English SME & SSE copy 1

LEARNING AREA: Oral and written communication

Key Unit Competence: To use language learnt in the context of media and reporting.

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY

9.1. Describing words and expressions used in media

9.1.1. LEARNING ACTIVITY

Reading and text analysis.

•  Text: How to start a newspaper

A smartly dressed young woman stood at the front of the school hall and addressed the senior students of the school. “Good morning, everyone,” she started. My name is Faida Muhoza. As you know, I am the chief editor of your newspaper, The Ladies Daybreak. But my career as journalist began a long time ago. I was one of the reporters of our school newspaper which we called ‘Our little daughter.’ Later, I trained as a journalist at college. But there is only one place to acquire experience, and that’s on the job; and it is never too early to start learning about being a reporter.

I have come here today to tell you how you can run your own newspaper. Let us start by talking about the four steps towards starting a newspaper. First, you must consider the purpose of your newspaper. Second, you must form an editorial committee to produce the newspaper. Third, you must decide on the types of articles you want to include in the newspaper. Finally, you must decide on the size, shape and make up of your newspaper.

The first duty of the editorial committee is to agree on the main purpose of the newspaper and therefore, the contents. The editorial committee is made of five members who perform different duties. The chief editor is to make sure that the committee works well as a team, to check the whole newspaper for quality and content, to write the editorial column in the newspaper, to chair most of the editorial meetings and report. The editor reviews the articles from the reporters to give any comment on articles presented. The chief editor and the committee proofread the articles; they work with the designer(s) on the arrangement of the articles. The Chief Editor also chairs editorial committee meetings.

The Secretary has the duty of handling all correspondences, takes notes at the editorial meetings, receives articles from reporters and passes them on to the editors. He or she works with and helps the chief editor. The Designer organizes articles and advertisements by deciding on the space between them, etc. He or she organizes the illustrations and photographs; works with the editors to make sure that the articles have the right structure and the articles are ready on time. He or she should also ensure that the printing goes smoothly.

The treasurer is to look after money and find ways of getting funds to pay for the printings. The treasurer contacts advertisers and informs the designer about all the advertisements on various issues. He/she organizes the sales and distribution of the newspapers and pays for printing expenditures. He or she also receives money from sales and advertisements.

Adapted from English Language, book 6, p.51- REB.

•  Comprehension questions

1. Analyze the steps to start a newspaper as shown in paragraph two.

2. Examine the duty of the editorial committee.

3. Contrast the role of the chief editor with that of the secretary in the production of a newspaper.

4. Assess the contribution of a designer to the writing of an effective newspaper.

5. Determine the importance of a treasurer for the planning of a newspaper.

9.1.2. APPLICATION ACTIVITY

vocabulary, summary and composition writing

a) Use a dictionary or a thesaurus to find the meanings of the following words

i. …reporters… (paragraph 1)

ii. …proofread… (paragraph 3)

iii. …chairs… (paragraph 3)

iv. …editorial meeting… (paragraph 4)

v. …treasurer… (paragraph 5)

vi. …expenditures… (paragraph 5)

b) In not more than 60 words, summarize the above passage

C) Write a 300-word composition on “The role of media to the development of Rwanda.”

9.2. Describing a scene

9.2.1. LEARNING ACTIVITY

Reading and text analysis.

• Text: Un accident!

Three decades ago, a fatal car crash shattered a small town and a group of friends. After all these years, Michael Paterniti finally tells the tale. The accident occurred on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving of my senior year in high school. It left one friend injured and one dead, and for a while afterward, the whole thing seemed so surreal and impossible that all we could do. Friends, family and anyone connected but not in the accident itself was trying to recreate the simultaneities of that evening. The first person at the scene, the shock of the couple at the nearby house from which the call was made for an ambulance, and then: who called whom, and who was where when they heard about it? All remained a mystery. Given our own shock, we couldn’t imagine the parents of the victims hearing those first words: There’s been an accident...

When the news reached my family that night, in that orbit of calls, my parents, perhaps like other parents among our friends, presumed their child might have been in the car. That was not the case, though it might have been, had I made a different decision earlier that evening. For us seniors, it was a free night with no school the next day, a holiday from everything. I spent mine with my girlfriend, so I missed the pre-party and then the ride to the real party. And so, I missed the accident, too.

There were two cars, belonging to Jax and Flynn, driving from the beach through the town to someone’s parentless house. Riding with Jax was Seger, and with Flynn, Xavier. On a stretch of road by one of the town’s country clubs, Jax lost control of his car, hit a telephone pole, and skidded a hundred feet into a tree. The crash drove the engine through the dashboard. To find the bodies, one had to cut through the wreckage. At that moment, the first siren sounded, the first numbers were dialed and the bodies were gathered and rushed away. I was watching a movie with my girlfriend; I can’t remember exactly. Lost in the oblivious haze of youth, I was certain, like millions of teenagers before me, that nothing would ever touch us there until, of course, it did.

