Travel writing

WRITING

Using the spider email thread as an inspiration, write an email exchange between two people. One person should represent a business and the other should be a customer. The customer should try to get out of paying their bill by offering something silly in the place of a cash payment. The business owner should write their emails in a formal businesslike tone, but the customer should write in an informal conversational tone.

Writing Tips Let your imagination run wild to create an interesting scenario between the business and the customer. Make sure you use a clearly different tone to differentiate between the two people having the email conversation. Remember to use all of the features of an email accurately (see page 207).

Travel Writing Travel writing is a type of non-fiction writing that describes visits to different places around the globe. It can inspire people to visit a new destination or make them conscious of the challenges faced in other parts of the world. Travel writing comes in the form of travel websites, travel guidebooks and travel magazines.

Features of travel writing Examples

Written mainly in the present tense I leave my hotel early to hike once more to the top of the hill, to see the sun rise just one more time before I have to depart.

Often interleaved with interviews with locals Locals tell me that the cave is ‘haunted by the spirits of angry ancestors’.

Often written in first-person narrative perspective I step anxiously onto the shaky bridge.

Often uses personal anecdotes The woman reminds me of my grandmother, who had always terrified me with her booming voice.

Uses a mixture of imagery and hard-hitting facts

Sitting here on this glorious beach with the crystalclear water, it’s hard to imagine the devastation of the tsunami seven years ago.©The Educational Company of Ireland

National Geographic

National Geographic is the long-standing monthly magazine of the National Geographic Society. It was first published in 1888 and is one of the most widely read magazines of all time. Since 2001, there has also been a National Geographic television channel. The article below is about a visit to Victoria Falls in Africa and is taken from National Geographic magazine.

Victoria Falls is one of the world’s most impressive natural wonders – but what happens as the region gets drier and hotter? By Amy McKeever Victoria Falls is one the biggest and most awe-inspiring waterfalls on the planet. Spanning the width of the Zambezi River – more than a mile across – this legendary waterfall cascades over the lip of a large plateau of volcanic rock and plunges as much as 354 feet. It generate mists that can be spotted from more than a dozen miles away, which is why locals have dubbed it Mosi-oa-Tunya, or ‘the smoke that thunders’. But while the flow has been slicing slowly through this plateau on the national border between Zambia and Zimbabwe for some two million years, extreme swings in rainfall brought on by climate change threaten its future. Victoria Falls is getting drier and hotter. While the region still sees roughly the same annual rainfall, those rains are compressed into a smaller period of time. Temperatures, too, are rising – in a July 2018 paper, South African researcher Kaitano Dube found that the average daily high temperature in October has warmed 6.8 degrees from 1976 to 2017. Last year, the area suffered its worst drought in a century, bringing the falls to a trickle in December. This extreme weather threatens not only the majesty of the falls, but also the health of its ecosystem and the local economy. The Guardianreports that recent droughts have caused power cuts in both countries, which rely on hydropower from the downstream Kariba Dam. The mists of Victoria Falls sustain a rainforest-like ecosystem adjacent to the falls and on the opposite cliff that faces them like a dried-up mirror image, thick with mahogany, fig, palm, and other species of vegetation. The national border between Zambia and Zimbabwe lies midstream, and national parks of both nations exist on either side of the Zambezi. The gorges and cliffs below the falls in these parks are prime territory for raptors, including falcons and black eagles. Extreme weather threatens one of Ear th’s most awe-inspiring waterfalls Victoria Falls is one of the world’s most impressive natural wonders – but what happens as the region gets drier and hotter? By Amy McKeever Victoria Falls is one the biggest and most awe-inspiring waterfalls on the planet. Spanning the width of the Zambezi River – more than a mile across – this legendary waterfall cascades over the lip of a large plateau of volcanic rock and plunges as much as 354 feet. It generate mists that can be spotted from more than a dozen miles away, which is why locals have dubbed it Mosi-oa-Tunya, or ‘the smoke that thunders’. But while the flow has been slicing slowly through this plateau on the national border between Zambia and Zimbabwe for some two million years, extreme swings in rainfall brought on by climate change threaten its future. Victoria Falls is getting drier and hotter. While the region still sees roughly the same annual rainfall, those rains are compressed into a smaller period of time. Temperatures, too, are rising – in a July 2018 paper, South African researcher Kaitano Dube found that the average daily high temperature in October has warmed 6.8 degrees from 1976 to 2017. Last year, the area suffered its worst drought in a century, bringing the falls to a trickle in December. This extreme weather threatens not only the majesty of the falls, but also the health of its ecosystem and the local economy. The Guardianreports that recent droughts have caused power cuts in both countries, which rely on hydropower from the downstream Kariba Dam. The mists of Victoria Falls sustain a rainforest-like ecosystem adjacent to the falls and on the opposite cliff that faces them like a dried-up mirror image, thick with mahogany, fig, palm, and other species of vegetation. The national border between Zambia and Zimbabwe lies midstream, and national parks of both nations exist on either side of the Zambezi. The gorges and cliffs below the falls in these parks are prime territory for raptors, including falcons and©The Educational Company of Ireland black eagles.

