Lesson video

Hi everybody, and welcome to our lesson today.

We've just finished writing our character description of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

Now, we're going to bring that character description to life even further by adding some speech between the two characters.

Now to do that, we've got to, first of all, make sure we're really clear on how we punctuate speech properly.

So today's lesson is going to be just that.

Let's get started.

Our learning objective today is to explore punctuating speech.

This is lesson 6 of 10, and it's our second writing outcome of this unit.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, a pen or pencil, and your very best learning brain.

Pause the video now if you need to take a moment to go and get those things.

Today's agenda for learning.

First of all, we're going to look at some vocabulary associated with speech.

Then we are going to look at the rules for writing speech first sentences.

And finally, we're going to practise writing some speech first sentences.

For our writing warm up today, we are going to match the verbs to the most appropriate adverbs.

So let's have a look at the verbs first.

Muttered, your turn.

Exclaimed, your turn.

Whispered, your turn.

Snapped, your turn.

Excellent.

Now let's look at the adverbs.

So the adverbs, give us a little bit more detail about how the character performed the verb.

Softly, your turn.

Abruptly, your turn.

Under his breath, your turn.

Enthusiastically, your turn.

Excellent.

So one new word there potentially might be the word abruptly.

A synonym for abruptly might be quickly or harshly or sharply.

So now you're going to go through the list of verbs and the list of adverbs and match the most appropriate verb to the most appropriate adverb.

Pause the video while you do that.

Okay everyone, hopefully we've all paused the video and we've all had a go at matching the verbs to the most appropriate adverbs.

Let's reveal some answers.

Our first word is muttered.

If a character is to mutter something, it means they're not saying it very clearly or lightly.

So the adverb that's most appropriate is, under his breath.

This is an adverbial phrase.

It's a group of words, which gives us a little bit more information, about how the character muttered.

So he muttered under his breath.

Your turn.

Fantastic.

Exclaimed.

Enthusiastically.

Exclaimed enthusiastically.

Your turn.

Great.

Whispered softly.

Your turn.

Well done.

Snapped, abruptly.

Your turn.

Excellent.

Okay, everyone, let's start by reading the sentence together and then we're going to see whether we can spot, all of the punctuation.

I'm going to read it first and then you can pause the video and read it out loud yourself.

It's been weeks since our last "case," muttered, the agitated detective.

Your turn.

Excellent.

Now, I would like you to pause the video while you look at all of the punctuation in this sentence.

Can you name it all? Off you go.

Okay everyone, hopefully we've all paused this video.

We've all looked at the punctuation and tried to name it.

We're going to to go through it together now.

So first of all, we're opening inverted commas.

This is the first set of inverted commas, and we'll see another set at the end of the speech sentence.

We begin our speech with a capital letter.

We close it with a comma, and then, we close our inverted commas.

And finally, we use our full stop to finish the full sentence.

To help you remember how to punctuate speech first sentences, we've got a little scaffold.

So we always start the sentence with our inverted commas.

Then a capital letter.

Before we close the inverted commas, we use a comma.

Then the inverted commas to close everything that was said with, by that character.

Now you'll see the word said is scored out, because we're going to look at some more ambitious verbs than the word said a little bit later.

And then if we're referring to a character, we've got to use a capital letter for their name and a full stop to close the speech sentence.

Now we're going to look in a little bit more detail at the rules for writing speech.

Firstly, I would like you to punctuate this sentence correctly, and you'll see we've got our speech scaffold down in the bottom corner to help you.

Pause the video while you do that.

Okay everyone, hopefully we've all paused the video.

We've all used our speech scaffolds and we've all had a go at punctuating this sentence.

So firstly, we've got to remember to open our inverted commas.

Then I can see in my speech scaffold, up next I've got to use a capital letter.

Then I've got all of my sentence.

"I am sure that another mystery will appear soon," Now that's the end of what John Watson said.

So we've got to use a comma and to close off what John Watson said, we must use our closed inverted commas.

Now I've got my synonym for said here.

My word, that means the same thing as said, but it's a little bit more ambitious and precise murmured.

And what do we need for a name? Well done, you're right.

We need capital letter for the character's name and to finish off, we've got to remember our full stop.

Have a quick look at your speech sentence.

Did you get everything on there? If not, don't worry, but add it in now quickly.

We are focusing on speech first sentences.

That means when the speech is written first in the sentence, how many pieces of punctuation do you need in a speech first sentence? Have some thinking time.

One, three, five or seven? What do you think? We need five pieces of speech punctuation, for a speech first sentence.

Let's just double check.

So, we open our inverted commas.

We have a capital letter.

We use a comma, to finish what the character has said.

We use inverted commas to close the speech, and then we use a full stop to finish the sentence.

What word classes do we need as the narrator? So the character has said their sentence.

Now, as the narrators, we are the people that are telling the story.