Extract from, The accident: A crash that shattered a group of friends by Michael Paterniti

•  Comprehension questions

1. Describe the effect of the accident as shown in the first paragraph.

2. How did the speaker’s parents react when they heard about the accident?

3. Explain the reason why the speaker escaped the accident.

4. Discuss the cause of the accident as described in paragraph three.

5. Label the damage caused by the accident.

6. Discuss the ways in which accidents can be avoided.

9.2.2. APPLICATION ACTIVITY

vocabulary, sentence and summary writing

1. Match the words in the table below with their respective meaning.

2. Write one grammatically correct sentence with each of the terms in the above table.

3. In not more than 60 words, summarize the above text.

9.3.Describing a report

9.3.1. LEARNING ACTIVITY

Reading and text analysis.

• Text: The valley speech day

The guest of honour was the regional commissioner Mr. Frank Mmbando. He praised Valley High School’s achievements in his address at the school’s annual speech day ceremony held last Friday in the school hall.

The ceremony began with a lively song by the junior school choir. The headmaster, Mndeme, then welcomed staff, students, parents and the guests of honour regional commissioner, Frank Mmbando and regional education adviser, Mrs Maria Athmani. The headmaster next asked the commissioner to present prizes to the highest achieving students. There were 50 prizes in total awarded for achievement in academic subjects, sports and arts.

After presentations, commissioner Mmbando gave his address. He said that, decade after decade, graduates of the school have gone on to do important work in the region and other parts of the nation as doctors, engineers, businesspeople, teachers and workers of many different kinds. “Valley has always stood for hard work and high achievement. There is no magic formula but a simple recipe: students and teachers turn up to their lessons on time, look smart, respect each other and work hard. When this is repeated day after day, over time everyone can look back and be proud. We too, in the community are proud of you. “The commissioner said that money would be available to increase the number of classrooms to meet the growing demand for admissions at the school. He told the staff and students to continue their good work.

After other speeches by the regional education adviser and the head boy, there was a short musical production by members of the senior school entitled ‘The World Awaits’, which was very well received. Then, after the singing of the school song, the headmaster closed the ceremony.

Extract from English in use Book 2 by Longman

• Comprehension questions

1. Explain the reason why some students were awarded as shown in paragraph one and two.

2. Prove that Valley high school has always stood for hard work and high achievement.

3. Analyse the reason why Valley high school has achieved high as shown in the third paragraph.

4. What did the commissioner promise the staff and students?

5. After reading this passage, what would you do if you wished to improve your academic performance?

9.3.2. APPLICATION ACTIVITY

vocabulary, sentence and summary writing

a. Use a dictionary and thesaurus to find synonyms for the words in the table below

b. Construct one meaningful sentence with each of the terms in the above table.

c. Debate the motion “Discipline and hard work are the pillars of success.”

9.4. Describing the stages in reporting an event

9.4.1. LEARNING ACTIVITY

Reading and text analysis.

• Text 1: News and feature articles

A Newspaper is a printed publication usually issued daily, weekly or monthly. It consists of folded unstapled sheets and contains news, articles, opinions, advertisements and correspondence. It gives information and opinions about current events and news. On the other hand, a Magazine is a periodical  publication containing articles and illustrations, often on a subject or aimed at a particular readership or audience.

Newspaper articles are in two categories: News articles and feature articles. News articles cover the basics of current events while feature articles are longer and more in depth than regular news articles. Feature articles are often research-based.

The best way to structure a newspaper article is to first write an outline. Review your research and notes. Then jot down the ideas in a continuous flow. There are six structural aspects which can lead us to constructing a good article. They include headline, sub-heading, topic sentence, paragraphing, main body, and conclusion. Where necessary, one could use relevant quotations and sayings to contextualize the content of the article.

A newspaper always contains many kinds of articles. Most of us do not read the whole newspaper. We choose articles we are most interested in. We find these articles by reading the headlines. A headline is a heading for an article. It is printed in large, bold letters. It gives you a short description of what the article is about. Headlines are not written in full sentences; they start with capital letters, but they do not end with a full stop.

There are two types of newspapers: Tabloid and broadsheet. In newspapers or magazines some terms are commonly used, such as broadcast, brochure, bulletin, edition, gazette, magazine, journal, publication and print media. There is a multitude of different types of articles, including news stories, features, profiles, instructional articles, and so on.

Extract from: English Language S6, Student Book, REB

• Comprehension questions

1. Distinguish a newspaper from a magazine.

2. Contrast a news article with a feature article.

3. Analyze the structure for writing a good newspaper article.

4. Determine the importance of headlines in a newspaper.

9.4.2. APPLICATION ACTIVITY

Vocabulary and sentence writing

1. Using a dictionary or a thesaurus, find the meanings of the terms in the table below

2. Write one grammatically correct sentence with each of the words in the above table.

3. In not less than 70 words, summarize the above passage.

9.5. Expressing probability on a past event

9.5.1. LEARNING ACTIVITY

Reading and text analysis.

