Exemplar Don't Get Me Started opening

Kicking Off On Football Clubs

Now we all know that football is a great sport, bringing forth legends like Eric Cantona, George Best and the heroic Sir Bobby Charlton, but what about the downsides to this heroic game: exorbitant wages, inept role rodels and the never ending peer group pressure of football kit changes every year.

Firstly, I would like to talk about wages; now players like Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi and Fernando Torres are on more than enough salary per year to clear Britain of its recession but do they have the heart to donate to charities? Even if it is only £10 of their staggering fortune, it will still help little Johnny, down the road, to get the kidney transplant which could keep him alive! But instead these money-making machines spend their ‘dosh’ on something much more important: booze, parties and… prostitutes? Somebody on the dole gets an average of £64 per week but football players get over £100,000 for participating in their hobby. If I had £100,000 per week for kicking a ball for 90 minutes, then life would be so sweet. But let’s get realistic, these perpetrators are leeching money out of the economy.

Another thing which really grinds my gears about football clubs, are the players who are meant to be the ‘role models’ but are more like the ‘laughing stock’, according to tabloid pictures being painted every day. In this formation is included the likes of John Terry, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch and Wayne Rooney who are regularly regarded as sinners. I mean, no doubt Looney Rooney is a legend in the making but his latest euphemistic ‘off the pitch’ activity isn’t exactly what I would call ‘legend’ material. Rooney again can be used as a prime example of a premadonna ‘kicking off’ on the pitch, though he is much more well behaved now than last year. Last season, spectators watched uncomfortably at home, lip-reading every malicious, explicit word Wayne uttered to the ref as a goal, to make it 4-2, was disallowed whilst wearning his nation’s badge and colours. Also the manner some of these hooligans play this beautiful game is despicable; I mean if I was walking down the street and booted someone in the leg or even broke their leg, I would be receiving more than just a red piece of laminated paper, as a punishment, risen above my head as I walked away with my head ashamedly held down! So why do these players turn the artful game into a free-for-all kudos competition.

GCSE PAPER 1 Revision

How to Revise for Paper ONE Section A:

10 easy steps

1. pick up/read a range of non-fiction texts: newspapers, magazines, websites, autobiography, travel writing, biography, political cartoons, press advertisements etc

2. ALWAYS consider PURPOSE and AUDIENCE for everything you read- why is he/she writing this piece, who and what is it for, how does the writer achieve this?

3. identify as many LANGUAGE FEATURES/METHODS/DEVICES as you can.

4. for each of them, try to explain their intended effect on the audience

5. Look out for PRESENTATIONAL DEVICES (layout, pictures, font)

6. For each device, work out WHAT effect it has on you, the reader.

7. make sure you can COMPARE texts. Ask yourself, do the writers have similar views, how do they contrast or differ, do they make you feel differently about an issue, how and why do they make you feel differently?

8. USE spider diagrams to explore features of different text types e.g. consumer magazine, information leaflet

9. pick a text (e.g. newspaper article, leaflet, press advertisement) , use one highlighter pen to pick out key language features, and another colour to pick out presentational features

GCSE Revision PAPER 1 SECTION B

How to revise for Paper One Section B

In 10 easy steps:

1. revise the key phrases and features of writing to PERSUADE, ARGUE, ADVISE by making flash cards on A4 coloured paper

e.g. 5 persuasive devices on one side of the card with an example on the other side

- rhetorical questions Why are we allowing this?

- dare to disagree Everyone knows that…

- emotive language This horrific torture…

- presenting opinion as fact There is only one way to …

- using collective pronouns (‘we’ ‘us’) and second person (‘you’ ‘your’) Surely, we cannot let ….your conscience must tell you…

2. look at past paper questions on http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gcse/eng_a_assess.html

practise planning an answer in 10 minutes

3. practise writing under timed conditions. You have 45 minutes for this section.

4. the examiner wants to see that you can SHAPE your writing to suit a particular audience (e.g. teenagers, tourists, parents) and purpose (to make someone consider their view of something, to change their mind, to help them)

5. revise the key phrases and features of each text type (writing to persuade/argue/advise)

6. make sure you can use a good variety of devices and vocabulary

7. Look at this example question from last year’s exam, think about the PURPOSE and AUDIENCE of each text type and the devices and vocabulary you would need to get top ,marks in each one

(PERSUADE)

Write the text for a car advertisement aimed at young men, which persuades them to buy the car.

(ARGUE)

Write an article for a magazine aimed at teenagers in which you argue that students should be taught to drive at school.

(ADVISE)

Write an advice sheet for people who are newcomers to your area.

8. The writing task is usually connected by theme to the texts you have read for section A, so there might be some key vocabulary and ideas that you could use.