Title: Reading official documents

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

What features does the official style have?

Target group

7th‑grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

Core curriculum

II. Language education.

2. Differentiation of language. Student:

1. understands the concept of style, recognizes colloquial, official, artistic, scientific and journalistic style.

3. Language communication and language culture. Student:

2. understands what linguistic politeness consists of and uses it in statements;

3. distinguishes between the standard and functional language standards and applies to them;

III. Creating statements.

4. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

5) functionally uses rhetorical means and understands their impact on the recipient;

7) agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion;

6. Speaking and writing. Student:

7) creates consistent statements in the following species forms: review, essay, application, resume, CV, cover letter, speech, interview;

IV. Self‑study. Student:

8. reliably, with respect for copyrights, uses information.

The general purpose of education

Students get acquainted with the features of the official style and create a letter of request.

Operational objectives

Student:

• discusses the features of official style;

• recognises linguistic means characteristic of the official style;

• distinguishes official species;

• discusses the structure of the application;

• creates a letter of request.

Learning methods

• giving: talk;

• practical: exercise exercises, drama;

• programmed: using a computer, using an e‑manual.

Forms of work

• uniform individual activity;

• collective activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Before the lesson

Students find and bring examples of official documents to the lesson.

Introduction

1. The teacher defines the purpose of the course: the students will familiarize themselves with the style of official documents and will create such texts themselves.

Realization

1. The teacher draws attention to the difficulties associated with the reception and creation of official texts (template, terminology, etc.), then he asks students what official texts they have learned at home and what drew their attention. Students carry out exercise No. 1 in the abstract.

2. Performing interactive exercise No. 2 – students distinguish official genres (regulations, notification, application, etc.) from other types of texts.

3. The teacher asks students if they know, to whom and for what the application can be addressed, and what elements it should contain. During the conversation, the teacher gives advice on how to draw‑up an application (addressing, courtesy formulas, justification).

4. The teacher invites students to play. In pairs, they will prepare scenes in which the petitioner comes to the office and presents his request to an official. The students' task is:

• Think of a problem with which the petitioner reports to the office.

• Set up a dialogue between the petitioner and the official.

• Present the scenes on the class forum.

5. Presentation of selected students' scenes. Short discussion.

6. The students get acquainted with the interactive map showing the elements of the letter of request, and then perform the interactive ex. No. 3, comparing the structure of written request in Polish and in English. Students should note the differences and the similarities between both documents.

7. Work of the whole class team. Students wonder who they would refer to in the following matters (ex. 4).

8. Creating a letter of request for one of the chosen topics (providing a sports hall for a cultural event or construction of bicycle paths).

Summary

1. The teacher distributes questionnaires to the students to evaluate their own work.

2. Then, the teacher summarizes the classes, asking questions:

• For what purpose and to which institutions do we write letters of request?

• What are the most important features of the official style?

• What is the difference between an official letter in Polish and English?

Homework

Formulate three arguments with which you would convince your district/town/city authorities to solve a selected problem of the local community (formulate this problem by yourself).

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Reading official documents

Official documents are difficult to read and write! However, you need to be aware of the most important of these in order to work efficiently in an office (social institutions and public bodies) and more easily access important information. Official language is one of the most difficult styles for a number of reasons:

• Firstly – they are very formal, meaning that administrative documents have their own templates that need to be read and, most of all, followed if you want to record important legal informatiom.

• Secondly – the verbal and stylistic design is quite standardised. Dominant here are professional legal terms, long sentences and, above all, constructions which express commands or prohibitions (eg „permitted” – „not permitted”, „allowed” – „forbidden”).

• Thirdly – in many sentences, there are no personal forms of verbs to be found. The things most commonly referred to are things, issues and circumstances – less about people. So it is a style of writing that is different from everyday language or the language of the media, where people and their actions are central, and things, issues and circumstances are secondary.

What features of official style have you noticed in documents you have seen at home? What were these documents?

The most common official document is a request/application. To whom can these be directed? What can they be about? Do you know the elements that should be in such a document?