test your awareness of form audience and purpose what do I mean by Form audience and purpose number one when it comes to form it tends to test your awareness of for example if you asked to write a speech do you know how a speech is laid out if you asked to write a letter can you illustrate an awareness of how a letter is laid out if you're asked to write a leaflet a guide even for instance sometimes in very rare circumstances you're even asked to write things like travel guides are you able to demonstrate an awareness of form when you're writing out your response in relation to the question that you are given okay so that's the first thing that's really really important you need to know and to show a demonstration of your awareness of form okay that's the first thing however of course closely tied to form is audience right so you might be asked to write a letter to an MP you might be asked to give a speech to your peers you might be asked to write a travel guide for people who are going traveling you need to write in a way where you're pitching to these different audiences okay so for instance if you're writing a Trel guide you need to write in a really exciting way perhaps adding a little bit more informality because this is something that you're writing for somebody who is reading it in their Leisure they want they don't want to read something that feels like an essay this is very different to the audience that would be for instance a letter to an MP you're writing in an incredibly formal way okay so of course you also need to demonstrate an awareness of different audiences but of course also most importantly you need to show an awareness of purpose purpose simply means are you able to fulfill the primary purpose which is to inform regardless of the form that you're asked to look at right regardless of whether it's a letter an article or speech a guide leaflet whatever the primary purpose of what you are writing remember for transactional writing is to inform the secondary purpose is to entertain hence when you're writing these different forms of writing you need to write in a way that's quite engaging for your reader you need to write in a way that's quite captivating from all the different letters that they could be reading from all the different speeches that they could be sitting through why would they pick yours in particular you do so by making it engaging even from the opening rather than starting your speech with I am writing the speech for or starting your letter with I'm writing this letter or even for example a guide this travel guide I'm writing this travel guide to inform you about this country that's boring okay so you need to also illustrate an awareness of purpose primary purpose is always to inform secondary purposes to entertain okay now as you can see behind me there are different color coding for the different forms of transactional writing what I want to show you guys is actually when it comes to transactional writing you don't need to stress out too much as to what's going to come up in the test because you can literally anticipate okay say if I get to if I'm asked to write a leaflet this is the layout and this is the form that I need to demonstrate if I'm asked to write for example a guide this is the layout if I'm asked to write a speech this is the layout so I'm going to walk you through that right now before and then walking through the different techniques and devices you should include in any transactional writing and to show you actually it's actually quite straightforward once you understand the form there's actually a very standard approach that you can take for any question that comes up okay so I'm going to walk you guys through that before I then show you one model answer that I have prepared so the first set of forms which to be honest you can use exactly the same layout is if you're asked to either produce an article a leaflet a guide a review or report I would argue that you can take this specific layout in this form this six-step form for either of these different forms of writing okay so if you're asked to produce an article or a leaflet or a guide or review a report start off with a title or a headline right at the center keep it to five maximum six words to make it easy you can look at the key wordss in the question turn that into a rhetorical question that immediately informs your reader that you know what the article is about what the guide is about what the report is about Okay so irrespective of what comes up start off with your headline then in your opening paragraph This is where you address what you're supposed to be talking about okay when you're again starting either article leaflet guide review report do not start by saying in this review I will talk to you about this book that I've most recently read which is really really interesting that's boring do not start by saying in this leaflet I will tell you the importance of volunteering that's really really boring a good way to open your paragraph and to fulfill the the secondary purpose of making your writing your transactional writing entertaining is think about the opposing view try to create a sense of conflict maybe for instance let's say you were asked to produce uh a uh an article based on the importance of traveling for instance or why it's really good to travel or why we should have really um important possessions right you can then Begin by stating there are many people who don't think possessions are really important there are many people who don't think traveling is important but I disagree I think traveling is powerful traveling is important it's engaging it's enriching etc etc okay so in your opening paragraph do not start with in this article I will in this leaflet I will in this review it's boring try to make it entertaining and engaging by presenting perhaps a counter viiew then you say actually even if some people think this actually I'm here to tell you why it's really interesting why you should you know um if it's a travel guide why you should travel to Japan for instance okay that's your opening paragraph for either of these then include your first subheading break up the text make it easy for your reader to digest what you are writing about okay subheading is really really brief it's just a mini headline okay five or six words long think about what you're going to talk about in your preceding paragraphs then just kind of create a very brief subheading then this is the most important aspect of transactional writing this is where students make this work way more complicated than it needs to be in the question that you get you always get bullet points you get a minimum of three bullet points you're asked to address the question and then you're given by Ed Exel very very help hopefully three areas within the bullet points that you can focus on use them for your main body paragraph So now after you've added your opening paragraph is sub heading your main body points would literally be first paragraph your first body paragraph would literally address the first bullet point go into detail based on that bullet point then your second body paragraph will literally address the second bullet point in lots of detail then your third body paragraph will address the third bullet point Ed XL has literally given you within those three bullet points your essay plan okay so use that use that to help you okay so then of course once you're done with your all your main points maybe add a second subheading to just break it up make it easier for your reader eyes to Glide over your article leaflet guide review or report before you finish off by closing your discussion now when it comes to a letter or an email I've grouped them together because they're basically to do with corresponding with somebody okay so irrespective of whether you're asked to write a letter or an email this is the standard approach to take for this transactional writing task start off with either for your letter writing an address so of course add the recipient um MP John Smith one Westminster way Westminster London sw11 KB right so this is a madeup address or if it's an email add your email title okay so for instance let's say you're writing uh an email to