Curriculum Online - Section Two

1. THE LANGUAGE OF INFORMATION

Within this category of language the various genres make rigorous demands on writers. The maximum information must be communicated in the minimum of words; the language must be transparent and accurate and the structure of the text must be clarity itself. This is the ideal. In practice the objectivity and impersonality aimed at by these genres can be diluted by personal or factional interests. The genres within this category range from civil service/business memos and reports, to impassioned accounts of sports, to accessible scientific commentaries.

Text A: Factual newspaper report

Michael Foley: The Irish Times', 4th October, 1995

The number of people Jkom the Republic visiting Northern Ireland has increasedsignoqcantly since the cease-fire and is expected to grow 35per cent this year. For the firstsix months of 1995, the number of visitors to the North rose by 18per cent. However, thenumber of tourists- excluding business travellers and people visiting friends and relations- is up by 63 per cent.

Ms Margaret O'Reilly, head of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board's (NITB) Dublin office,said inquiries to the office in Nassau Street increased by 148per cent in the four monthsfollowing the cease-fire. Reservations increased by 155 per cent, the first time they haveoutstripped inquiries...

Ms O'Reilly said she was not surprised. The tourist board had been concentrating on thesouthern market and there was also a,/~eling that something was going to come out of the

This is a good example of effective, informative writing where facts are presented with the minimum of words. The evidence to support the general assertion is presented in a succinct and varied manner in order to hold the interest of the reader.

The report provides a model which students could imitate.

Composing

Students could now be given the following assignment:

Write a report on a relevant and significant topic of their own choice, e.g. TV programmes, pop-music, sports, discos, attitudes of students.
The report should be short, 3-6 paragraphs in length, based on some actual research.
Structure the report in the following manner:
1 Summary title
2 General assertion with some supporting evidence
3 Either reasons or causes for the opening statement
4 Conclude with evaluative comment.
Make a presentation of the report to the class.

Evaluation.. In evaluating the assignment the four elements of the model could be used as assessment criteria. Likewise since such writing is usually for a public audience, close attention should be paid in assessment to accuracy in syntax, spelling and punctuation.

The four elements of the model also provide a diagnostic grid which will point to difficulties that the students might have in writing in this genre and which the teacher can focus on in future work in the area.

Text B: Formal public statement

An extract from the Introduction to Discovering Ireland," Woodlands published by Coillte, 1992

The existing forest estate is approximately 400, 000 hectares. To maximise this resource,Coillte's long-term aim is to ensure that an inwrnationally competitive timber processingindustry is developed in Ireland. Coillte will play a major role in this by developing itselfinto a broadly based forest products business.

While the primary objective of Coillte is to manage its forests on a commercial basis, it alsoprovides public recreational facilities. This book provides details of forest parks, picnic sitesand forest walks, dll persons entering upon lands referred to in this book do so entirely attheir own risk and Coillte Teoranta shall not be liable for any loss, damage, injury or fatalaccident occasioned by the negligence, wrongful act or default of the company, its servantsor agents or howsoever caused.

Evaluation: The policy of evaluating in relation to certain specific criteria based on the model, as recommended in the previous exemplar, should also be followed in assessing this assignment.

Materials for further study of this type of text are readily available, e.g.

rules for entry to competitions
rules for playing games
instructions for using different types of equipment
official documents and public announcements
media materials of all kinds, newspapers, radio and television.

Argument	Opinion
Objective	Subjective preferences
Facts	Assertions
Demonstrable evidence	Assumptions
Impersonal	Personal
Interpretation	Interpretation

Deductive argument

Choose a straightforward topic, e.g. the shape of the earth.

Present the following:

(i) This is an example of a deductive argument.
1 All theplanets in the solar system are spheres.
2 The earth is a planet in the solar system.
3 Therefore the earth is a sphere.

(ii) A deductive argument has a specific logical structure.
1 States a general principle, e.g. All the . . .
2 Makes a specific statement. The earth . . .
3 Deduces a conclusion from 1 and 2. Therefore. . .

(iii) The examples in the following activity illustrate this pattern of thought.

Activity: Identify which of these are opinions, and explain your choice:

(a)All islands are surrounded by water
Valentia is surrounded by water
Therefore it is an island.

(b) All teachers are stressed
Mary is a teacher.
Therefore she is stressed.

(c) People who watch much television have a short concentration span.
Seán watches television for eight hours a day.
Therefore Sedn has a short concentration span.

(iv) These are logical structures. They illustrate a correct reasoning structure which does not necessarily mean that what they say is actually right. One can have the correct structure and yet be in error, e.g.

All tigers are cats.
Our pet is a cat.
Therefore our pet is a tiger.

Although the structure of this is correct, the argument is false because the conclusion does not necessarily follow. (The category 'cat' is larger than that of 'tiger'; it includes other kinds of cats. The argument assumes they are identical.)

Activities

A. Students could be asked to compose in this model - some true and others false. A selection of these could be analysed under the following headings:

Is this an argument or an opinion?
Is it logically correct?
Is it true?

e.g. What is wrong with the following?
Some nurses are women.
Mary is a nurse.
Therefore Mary is some woman/

B. Insert the missing sentence/logical step in the following:

(i) All transition year students in this school study films.
Deirdre is a transition year student.

(ii) All Tipperary hurleys are made from ash-wood.
This hurley is made from ash-wood.

(iii) ...........................................................
John is a prisoner. He is impatient for his freedom.

