Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

Recommendation 2 

(continued)

E X A M P L E   2.8.

Demonstrating that key features of exemplars vary by form, purpose, and audience

Form

 Purpose

Audience

Key features emphasized

News article

To inform readers 

about an event

Adult general public

Supporting details about the 

event and its impact on the 

community; quotes from 

eyewitnesses

Research brief

To inform readers 

about the research 

behind an idea, 

event, or concept

Practitioners who need 

the information for back-

ground or for research pur-

poses (e.g., meteorologists), 

or who need to convey or 

translate the information  

to another audience such 

as the general public

More extensive points and 

more supporting detail than 

a news article

Research paper

Same as a research 

brief, but using 

more extensive 

research evidence 

to inform readers

Other researchers

Extensive points and sup-

porting detail; might aim 

to use facts, statistics, and 

research to explain human 

interest stories and/or tech-

nical causes of the event

Fiction/literary 

non-fiction

To create interest  

in a person or 

people

Readers who like human 

interest stories (the general 

public)

Compelling lead-in sen-

tence; quotes from different 

sources; details that appeal 

to the reader’s emotions

Blog post

To convey an 

opinion

General public

Message tailored to the 

blog’s target audience; a 

compelling introduction; 

concise language to deliver 

key points

Emphasize that key features of text types  

may vary or may be more or less prominent 

based on the purpose, audience, and form  

of the writing (see Example 2.8). Have students 

brainstorm how the same topic could be written  

about in different types of texts. Share differ-

ent forms of writing—news articles, research 

briefs, research papers, testimonials, and 

fictionalized accounts—about a specific topic, 

such as Hurricane Katrina, to illustrate how 

the same content is treated differently to 

better suit the audience or purpose. Strate-

gies like RAFT may help facilitate compare/

contrast activities, as RAFT prompts students 

to think about the writer’s Role, the Audience, 

the Format of the writing, and the Topic of 

the writing.

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Have students read an exemplar of a specific 

text type, and ask them to emulate different 

features of that text (tone, style, etc.) as they 

write. In Example 2.9, the student is given the 

prologue to Romeo and Juliet and is asked to 

mimic the style of the original prologue on a 

topic of his or her choice, a “Copy/Change” 

activity. This activity gives students practice 

in evaluating the key features of texts and 

incorporating them into their own writing.

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