This is a great cross-curricular activity!

Pupils quantify various aspects of language, make comparisons, display their data. If pupils are familiar with more forms of data presentation they will likely produce better quality output.

Various forms of data presentation.

It is suggested pupils work in pairs:

1. Print one copy (two pages per side, double-sided, without stapes) of pupil sheets and distribute to each pair.

2. Inform pupils they are to choose one of the passages from each sheet (one being an example of sophisticated use of language and the other less so). Pupils then fill in the gaps and you may wish to display the definitions sheet.

3. Distribute either an A3 or A4 sheet for pupils to compare and display their finding as appropriate for your SoW.

Some possible ideas:

• Use comparative bar charts to show the distribution of sentence lengths.

• Radar charts (spider diagrams) could be used to compare use of abstract nouns, precision of language etc. but it would make sense not to include concrete nouns in this diagram.

• To make it cross-curricular pupils could add explanation/example of abstract versus concrete nouns, or an explanation of why they considered the language to be more precise in one of the passages.

• Use of pie chart to display noun ratio (abstract vs. concrete).