Tertiary Catalogue

Being able to give your reader an insight into your character's mind is a valuable skill in writing narratives. This video explains how questions can be used to reveal what characters are thinking, whether genuine or rhetorical, and from a first-person or third-person perspective. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills writing Imaginative texts. Show Less

For letters to the editor, online discussions and essays, being able to express your point of view effectively is very useful. This video highlights that you don't have to use complicated sentences to write a good persuasive text—clear and concise simple sentences, whether statements or questions, can be impactful and get your point across. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing persuasive texts. Show Less

Characters are an essential component of many narrative texts, such as a novel or a short story. This video shows how you can use a variety of sentence types – statements, questions and commands – in your narrative writing to develop characters that are memorable and interesting to read about. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing imaginative texts. Show Less

To write a recipe that's easy to understand and follow, it's important to show the relationships between a series of individual instructions or directions. This video covers how to combine simple commands into compound sentences, using the coordinating conjunctions 'and', 'but', 'so' and 'or', to improve the flow of ideas. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing informative texts. Show Less

When writing a movie review, it is important to be able to express your opinions and conclusions precisely. This video reinforces that sometimes, it can be more effective to use simple sentences, rather than compound or complex sentences, for stronger impact and more persuasive power. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing persuasive texts. Show Less

A good instructional text needs to get your message across clearly and be easy for readers to follow. This video explains the difference between two sentence types commonly found in informative texts—statements and commands—and how to use them to deliver information more simply and with clarity. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing informative texts. Show Less

When writing a biography, article, report or instruction manual, delivering information in a clear and engaging way is crucial. This video introduces the two most common sentence types found in informative texts—statements and commands—and how to vary their length and detail so your text flows smoothly and is interesting to read. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills for writing informative texts. Show Less

A well-written narrative, such as a short story, poem or script, can be exciting, tense and suspenseful. This video illustrates how short, simple sentences can be used to create a different pace and mood in narrative writing, compared to longer and more detailed sentences. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing imaginative texts. Show Less

There's a skill to writing great science reports that are both clear and easy to understand. This video identifies the sections of a report where it can be better to use simple sentences, rather than more detailed ones, to make it easy for readers to understand the goals and conclusions of an experiment. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing informative texts. Show Less

When writing a recount, such as a diary entry, you might find yourself needing to show the relationships or connections between ideas. This video explains how to use compound sentences to describe a series of events, using the coordinating conjunctions 'and', 'but', 'so' and 'or'. Highly recommended for students looking to establish key basic skills in writing informative texts. Show Less

Overcome a Writing Block is a video addressing a common problem of writer's block. For many of us, it's fear of staring at a blank page and wondering what to say. In this video, behavioural expert Peter Quarry explains how to overcome a writing block. Overcome a Writing Block is a video, in which you will learn to start by dumping words and ideas on a page, as a mindmap or like a lump of clay, and you can begin to shape it however you like. You will learn that gradually your writing momentum will build and you will discover an exciting opportunity to unlock thoughts and expressions you never realised you had within you. Show Less

This video explores the basic concept of sentence structure. Gil T. Mann is very close to learning the result of his court trial. The sentence structures contained in his written statement will determine whether he is found guilty, or just plain Gil T. Learners from secondary school age up to adulthood will benefit from this humorous exploration of simple, complex, and run-on sentences, and the value of the humble conjunction. Show Less

Learners can struggle with conjugation and tense agreement. It all sounds like utter linguistic jargon to Gil T. Mann. But these are actually core grammar concepts we use every day when writing English. Gil quickly learns the importance of matching the number of nouns with the correct conjugation of a verb, as well as using consistent verb tenses to get his meaning across on the stand. Will he learn quickly enough to get himself out of trouble? Show Less

This video explores basic grammar questions for learners: When should you use a comma? How do you use quotation marks in your writing to show someone else is speaking? And what on earth is the difference between a colon and a semi-colon, anyway?! Many learners from secondary school age up to adult struggle with these basic grammar concepts. Gil T. Mann shares the same frustrations as he fumbles his way through his written defence statement in court. Will he be able to correctly punctuate his innocence? Show Less