Humorous quote

I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places.Henny Youngman
LOL!

I haven't got much to say about this but I saw it and thought it was funny. Humour is quite a powerful way of getting attention or getting a message across or making something memorable. Maybe we could borrow this technique for our work.

Alex Eburne

Agatha Christie 'The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd

This is the blurb from one of Christie’s most famous murder novels ‘The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd’.

Roger Ackroyd was a man

       who knew too much.

He knew the woman he loved

Had poisoned her first husband. He knew

Someone was blackmailing her- and

Now he knew she had taken her own

Life with a drug overdose.

Soon the evening post would let him

Know who the mystery blackmailer was.

But Ackroyd was dead before he’d finished

Reading it- stabbed through the neck

Where he sat in his study…

The blurb uses many pronouns ‘he’ and ‘her’ to hide their identities and make a sense of mystery and secrecy. The line ‘Who knew too much’ is indented which makes you focus on it because it sticks out and you know that something bad will happen to him. ‘Knew’ is repeated three times in the first paragraph and makes you want to know exactly what it is that he knows and nobody else does.

There are negative words throughout the blurb: ‘poisoned’and ‘stabbed’ which are acts of violence so you know there is going to be lots of plots and murders. The harsh ‘B’ sound and the ‘P’ sound give a nasty and harsh tone to the writing. The sibilant sound in the last two lines ‘stabbed through the neck where he sat in his study…’ makes you think of something sinister or evil. The blurb ends with an ellipsis, which encourages you to follow the story in the book. GOOD TECHNIQUES TO BORROW FOR OUR WORK = use of pronouns instead of names/repetition/sounds/ellipsis and structure (i.e indentation).

Alex Eburne

RE: For want of a nail (commenting on Becky's post)

Sorry, I tried to post this on comments yesterday but I couldn't. Can anyone help? Thank you!

Yes I like the rhythm of this poem too. It has an irregular rhythm (line 1 has 10 syllables; line 2 has 9 syllables etc). This reflects the message of the poem which is that sometimes we do things without thinking and life does not always run smoothly. The repetition of the ‘T’ and ‘S’ sounds are like the clashing of swords. Lots of 1 syllable words make you read the poem faster, again like a fast paced battle. Repetition of ‘lost’ stresses the message that nothing is gained from all of this fighting. GOOD TECHNIQUES TO BORROW FOR OUR WORK = simple words/repetition/rhythm/sounds

Alex Eburne

Lord Of The Flies extract (part 1)

Within the diamond haze of the beach something dark was fumbling along. Ralph saw it first, and watched until the intentness of his gaze drew all eyes that way. The the creature stepped from mirage onto clear sand, and they saw that the darkness was not all shadow but mostly clothing. The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing. Shorts, shirts, and different garments they carried in their hands: but each boy wore a square black cap with a silver badge in it. Their bodies, from throat to ankle, were hidden by black cloaks which bore a long silver cross on the left breast and each neck was finished off with a hambone frill. The heat of the tropics, the descent, the search for food, and now this sweaty march along the blazing beach had given them the complexions of newly washed plumbs. The boy who controlled them was dressed in the same way though his cap badge was golden. When his party was about ten yards from the platform he shouted an order and they halted, gasping, sweating, swaying in the fierce light. The boy himself came forward, vaulted onto the platform with his cloak flying, and peered into what to him was almost complete darkness.

The novel is about a group of boys stranded on a tropical island. At first they work together and then fear sets in and evil takes over and the boys end up fighting a war amongst themselves. I think this description from the opening chapter is brilliant. Up until now, the island has been described in a positive way. It is a bright sunny day (weather description) and the boys who we have already met are happy and playful. Suddenly this description changes things (contrasting language). A group of choirboys appears in the distance and as they move towards the other boys they bring an unexpected gloominess to the island: ‘something dark was fumbling along’ and there is a ‘shadow’. Their bodies are ‘hidden by black cloaks’ which suggests that they are hiding something (their characters?). They are described as ‘the creature’ which suggests they are not human (character described through appearance). We are introduced to Jack as ‘the boy who controlled them’ and ‘he shouted an order’.  Straight away he seems serious and unfriendly (character described through his words). There is ‘fierce light ‘ on the island but Jack sees ‘almost complete darkness’ which suggests he cannot see the beauty of the island like the boys introduced at the beginning (contrasting language). At the end of the novel, the choir turns into an evil tribe with Jack as the violent leader and most of the other boys join it. They are called ‘creatures’.  Also at the end ‘the sky was black’. This shows that the evil hinted at in the choir at the beginning (in this piece of writing) has spread to the other boys and the ‘shadow’ has grown and now covers the whole sky showing evil has spread across the whole island (linking beginning of novel to end). Brilliant!!!!!!!

GOOD TECHNIQUES TO BORROW FOR OUR WORK = describe character of person through appearance and their words/weather descriptions to add atmosphere/contrasting language (i.e. light and dark)/symbols (i.e. darkness = evil)/linking beginning description to end description...

Alex Eburne

For Want of a Nail

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.For want of a shoe the horse was lost.For want of a horse the rider was lost.For want of a rider the battle was lost.For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

I think this is a very good and clever poem because of the way the author has written it. It is a rhyme that shows that small actions can result in large consequences. It is true to life and the subject is a good way to put the message across because it is easy to understand and everyone can understand it.
It is a very precise poem with a strong meaning, but it is also very simple. The last line sums up the whole poem and the meaning "and all for the want of a horseshoe nail" making the rest of the poem seem more important than just the rhym that it was before the last line.
The way the author has started and ended all the lines (except the last) in the same way helps the flow of the poem and keeps it in order.

Becky

'I have a dream' speech

I think Martin Luther King's speech 'I have a dream' is a good piece of writing because it was so powerful people still remember it today and it became one of his most well-known speeches. He repeats words and phrases which shows of his passion against racism. Rebecca Jones

English..

Megan

Becky

Alex D

Alex E