Inductive argument

Exemplar: Proving the earth is round

There are many reasons for asserting the earth is round. Photographs of the earth fromspace show it to be a sphere. Ifone travelled across the earth always moving in a straightline and in the same direction one would return to the exact place from whichone began.Finally in looking in any direction one's view is limited by horizon which suggests theearth is curving away equally on all sides. From these three facts one can conclude thatthe earth is round.

As the above illustrates, an inductive argument is based on specific items of evidence and instances from which a conclusion is drawn. It is based on an analysis of the evidence, which reveals a definite pattern which can then be synthesised as a conclusion or stated as a principle. (It is the kind o f reasoning most commonly used by scientists and lawyers.)

An inductive argument usually has the following structure:

Statement of thesis/proposition/question
Evidence presented.., exemplars, items
Conclusion.

An example of inductive argument

If one observes in winter that a number of oak trees lose their leaves then it is reasonableto conclude that all oak trees lose their leaves in winter

But inductive reasoning can be false as well. One piece of contrary evidence can undermine the conclusion and show the pattern to be inaccurate. Ask the students to suggest some evidence which might challenge the conclusions made in the inductive arguments above.

To be effective, both deductive and inductive arguments must be based on proven facts and demonstrable evidence.

Opinion

Opinion is the expression of a viewpoint based on assumptions, subjective reasons and interpretations.

But opinion can be either well informed and coherent or it can be ignorant and incoherent. Coherent opinion will take one of the argumentative forms outlined above, e.g.

Opinion in a deductive form

Question: Who is the best player of recent years on the Irish soccer team?

Principle: The best player in a team is the one who scores the most goals
Specific instance: John Aldridge has scored the most goals
Conclusion: Therefore John Aldridge is the best player on the Irish team.

Opinion in an inductive form

Thesis: County Clare is the most attractive county for tourists.
Reasons: (Because)
- It has unique and beautiful scenery, e.g. The Burren
- It has a great tradition of Irish music
- Its people are friendly and hosTMtable.
Conclusion: (Therefore) Clare is the most attractive county for tourists.

Incoherent opinion

Incoherent opinion is a series o f assertions of viewpoint lacking logical structure, relevant details and appropriate information, e.g. I think Roy Keane is the best player. He comes from Cork and he plays for Man. United.He earns a lot of money and is nice to his family.

Composing

Students can be given assignments to compose simple inductive arguments and deductive arguments about a range of topics, e.g.
What is the most entertaining programme on televison?
Irish men are unsophisticated.
Irish women are exploited.

It is important for the teacher to model the procedures initially. Choose the first topic, i.e.

Procedure for deductive reasoning:

1. Find the principle: The most entertaining programme on T. V. is the programmewith the biggest audience.

2. State the specific: The Late LaW Show has the biggest audience.

3. Conclude: Therefore The Late LaW Show is the mostentertaining...

Procedure for inductive reasoning:

1 Advance thesis: Glenroe is the most enwrtaining show.

2 Find evidence: Many people watch it every weekIt has interesting charactersThere is always a good story to itIt raises important social issuesIt can be most amusing.

3 State the conclusion: Glenroe is the most . . .

A fundamental exercise in considering all argument is to distinguish fact from assertion, and evidence from opinion. The above exemplars could be usefully analysed for this purpose.

Exemplar: Evaluating an argument

Text A: Why demonise adoption?

Ms Aideen Clifford, The Irish Times, October 1995

In the past 20years the subject of unmarried mothers has been scrutinised by the media -with consequent changed attitudes. Before that it was treated as a sad sociological fact; ashameful, shadowy topic. With the founding of Cherish in 1972 the human face of singlemotherhood emerged. Later its founder; Maura Richard& wrote her book Two to Tango. Others subsequently began to tell their tales. Stories emerged of how women had given up,aborted, kept hidden and had fostered their babies, all culminating in The Snapper, wherethe subject is treated, albeit warmly, as hilarious comedy.

It's a long way from Two to Tango to The Snapper involving huge attitudinal changes,.from sham< guilt and hardship to family support, State back-up and an acceptable wayof life. The stigma now firmly sits on the single girl who has her baby adopted. It is sheabout whom people now whisper- 'she's given up her child?'... 'won't she regret it?'

Adoption has fallen out of favour for a number of reasons. For a start, it's had a bad press.We hear too little about the many adoptions that have been sensitively arranged, too little about the many happy adoptive parents and their well-adjusted children in stable homes. Stories of the other kind abound,, the baby snatched at birth by the forbidding nun, the infant's last glance at its birth mother. The airwaves are filled with them and I would not want to trivialise the pain suffered by the birth mothers, only to emphasise the impact allthis has on the single girl considering having her baby adopted today. All she hears areadult adoptees talking of their obsession with their past, endlessly in pursuit of a resolutionto the quest for their identity. Or tales of the birth mother haunted by the day she last sawher child; the searing pain, the sense of loss.

The result is that when the caring professions tOe to liaise with the pregnant teenager orsingle mother, she will often have little time for all the options they present. She is keepingher child and that's it.

How much bonding is involved in the physical act of giving birth? The perception is thatthere is nothing like the great surge of maternal love that fills one when one holds one'snew-born baby but many mothers, including myself, believe this is a much hyped event. Itis the rearing and nurturing of a child that creates that bond. Would it not be better todownplay the wrench felt on separation and the regrets of the single mother and stressinstead the good future that in most cases lies ahead for a child with adopted parents?

