Words and Phrases for Writing about Text

We spend a lot of our time considering the content, concepts and ideas of a course, and often less time on how to express those ideas. This is despite the fact that approximately half of all marks available are for what I call 'student production' - your organisation and language. This page will give you some key vocabulary that should help you achieve better in this regard.

A Personal Story

Fifteen years ago, I was a relatively experienced teacher but still relatively inexperienced in the IB Diploma. I was teaching the old A1 Literature course at the time, back in the days before Language & Literature was a thing (even in its first iteration). I went for some training to Bangkok and did a course led by the excellent David Towe, now Secondary School Principal at Antwerp International School. This course was transformative both with regards my understanding and appreciation of the IB Diploma but also of my teaching in general. Many of my ideas since - ideas and practices that punctuate this website - were engendered during those days in David's workshop. This page in particular is directly David's work that I've used - and in places adapted - ever since. 

As a personal aside, I ended up many years later running a workshop side-by-side with David in Prague, which was a serendipitous pleasure. I'm quite certain that if you need to change schools at any point that Leipzig International School is the one for you. However, if you're off to Belgium, I'd be sure that Antwerp International School is in very safe hands under David's leadership!

Words & Phrases for Writing about Text

1. Tone

 

2. Point-of-View

 

3. Imagery

 

4. Diction

 

5. Structure (Work level)

 

6. Structure (Sentence level)

 

7. General

MY PROGRESS

How much of Words and Phrases for Writing about Text have you understood?