Tips for Commentary Writing

YEAR 10 ENGLISH

TIPS FOR COMMENTARY WRITING

 Write your commentary in third person present tense

For Example:

‘The Man from Snowy River’, a ballad written by Banjo Patterson celebrates the heroic character of the horsemen of the Australian bush…

I think ‘The Man from Snowy River’ celebrates the stockmen of…

 Write in structured paragraphs (topic sentence, supporting details, quote, clincher)

For Example:

TOPIC SENTENCE Patterson uses detailed description to allow us to understand both the setting and characters. He often uses imagery to convey setting: SUPPORTING DETAIL “From cliffs and crags that beetled overhead./and upward ever upward, the wild horses held their way,/ Where mountain ash and QUOTE kurrajong grew wide’. This description which is often full of evocative SUPPORTING DETAIL images is used in conjunction with the dialogue of the characters, to foreground the challenges of bush life: ‘And the old man muttered fiercely, “WE may bid the mob good day,/No man can hold them down QUOTE the other side.”’ The interplay of detailed description and colloquial dialogue creates an understanding in readers’ minds of a distinctive CLINCHER Australia bush setting.

 Incorporate quotes into the body of your paragraph and always use the correct punctuation

For Example:

This description which is often full of evocative images is used in conjunction with the dialogue of the characters, to foreground the challenges of bush life: ‘And the old man muttered fiercely, “WE may bid the mob good day,/No man can hold them down the other side.”’

In verse 8 “We may bid the mob good day. No man can hold them down the other side.’ This quote is said by the old man, Harrison about how hard it will be to get the horses.

 Use formal language for your commentary – no contractions, slang, colloquialisms.

 Take care to move between big picture interpretation (discussing themes, ideas) and word level interpretation (discussing language and specific words, techniques and devices).