Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
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EnglishPersuading a real audience30 min★★★ difficulty

Writing an article for a named publication

Writing tasks always name an audience: a school magazine, a local paper, a website for parents. This lesson practises letting that name change the writing, and builds one full article plan you could sit down and write.

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

  • • Same argument, three audiences
  • • Headline and standfirst
  • • The five-part plan
  • • Answering the objection is the mark-earner

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 18 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

purposesaudiencesselectingorganisinginformation

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 18 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 18

Watch first

Writing an article for a named publication

An English teaching video on this topic from TED Ideas Studio. 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

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 18

Before we start

What you already know

You can select and organise ideas for a purpose and audience.

Recap: Writing for a named audience and purpose
3

Key words

Part 3 of 18

Key words

Words you'll need today

Audience
The particular readers the piece is written for.
Headline
A short line that makes a reader stop; not a title of an essay.
Standfirst
The line under the headline summarising the piece.
Counter-argument
The strongest objection, answered rather than ignored.
Call to action
The specific thing the reader is asked to do at the end.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 18

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Letting the audience change the writing

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 18

Learn

Same argument, three audiences

The argument: the school day should start later. For the school magazine, your evidence is shared experience - the first lesson, the bus, tiredness in period one. For a local newspaper, you need town-level detail: traffic at half past eight, parents' shifts, the bus timetable. For a website read by parents, the sleep research and the effect on results carry most weight. The argument does not change; the evidence and tone do.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 18

Learn

Headline and standfirst

A headline is not an essay title. 'An Essay About School Start Times' stops nobody. 'Nobody learns anything at half past eight' argues in eight words. Then a standfirst does the summarising: 'Later starts have been trialled in three UK schools. The results are hard to ignore.' Together they set the tone before the first paragraph, and they are quick marks for form.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 18

Quick check

Which headline argues rather than announces?

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 18

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.

Stop here for now
9

Quick check

Part 9 of 18

Quick check

For a local newspaper, the best extra evidence would be...

10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 18

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Planning and opening the article

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 18

Learn

The five-part plan

One: an anecdote or concrete image - the top deck of a bus at ten past eight, nobody speaking. Two: the claim, stated plainly. Three: two pieces of evidence, at least one of them local. Four: the counter-argument, named and answered - childcare and after-school clubs, which a fifteen-minute shift barely touches. Five: a call to action, specific enough to act on: put it on the agenda of the next governors' meeting.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 18

Learn

Answering the objection is the mark-earner

Weak persuasion pretends the other side has no case. Strong persuasion states it in its strongest form and then answers it: 'The obvious objection is childcare - families build their mornings around the current bell. But the trials that worked shifted the day by fifteen minutes, not an hour, and moved the last lesson with it.' That single move shows a reader you have thought, which is exactly what the mark scheme calls conscious control of purpose.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 18

Quick check

The counter-argument should be...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 18

Quick check

Which is a usable call to action?

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 18

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • An article is not an essay - it needs a headline, not a title.
  • Naming an audience and then writing generally wastes the easiest marks.
  • Ignoring the counter-argument makes persuasion weaker, not stronger.
  • A call to action must be doable; 'we must all think about this' is not one.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 18

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

17

Mastery quiz

Part 17 of 18

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Writing an article for a named publication

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. A standfirst is...

  2. 2. Changing audience mainly changes...

  3. 3. Part one of the five-part plan is...

  4. 4. Answering the objection shows the examiner...

  5. 5. For parents, the strongest evidence listed is...

  6. 6. The trials mentioned shifted the day by...

18

Lesson round-up

Part 18 of 18

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 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do 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.

Extract

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

  1. Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
  2. How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
  3. Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.

  • Reading response

    Reading

    Read 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

    Writing

    Write your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.

    250–350 words

  • Reading log

    Reading

    Note the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.

    20 minutes' reading

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 18 · Watch & discover

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