Lesson video

Hello, it's Mrs. Smart.

Welcome back to our English unit all about journalistic writing.

In today's lesson, we're going to be generating our own formal journalistic vocabulary that we can use in our newspaper reports later on in this unit.

So if you're ready, let's get started.

In this lesson, you'll need an exercise book or some lined paper, a pen or pencil to write with, and a ruler or a straight edge.

If you haven't got any of those items with you right now, just pause the recording and get yourself ready for today's lesson.

Here is the agenda for our lesson today: we're going to start with an introduction to formal vocabulary where we're going to think about what formal vocabulary is and where we might see or hear it.

We're then going to move on to generating some formal vocabulary, and then we'll generate some journalistic phrases and we can use both the formal vocabulary and the journalistic phrases in our newspaper reports later on in this unit.

Lastly, we'll end today's lesson with your independent task.

What is formal vocabulary? Have you ever heard that word "formal" before? Where might you have heard it? What have you heard it in reference to? Pause the recording and write down anything that you know about formal vocabulary.

Okay.

Formal vocabulary is associated with particular choices of grammar and vocabulary.

So we want to write formally or speak formally.

We need to think carefully about the word choices and the grammar and punctuation choices that we're making.

We use formal language in situations that are serious, or when we don't know people very well.

So when we're talking to our friends or writing maybe a text or an email to our friends, then we would write quite or speak quite informally.

But if we're writing or speaking to someone we don't know very well, then we would be more likely to speak or write formally.

Formal language is more common in written form, but we can speak in a formal way as well.

It can be spoken as well.

So, as I said, if you were talking to someone you didn't know very well, you might speak more formally, or if you were delivering a speech, for example, that might be formal vocabulary.

Where would you see or hear formal vocabulary? Maybe you thought of it already and written some ideas down.

Otherwise pause the recording and write down some ideas on your sheet of paper now.

Okay.

So formal vocabulary, as we know, is going to appear in newspaper reports and we know that newspaper reports can appear in electronic forms, so on websites that we can access through computers and mobile phones, or they can also be printed onto paper.

We also find formal vocabulary in nonfiction information texts or in nonchronological reports.

I'm sure you've all read a nonfiction information text before and noticed that the vocabulary is more formal.

Also if we're writing letters, especially if we're writing a letter to someone we don't know very well, we would write formally.

And as I mentioned before, we can also hear formal language.

Often if we are delivering a speech, we might speak more formally.

Did you have anything else? We're now going to think about developing and generating some of our own formal language that we could use in our own newspaper reports.

Now, as you know, the newspaper report we are going to be writing is based on the film, "Hoodwinked," which is a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood." So again, we'll be focusing on some of the characters and some of the places that feature in this film or this story.

Now, the first character I want us to focus on is Wolf.

Can we think of any formal synonyms? Remember synonyms means words that mean the same or similar.

Now we need to remember that Wolf is the person responsible for the crime in this story.

He committed the crime.

He broke into Granny Puckett's house.

He tied her up.

He gagged her, he locked her in a cupboard.

He then pretended to be her.

And then he also tried to fight Red.

So he's committed quite a few crimes in this short clip that we watched.

So what words could you think of that might describe someone who has committed a crime? Pause the recording, and write down any of your ideas now.

Okay.

So one idea, one word that you could use instead of "Wolf" in your report is "suspect." Can you say that for me? Suspect.

Suspect.

Well done.

Suspect is a noun.

The definition is "a person thought to be guilty of a crime or offence." Synonyms are words that mean the same or similar, are "accused" and "defendant." In a sentence, we could use it like this: Wolf was the main suspect in the violent crime.

Here are some other words, some other synonyms that we could use instead of Wolf in our newspaper report.

We've got suspect, accused, defendant, assailant, offender, and perpetrator.

So six different words that you could use instead of "Wolf" in your report.

And that's really useful because sometimes if we repeat the same noun over and over again, if we use the word "Wolf" repeatedly, it gets a bit boring for our reader.

So we want to try and refer to our nouns in different ways.

So here you've got six different ways that you could refer to Wolf in your newspaper report.

Can you use one of these nouns in a sentence? Pause the recording and write down your sentence now.

Well done.

Okay, here's my sentence.

The assailant tied up Granny Puckett and locked her in a cupboard.

I'm sure you've come up with a really good sentence to use one of those words as well.

Now we're going to move on to think about Mrs. Puckett or Granny Puckett and Little Red, or she's often just known as Red.

Now these are the people that the crime was committed against.

So can you think of any formal synonyms, any formal words that might show that a crime was committed against these characters.

Pause the recording and write down any ideas now.

Okay.

Here's one idea.

It's the word "victim." Can you say that, victim? Victim.

Well done.

Victim is a noun.

The definition is a person harmed, injured or killed as a result of a crime, accident or other event or action.

Synonyms might be "sufferer" or "casualty." Those are more appropriate if the person's actually had some sort of physical harm done to them.

So if you're a casualty, you've been injured.

In a sentence, we could use it like this: The victim of the incident was tied in ropes and locked in a cupboard.

So the victim is Mrs. Puckett in that sentence.

Here are three or two other words that you could use as well as "victim" in your report.

There aren't as many words for victim as there were for the perpetrator or the accused or the assailant.

We've got victim, target, and injured party.

That means the person that was injured.

So we could say Mrs. Puckett was injured because she was tied up in ropes and gagged and locked in a cupboard.

