Context, audience and literary tradition
Texts are written by someone, for someone, at a particular moment. Used well, context explains why a text takes the shape it does — used badly, it is a list of dates.
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Draw on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs
Key learning points
- • Purpose shapes form
- • Audience and assumption
- • Using context as evidence
- • Belonging to a tradition
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 25 parts to scroll through
- 4 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 25
Visual introductionPicture this
Context, audience and literary tradition
Texts are written by someone, for someone, at a particular moment. Used well, context explains why a text takes the shape it does — used badly, it is a list of dates.
In a nutshell
Draw on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs
What you already know
Part 2 of 25
Before we start
What you already know
You should already be able to make a claim about a text and support it with evidence.
Key words
Part 3 of 25
Key words
Words you'll need today
- Context
- The conditions surrounding a text's writing and reading.
- Purpose
- What the writing is trying to do.
- Audience
- Who the writing is aimed at.
- Tradition
- The body of earlier writing a text responds to.
Reset break
Part 4 of 25
Pause
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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.
Learning cycle
Part 5 of 25
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Purpose and audience
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 25
Learn
Purpose shapes form
A pamphlet arguing for reform, a novel serialised in monthly parts and a poem written for a friend look different because they are doing different jobs. Serial publication explains cliffhangers; a persuasive purpose explains repetition and direct address. Asking what a text is for often explains a structural choice faster than any other question.
Explore the idea
Part 7 of 25
Learn
Audience and assumption
Writers assume knowledge and values in their readers. A text may assume its audience shares a religious framework, or knows a place, or will be shocked by something we now read calmly. Spotting these assumptions shows what could be taken for granted at the time, and reading against them is how modern readers find meanings the first audience missed.
Reset break
Part 8 of 25
Pause
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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 9 of 25
Quick check
Part 10 of 25
Learning cycle
Part 11 of 25
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Context and tradition
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Reset break
Part 12 of 25
Pause
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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.
Explore the idea
Part 13 of 25
Learn
Using context as evidence
Weak context sits in a separate sentence: 'This was written in 1847.' Strong context explains an effect: 'Writing for readers who expected an obedient heroine, the narrator's refusal in chapter twelve would have felt like defiance.' Attach the contextual point to a specific moment in the text and it does analytical work.
Explore the idea
Part 14 of 25
Learn
Belonging to a tradition
Texts answer earlier texts. Gothic novels borrow ruins and secrets from earlier Gothic; war poetry after 1918 argues with heroic verse written before it. Naming the tradition lets you notice what a writer keeps and what they refuse, and the refusals are usually where the argument is.
Quick check
Part 15 of 25
Reset break
Part 16 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 6 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 17 of 25
Common mix-ups
Part 18 of 25
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- People often add context as an isolated fact. Link it to a specific moment and its effect.
- People often assume modern reactions match the first audience's. Values shift over time.
Challenge round
Part 19 of 25
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
Reset break
Part 20 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 5 of 6 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.
Challenge round
Part 21 of 25
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Serial publication explains cliffhangers; a persuasive ____ explains repetition and direct address.
Writers assume ____ and values in their readers.
A text may assume its ____ shares a religious framework, or knows a place, or will be shocked by something we now read calmly.
Challenge round
Part 22 of 25
Game · Recall cards
Serial publication helps explain...
Card 1 of 4
Exit quiz
Part 23 of 25
Exit quiz
Show what you've learned
6 questions, marked together at the end. Nothing is timed.
1. Purpose means...
2. Context is used badly when it is...
3. Gothic ruins and secrets are an example of...
4. A modern reader may miss a shock the first audience felt because...
5. Which is the strongest contextual comment?
6. Audience and purpose are best identified...
Mastery quiz
Part 24 of 25
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Context, audience and literary tradition
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Serial publication helps explain...
2. A strong context sentence links a belief to...
3. Audience assumptions matter because they show...
4. Naming a literary tradition helps you notice...
Lesson round-up
Part 25 of 25
Lesson round-up
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