Identifying Audience, Form and Purpose

Purpose

Purpose Entertain Describe Explain Analyse Comment Review Advise Inform Persuade Argue Instruct

How do you identify a text’s purpose? Word Level- look for: fact and opinion Subject specific words Description e.g. adjectives, imagery... Verb types e.g. imperatives or modal Persuasive language e.g. rhetorical devices Personal e.g. use of pronouns Sentence Level – look for: Tense and narrative voice Balance of sentence functions e.g. interrogative, statement, exclamatory, imperative Balance of sentence types e.g. simple, compound, complex, minor Text Level – look for: Topic sentences Length of paragraphs Layout and presentational devices e.g. Images, colour, headings... Connectives Order of information e.g. chronological

Form

Forms Letter Article Essay Diary entry Short story Poem Editorial

How do you identify a text’s form? Look for: Text level features like presentational devices and layout Word level features like ‘yours sincerely’ or ‘dear diary’

Audience

Audience What is an audience? Can you match these texts to their audience? TEXT AUDIENCE The Gruffalo Adults, 18-34, with an interest in the horror genre The Chris Moyles Radio Show For Year 10 and 11 students studying science GCSE Nightmare on Elm Street Teenagers with an interest in rap music A KS4 science textbook Children aged 2-5 and their parents An advertisement for the new Eminem album Adults who like animals, 25-60 A leaflet for the RSPCA 18-45 year olds on their way to work/school

How do you identify a text’s audience? Word Level – look for: Tone and register Complexity of words Noun and verb forms e.g. use of abstract nouns Sentence Level – look for: Narrative voice Complexity of sentence forms Text Level – look for: Presentational features like font size, amount of text versus image, colour, layout...

So when reading the extracts for the first time, you should identify… Tone (friendly, argumentative, sad, shocking, excited etc.) Purpose (persuade, argue, advise, inform, entertain etc.) Audience (age, gender, interests, education...) Form (e.g. letter, broadsheet article, tabloid article, leaflet etc.)