7 Choosing the right style for your

audience
Assessment objectives IGCSE examination
AO2 Writing • Paper 3 both
W3 Use a range of appropriate vocabulary sections, or
Component 4
W4 Use register appropriate to audience and context Coursework Portfolio
• Papers 1 and 2 will
also award some
marks for the quality
of writing

Differentiated learning outcomes Resources

• All students must attempt to use content, structure and • Student Book:
language that is suitable for different audiences pp. 54–5
(Grade E/D). • Worksheets:
• Most students should match content, structure and 2.7a Different
language to a range of audiences and be able to language for
produce writing that is fit for purpose (Grade D/C). different audiences
2.7b Matching
• Some students could use appropriate content, structure
content to audience
and language fluently to create styles that match a
wide range of audiences (Grade B/A). • PPT: 2.7a–g
Other Student Book pages
 Conventions of news reports, pp. 74–7
• Conventions of
letters, pp. 78–9

Exploring skills
As a warm up, use Worksheet 2.7a and ask students to role play in groups of three,
where one is the host and two are guests.
• The first scenario offered is a birthday party for 5-year-olds. The host needs to
welcome two young guests and take them to the room where food is being served.
• The second scenario is a dinner party. The host needs to welcome the two guests,
who are senior colleagues from work and take them through to the dining room
checking that Italian cuisine is acceptable to both.
• There are two further scenarios provided that could also be explored.
Take feedback, asking students how straightforward the changes that they made
were. Ask the class where else they would expect to find language modification.
Emphasise the need for language to be fit for purpose.
Now turn to Student Book p. 54 and read through the text, ensuring that students
are thinking about content, structure and presentation, and language in relation to
Key technical skills
Chapter 2

audience. Explain how structure refers to the organisation of the text in terms of
words, sentences and paragraphs. Then ask pairs to read the news report and
complete Q1, steering them toward speculative discussion rather than making
declarative statements. (For example, the target audience might be educated adults with an
interest in animals rather than it’s for people who work in zoos.)

Give extra support using PPT 2.7a, which highlights the features that might prove
difficult for a 5- or 6-year-old. Explore the complexities of these words and consider
alternatives (for example, first appearance instead of debut).

36 • Lesson 7 © HarperCollins Publishers 2013

 Building skills
Demonstrate tailoring text to suit audience using PPT 2.7b. Change the complexity of
the content, the type of sentences used and the language. Use PPT 2.7c to support
students in completing Q2. You can show PPT2.7d as a possible set of sentences.

Give extra challenge by asking students for further ideas for making the text for Q2
more accessible for 5- to 6-year-olds. Ask them to think how the height or weight of
the baby could be conveyed by a further sentence or an image, or how questions
might be used to engage the interest of a child (consider the elephant’s name).
PPT 2.7e shows some possibilities. Once students have some ideas, they could
sketch out a double-page spread from the book incorporating the text and images.

Developing skills
Tell students that this section focuses on adapting the same content to suit a different
audience. This requires clear understanding of the reader’s needs and capabilities.
Students will need to weigh up what needs to be changed and what remains the same.
Ask pairs to read the instructions for Q3. Ensure they are clear that the letter will have
a different purpose and audience from the original report and so requires a different
style. Elicit what ‘No reference to first person’ and ‘Lots of facts and stats’ in column 2
of the table mean. Then use Worksheet 2.7b to offer further help for pairs on how to
complete Q3. Feed back after 3-4 minutes. Key ideas to draw out:
• The audience has changed – it is now a named person, David Field, not a general
reading public, but you do not know him (refer to the Top tip).
• The letter has to have a personal voice – it’s your own reaction to the article.
• It has a viewpoint about what the zoo needs to do, so the letter will be persuasive.
Ask students to attempt to improve the opening paragraph in Q4 independently.
Point out what has changed in the example, e.g. the insertion of a personal pronoun
(‘I’) and the use of an emphatic adjective ‘delighted’ to convey personal feeling.
Students could either rewrite the new version, using synonyms for ‘delighted’ (e.g.
‘overjoyed’, ‘extremely happy’, ‘very glad’) or simply complete the sentence given.
Deal with the further implications before students tackle Q5. Ask them as a class:
• Will you include any information from the original article in the letter? (Bear in
mind that David Field is an ‘expert’ at the zoo, so repeating information such as
‘3-foot high calf’ is probably unnecessary.)
• What new or different content will you need to invent or source from elsewhere?
Now ask students to draft the next two paragraphs on their own.

Give extra support for Q5 by providing a menu of words and phrases that could be
used in the two subsequent paragraphs of the letter such as adjectival phrases like:
• I was... devastated, heartbroken, extremely sad, incredibly concerned about...
• Pronouns to show personal voice: I, we, you/your, etc.
• Verbs related to persuasive action: I implore, beg, ask, believe strongly that,
feel passionately, would like to stress, need to say that...
Key technical skills
Chapter 2

Applying skills
For Q6, display the Sound progress and Excellent progress criteria for the task on the
whiteboard using PPT 2.7f–g. Encourage pairs to discuss the different language and
content choices they made and to decide which is the most appropriate and why.

© HarperCollins Publishers 2013 Lesson 7 • 37

 Towards Writing at A* level meets audience needs fluently. Encourage students to practise
A/A* regularly recasting information from one context to another to master this skill of
writing to suit audience. For example, imagine you needed to cancel an
appointment. For a friend, you might send an email: ‘I’m sorry I’m not going to be
able to make it tonight – something has cropped up.’ But how might this change if it
was to cancel a job interview? Or a presentation at a charity ball? Or a first meeting
with an elderly relative?
Key technical skills
Chapter 2

38 • Lesson 7 © HarperCollins Publishers 2013