This document discusses writing to entertain and provides examples from Bill Bryson's writing. It asks students to write their own entertaining extract based on a place they know in 12 minutes. Students will then swap work with a partner, underline any entertaining features used, and give the work a mark based on previously established criteria.

1. As you come in… This week’s theme is Think about the TV shows that make you laugh How do they do this? Humour

3. Bill Bryson - Neither Here Nor There STOCKHOLM Did it never stop raining in Sweden? I walked with shoulders hunched and eyes cast down, avoiding the water that rushed down the steep, slickly cobbled lanes, glancing in the windows of antique shops, wishing I had a hat or umbrella or a ticket to Bermuda. I retreated into a dark coffee shop, where I sat shivering, drinking a $3 cup of coffee with both hands, watching the rain through the window, and realised I had a cold coming on… Starving as ever, I looked carefully at several bistros and finally selected what looked to be the cheeriest and most popular of all, a cavernous place overlooking Normalmstorg called Matpalatset. It was friendly and crowded and wonderfully warm and snug, but the food was possibly the worst I have ever had outside a hospital cafeteria - a grey salad, and a lasagne that was not so much cooked as scorched. Each time I poked it with my knife and fork, the lasagne recoiled as if I were tormenting it. I was quietly agog. Nowhere else in Europe could a place serve food this bad and stay in business, and yet people were queuing at the door.

4. Now it’s your turn… You have 12 minutes to write an entertaining extract. Like Bill Bryson, I’d like you to write something based on a place you know. It could be school, it could be a place you’ve stayed. Try to use as many of the features of entertaining writing that we came up with

5. If being entertaining is subjective, how can we create a fair criteria for marking? Criteria:

6. Using the criteria we’ve just come up with, I want you to swap your work with your partner. Read through the work. Underline any entertaining feature used. Give the work a mark.