And what of young girls who now keep their babies? While it may be a nine-day wonder tohave a baby, itS" not much fun for the Sharons of Barrytown in the yearx that follom 'stuck inwith a kid' on a Saturday night when everyone else is on the town. No fun but loads ofresentment- and that~ what many young single mothers feel when their baby passes thecuddly stage. ItS not something they'll ring Gay or Pat or Marion about but their friends senseit; know how much they'd love to be back. at school or at work,, to be free; to be young again.

When does one hear stories of adopted children being the subject of neglect or sexualabuse? Rare&. Sadly one does hear of children sometimes suffering in the Jamily unitformed by the unmarried mother.

While one hesitates to employ the cold economic terms of supply and demand where humanlife is concerned, there are, on the other hand, many childless couples anxious to adopt u'hosehopes will never be realised. In 1979 a well-known adoption society in Munster arrangedadoptions for 83 babies. Last year there were only 12 and it has a long waiting list of couples.

Think of the enormous cost to the Exchequer-the single mother} allowance ofapproximawly £ 74 a week, the medical cards, subsidised creches, fuel, milk., clothingallowances. No male politician would dare question this. To do so would inviw outragefrom women's organisations throughout the land. No doubt even this viewpoint will beseen as reactionaoe by those who aspire to the so-called liberal agenda but isn't it time toabandon these labels and ask what is actually best for people?

Not for a moment am I arguing for a return to the veil of secrecy e,z~ that once shroudedadoption, leaving the painful trail we're hearing so much about now. Adoptive parents arenow encouraged to answer their child's questions about where he or she came from. Thebirth mother too may now well have a say in the type of Jamily she'd like for her child.Photographs may even be exchanged and contact with the adoption society maintainedwith a view to a possible meeting at a later stage. Highly skilled social workers now monitorthe triangular relationship involving adoptive paren& birth parents and the childinvolved. No steps are taken without careful counselling and though~ul consideration ofthe psychological implications involved.

With that in mind, it is time to put adoption back on the agenda.

Approaches to teaching persuasion

The success of a persuasive text depends largely on the quality of understanding the writer/speaker has of the outlook and attitudes of the audience. A persuasive text must focus precisely on a selected target audience and this focus will determine the content and form of the text. Persuasive texts are dramatic forms in which feelings, images and words are so shaped that they manipulate the emotions and imaginations of the audience in a way that brings about agreement and consent.

Exemplars: Comparing persuasive texts
Read Text A and Text B. They have very different purposes but they both use similar techniques to persuade the reader to follow a particular course of action. Note down any similarities.

Text A: Don't Burn Down the Home

During the 19th century there was great poverty in Ireland. Many thousands of familiesstruggled to make a living from the land. 2bey were hard pressed to pay the unjust rentsdemanded of them. The penalty for failure to pay was eviction. The soldiers arrived, droveyoung and old onto the road and, as the evicted family looked on, burned their dwellingto the ground.Winter cold and rain and hunger lay ahead. Famine and death wererampant.

One evicted man, as he watched with his family their cabin go up inflames, was heard tosay.. 'They may reduce our house to ashes,, they cannot burn down our home.' Home washis family bonded by love and by faith in God, fire-proof against attack by an alienmilitary power.

That was- many years ago. Now warring invasions,from abroad are no more. We have ourFreedom. Our government doesn't throw us onto the roadside and burn down our houses.They propose to do worse. They are on the rampage to destroy our homes, our marriages,the happiness of children, by letting the monster of divorce loose in our land. Despite ourNO and the glaring evidence that divorce is a plague they are bent on the destruction offamily 1ife.

They presume to know better than God, better than the Church, better than the generationsof Irish people for whom the family, the Church and the Word of God were sacred. ThePope told us: 'The Family is the true measure of the greamess of a nation'. The campaignto destroy the fami[F by divorce is the measure of the co,~ruption of the leadership of acountry.

Say NO to divorce; say YES to God.

Text B: Shaw breathes a new life into Eliot classic. . .

Following a hugely succesfful, sell-out run on Broadway, Fiona Shaw a n d DeborahWarner return to Ireland to present their breathtaking staging of TS. Eliot's epic poem ofmodern civilisation, The Waste Land. In this unique theatrical inwq)retation, Fiona Shawtakes her audience through Eliot's complex poetic landscape in one swift, electrifying andunforgettable burst. The poem makes use of a rich variety of voices and situations andShaw gives each of them a vital and immediate presence on stage. First performed in anold discotheque building, at the Kunsten Festival des Arts in Brussels (1995), The Waste Land was seen in The Magazine Fort, Phoenix Park during the Dublin Theatre Festival,later that year. Since then Warner & Shaw have taken the production to Paris, Montrealand New York, where it has been greeted with standing ovations and rave reviews.

For anyone with any interest in great writing, illuminated and clarified by superb actingand directing, The Waste Land is a must.

1 Having read the two texts consider and discuss these questions...

Who is the implied audience for each text?
Who wrote the text and why?
Is it a coherent and effective text?
Would it persuade one to a course of action? Why? Why not?
To what genre of persuasion does each text belong?

