expressive writing
 : Conversation / Exemplars
task
HIGH RANGE MID RANGE
Policeman: "This might have caused the fire"
Firefighter: "This object here?"
Policeman: "Yes it seems like a burnt out light-shade"
Firefighter: "The lightbulb must of blown, causing the fire to start and the plug to spark. The residence obviously didn't have a smoke alarm."
Policeman: "Yeah, and it's right next to the window and the curtains, so that may have triggered it off as well, don't you think?"
firefighter: "Mmm, it's a very mucky incident, with a sad ending."
Policeman: "Yeah, it's such a shame, the poor family, no home."
Firefighter: "Yeah, gone in a puff of smoke – but at that, at least the four of them came out alive. A bit of smoke inhalation, but nothing more."
Policeman: "They sure were lucky, not many people come out without serious burns to about 75% of their body"
Firefighter: "They're lucky even if they come out alive."
P "Alot of damage has been done here don't you think"
F "Yes, alot"
P "What's this"
F "You mean this"
P "I think we will take this to the station"
F "I think this must have been the child's room"
P "Yes, it must have been a toy of the childs"
F "We should take it & get finger prints.
P "Then we would have more info on how the fire started"
P "Do you know which part of the house started first?"
F "yeh, I think it started by an electric fault" in the childs room.
P "O.K see you tommorrow about the case.""
"Hi my name is Detective Paea and I'm looking for Mr Clarence, can you help me?"
"Yes, I'm Mr Clarence, and I believe your here to help me work out what caused this fire, right?" "YEAH."
"Well, we have 3 options" said Mr Clarence, number one: Arsonists, number two: Electrical Difficulty or number three: Falty appliances."
P "Well, looking at this floor and the smell is quite a scene, it smells like Gasealine."
C "Okay, we'll file a arsonist fire, under this one."
P "Yeah, but let's look around the house, just to check."
C "Okay then." "Look at this a bottle, of spray, paint and it's exactly the same colour as the graffetti on the wall." "I checked before with the owner of the house, that tagging on the wall wasn't there before."
Policeman: So how did the fire start?
Fireman: Well I don't know really but come with me and I'll show you.
Policeman: To me it started some where on the floor.
Fireman: Well while we were in the living room we found that there was a box of matches on the floor.
Police: So the fire started from matches.
Fire: Not really because in the box of matches there was no matches in it.
Police: Then how did the fire start?
Fireman:
Detective – Yuk I think ive found the head of the young girl that went missing
Fireman – What a terible way to die only if we had been here earlier.
Detective – Its not your falt. What a mess its going to take a long time to clean this up.
Fireman – The family must be devastated
Detective – I think the problem started over here.
Fireman – They must have left these jeans to close to the heater.
Detective – The young girl must have fallen asleep lying next to the heater.
Fireman – lucky the had a smoke alarm to warn the rest of the family out
Detective – The girl must have been to late and all ready dead.


[ top of the page | Writing Report 1998 ]