• Text: The experience of regret

Humans have the need and the ability to make sense of their actions and behaviour. Such interpretations are not always pleasant; in fact, they can be very unpleasant. People can, for example, feel embarrassed, ashamed, or guilty. Here we concentrate on one potential response: regret.

Regret is a negative experience concerning the cause and a desire to reverse the current situation. It is an emotion oriented toward the past, signaling an unfavorable evaluation of a past choice. Essentially, regret experiences involve thoughts about counterfactuals, that is, “what might have been” instead of “what is”. These are thoughts of one’s previous action or inaction and how things would have been different, had one behaved differently.

Regret is an experience that is crucial in the lives of humans, which is reflected in the various areas where regret has been documented such as health and well-being, personality, and romance. Regrets can be very intense, with some people being more vulnerable to experiencing this emotion than others.

Regrets can have a variety of consequences, such as self-blame, change of expectations, rumination about lost opportunities, as well as adjustments and behavior changes. When people regret something, they are likely to consider the opportunities that they did not take and the choices with better outcomes that they could have made. However, the consequences following regret don’t always need to be negative.

Research shows some benefits of regret that are rooted in the counterfactual thoughts associated with this experience, at least when people perceive some level of personal responsibility for their actions or inactions. Regret involves an inconsistency between subjectively relevant goals regarding a situation or life in general and one’s action or inaction. Through this inconsistency, regret helps people to learn from the past. Humans recognize regret as a positive influence on future behavior. Regret signals that something has gone wrong and that something needs to change. It can trigger a behavioral response to improve circumstances and one’s life. Indeed, regret can lead to instrumental corrective actions and promote psychological adjustment and changes in life.

The literature thus indicates that regret can lead to change. It plays a role in shaping learning processes from past experiences to the present and the future. The emotion itself is the negative sting that seems to motivate learning and change via inferences and expectations. The sting is an affective expression of the perceived inconsistency between one’s actions or inactions and onesidedly relevant goals, thus an inconsistency in people’s sense of meaning.

Understanding and resolving such inconsistencies shapes these meaning frameworks and contributes to a general sense of meaning. The motivated process to learn from and resolve the inconsistencies associated with regret is essentially a search for meaning in life.

Adapted from The Psychological Review Journal, Vol. 102(2), Apr 1995, p.379-395

•  Comprehension questions

1. Based on the above passage, assess the influence of regret on a human’s emotions as shown in paragraph one and two.

2. Analyze the negative effect of regret on people’s behavior.

3. Discuss the veracity of the saying “regrets don’t always need to be negative.”

4. Examine the positive influence of regret on people’s future behavior.

5. To which extent can regret lead to a search for meaning in life as shown in the last paragraph?

9.5.2. APPLICATION ACTIVITY

Vocabulary, Sentence writing and Composition

1. 1. Use a dictionary or a thesaurus to find the meanings of the words and phrases listed below.

a. …reverse… (paragraph 2)

b. …counterfactuals… (paragraph 2)

c. …vulnerable… (paragraph 3)

d. …self-blame… (paragraph 3)

e. …rumination… (paragraph 3)

f. …adjustments… (paragraph 3)

g. …trigger… (paragraph 4)

h. …inferences… (paragraph 5)

i. …inconsistency… (paragraph 5)

2. Construct grammatically correct sentences with each of the above terms.

3. Write a 250-word composition on “the impact of regret on future humans’ behavior.”

9.6. Language structure: Past perfect continuous, passive voice,

1. Past perfect continuous

Examples:

1. The manager had been taking money from the company.

2. They had been planning to write this report since last month.

3. The witness said that the driver had been talking on his mobile phone.

4. The car had been emerging into the main road when the accident took place.

5. Janet had been preparing her news presentation for an hour when I arrived.

6. Betty failed the final test because she had not been attending class.

7. Reporters had been waiting there for more than two hours when the press conference finally started.

Notes:

The past perfect continuous is used to talk about actions or situations that were in progress before some other actions took place. Using the past perfect continuous before another action in the past is a good way to show cause and effect. You can use time expressions like ‘for’ and ‘since’ with this tense. You have learnt about the use of ‘since’ and ‘for’ in unit 3 of this book.