General itemisation of some persuasive techniques:

Tone.. the attitude of the writer to an audience; much variety possible: could vary from the intimate and ingratiating to the inspirational and hortatory, e.g. advertisments tend to use the ingratiating, politicians the inspirational.
Images and anecdotes: used either as evidence or to impress and leave a lasting emotional trace, e.g. consider appeals for charity and aid for Third World countries.
Sensational details: capture and retain attention, e.g. headlines of newspapers, news reports, political speeches when attacking opponents.
Rhythm and repetition of language: reinforces the viewpoint of the author. Frequently the author invents a memorable phrase. Famous examples of such phrases would be:
'I have a dream.'
'We shall overcome.' (Martin Luther King)
These are memorable because of their attractive rhythm and succinct form. In contemporary society, the television 'sound-byte' and the advertising jingle are exemplars of this technique in action in a more ephemeral way.
Humour and wit .. these create a sense of bonhomie and fellow-feeling between speaker/writer and audience. In this way they tend to win over the audience to the point-of-view being expressed. Humour and wit can take many forms, jokes, asides, anecdotes, quick caricatures, ironic comments, etc.

An these are directed towards the emotions and imagination. They aim at channelling feelings in a particular way. Because the audience feels good about what is being said they tend to be sympathetic towards the viewpoint expressed. Logical argument may be a part of a persuasive text but it is generally a framework for the rest.

Exemplar: Analysing a persuasive text

Extract from WilliamShakespeare's Julius Caesar. Mark Antony's Forum speech to the Roman mob.

Friends, Roman& countrymen, lend me your ears;I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.The evil that men do lives after them,The good is oft interred with their bones;So let it be with Caesar. The noble BrutusHath told you Caesar was ambitious,.If it were so, it was a grievous fault,And grievously hath Caesar answered it.Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest -For Brutus is an honourable man,.So are they all, all honourable men -Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.He was my friend, faithful and just to me:But Brutus says he was ambitious;And Brutus is a n honourable man.He hath brought many captives home to Rome,Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept,.Ambition should be made of sternner stuff..Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,.And Brutus is an honourable man.You all did see that on the LupercalI thricepresented him a kingly crown,Which he did thrice refuse., was this ambition?Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,.And, sure, he is an honourable mann.I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,But here I am to speak what I do know.You all did love him once, not without cause..What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?O Judgement~ Thou art fled to brutish beasts,And men have lost their reason. Bear with me,.My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,And I must pause till it come back to me . . .

Some approaches to developing descriptive skills Much of this work can be successfully done in the context of reading the literary texts which have been chosen for study. Aspects of those texts can be used to teach the relevant skills.

Describing, like all language functions, is dependent on context. Students could be asked initially to suggest the genre of the following descriptions.

1Gardai have appealed for information about a 16-year-old girl missing from her homesince Februa~ 9th. Jane Marie Mullins is 5fi.4ins ta& of slim build and pale complexion,with red-brown shoulder-length hair. She has three earrings on each ear, and a butterflytattoo on her right forearm. When last seen she was wearing a black shirt and jeans.

Genre: Missing Person notice in newspaper.

This description is factual. It describes physique, appearance and clothes. There is no attempt by the writer to convey the kind of person Jane might be although readers may make their own inferences from some of the details given. Nevertheless, these inferences will be both subjective and generalised.

Although he does not know it, Mr. Hilditch weighs nineteen and a half stone, a total thathas been steady for more than a dozen years, rarely decreasing annd increasing by asmuch as a pound. Christened Joseph Ambrose fifty-four years ago, Mr Hilditch wearsspectacles that have a pebbly look, keeps his pigeon-coloured hair short, dresses always ina suit with a waistcoat, ties his striped tie into a tight little knot, polishes his shoes twice aday and is given to smiling pleasantly. Regularly, the fat that bulges about his features isrolled back and well kept teeth appear, while a twinkle livens the blurred pupils behind hisspectacles. His voice is faintlyhigh-pitched...

(Extract from William Trevor's Felicia'sJourney (1995), Chapter 2, p.6)

Genre: Portrait of fictional character

This is a description which gives information but much more besides. The details given suggest something about the person, his habits, values and outlook. In addition the description stimulates an affective response in the imagination of the reader, perhaps a mixture of humour, disgust and curiosity.

In contrast with the other description there is a quality o f 'experience' about this which brings it alive.

At the age offi've I went to St Anne's, a lovely little nurseLw school in Clarinda Park in DUnLaoghaire. It was run by a Mrs. Russell, who was one of those wondeuCul old women withwhite hair and a straight back that you always saw as somebody's grandmother in oldfilms. She was terribly correct and ve ~ kind. 7here were two other ladies'- her nieces, Ithink - both called Miss Bath. One was fat and one was thin; with typical childish crueltywe called them 'Hot Bath ' and 'Cold Bath '. We didn'l have a school uniform, but m y greatexcitement was wearing a big bow on my head. The bow was ironed for me every morningand I went off to school looking like a cockatoo/I enjoyed my three years in St Anne's.

My next school was a convent school in Killiney, Co Dublin, run by the Order ofthe HolyChild Jesus. These nuns had come to Ireland after the war. It was said that they had comeat the invitation of the then Archbishop ofDublin, John Charles McQuaid, because be wasterrified that too many middle-class Irish girls were going to convents in England, wherethey might do that dreadful thing: they might meet someone of a different faith andpossibly threaten their own faith and be lost to us forever~ I don't know whether all this wastrue or not, but that is" what we always believed.

The nuns were terribly nice and very innocent. They were somewhat like that Somervilleand Ross's Irish R.M. coming over here, because they really had no idea what they wereabout at all. One of them, whom I have met sincG used to say that 'one was either sent tothe Gold Coast or to t~ire on one's missionagy duty'. You got the feeling that the Gold Coastmight have been a better bargain, because we used to tell them all a pack of lies. Theydidn't understand the Irish language or its pronunciation; nor did they understand theimportance of Irish in the school curriculum. Consequently, the first year that the LeavingCertificate examination was taken in that school I think nearly every student failed Irish.Irish teachers were brought in before the next year in order to sort that problem out.