your mp uh Regarding why uh environmental um pollution is is a big issue right so then the title would be um environmental pollution colon what do we need to do or what we need to do okay so something really basic something quite straightforward okay so you either go for either of those depending whether it's a letter or an email then of course just for your letter include a date write the day that in which you're writing don't make up some fictional date in the future just write the date that you're writing this particular letter of course you don't have to add a date for an email then for both of them now okay so now this is the standard approach either a letter or an email this is what you do dear whoever you address the person that's receiving that letter or that email then you go into your opening paragraph introduce the issue make it really interesting don't say in this letter I will't talk about or in this email I will talk it's boring okay try to make it engaging try to make it interesting then your main body paragraphs when you go into lots of detail as to why you take your approach is literally again Guided by the bullet points in the question bullet point 1 2 and three that's literally what goes into your main paragraphs so your first body paragraph is what you're asked to talk about and addressing the first bullet point in the question second body paragraph goes with the second bullet point third body paragraph goes with a third bullet point before in your email or in your letter you add a closing paragraph to close off your discussion and then finish off by signing off by saying kindri Gods your name and surname your sincerely I personally prefer kindri Gods only because it's really easy to spell the final form to Bear to pay attention to is a speech you might be asked in your transactional writing portion of your exam to produce a speech again speech is super easy super straightforward to be clear on in terms of form now when it comes to speech remember you always begin by addressing your audience so for example if it's a grownup audience you say ladies and gentlemen however if you writing this speech for your students who are listening to you do not say ladies and gentlemen address them as fellow students not boys and girls say fellow students then have your opening discussion opening paragraph introduce your speech do not start off by saying in this speech I will talk about that's boring you're going to send your audience to sleep make it engaging then once you're done with your opening paragraph literally your main points once more just like an article leaflet guide review report as well as letter and email you literally just follow the same framework you look at the bullet points think about bullet point number one for your main body paragraph bullet point number two for your main body for your second body paragraph bullet point number three for your third body paragraph literally that's how you approach it so you start fellow students then your opening paragraph introduced the issue then your main points are bullet point 1 2 and three based on so your body paragraphs address each of these bullet points before you in your closing paragraph in your speech you round off you know I hope I've convinced you to think about things from my perspective and then the final step in the speech that students always forget is thanking the audience and by thanking your audience literally just a sentence saying thank you for your time and attention I hope you've learned something new that's it that's the perfect way to end your perfect speech now the final thing is you might be looking at this and saying okay that's great it's great to know all of these different layouts and all these different formats but I've heard of DeForest I've heard of direct address I've heard of rhetorical question I've even heard of statistics and anecdotes how does that work in as you can see here literally irrespective of what you get in your opening paragraph and your main body paragraphs you need to make sure you're including literary and persuasive techniques firstly when it comes to litery techniques this is stuff like direct address for example talking directly to your reader or your audience using pronouns like you also using inclusive pronouns like we I think we can all agree all of that makes your writing engaging or even your speech entertaining for your audience other literary techniques include things like similes things like metaphors also your long and short sentences your rhetorical questions all of that count as literary techniques which bring your writing to life however of course there's also persuasive techniques you need to include in transactional writing to make your audience or your reader feel convinced to take your approach persuasive techniques are madeup statistics okay again you don't know what's going to come up in the question therefore the examiners understand that you don't know all statistics about the topic that's going to come up just show that you know to persuade your reader or your audience you need to add a persuasive element which is for example uh giving the study saying this is not just my opinion actually according to Cambridge University 75% of people who went on holiday were really happy 60% of people who read a book were really uh intelligent for example okay I'm just making up statistics on the spot but essentially what I'm saying is that when it comes to transactional writing make sure you also add persuasive devices statistics is number one according to Cambridge University according to gov.uk 55% of people blah blah blah use also realistic madeup statistics don't say 100% or 0% even in real life there's never 100% agreement on something or 0% um disagreement on something okay it's always somewhere in the middle another persuasive element and another persuasive device is anecdote anecdotes are really really powerful statistics are really good because it shows that it's not just your opinion it's shown in the general population but one thing about statistics that makes it a limitation is it's very hard for us to visualize what a statistic looks like however what an anecdote does is it brings that idea to Life by visualizing by enabling us to visualize What that particular anecdote is in other words an anecdote is when you pinpoint one particular person who's affected by the issue that you're talking about let's say you're talking about the importance of travel say and then you say let's take the case of Sally Smith she's a year 11 student who last year went traveling to France me giving that really particular anecdote enables my reader to imagine and visualize how one particular person is affected by the issue that you are discussing that's really deeply persuasive another persuasive device is just giving a range of examples talking about you know let's think about this that and that going to my travel example let's let's consider the budget Airlines EasyJet Ryan Air whiz air okay that's another persuasive device and finally of course very closely tied to anecdotes you can even say for instance John Doe in an interview with the BBC said I think traveling is really good okay again all of this is made up but you're showing an awareness that when it comes to transactional writing and you're writing in a debate you need to make what you're writing about convincing and compelling by showing it's not just my opinion actually here's an anecdote here's a statistic here's some examples here's an interview that shows that you know not only do I think in this way but actually other people think in this way okay so hopefully that makes it easy to understand what the requirements of transactional writing are it's literally as simple as just following these forms within whatever question that you get remember you get a choice of two questions pick one don't do both and then literally just default two whichever form that you want to take okay so now that you have an understanding of transaction writing I'm going to show you a worked example and a work model answer and you'll see how I applied this framework and this approach and especially how I used the bullet points bullet point 1 2 and three to guide my response