1. Identifying Audience, Form and Purpose

2. Purpose

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

4. 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

5. Form

6. Forms
Letter
Article
Essay
Diary entry
Short story
Poem
Editorial

7. 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’

8. Audience

9. 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

10. 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...

11. 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.)