Exercise:

1. Put the verbs into the correct form of the past perfect continuous.

2. We (sleep) ………. for 12 hours when he woke us up.

3. They (wait) ………. at the station for 90 minutes when the train finally arrived.

4. We (look for) ………… her ring for two hours and then we found it in the bathroom.

5. I (not / walk) ………… for a long time, when it suddenly began to rain.

6. How long (learn / she).………. English before she went to London?

7. Frank caught the flu because he (sing)………… in the rain too long.

8. He (drive) ………… less than an hour when he ran out of petrol.

9. They were very tired in the evening because they (help) ………. on the farm all day.

10. I (not / work).………… all day; so, I wasn’t tired and went to the disco at night.

11. They (cycle) ………... all day so their legs were sore in the evening.

2. Passive voice

Examples

1. This article was written by a young journalist.

2. All articles had been checked by the chief editor.

3. The newspaper has been banned by the government recently.

4. The news was presented late because of the football match.

5. Reporters were advised on professional rules of ethics.

Notes:

The passive voice is marked by be+ the past participle form of the verb + by + noun (agent). The verb in a passive sentence contains the appropriate form of the auxiliary be and the past participle form of the main verb.

We use the passive voice when we are interested in what is done rather than who does it. The phrase by + noun (agent) is left out when the doer of the action has been mentioned earlier, is obvious, is unknown or is considered unimportant.

Below is a table showing the main verb forms.

Exercise:

Put the following sentences in passive voice.

1. The secretary received the article in the morning.

2. The chief editor structured all the reports himself.

3. Jimmy had carefully planned the writing of the report.

4. The editor understood the purpose of the report.

5. The reporters gathered and selected the information wisely.

6. This made the writing much easier.

7. The manager had taken the money from the company.

8. A burglar broke into the house.

9. Many journalists use cameras and reporters.

10. A police officer rescued a seven-year-old boy.

3. Reported speech

a. Examples

a. Direct speech: The senior editor said, “you wrote a good article.”

Reported speech: The senior editor said (that) I had written a good article.

b. Direct speech: The minister of infrastructure said, “new machines arrived yesterday.”

Reported speech: The minister of infrastructure said (that) new machines had arrived the previous day.

c.      Direct speech: “Thirty news journalists graduated yesterday,” the dean of faculty announced. Reported speech: The dean of  

           faculty announced (that) thirty news journalists had graduated the day before.

d. Direct speech: “This girl wrote a very good article for Nyampinga Newspaper,” said the headmistress.

   Reported speech: The headmistress said (that) the girl had written a very good article for Nyampinga Newspaper.

Notes:

In newspapers, reporters need to repeat what other people have said. In this case, the mastery of reported speech is needed. Mostly in newspapers, the simple past is used to report events. This tense changes into past perfect if the event is reported indirectly. However, to report a progressive past event, the past perfect continuous tense is used. In reported speech, the word that is optional. That’s why it is put between brackets in the above sentence.

The table below shows other important changes:

Exercise:

Put the following sentences into reported speech.

a. The newspaper reported, “The manager intended to take a big amount of money.”

b. The policeman said, “The robbers broke into the house and stole money.”

c. “Police officers rescued a seven-year-old boy,” the witnesses told ImvahoNshya.

d. The driver reported, “There were many passengers at the scene.”

e. Brown said, “We didn’t hear gunshots and the boy was out here fighting with somebody.”

f. ‘The magazines were featuring various articles about women’s rights,’ the project manager told us.

g. “The plane crashed en-route to Dubai,” The BBC reported.

h. “Seventy per cent of the farmers used fertilizers last year,” the minister of agriculture told The New times.

i. “Her article inspired young entrepreneurs in this region,” said the Chief Editor.

j. “James was writing a report about the scene,” the police announced.

9.7. END UNIT ASSESSMENT

I. Construct meaningful sentences with words below;

a. Journalist

b. Reporter

c. Newspaper

d. Advertisement

e. Media

f. Broadcasting

g. Copyright

h. Article

i. Brochure

j. Documentary

II. Conduct a research on the role of the Rwandan media in the development of the country. 

Thereafter, present your findings to rest of the class.

III. Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the verb in brackets using the past perfect continuous.

1. I ………………………… (work) all day, so I didn’t want to go out.

2. She …………………. (sleep) for ten hours when I woke her.

3. They ……………………. (live) in Beijing for three years when he lost his

job.

4. When we met, you …………………… (work) at that company for six months.

5. We …………………. (eat) all day, so we felt a bit ill.

6. He was red in the face because he ……………… (run).

7. It ………………(rain), and the road was covered in water.

8. I was really tired because I ……………………… (study).

9. We ……………. (go) out for three years when we got married.

10. It ….………. (snow) for three days.

IV. Change these active sentences to passive ones. Choose if you need the agent or not.

a. The Government is planning a new road near my house.

b. My grandfather built this house in 1943.

c. Picasso was painting Guernica at that time.

d. The cleaner has cleaned the office.

e. He had written three reports in 2017.

f. John will tell you later.

g. The traffic might have delayed Jimmy.

h. They are building a new stadium near the station.

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