Writing the diary entry of a Windrush passenger before their arrival in the UK | English

Starter quiz

True or false: a diary can only be written using the present tense.
- 'false' ✓
In which tense is this sentence written? 'I am determined to make a success of this place.'
- future
- present ✓
- past
In which tense is this sentence written? 'I rushed over to her and I hugged her tightly.'
- past ✓
- present
- future
Which of these sentences show thoughts and feelings rather than events?
- I was shocked by their ignorance. ✓
- The train sped past bombed-out streets.
- I collapsed onto my narrow bunk bed.
- Had I done the right thing by coming here? ✓
Which feeling best completes this action? 'As I sat down on the bed, ...'
- I imagined what my mother's advice to me would be. ✓
- I couldn't believe the beauty of what I saw.
- I felt completely exhilarated.
- I knew I had come to the right place.
How does Celia feel at the end of our diary plan?
- happy and exhilarated
- tenacious and determined ✓
- deflated and defeated

Why is a conversational tone appropriate for a diary entry?
- It is written for children to read
- It doesn't have an intended audience; you are writing for yourself only ✓
- It is written to be persuasive
- It is written to entertain a large audience; it should be engaging and chatty
Which of the following are features that build a conversational tone?
- verbless sentences ✓
- conversational sentence openers ✓
- exclamatives ✓
- relative complex sentences
- rhetorical questions ✓
Which of the below are verbless sentences?
- How incredible! ✓
- How extraordinary it is here!
- Not much hope of that. ✓
- There isn't much of that.
Which of the sentences below use conversational sentence openers?
- I yearned to go, but it was impossible.
- But I'm exploring the world! ✓
- And here I am. ✓
- I packed my things and I got on the bus.
Which sentence has the colon in the correct position?
- I was overflowing with: emotions fear, anxiety, excitement and exhilaration.
- I was overflowing with emotions fear, anxiety: excitement and exhilaration.
- I was overflowing with emotions: fear, anxiety, excitement and exhilaration. ✓
How is Celia feeling at the end of this diary entry?
- deflated
- optimistic ✓
- apprehensive

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Writing is most successful when we orally rehearse before writing.
A diary can include events and feelings written in the past and present tense.
We use a range of cohesive devices in all writing, including different punctuation, sentence types and parenthesis.
Because a diary is a personal piece of writing, it can have a conversational tone.
We can create a conversational tone using questions, exclamatives, verbless sentences and conversational openers.

Pupils will have been taught that exclamation sentences must contain a verb, as in 'What a mess there is!'

We use the term exclamative to include verbless construction like 'How cool!' alongside 'proper' exclamation sentences like 'How warm it is!'.

Conversational tone - the effect created by using language features such as conversational sentence openers that may break normal ‘rules’ of writing
Exclamative - a word, phrase or sentence that expresses strong emotion or surprise
Verbless sentence - a conversational or informal sentence that does not contain a verb, breaking the normal written convention
Cohesive devices - language structures that develop text cohesion