So what word classes do we need to go around those speech sentences? To help our reader to visualise, who was speaking and how they were saying it.

And I've got my words highlighted here.

I need a noun to tell the reader who spoke, I also need a verb, to tell the reader how they said it.

How would you make this sentence more precise? "So, it's been weeks since I last case," said the detective.

Is that the most precise verb that we could use? "It's been weeks since our last case," the detective.

Now, if we think back to our writing warmup, we had some really great high level verbs there.

Can you think of a synonym for said? So a word that means the same thing as said, but is a little bit more precise and appropriate for this speech sentence.

So how do you think the detective would have spoken, for this sentence? Have some thinking time and when you've decided on a synonym for said, shout it out to me please.

Okay everyone, I've been hearing some amazing suggestions from you.

Well done for pausing the video and having a think.

Here are some of my suggestions and maybe we might have thought of a couple of the same words.

So we're choosing more precise verbs here.

Muttered.

Murmured, your turn.

Whispered, your turn.

Grumbled, your turn.

Complained, your turn.

Excellent.

Well done.

There are so many more precise verbs we could have used, but all of those verbs were appropriate for the context of this sentence.

Now be careful because your verb choice may affect the punctuation that you use.

For example, "It's been weeks since our last case!" exclaimed, the detective.

That word exclaimed suggests that the detective said it lightly and enthusiastically.

So we need to include an exclamation mark here or snapped.

If a character is to snap, they might say something quite sharply and maybe quite loudly.

"It's been weeks since our last case!" snapped the detective.

We would also use an exclamation mark for that verb.

So, here is my sentence.

"It's been weeks since our last case!" snapped, the detective.

I've already chosen a high level ambitious verb.

What else could I do to make the sentence more precise for my reader? Oh, I could add in some adverbial detail.

So I know, I know, that an adverb gives us more information about the verb.

Here's an example of mine.

"It's been weeks since our last case!" snapped the detective in frustration.

So I've added in this adverbial detail.

It can tell me when something happened.

Where something happened or how something happened.

So adverbial detail can refer to the time, place or manner that a verb took place.

Now in this case, I've used an adverb of manner.

I've told my reader, how the detective snapped.

He snapped in frustration.

Let's think about how else we could make the sentence more precise.

I could add an as subordinate clause.

Now we have got so fantastic at using complex sentences with as, as our subordinating conjunction.

Here's my example.

"It's been weeks since our last case!" snapped the detective in frustration.

That's my adverbial detail, as he marched over to the window.

So now in this sentence, I've got the detective snapping in frustration and marching over to the window at the same time.

Now, I would like you to try making this sentence more precise.

So I've already got the speech punctuation here.

I've got my inverted commas, my capital letter, my comma, my closed inverted commas and my capital letter for John Watson.

Let's read this sentence together.

"Calm down, Sherlock," said John Watson.

Now I've got all of my speech punctuation there.

Your task is firstly, to choose a more precise verb than said.

Then, I would like you to add some adverbial detail.

So tell me, when, where or how John Watson spoke and finally try adding an 'as' subordinate clause.

So what was happening as John Watson spoke? You'll need to pause the video while you do that.

Okay everyone, hopefully we've paused the video.

I would have expected you to take a few minutes at least to complete this task.

Have a quick check, have you remembered your inverted commas, your capital letter, your comma and your closing inverted commas, your capital letter for names, your full stop.

Have a quick check.

Use my example to help you on the screen.

Now I'm going to show you my sentence.

"Calm down, Sherlock," urged John Watson gently as he surveyed the detective from an armchair.

So my precise verb was, can you spot it? Excellent, urged.

That was my synonym for said.

My adverbial detail was just one adverb this time, gently.

He said it gently.

And finally, my as subordinate clause was as he surveyed the detective from an armchair.

So as he surveyed, means watched.

Surveyed means watched or observed.

Now, you should have a speech first sentence, which includes an high level synonym for said, adverbial detail to tell the reader, how, where or when, the speaker spoke.

And finally, an 'as' subordinate clause.

That's a really high level speech first sentence.

I would now like you to pause the video, to add your speech first sentence to your character description that we wrote in our last writing lesson.

You might decide to write your speech sentence at the end of your character description, or you might decide that the speech comes in, in a more appropriate time in your paragraph.

If you want to edit it in, just draw a little star where you would like your speech to go and take a new line below your paragraph and write another little star and then write your speech sentence.

That's what we would call editing a speech sentence into the paragraph at the most appropriate time.

Pause the video while you do that, and you can resume it once you are finished.

Okay everyone, that brings us to the end of our lesson today.

I am so impressed, and I cannot wait to see how you have incorporated these incredible speech sentences into your character description from our last writing lesson.

In our next writing lesson, we are going to develop our understanding of punctuating speech even more.

And I'm really looking forward to us building on our knowledge from today to go even deeper with punctuating speech.

Well done, everyone.