How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019
Opening/closing sentences
How to teach writing – Part 2
’How do I start it, sir?’ This question is asked so often, it’s as if all their problems lie within the opening sentence. Give them one and this is magically cured. This is a strategy I like to use again and again with students. I show them these openings to a task about persuading people to not smoke:
1 Cough. Cough. Sorry, I am struggling to say this as — cough, cough — I find it difficult to talk as I have had one lung removed due to cancer.
2 Smoking is bad. It is the cause of millions of deaths every year.
3 I know you can’t help it, but smoking is terrible and it makes you stink.
4 £2,500 is exactly how much money you waste on smoking each year.
5 I am going to teach you about the dangers of smoking. In this article, I will give you the reasons as to why you shouldn’t smoke.
6 Imagine you are on a date. Your date arrives. In the distance, they look gorgeous and worth the hours it has taken you to get ready. As they get closer, you notice something — a smell. The scent of an ashtray.
I am going to go back to my point about putting ideas first when writing. All too often students don’t put much thought into that first sentence. Just as they begin a pretty substandard letter, they default to explaining what they are doing.
In this letter, I am writing to complain about the school uniform.
Yawn! A rudimentary start that will be followed by more rudimentary thinking wrapped up in rudimentary paragraphs. The clichéd or predictable approach is the easiest one to replicate. That’s why we get stories ending with a dream or simplistic storytelling from the start. Students write their own rules at times. Teachers must actively work against clichés, student-formed rules and basic approaches to writing. By the time students are in Years 5 to 7, they should have been exposed to lots of different texts and have learned the basics of each genre. That’s why we need to work hard to combat clichéd writing. It is easier for students, but it lacks subtlety and thought. Take this example:
In the year 2136, the double-headed people of Zarg-7 didn’t like strangers and so, when the spaceship landed on the landing, both sets of eyes were staring at it.
This sentence appears to contain some technical skill, but is lacking in creativity. Writers will rarely signal a time period so obviously. Instead, they hint at the date in a way that appears more natural. The fact that the story is set in the future is important, but it doesn’t have to be the first thing mentioned. You can point towards the idea with hints and clues instead of great signposts and massive posters. Teaching students to write is about subtlety, digression and breaking their own rules. The move from explicit to implicit thinking doesn’t just apply to reading in secondary schools; it applies to writing. We need to help students develop the implicit.
Starting with the purpose of the writing is what explicit writers do. ’I am writing this letter to inform you I want the job.’ The key question is: does it need explaining that the text is a letter? You don’t need to give away your intent from the start. The best writers don’t spell everything out. The best letters often get to the intent in paragraph two or three. This allows the writer to build a connection with the reader. Take the examples below:
Dear Mr Smith,
I have admired your work for a long time and I think your charitable efforts need recognition.
Dear Mr Smith,
In this letter, I am writing to complain about the school uniform.
Which opening is better? The first is because it starts to build a relationship with the reader. It shows what the writer thinks of them with the word ’admired’ and it uses a positive and warm tone. It is better because it implies a lot more than the second one does, such as how the head teacher seems like a nice person because of his charity work, and so might be more responsive to requests. Implicit writing focuses more on feelings, mood, atmosphere, relationships and particular effects. We need to help students move towards the most meaningful approach in a given context.
Unlocking the potential of an opening sentence is important, and this is where I think teachers need to be careful with sentence starters as students merely copy and absorb these ideas. I think it is better to model examples rather than provide crutches. I often take the six sentences about smoking and use them to approach a piece of non-fiction. But, and here’s the important thing, I make sure that the task is thematically removed from the examples used. Otherwise, we end up with mirror copies. Students can use the ideas or the style, but they can’t copy the sentences.
I feel that having a bank of opening sentences is much better because you are getting students to see the endless possibility in the choices they could make; you are also showing them how their preconceived rules about writing might be challenged. Often they struggle to start because they are not used to writing in a particular style and, as a result, they gravitate towards clichés. However, by secondary school they should be confident with writing in various styles and just need a metaphorical kick to focus their little grey cells. I do the same with conclusions too:
1 So, if you want to be another statistic on a long and ever expanding list, then carry on smoking.
2 Finally, the reasons for not smoking are clear — it is bad; it causes cancer; it stunts your growth; it costs a lot of money.
3 Act now and stub it out or expect to be ash quicker than you think.
4 Smoking costs. Smoking smells. Smoking kills.
5 To conclude, smoking is very bad; so, to save your life, do something now.
Modelling can take several guises and this is just one. Instead of placing a piece of perfection in front of a student, give them several options. Get them to work out what makes good work good. Also, give students permission to experiment with writing. Unless they see that it is acceptable to start with a lyric from a song, they will more often than not refrain from doing so. Giving them different examples allows them to write their own rules. I can use repetition. I can use humour. I can use anecdote. Modelling helps to rewire the brain and overwrite the ’rules’ that students have composed over the years.