All my school reports" said that I was bright but lazy: I didn't stir myse~" enough. I waslucky, in that my mind was quick. I could understand things quickly and then I wouldspend the rest o f the time in a daydream. There were some things I was very poor at -mathematics" I didn't understand at all, and I am still ptz~ctically innumerate - but I wasfortunate enough to be at the top of the class.

However, in those days being at the top of the class wasn't nearly as important as beinggood at games. To have big strong arms and be able to hit the hockey ball miles down thepitch - that was real status. I didn't enjoy games. We all wore green uniforms tied in themiddle and we looked like potato sacks of various sizes. I remember standing on thehockey pitch, my legs blue with the cold, hoping that all the action would remain at thefar end and that I would not be called on to do anything. I was a real thorn in the.fleshfor the unfortunate game,; mistress who had to deal with me.. full of sulks, refusing to vaultthe horse or hit the ball in case I did myself an injuo;.

But I enjoyed netball. I was very tall, even at the age of fourteen, which led & e gamesmistress to believe that I had great potential on the netball team as a shooter. She figuredthat I was so tall that even if I just stood there, dreaming ofthe J~ture and thinking m yown thoughts, when the ball came into my hands it would be as easy for me to put it intothe net as it was to throw it away. I was a great success. I was in the Jst VII team for netballfor two whole years, which was lovely because we went out to other convents onWednesday afternoons to play netball, and we had tea and buns afterwards. We won allour games and a lot ofthe other schools protested, saying that I was too old and could notpossibly be under fourteen. I wa& m use the modern parlance, a lethal striker.

Apart from hockey, the other thing I hated - we all hated it - was being dragged to thebeach by nuns. They would say, 'Come on girls, show some school spirit.' It was very easyfor them to say that when they had about nine thousand black petticoats on them and theydidn't have to got into the icy sea and show some school spirit.

MAEVE BINCHY

2The landscape that I grew up in was both ordinary and quite extraordinal3e. It had twovery striking features. On one side was a vast expanse of water, 2 5 miles long by 10miles wide: Lough Neagh. And when you turned your back on this great silvery plainthere was another plain: an aerodrome which had been blitzed into an intimatelandscape of trees and bushes. (Co. Tyrone is often referred to as 'Tyrone among thebushes;, and never more so than in Ardboe, my native place. ) We lived in the littlepeninsula between the two places, with one tiny road leading out to the nearest smallvillage and then on to the bigger town of Cookstown. The farms were very small and itwas a poor district, but very beautiful. Very few families lived in this rural area andwhile the rest of the century moved on, we stayed in this ve~,)~ flat, hidden place, a placebypassed by almost everything else.

Lough Neagh played such an enormous role in our childhood that we never analysed it. Itwas like our parents being there all the time. It dominated the whole landscape. Whereveryou went you could hear the sough and hiss of the lough - without hearing it, as it were.I f it stopped then the world would have come to an end. You only really heard it when youhad been away for a while and had come back to realise how loud it was.

It was a magical place. The great cross of Ardboe stood on the only piece ofhigh ground,surrounded by a graveyard. That was our playground, where we lay on the tombstonesand climbed the walls of the old ruined abbey, keeping an eye out for King, the waterbaihff At that time the fishing rights were owned by a London firm, so all the localfisherman were classified as poachers. If the water bailoef was spotted, a bonfi're was lit onthe lough shore and the boats turned for home. It was exciting and hair-raising to watchKing in his" huge motor-boat come racing towards the small boats. Ifhe caught them it wasdisaster because he confiscated their lines and fined them heavily. For people who werestruggling to make a living it was a nightmarish existence.

Eels were the chief crop ofthe lough. Every day during the season eels swere caught andkept in tanks which were just slightly submerged below the water. We would,fascinated, look down at those extraordinary pewter lengths combing in and out ofthemselves'. We learned to skin eels when we were quite young, also to gut them andclean them - something which invariably brought a shudder from people who didn'tcome from the lough shore. There is a prejudice against eels but in fact they are agreat delicacy.

We learned to swim in the loughh. The water was always cold and being fresh waterit was not at all buoyant so you had to work quite hard to swim. We were in and outof the boats all the time but we didn't get out on the lough in boats often, because wewould be in the way ofworking men and also because ofa superstition that the loughclaimed one victim every year. I suppose the fishermen didn't want to be tempting thelough with nice fresh young bait like us, but the days when you did get out on thelough were astonishing. As you went further out and watched the landscape recedefrom view, the lough became the world.

It was a unique way to grow up, living between those two great flat spaces of aerodromeand lough. Caught between them we were moulded and shaped into something, I thinkwhich was entirely different than if we had grown up in any other part ofEurope . . .

· . . My sister Marie says that what she unequivocally loved about childhood was itsphysical and sensual quality. The beauty of our childhood was undeniable. It was sotranquil and a good deal oftime it was golden. There was the endless sound pattern androutine of a small farm : the slow mooing of the cows on their way to the pasture and ontheir return in the evening,, the jangle and jingle ofa horse's leathers" and reins and theclip-clop of hooves on the roads,, the great rumble of the hay-hfier All of those noises thatI grieve for are the sounds of the corncrake and the cuckoo and the droning noise ofmachinery at harvest-time. Flax has disappeared too. I remember the mysterious look thatthe countryside had when the flax was growing - that extraordinary blueness. I loved toothat acrid smell ofrottingflax. Those smells, those sounds, are part of a way of loCe that hastotally vanished.