Humans have long relied on the falls, too. Stone artifacts from the hominin Homo habilis have been identified near the falls and show that early humans may have lived here two million years ago. More ‘modern’ tools also evidence far more recent – 50,000 years ago – Middle Stone Age settlements at Victoria Falls. Today, tourism is essential to driving economic growth. Several hundred thousand visitors from around the world trek to the falls each year. Hotels, restaurants, campgrounds, and other tourist businesses have cropped up to cater to them. The beauty of the falls lies in their natural state, but the area is at some risk of runaway tourism-based development – more resorts, hotels, and even a possible dam below the falls that could flood several park gorges. Operators in the area offer everything from helicopter overflights to bungee jumping, and the management of these activities while preserving a quality visitor experience for all is an ongoing challenge. READING 1 Where exactly in the world is Victoria Falls located? 2 List four other facts you learn about Victoria Falls from reading this text. 3 Did anything surprise you about the information in this text? 4 Do you think this text contains all of the features of travel writing? Complete the quote quest task in your activity book (see page 132). 5 Would you like to visit Victoria Falls after reading this text? Why? Why not? ACT IVITY COMMUNICATING: GROUP DISCUSSION YouTube star Drew Binsky has created a series of travel videos while on his quest to visit every single country in the world. His videos are like short travel documentaries telling a unique story about the people, food and culture of different countries. He gives out travel tips, hacks and advice, and his videos have had more than one billion views worldwide. Watch the video of Drew’s trip to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan which he describes as ‘the World’s Strangest City’: edco.ie/2xg9 Now answer the questions below. 1 Go to Google Maps and locate Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on the map. 2 Describe the city of Ashgabat – the colours, the buildings and the people. 3 What country does Turkmenistan remind Drew of? 4 List three facts you found out about Ashgabat from watching the video. 5 What strange rules and customs has the former dictator of Turkmenistan imposed on his country? 6 Did you enjoy this video? Did you feel you were both informed and entertained? 7 Scroll through the rest of Drew’s videos and choose one from another country to watch.©The Educational Company of Ireland

WRITING

Imagine you work for National Geographic magazine. You have just visited an amazing destination and have been asked to write a piece about the area for the magazine, describing your experience. Choose one of the three awe-inspiring tourist destinations listed below and create a piece of travel writing about it.

Galápagos Islands,

Ecuador Machu Picchu, Peru Antarctica In order to choose your destination, use the internet for some research. Start by watching these National Geographic videos to get a sense of the place:

Galápagos Islands, Ecuador edco.ie/b7ya Machu Picchu, Peru edco.ie/n8zu

Antarctica edco.ie/y5dx Listen carefully and note down the key facts about the destination and the things you might see there. Look out for anything interesting or unusual that you might like to talk about yourself. There is a table in your activity book (see page 133) to help you organise your ideas. Writing Tips Write with a clear purpose in mind: to inform the reader about the destination. Use the features of travel writing creatively (see page 211). Check you have used commas correctly. Turn to page 273 to recap on the rules of commas, then pick out any mistakes and correct them. Use a variety of sentence types to make your writing interesting (see opposite). ACT IVITY ©The Educational Company of Ireland