Year 11 - English
Planning the opening to an impactful narrative
Fiction: books that changed my world
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils read extracts from some impactful books to inpsire their own writing. Within each of the five extracts, they identify and analyse a key technique before emulating it in their own piece of writing. At the end of the unit, they craft the opening to an impactful narrative.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to plan the opening to an impactful narrative.
Key Notes
- Stories might have an impact on someone's life by changing their perspective, or revealing something about humanity.
- All stories are composed of five different elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement.
- In order to write an effective opening, we need to know the rest of the narrative to set up the atmosphere.
Vocabulary To Learn
- impactful: having a powerful effect on a situation or person
- atmosphere: the overall mood of a story or poem
- exposition: sets up the setting, characters and atmosphere of the story
- climax: the most intense moment within a story, marking a turning point for the protagonist(s)
- denouement: the end of the story; the resolution of conflict
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- You can write the opening of a story without knowing the ending.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Stories might have an impact on someone's life by changing their perspective, or revealing something about humanity. All stories are composed of five different elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'impactful'
having a powerful effect on a situation or person.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: You can write the opening of a story without knowing the ending. Correction: An effective opening builds up the atmosphere in order to lead the reader to the ending; therefore, you have to know what the ending is in order to create a cohesive atmosphere in the opening.
More Lessons In This Unit
- 'The Great Gatsby': analysing a writer's craft Study Guide
- 'The Great Gatsby': Developing a personal response Study Guide
- Analysing effective endings in Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' Study Guide
- Considering Chandler's use of similes in 'Trouble is My Business' Study Guide
- Considering the use of dialogue in Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' Study Guide
- Considering the use of motifs in Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' Study Guide
- Emulating Chandler's use of similes in 'Trouble is My Business' Study Guide
- Emulating Dostoevsky's use of dialogue in 'Crime and Punishment' Study Guide
- Emulating the opening to Orwell's '1984' Study Guide
- Emulating the use of motifs in Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights' Study Guide
- Exploring the importance of books and stories Study Guide
- Reading the opening of Orwell's '1984' Study Guide
- Writing the opening to an impactful narrative Study Guide
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