POLLY DEVLIN

Analysing the genre

In looking at these versions o f autobiographical writing certain characteristics can be noted.

The authors write out of their own most immediate worlds and experiences.
The sequence of the narrative generally remains faithful to the chronology of their lives.
They select events which have an emotional charge for them, which left some trace in their memory. The event is described and then a comment is made on it.
Basically out of the bric-a-brac of their childhood they recollect events and describe them in a way that recreates the particular quality of their childhood experiences.

Each of these extracts creates the sense of a unique world experienced by a child. Both authors are attempting to communicate a series of meanings and interpretations of their experiences as children.

In inviting students to write directly out of their own experiences it is essential that initial reading of pieces like the above is thoroughly done. In that way will they come to see that in the ordinary happenings of life there are experiences to be explored and meanings to be discovered which are worth writing about and which others would be interested in reading.

(u)A loose plank on the second last step of the stairs still faithfully announces the early riser.Creaking with a lush sound of a plank full of histol[y, of stories, unimaginable to the peoplewho live there.

The worn calpet on the floor of the master-bedroom; warm, a joy to stroll across with bare feet.At Christmas it is the first battleground for new soldiers, a warm garden for a sister's doll.

The leaking tap in the ground floor toilet, drip, drip, drip through countless visits. The rustystains on the sink could tell of many things. The false grandeur of the drawing room, notmuch used: behind the dresser the damp takes the paper of~ and yet that room is warm.

Thejllag-stones on the hall floor, marred and chipped from the stilettos of the fashion game.To the children the hall is a hostile place of 'How do you dos'. And when they have gon<toy cars and ttv4cks cause havoc speeding through to another room. At Christmas, the onlytime the front door is opened, an Arctic world, where last year's toys are left to die.

At five in the evening the red tiles on the kitchen floor are covered in the day's dust. At sixit is swept. It returns during the next day, the same dust, at the same hour,, it will be alwaysthere. That kitchen, that house, my place is so warm. It can never change. I know it must.

of the novel, as well as hopefully stimulating interest for the private reading assignments which will take place between each class reading.

2 These private reading assignments should always be given with a specific purpose so that the students feel a sense of direction to their assignment, e.g. Write down the two most significant moments in your reading of this section; what character appeared here in a new light? How did you feel about the hero/heroine/anyone else's behaviour in this section? and soon.

3 It is here that the personal diary/journal of reading can be usefully employed. Students should be expected to note in their journal during each private reading their own responses as well as their comments on the purposes given for readings. In that way they will gradually build a record of their growing responses and understanding of the text and develop their own capacity for aesthetic reading, i.e. being able to read and maintain awareness of one's own responses. The nature of the comments in the personal journal are not meant to be academic and essayist in approach. They should never be the banal plot-summary. Such a stance is not excluded as a mode of response but initially it would be preferable if the comments were of a more informal personal nature. Typically early responses to a novel might be in the following form:

(i) This opening section leaves me cold. The story is too slow moving and the longdescriptions of the character of the woman really put me off~ I expect it will be theusual romantic stoJ~ . . . I wonder why reading this book is any more useful thanlooking at a video of it? or (ii) I felt sorry for the woman . . . she seems to be trapped in a difficult relationship . . .I hope she can get out of it . . . the situation reminded me of a film I saw recently. . .

4 Having completed the first reading as described above different perspectives can then be taken on the text in subsequent lessons and partial re-readings engaged in to deepen the understanding of the students. These perspectives can be the usual ones of character, themes, conflicts and style or they can be more challenging ones such as attempting to answer such critical questions as:

Why was this novel written?
What was the author attempting to door say?
Why was it written in this manner?
What is omitted from this novel? i.e. Is there some aspect of the world of the novel you would like to have heard more about?
Suggest alternative endings for the novel. Consider what the impact of these endings might be on the overall meaning of the novel. Now re-consider the actual ending and its possible significance.
What does this say about the author's cultural, political and social stance?
What questions could be put to the author?
Is there any part of the novel that you would like to argue about?
What are you finally left with having read this novel? What images, insights, ideas, questions have been foregrounded (emphasised) for you?
How can you integrate the experience of reading this novel into your understanding of literature and life?

2. Poetry

Performance and interpretation

The American poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren remarked some time ago, AllliWrature wants to be spoken . . . unless we recapture in classrooms the sounds of poetrythen the teaching of literature is just on the slide.

This implies that poetry as an experience of sound, rhythm and word textures should be repeatedly experienced. Poetry should always be orally presented by the teacher. An integral part of students' coming to understand and appreciate the impact and artistry of a poem should be an oral 'performance' of the poem. This should not be seen as an optional and desirable extra after the poem has been 'understood' or explained but should be a normal part of the teaching/learning process of reading the poem in order fully to experience it. The act of articulating the poem will nurture insights and responses which a silent reading cannot elicit.

Various approaches possible:

Teacher reads poem. . .
Class is divided into groups (4-5). Each group prepares a reading of the poem if it is a short text or a reading of an extract(s) if it is a longer text.
After the readings a discussion is held on the interpretations which were implicit in the readings of the various groups. Words emphasised, tone realised, mood created, etc., can be matters for reflection.
After discussion on possible interpretations, groups re-form and revise their interpretation if needed and re-present their reading to the class.

