Purpose and audience – WJECPurpose

Think about TAP when looking at a non-fiction text:

• Text type
• Audience
• Purpose

• entertain – to make the reader enjoy reading
• persuade – to change a reader’s opinion
• advise – to help people decide what to do
• analyse – to break down something to help people to understand it better
• argue – to make the case for something
• describe – to give details about a person, place, event or thing
• explain – to make clear why or how something works
• inform – to tell a reader about something
• instruct – to tell a reader how to do something

Some types of non-fiction text are linked to specific purposes. For example, advertising is intended to persuade you to buy something.

To work out what the purpose of the text is, it’s useful to think about what the writer’s attitude was at the time of writing. Looking at any contextual information – like where it’s from – will also help.

The purpose of a text will also affect what the content is, how it’s structured, what techniques are used, and what words are used. But purpose is not the only thing that affects this; the particular target audience is also important.