Year 9 - English
Letter writing: planning, using Wilfred Owen's 1917 letter as stimulus
Literary perspectives from the First World War
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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 explore and compare texts written about the First World War. They first read Beck's 'Propping up the line', Mansfield's 'The Fly' and Wilfred Owen's 1917 letter home to his mum. They finally read Brittain's 'Testament of Youth', and then plan and write a comparative response.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to plan an imaginative letter that recounts an experience in the trenches of World War One using Wilfred Owen's 1917 letter to his mother as stimulus.
Key Notes
- Letters were a vital form of communication during World War One.
- Receiving and sending letters brought small moments of joy to those on the front, and those at home.
- Owen is best remembered for his poetry about World War One, but he also sent many letters home.
- Owen's letters are different in structure, audience and tone from his poems, but still convey the horrors of war.
- Arguably, Owen's letter is structured into three sections: scene-setting, recounting an event, conveying his attitude.
Vocabulary To Learn
- recount: to describe something that happened, to tell its story
- court-martial: to be tried for a crime in which you are deemed to have broken military law
- execrate: curse, hate, detest
- structure: how something is put together; the most basic structure in a text is its beginning, middle and end
- tone: a writer's attitude or emotional stance; encompasses the mood, feeling and overall atmosphere
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Poems are carefully crafted and use methods, but nonfiction letters won't have a structure or include methods.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Letters were a vital form of communication during World War One. Receiving and sending letters brought small moments of joy to those on the front, and those at home.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'recount'
to describe something that happened, to tell its story.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Poems are carefully crafted and use methods, but nonfiction letters won't have a structure or include methods. Correction: Almost all writing follows some sort of structure even, for example, a shopping list. Methods are tools writers use to convey their messages. Every single word, technically, is a method.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Analysing the presentation of the gas attack: Ian Beck's 'Propping Up the Line' Study Guide
- Comparing texts about World War One in comparative analytical paragraphs Study Guide
- Comparing texts about World War One using comparative topic sentences Study Guide
- Creative writing in the third person inspired by Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly' Study Guide
- Debating different interpretations of Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly' Study Guide
- Exploring the presentation of the boss in 'The Fly' by Katherine Mansfield Study Guide
- Ian Beck's 'Propping Up The Line': Alice's experiences on the Home Front Study Guide
- Improving a letter: deliberate verbs and precise adjectives Study Guide
- Improving the style of a letter: sentence structure and rhythm Study Guide
- Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly' (1922): exploring character foils and symbolism Study Guide
- Letter writing: planning, using Vera Brittain's 'Testament of Youth' as stimulus Study Guide
- Reading 'Propping Up the Line', a short story about World War One by Ian Beck Study Guide
- Reading Katherine Mansfield's short story, 'The Fly' (1922) Study Guide
- Skim reading and close reading: 'Testament of Youth' by Vera Brittain Study Guide
- Skim reading and close reading: Wilfred Owen's 1917 letter to his mother Study Guide
- Symbolism and motif in Ian Beck's short story, 'Propping Up The Line' Study Guide
- The presentation of trauma in Ian Beck's short story, 'Propping Up the Line' Study Guide
- Understanding why people write about war Study Guide
- Using sentence structure to create rhythm in writing about World War One Study Guide
- Vivid descriptive writing using Ian Beck's 'Propping Up The Line' as stimulus Study Guide
- World War One: propaganda and trench warfare Study Guide
- Writing a letter as a soldier in the trenches of World War One Study Guide
- Writing a letter from the British home front: tone, audience and purpose Study Guide
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