Paf - Writing Essentials

Purpose

A text can have many purposes. Some examples are to:

Entertain to make the reader enjoy reading

Persuade to change a reader s opinion

Advise to help people decide what to do

Analyse to break down something to help people to understand it better

Argue to make the case for something (for against

Describe to give details about a person, place, event, or thing

Explain to make clear why or how something works

Inform to tell a reader about something

Instruct to tell a reader how to do something

Some types of non-fiction text are linked to specific purposes. For example, advertising is intended to persuade you to buy something.

To work out what the purpose of the text is, it s useful to think about what the writer s attitude was at the time of writing. Looking at any contextual information like where it s from will also help.

Audience

Any contextual information you have about a text may give you some clues to its audience. You can also work out who it is aimed at by looking at:

The topic is it about something a particular interest to a group?

The tone is it chatty or formal?

The words does it use specialist vocabulary, or easy words, or polysyllabic vocabulary?

Does it use Standard English or dialect?

Does it use you and if so, what kind of characteristics does that you seem to have?

Is the layout changed for the audience and purpose? For example, does it use more adult colours and a layout that you would expect from a text for adults?

Form

Newspaper

Article

Letter

Email

Diary

Autobiography

Biography

Review

Story

Magazine

Instructions

Leaflet