This approach is neither an exercise in elocution nor an attempt to achieve an acceptable level of 'theatrical performance' . . . it is simply a methodological stance which attempts to ensure that poetry is given a stronger sensuous presence in the experience of students. It is a means of introducing students to the reality that reading poetry is of a totally different order from most of the other reading they will be doing in school.

Approaches to reading unseen verse

Some methodological suggestions:

The reading of unseen verse has been introduced into the Leaving Certificate Examination. Students therefore will need some specific guidelines in this area to equip them to cope with this new challenge.

They need to be aware that while verse uses grammatical and syntactical patterns to make meanings it also uses a range of other devices and techniques to give power and immediacy, e.g. rhythm, tone, imagery, contrast, sounds and suggestion. All these are fundamental to the way in which a poem works. They create patterns in various ways which need to be recognised if the impact of the poem is to be fully realised. In other words in poems there is a series of meaning-bearing patterns in the language which change it from a communication medium to an aesthetic/artistic medium. Students must be shown that paying close attention to the words in all their dimensions is the best way of approaching verse.

Poetry works in a sensuous manner. It seeks not just to communicate ideas or to give a message. It creates a series of powerful images/pictures/scenes in our imagination which interact in various ways and create sensations, feelings and experiences. Learning to read poetry means learning to interpret those scenes and experiences not at a literal level but at a level of ulterior meaning. Frequently students tend to be trapped at the literal level. If Seamus Heaney proposes to 'dig with his pen ' the trouble is that students might take him literally! As Robert Frost asserted, 'the literal is the enemy of all of us'. Escaping from the prison of the literal can be achieved by adopting a methodology that has as its basic principle the practice of reading a poem many times; it is only by re-reading that the poem's more subtle patterns of language and therefore of meaning and experience are disclosed and assimilated.

Ted Hughes defines verse as 'language without banisters'. In verse words are so charged with meanings that they urge us to leave the ordinary meaning to the side and encounter new possibilities. In Paul Muldoon's poem Ireland the literal details bristle with suggestion.

Ireland
The Volkswagen parked in the gap
But gently ticking over. You wonder
if it's lovers, or two men hurrying back
Across two fields and a river.

Commentary

This poem creates three/four separate images, the rural landscape, the waiting car, the lovers, the men. How are they related? How do they interact? What pattern do they make?

Other questions which arise from the poem and which invite the imagination might be, Whyis the car 'ticking over'? Why are the men hurrying? There appears to be no definite answer to these questions. The poet can only wonder.

Does the fact that the poem is entitled Ireland suggest an idea?

Perhaps the ambiguity and uncertainty in the poem relates to Ireland itself. One just could never be sure in Ireland at this time whether the waiting car was a love-nest o r a getaway car.

Based on the above commentary, some useful approaches for students when encountering a poem might be as follows:

A Reflecting on images

Summarise the main images/pictures the poem gives you.
What do they suggest in terms of feelings and sensations?
Do the images make any pattern? e.g. Do they contrast with or complement each other?
Does any meaning emerge from the pattern?

B Asking questions

Write down some questions that arise from this poem.
Does the poet supply the answers in the poem? Re-read the poem with the questions in mind.
If not, speculate on why the poem raised the specific questions for you.

This poem by Wallace Stevens invites a different approach.

Disillusionment of Ten o'clock
The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches tigersIn red weather.

C Noting patterns in words/phrases

Note down some words, phrases which surprised/attracted you in the poem.
Re-read the poem looking for other words which might relate to your initial choices.
When you have some groups of words reflect on such questions as:
Do they make a pattern of any kind?
Does this pattern suggest or create any world of feelings or atmosphere?
What is the relationship between these different groups? Is there any conflict/contrast between them?

There are several interesting patterns in the poem, e.g.
patterns of colour words, white, green, purple, yellow, red
patterns of negatives, e.g. none, they are not
patterns of exotic and strange sounding words, e.g. ceintures, baboons, periwinkles
contrasting figures: ghostly, emptyfigures v. drunken sailor dreaming of adventure

A further reading suggests that the ghostly figures have rejected colours, the exotic, the adventure of life: the sailor rejoices in the wonder and the energy of his dreams. Perhaps the poem is suggesting that without an energetic imaginative world a person is merely a 'ghost'.

It is generally true that at the heart o f most poems tension(s) can be found. Applying this notion to the poems above it could be said that in Ireland the tension is generated between the image of 'the lovers' and that of 'the men hurrying'; in Disillusionment... the world of the white night-gowns contrasts sharply with the world of the dreaming sailor.

Th idea of a central tension is a useful one for giving students some pathways into the reading of poetry. They could be encouraged to identify the tensions they find in a poem and show how these are created, interact and are resolved. . , if there is a resolution.

Such an approach would work well for this poem by Sean Dunne.

Throwing the Beads
A mother at Shannon, waving to her son
Setting out from North Kerry, flung
A rosary beads out to the tarmac
Suddenly as a lifebelt hurled from a pier.
Don't forget to say your prayers in Boston.
She saw the bright crucifix among the skyscrapers,
Shielding him from harm in streets out ofserials,
Comforting as a fat Irish cop in a gangster film
Rattling his baton along a railing after dark.

The tensions in this poem generate all the pathos, fears and hopes associated with exile.

