Write for the Right Crowd

Students move beyond generalising their audience towards specifically targeting who they will write to. Once they have reduced their audience to those who can enact change, they can formulate their arguments more effectively.

Duration 20–30 minutes

Grouping Individual + teacher modelling

Strategy Purpose

Materials

Graphic organiser (provided)

Teacher Instructions

Model each step of the process on the board.
At each point, ask clarifying questions of the students. A favourite: "What makes you say that?"
Once students have refined their audience, they can start looking at ways to engage with them.

Teaching Tips

While conceptualised around persuasive writing, this can be used for any mode of writing.
Students could consider multiple audiences for their project and discover potential counterarguments.
For fiction, this strategy helps settle on the appropriate audience (young adult, kids, etc.) and tailor language choices.

Student Handout

Write for the Right Crowd

Purpose · Activity 3

Narrow down your audience from broad to specific. Who exactly are you writing to?

My broad topic

Initial audience idea

Why is this too broad?

Narrowed audience

Final specific audience

How will I engage this audience?