Plan for purpose and audience
Before drafting, make three decisions: what you want to achieve, who needs convincing, and what order will make the case easiest to follow.
Part of your national curriculum
- Writing: Write for a wide range of purposes and audiences, selecting and organising ideas and information appropriately
- Writing: Plan, draft, edit and proof-read, considering how their writing reflects the audiences and purposes for which it was intended
- Writing: Consciously control levels of formality, including through the use of Standard English, and know when it is appropriate to use
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Write for a wide range of purposes and audiences, selecting and organising ideas and information appropriately
Key learning points
- • Choose the brief
- • Select, don't empty the notebook
- • Build a deliberate order
- • Set the right register
This lesson at a glance
- 26 minutes
- 14 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 14
Watch first
Plan for purpose and audience
An English teaching video on this topic from Bookfox. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Write for a wide range of purposes and audiences, selecting and organising ideas and information appropriately
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 14
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · Choose the brief
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 14
Learn
Choose the brief
Your task is to write an online article for families titled ‘Should wildlife centres run evening visits?’ Your purpose is to inform and persuade. Your audience needs a balanced explanation, a clear view and practical evidence rather than slogans.
Explore the idea
Part 4 of 14
Learn
Select, don't empty the notebook
Use only details that advance the purpose: welfare concerns, winter care costs, visitor controls and a possible compromise. Interesting facts that do not affect the decision belong outside this article.
Quick check
Part 5 of 14
Quick check
What belongs in the plan first?
Reset break
Part 6 of 14
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 7 of 14
Quick check
Which detail should be removed?
Learning cycle
Part 8 of 14
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · Build a deliberate order
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 9 of 14
Learn
Build a deliberate order
Open with the decision facing the reader. Explain the strongest welfare concern, then the funding case, answer the counterargument, and end with a realistic recommendation. Each paragraph should perform one clear job.
Explore the idea
Part 10 of 14
Learn
Set the right register
Families need clear Standard English without stiff academic phrasing. ‘The evidence suggests carefully managed visits can help’ is measured; ‘Only an idiot would close them’ attacks the audience and weakens trust.
Quick check
Part 11 of 14
Quick check
Why organise one main job per paragraph?
Challenge round
Part 12 of 14
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Mastery quiz
Part 13 of 14
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Plan for purpose and audience
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. You are writing a letter to a council asking for a new crossing. Which opening best suits the audience and purpose?
2. What belongs in the plan first?
3. Which detail should be removed?
4. Why organise one main job per paragraph?
Lesson round-up
Part 14 of 14
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
Not sat
Games
Not played
Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The last bus
The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.
She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.
Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.
Original extract written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
- How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
- Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.
Reading response
ReadingRead the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.
2 paragraphs (PEE)
Extended writing
WritingWrite your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.
250–350 words
Reading log
ReadingNote the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.
20 minutes' reading
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 14 · Watch & discover
How this is going
- Not looked at yet
Write for a wide range of purposes and audiences, selecting and organising ideas and information appropriately
- Not looked at yet
Plan, draft, edit and proof-read, considering how their writing reflects the audiences and purposes for which it was intended
- Not looked at yet
Consciously control levels of formality, including through the use of Standard English, and know when it is appropriate to use