The approaches and techniques suggested should not be seen 'as formulae for solving poems'. If used slavishly they will achieve little. They are best seen as reading strategies which if used selectively should help students to engage with poems. After that one can only hope...

Approaches to the writing of verse

'We need to ensure that literature is something that belongs to the students, not somethingthat is distant and remote. One way of making it belong to them is to have them write it.' Kenneth Koch

'If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it' Elmore Leonard

As in the previous categories of writing already considered, the same approach, the integration of reading and writing, can be utilised in encouraging students to write verse. An outline structure/form is presented which they are invited to imitate in a general manner as best they can. As there is a large bibliography available in this area only one easily adaptable technique will be outlined here. It is largely based on the theory found in Kenneth Koch's book, Rose, Where'd you get that Red?

Koch suggests that it is useful to focus on the 'poetry idea' present within each poem. By 'poetry idea' he seems to mean that each poem has an experiential shape (a 'feeling shape') embodied in a language shape. Students should first become involved in the poem in the ways outlined above and they could then go on, helped by the teacher, to identify a feeling/language shape they might try to imitate.

For example, take this wel-known poem by William Carlos Williams,

This is just to say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
savingfor breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

The feeling shape of this poem could be described as an apologetic stance laced with a dash of guilty pleasure. (Most students can relate well to this feeling shape!) The language shape is composed of three simple statements. The following are some verses that students produced imitating this poem.

I ate
slowly
the last chocolate
in the box

I know it
was your
favourite
strawberry cup

I am sorry.
I know now
why
you were saving it.

I'm soro~
I kissed your
lovely girlfriend

I'll try not
to kiss
her
again.

There are many poems which can be utilised in this way. For example, Eavan Boland's poem This Moment has much to offer in the manner in which it captures a certain mood and atmosphere through a selection and arrangement of a series of charged gemuous images.

This Moment
A neighbourhood.
At dusk.

Things are getting ready
to happen
out ofsight.

Stars and moths.
And rinds slanting around fruit.

But not yet.

One tree is black.
One window is yellow as butter.

A woman leans down to catch a child
who has run into her arms
this moment.

Stars rise.
Moths flutter.
Apples sweeWn in the dark.

A student's response was as follows:

This Moment
A classroom.
In a warm May day.

Three o'clock.
Dust mites dance
in the sunlight.

Pages rustle
Shoes scrape.

Time to go ... not yet

The bus for home
slides past the window.

3. Drama

The traditional methodology, the line by line reading fa play, has gone into decline aomewhat m the face of the opportunities presented by cassette and video resources. At least now the drama-script has a performance presence, a three dimensional quality, which is essential if its theatricality is to be appreciated. However, in these contexts the student is still playing the relatively passive role of a member of the audience - admittedly a role that it is essential to learn. Therefore, opportunities should be created whereby students can try to create interpretative presentations of parts (or all) of the drama text for themselves. Again this is a matter of process and stance, to foster ownership and insight in the students rather than to aim at a fully realised product. These objectives can be achieved in a variety of ways.

Avoid the practice of selecting students to sit in various corners of the classroom and read out (unprepared) lengthy pieces of text without too much understanding and effectively boring the rest of the class or inducing sleep. The methodology outlined earlier for performance in poetry can be used quite effectively if scenes for interpretation are preselected by the teacher. Once an initial grasp of the text has been established then a broad range of Drama-in-Education (DIE) techniques can be utilised to keep the participatory role of the students operative.

A selection of DIE techniques

Hot-seating
A student takes on the role of a character in the text and is questioned/interviewed by the class (also in some role) about various events in the text, e.g.

Horatio interviewed by curious courtiers
Banquo brought before a team of inquisitors
Iago brought before a court.

This kind of activity has to be well planned or it can deteriorate into triviality and guesswork. Students must have prepared worthwhile questions and the student in the character role must be reasonably familiar with the text although some guarded speculations are welcome.

Still/freeze-frame
Students (in groups) are requested to choose a moment in a scene which they consider significant. The group is required to portray that moment as if in a video still. The remaining students attempt to identify the moment, its significance and the interpretation being presented.

This can be developed by using the technique of thought-tracking: the teacher goes to each member in the still and when he or she touches them the students must say what they are thinking as the characters in the scene. For example if a group were doing a still of a part of the opening scene of King Lear e.g. the declaration of love and fealty by his daughters, then the student playing the role of Cordelia might say, . . . 'I don't believe them . . . what am I going to say?' or Kent might say, 'Is my King losing his mind?' or Regan might say, ' Now's my chance to get it all from the silly old fool'.

Teacher-in-role/class -in-role
Context is created gradually and the teacher adopts a role arising from the text. In this role he or she attempts to persuade the students to also take on roles and play out some ,scenes arising from the text, e.g. Reminiscences of the villagers about Christy Mahon after he has departed: the gravediggers in Hamlet gossiping with their friends; Iago as an old man explaining his behaviour to fellow galley-slaves!

Semiotic perspectives
This involves using signs and symbols to create meanings and interpretative perspectives. It is an area of rich potential for engaging the students' imagination in a three-dimensional manner. In the context of teaching drama and film it is of fundamental significance. Students could be asked to focus on the sign systems that are used in drama, e.g. setting, costumes, props, sound, etc. They could be asked to undertake a variety of activities, e.g.

What objects (props) would be appropriate in a scene?
What item of clothing or object would they associate with a character?
What image would they put on a poster for the play?
What colours and shapes would they relate to each character?