Audience, Purpose and Tone
Whywriteatext?
__Audience: __Who is the text for? Who would read the text?
Purpose: Why are you writing the text? What are you trying to achieve?
Tone: How formal does the text need to be? How should the text sound? Consider if it should have an emotional viewpoint or not.
‘Apt’ means appropriate. A text must suit the audience, purpose and tone. E.g. Formal language would not be appropriate for a children’s television programme.
differentpurposes
All texts are written for a reason. It is important to consider what that reason might be.
Persuade and Argue - you are trying to convince the audience to think, do or believe something
Inform - telling the audience about a topic
Describe - allowing the audience to picture something themselves
__Instruct __- telling the audience how to do something
Entertain - engaging the audience emotionally. It could make them laugh, cry or feel tense.
introductiontotransactionalwriting
Transactional writing is writing for a ‘real-life’ scenario.
Letters
Formal letters have conventional structures. They could be any purpose.
At the very beginning you write your address. This on the top right-hand side of the page, with the date underneath.
At the end, there are two options for signing off.
1) You can use ‘Yours faithfully’ if your letter started with ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ (if you didn’t know their name!)
2) You can use ‘Yours sincerely’ when you’ve started “Dear John”, because you knew their personal name.
Speeches
The written form of an extended piece of spoken language.
Emails
Place the address of the recipient at the top.
Place your own email address underneath
Write in a subject heading
Begin writing.
Example:
From: [email protected]
Subject: Complaint
Dear Mr Price,
I am writing….
analysingasetoftexts
Here are a few questions to get you thinking about analysing different kinds of texts.
1.Who might be the audience be of a President Trump speech?
2.What might the purpose of a complaint letter be?
3.What might the tone of a complaint letter be?
4.What is the purpose of a letter from a bank?
5.What might the tone of an email to a parent?
Assessment features are __coming soon:__check back here in the next few days for the opportunity to ____unlock assessment ____and access teacher-written ____model answers ____to these questions
reflection
Consider the question that is asked in the examination. You must distinguish that the audience, purpose and tone might be of the response required. It is worth planning this in the examination first. Simply write:
- Audience -
- Purpose -
- Tone -
- what is meant by audience
- what is meant by tone?
- What is transactional writing?
- Who might be the audience be of a President Trump speech?
Explanation: It would depend who he is addressing. It might be a group of people who are in favour of Donald Trump. They might be people who are informed and educated on politics; however, it may be the opposite.- What might the purpose of a complaint letter be?
Explanation: It would be to inform the manufacturer of the fault. However, you might be arguing that you should be due a refund.- What might the tone of a complaint letter be?
Explanation: It would need to be formal and professional. You might sound particularly angry and disgusted by the fault.- What is the purpose of a letter from a bank?
Explanation: It would probably be to inform you of a situation. However, they may be trying to persuade you to open a new bank account or to make changes to your existing account.- What might the tone of an email to a parent?
Explanation: This would be informal but probably relatively respectful.