Planning a Text: Purpose, Audience, Form and Ideas

Topic, purpose, audience, form (and genre), and medium.

Form is the kind of text (a letter, a story, a report). Medium is how it reaches the audience (print, screen, audio, video, live).

a) instruct, b) persuade, c) entertain.

Example: animals → animals in Ontario winters → how chickadees survive cold winter nights. Any focus that is specific enough to cover well is correct.

Example: How does our school breakfast program help students, and how could more families learn about it? It is open and needs more than a one-word answer.

A picture poster. Young children are still learning to read, so pictures and very few words in clear steps work best. A report would be too long and too hard to read.

Example: both groups can listen anywhere, and hearing real voices tell stories makes history feel personal. Any reason that connects the medium to the audience and purpose is correct.

The people a text is created for.

To inform.

Yes.

True. A flyer can persuade and inform.

Any one: inquiry question, perspective map, zoom in, lived experience, cross-subject connections.

Example: dog owners (a safe place to exercise dogs), neighbours near the park (worried about noise or parking), parents of young children (want dogs kept separate from the playground), town council (cost and upkeep). Any four groups with a realistic view are correct.

Example: climate change → its effects in Ontario → winter ice on local lakes. Inquiry question: How are warmer winters changing activities on frozen lakes, and how can people stay safe?

The form is too long for a simple message to busy classmates, and a report mainly informs rather than persuades. Better: a short poster in the hallway or a 30-second announcement, which classmates will actually see or hear.

Main: persuade people to come. Second: inform them of the date, time and place. The flyer exists to get people there; the details support that goal.

Example: describing how your family makes dumplings together for Lunar New Year, including who folds them, what the kitchen smells like, and what your grandmother says while you work. Any specific memory from the writer's own life is correct.

Example: Because my audience is the principal and my purpose is to persuade with clear reasons, a formal letter works best, because it shows respect, gives organized reasons and evidence, and the principal can reread it and share it. A video would work less well, because it is harder to include details and might seem less serious. A student could also justify a video if they explain how it would show students' enthusiasm; the key is a clear comparison.

Example: Topic: electricity at home; focus: phantom power (devices that use a little electricity while switched off but plugged in). Inquiry question: How much electricity do our plugged-in devices use when we are not using them, and how can families reduce it? Purpose: inform and persuade. Audience: families at my school. Form: infographic. Medium: printed and posted on the school website. Justification: Families are busy, and an infographic shows the main facts and simple tips in pictures that are quick to read.

Purpose shifts toward helping young students understand and remind their families. The form might become a short, colourful announcement or a skit at an assembly, with simple words, pictures of coats and mittens, and one clear action: Ask your family to look for outgrown coats! Details like drop-off times would still go home in a note for adults.