Can you use one of these nouns in a sentence? Pause the recording and write down your sentence now.

Here's my sentence.

The victims were traumatised by the violent incident.

So I've referred to both Mrs. Puckett and Red there because I've said "victims," plural, and I've said they were traumatised.

So they experienced a really horrible negative event, which has affected them.

They've been traumatised by the violent incident.

Now I would like you to think of any formal synonyms for these three people, the three people that we learned more information from, who saw or heard part of the incident occur.

We've got the neighbour, the dog walker, and the delivery man.

Can you think of any formal synonyms for those three people? Pause the recording and write down your ideas now.

Here's one word or noun that you could use instead of neighbour, dog walker, delivery man.

The word is "witness." Can you say that for me? Witness, witness.

Well done.

Witness is a noun.

The definition is a person who sees an event, typically a crime or accident, take place.

Synonyms could be "observer" or "onlooker." In a sentence, we could use it like this: A witness observed a young girl enter Mrs. Puckett's house.

So it's a little bit like saying "someone who saw something happen." They witnessed something happen, so it can be used as a verb, as well as a noun.

Here are five other words you could use as well as "witness" in your newspaper report.

We've got bystander, passer-by, so someone who was passing by as the event happened, a local resident, that means someone who lives locally or lives nearby to Mrs. Puckett, an onlooker, so someone who's looking on as the event happened, or an observer, again, someone who observed or saw the incident happen.

Can you use one of these nouns in a sentence? Pause the recording and write it on your paper now.

Here's my example: The bystander overheard voices coming from Mrs. Puckett's house, We're now going to think of some formal synonyms for the setting, for where the crime was committed or took place, and we know it took place in Mrs. Puckett's house.

And her address is 1 Cherry Pot Lane.

So we can refer to it as Mrs. Puckett's house or we can refer to the location as 1 Cherry Pot Lane.

Are there any other words you know for referring to a house or where someone lives? Pause the recording and write down your ideas now.

Here's one word that you could use.

This is the word "residence." Can you repeat that after me? Residence, residence.

Residence is a noun.

The definition is a person's home.

Synonyms could be "home," "house," or "property," and we could use it like this in a sentence: The violent crime occurred at Mrs. Puckett's residence.

Here are some other words that you could use as well as "residence." You could use "property" or "crime scene." Both of those would work really well in your newspaper report.

Can you use one of these three nouns in a sentence? Pause the recording and write down your sentence now.

Here's my example.

The suspect broke into Mrs. Puckett's property.

We're now going to think about journalistic phrases.

How do journalists find out information for newspaper reports? What do they need to do to investigate a crime or an event? Pause the recording and either have a think or write yourself some notes to answer that question.

Okay, so journalists might go to the scene of the event.

They may read or listen to police statements and reports.

If it's a crime, they could speak to witnesses or people involved.

So remember, "witnesses" means people that saw the event happened.

People involved in this instance would be people like Mrs. Puckett and Red, and they might look at evidence.

People might take photos, onlookers might take photos or video footage that they could look at, and the police might also take some photos of the scene and they could share that with journalists.

Now let's use that information that we've just discussed to think about journalistic phrases.

Journalistic phrases are really important because they show the reader where the journalist has got the information from.

They also might show the journalist isn't completely sure about what they're saying.

So we've got "evidence suggests that," so we'd use that if the journalist has seen some evidence that shows them something.

"Police reports indicate that.

." Again, if the journalist has read a police report, they could use some of the information from that.

"Witnesses reported that.

." So this would show that the information has come from a witness that they've spoken to.

"It is thought that.

." This just shows that generally people are saying something or thinking something, but as journalists, we're not completely sure if it's a hundred percent true yet.

"It is believed that.

." Similarly, that means we're not sure this is true, but this is what lots of people believe to be true.

And "allegedly.

." Again, means what people might believe to be true, but we're not completely sure that something's true.

And it's really important if you're a journalist that you don't say something is true or something is fact if you're not sure that it is true or fact.

Can you use one of these phrases in a sentence? So start your sentence with one of the phrases that we've just discussed and finish it off, using the context of "Hoodwinked" or "Little Red Riding Hood." Pause the recording and write your sentence now.

For your independent task today, I would like you to edit your flowchart to use more formal vocabulary and journalistic phrases.

In one of your previous lessons, you should have completed a flowchart with the events that occurred as part of this incident.

I want you to go back to that now, and if you've got a colour pen or pencil that you can use, please do so, otherwise just use a pencil or a pen.

You can cross out with your ruler and rewrite below or above to change some of your vocabulary choices and add in some journalistic phrases.

You can see in my example below, I've changed Wolf to "the suspect." And instead of saying "Mrs. Puckett's house," I've changed that to "property" to sound more formal.

In my third sentence, I've added in "witnesses suggest that" so I've written, "At 4:05 PM witnesses suggest that Wolf tried to attack Red with a stick." I don't know, as a journalist, that that's completely true.

That's what a witness has told me.

So I need to make it really clear to my reader that I've got that information from a witness and it might not be a hundred percent facts.

So our agenda today was an introduction to formal vocabulary, and when we might see it written or hear it being spoken.

We then generated some formal vocabulary for key synonyms to use in our newspaper reports.

Then we discussed journalistic phrases and I shared some examples with you.

And lastly, you're going to complete your independent tasks now.

Congratulations, you've completed your lesson today.

Well done for all of your hard work.

If you would like to, please share your work with your parents or carer.

I will see you in your next English lesson.

Goodbye!.