Audience and purpose

Relevance of writing to the topic

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Definition

Audience is defined as “the intended group of readers, listeners or viewers that the writer, designer, filmmaker or speaker is addressing.” (English K-10 syllabus glossary)

Purposes are “in very broad terms, to entertain, to inform or to persuade different audiences in different contexts. Composers use a number of ways to achieve these purposes: persuading through emotive language, analysis or factual recount; entertaining through description, imaginative writing or humour, and so on.” (NSW English K-10 Glossary)

Teaching and learning activities

The resources below provide targeted teaching strategies to support student improvement in this skill.

Each downloadable lesson activity includes:

learning intentions
a list of required resources
a step-by-step lesson sequence
printable classroom materials

Select the download all icon to download all available activities or select each activity separately.

Audience and purposeNotes and examples on audience and purpose with an activity where students provide their own examples of audiences and purposes for writing.

Identify the audience and purposeText extracts where students identify the purpose and audience and use evidence in the texts to explain how the extracts reflect a particular audience and purpose.

Audience and purpose mind mapA mind map template for students to use when considering their audience and purpose prior to writing.

The food fightAn activity where students read a scenario and respond to three different audiences and purposes, encouraging students to consider how language and vocabulary shifts according to the audience and purpose.

Buy me!A writing task for students to complete focusing on audience and purpose with a sample text and annotations to model to students.

Download all (ZIP)Download the resource pack containing all activities.

PLAN2 Areas of focus

An Areas of focus template has been created in PLAN2 to support targeted teaching of Text structure in your learning area.

Search for the DoE template titled ‘DoE HSCMinStd Writing: Text structure’ in the Areas of focus template library tab within the Plan menu, and customise it for your students’ needs.

For more information about using PLAN2 Areas of focus templates with this resource, visit the Using this resource with PLAN2 page.

Relevance to writing test marking

The feedback for a Level 3 performance in the HSC minimum standard online writing test states:

Individuals performing at this level typically “sequence writing to produce cohesive texts and vary language to suit the audience and purpose.”

Students’ understanding of audience and purpose contributes to the relevance of writing to the topic as they meaningfully create texts appropriate for an identified audience and purpose.

Connections with ACSF Level 3 descriptors

The relevant Level 3 ACSF descriptors for writing are shown here to demonstrate how audience and purpose are assessed in the HSC minimum standard online test. The performance features identified show what a student is able to do in order to achieve at this level and are provided to support teachers to understand what is required to achieve a Level 3 in this skill.

Writing Indicator .05: Audience, purpose and meaning-making

Focus area: Audience and purpose

Level 3 performance features:

Demonstrates the need to vary written language to meet the requirements of the audience and purpose.

Connections with National Literacy Learning Progression

The progressions describe a typical developmental sequence of literacy and numeracy learning. The literacy progression sub-elements, levels and indicators relevant to audience and purpose are provided here to assist teachers to identify students’ capabilities and needs to support targeted teaching.

Element: Writing

Sub-elements: Creating texts (CrT)

CrT7 — Crafting ideas

creates informative, imaginative and persuasive texts for a range of learning area purposes, such as to recount a sequence of events; to describe a person, thing or process; to explain a process; to argue with evidence or reasons; to express emotions
uses sources to support ideas (e.g. introduces ideas from a shared text to add detail and engage the reader)

CrT8 — Crafting ideas (imaginative, persuasive, informative)

Informative

creates informative texts for a broader range of learning area purposes (e.g. explains a life cycle of a butterfly, recounts a process, describes an artwork)
includes ideas which are relevant to the topic and purpose of the text
organises information into paragraphs to support the reader

Persuasive

creates persuasive texts for a broader range of learning area purposes (e.g. designs a healthy food campaign)
includes arguments and ideas which are relevant to the purpose of the text
organises arguments into paragraphs to support the reader

Imaginative

creates imaginative text for a broader range of learning area purposes (e.g. narrates a historical event)
includes ideas which are relevant to the purpose of the text (e.g. includes ideas to develop the simple narrative theme of good and evil)