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

Writing for a named audience and purpose

GCSE writing tasks always name a form, an audience and a purpose: a letter to a council, an article for a school website, a speech to governors. Matching all three is where most of the marks live.

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

  • • Three things in the question
  • • Arguments your reader can act on
  • • Rhetoric that is not decoration
  • • Form details that cost nothing

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 for a named audience and purpose

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 should be able to change your level of formality on purpose.

Recap: Choosing your level of formality on purpose
3

Key words

Part 3 of 18

Key words

Words you'll need today

Purpose
What the writing is for: to persuade, inform, explain, entertain.
Audience
Who will read it, and what they already think.
Form
The type of text: letter, article, speech, review, report.
Counter-argument
The opposing view, answered rather than ignored.
Rhetoric
The techniques of persuasion: patterns of three, direct address, anecdote, rhetorical question.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 18

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Reading the task properly

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

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 18

Learn

Three things in the question

'Write a letter to your local council arguing that the bus route should not be cut.' Form: letter, so address and sign-off. Audience: councillors, who care about cost, complaints and votes. Purpose: persuade against a decision. A student who writes a general essay about how buses are good has thrown away half the marks before starting.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 18

Learn

Arguments your reader can act on

For councillors, 'the bus is nice' is nothing. 'Forty-one pupils use the 8.05 to reach the only sixth form in the district; removing it transfers the cost to families who cannot absorb it' is something. Choose the reasons your specific audience is able to say yes to, and put a concrete number or example in each.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 18

Quick check

In 'Write a letter to your council arguing against a bus cut', the audience is...

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

Which argument suits councillors best?

10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 18

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Persuading a specific reader

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

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 18

Learn

Rhetoric that is not decoration

Use direct address to make the reader responsible ('you will be asked why'). Use a pattern of three to make a case feel complete. Use one short anecdote for a human face, and one rhetorical question, not five. Concede the counter-argument honestly and then defeat it: 'Savings must be found. They cannot be found here.'

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 18

Learn

Form details that cost nothing

Letters need an address block, 'Dear Councillor', and 'Yours sincerely'. Articles need a headline, a standfirst and short paragraphs. Speeches need a greeting and a spoken rhythm. These are free marks: they take a minute and they show you controlled the form the task asked for.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 18

Quick check

Conceding the counter-argument makes the writing...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 18

Quick check

A letter should end with...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 18

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Persuasion is not shouting - evidence and concession are more convincing.
  • Five rhetorical questions weaken each other; one is enough.
  • Ignoring the counter-argument makes writing look one-sided, not strong.
  • Getting the form's conventions wrong loses marks even if the argument is good.
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 for a named audience and purpose

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

  1. 1. Purpose means...

  2. 2. An article needs...

  3. 3. 'You will be asked why this route was cut' works because it...

  4. 4. How many rhetorical questions are usually enough?

  5. 5. A pattern of three is used to...

  6. 6. The best evidence in persuasive writing is...

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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