All posts by Christopher Waugh

“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.” (Katherine Mansfield)

Apple: You’ll see why 1984 won’t be like “1984”

This advertisement, aired during the Super Bowl in 1984 shows Apple’s advertising agency tapping into the Cold War anxieties about totalitarianism to present it’s new computer products. How does this ad appear to us now Apple has become one of the world’s largest multinational companies?

Novel Study: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

NCEA 3.1: Respond critically to specified aspect(s) of studied written text(s), supported by evidence

Grammar of Satire – Writing Task

After our short study of the Grammar of Satire, it’s time to have a go at writing a satirical piece in your own right. Here are some suggestions as to how you might get going:

The Grammar of Satire – School, by Thabit Choudhury

School. It’s an amazing thing. There’s nothing a 15-year-old boy loves more than getting up at 6:30, eager to educate himself.

Grammar of Satire – Trident, by Frankie Boyle

I wrote a joke the other day, along the lines of: “Our greatest fear is that we die alone – which is why I intend to take quite a few people with me.”

Grammar of Satire – A Postcard from Russia

The most exciting way of getting into Russia is to cross Germany in a sealed train and arrive at the Finland Station in St Petersburg to be greeted by a cheering revolutionary mob who promptly rename the city after you.

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The Grammar of Satire – Advice to Youth

This language project forms an investigation into the underlying grammar of satirical writing. We’ll be exploring satirical work covering three centuries of social criticism and the project will culminate in your writing of your own

What is Satire?

Some examples of political and social satire to get the conversation started

Newspeak: Course Outline

Choosing Newspeak as your English programme for Level 3 means that, you probably find the darker, more dystopian aspects of world literature attractive; you’re somehow inexorably drawn to the unusual and deep down you sense that something is rotten in the state of… This programme will take a media-savvy journalistic approach. You’ll need to think fast, question everything and be willing to speak up. You will be asked to challenge yourself, take risks and show ambition.