Assignment - Infographics - 144
A Note on What Makes This an Infographic
A list of tense backshift rules in a table belongs in a grammar textbook. An infographic about narration shows the transformation happening live - takes a real direct speech sentence, converts it step by step into indirect speech, and annotates every change: what moved, what shifted, what disappeared. The reader should be able to follow one sentence from direct to indirect and understand exactly why each word changed.
Objective
Create a narrative infographic in Canva that explains how to convert direct speech to indirect speech, showing all grammatical changes with annotated transformation examples for statements, questions, and commands.
Content to Cover
Opening Anchor
Direct speech repeats someone’s exact words, enclosed in quotation marks. Indirect (reported) speech conveys the meaning of what was said, without quoting word for word. Converting between the two requires changes to tense, pronouns, and time expressions.
The Three Changes
Change 1: Tense Backshift When the reporting verb is in the past (said, told, asked), the tense in the reported clause shifts one step back in time:
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
|---|---|
| Present simple: “I work here.” | Past simple: He said he worked there. |
| Present continuous: “I am reading.” | Past continuous: She said she was reading. |
| Present perfect: “I have finished.” | Past perfect: He said he had finished. |
| Past simple: “I went home.” | Past perfect: She said she had gone home. |
| Will: “I will help.” | Would: He said he would help. |
| Can: “I can do it.” | Could: She said she could do it. |
Change 2: Pronoun Changes Pronouns shift to reflect the new speaker’s perspective:
- I → he/she | we → they | my → his/her | you → I/he/she (context-dependent)
- Example: “I love my students.” (Teacher) → She said she loved her students.
Change 3: Time and Place Expressions
- now → then | today → that day | yesterday → the day before | tomorrow → the next day / the following day | here → there | this → that | these → those
Annotated Transformation Examples
Show one sentence being converted with color-coded annotations:
Statement: Direct: Ahmed said, “I am going to Karachi tomorrow.” Indirect: Ahmed said that he was going to Karachi the next day.
- Annotate: “I” → “he” (pronoun change), “am going” → “was going” (tense backshift), “tomorrow” → “the next day” (time expression change), quotation marks removed, “that” added.
Question: Direct: She asked, “Do you understand the lesson?” Indirect: She asked whether I understood the lesson.
- Annotate: “Do you” removed, “whether” added, “understand” → “understood,” question mark removed.
Command: Direct: The teacher said, “Open your books.” Indirect: The teacher told us to open our books.
- Annotate: No tense change (commands use infinitive), “said” → “told,” “your” → “our.”
Design in Canva
- Central transformation diagram showing a sentence moving from direct to indirect with annotated arrows for each change.
- Three sections: statements, questions, commands - each with its own example.
- Tense backshift table and time expression changes as reference panels.
- Use color-coding: one color for tense changes, another for pronoun changes, another for time expressions.
Required Elements
- Tense backshift table with at least 6 pairs.
- Time and place expression changes listed.
- Annotated transformation for a statement, a question, and a command.
- Title: “Narration: Direct and Indirect Speech.”