Get an example of feature articles, you'll see the opinions, shorter paragraphs (for some feature articles) and the title/subtitle/leading paragraph.
[my-spur-of-the-moment-extract-from-a-feature-article, (y'know, to practice for tomorrow)]
...
" 'Wide reading'... ...has replaced 'close reading'. Students and teachers drown in shallow water." says James King, from whose quote I extend this analogy to the students having to analysis every type of text there is. Plays, biographies, autobiographies, short stories, long stories i.e. novels, poems, diary entires, journal entries (they ARE different), normal news articles, feature articles, opinion coloumns, letters to the editor, personal letters, formal correspondence letters...
And speeches. In particular speeches: historical speeches, important speeches, famous speeches, presentations-to-class small time speeches... Not even the president of te united States needs to know how to write a speech, (since his staff writes the speech for him,) so why do the poor students at school have to know?; they get little chance of actually needing to make a good one in life, AND the point of a speech IS to get the point across...
And that's not all. There's also other forms of texts, according to the new syllabus. Texts that a student may study, include but are not limited to: Photoes, illustrations, oil paintings, 'paint' paintings, cartoons, satirical cartoons, houses, streets, the postal system, a screen-shot of *pffft* MS Encarta, even your pet dog... you name it, they claim it. What now? Must these students become omniscient as well as professors of all fields?
Not to be outdone, section 3 of the Caringbah high trials this year was known to have said: "... compose a reply to this [a government sponsored teenage forum on change ]*pfft*] forum, referring to what you have learnt from the Area of Study."* This example, although a spurt of creativity on the part of teachers, does not reflect one problem. When has the teachers, in particular, teachers in charge of marking, ever visited a teenage forum? If not so, as is likely the case, then how can they mark it? Like an essay it seems.
Oh the irony.
* - The author does NOT purport to have copied the statement word for word, minor variations may occur due to bad memory of the author. He hereby disclaims all responsibility.
edit: various stuff, beefing up the feature article..
