Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

E X A M P L E   1.4.

Questions for understanding the target audience

• 

Who is my audience?

• 

What does my audience already know or 

understand about this topic?

• 

What does my audience need to know?

• 

What type of information or argument 

would my audience respond to?

• 

What visual media might help me to  

persuade my audience?

• 

Where in my writing might the audience 

be misled?

Purpose.

 Help students identify the pur-

pose for their writing during the planning 

component. Teach students to look for clues 

in the assignment’s prompts or instruc-

tions that signal the purpose of the writing 

assignment. Share examples of written 

work to illustrate text written for different 

purposes. Example 1.5 provides questions 

students can ask themselves to confirm their 

understanding of purpose.