A little room to wonder

Writing for Different Purposes

Writing changes when its purpose and audience change. The same facts can support a label, an instruction or a fictional scene, but each form needs different information and organisation.

What should a reader know or be able to do after reading?

The Rosetta Stone with bands of inscriptions in different scripts.
A historic inscription and a modern information label serve particular audiences and purposes. The photograph does not provide an English translation or the invented cube-display text.© Hans Hillewaert, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Define the intended result

A purpose is the job a text should do, such as explain a process, describe a feature or guide an action. Audience concerns the readers and what they can reasonably be assumed to know. Neither is settled simply by choosing a formal or friendly tone.

A text may serve more than one purpose. A museum label can identify an object and invite closer looking. State the main job so extra material does not hide the information the reader needs.

Select and arrange information for that job

Instructions usually need an explicit starting point and an ordered action. An explanation needs a relationship such as cause and effect. A description can organise by location or feature. These are useful choices, not rigid boxes every text must fit.

Do not invent facts merely to make a format more exciting. A fictional adaptation can add events if clearly labelled, while an information label must preserve what is actually known.

Worked example: three original paper-model texts

Supplied facts: a display contains six paper cubes; each cube has a different label; the labels face the entrance. Information label: “Six labelled paper cubes form this display.” Instruction: “Place each cube so its label faces the entrance.”

Fictional scene: “Milo turned the sixth cube. Now every label greeted the doorway.” The instruction tells someone what to do; the label states what is present; the scene adds an invented actor and moment. Using the scene as an actual event record would cross a factual boundary.

Audience needs are a question to investigate

A beginner may need “cube” explained or illustrated; another reader may already know it. Avoid guessing that age alone determines every reader’s knowledge. Define necessary terms and leave useful detail available.

This exercise involves no real promotion, email or publication. A plain paper comparison is enough to explore how purpose changes a text without sending anyone a message or claiming a real outcome.

Only if you feel like trying

Use the same facts for two purposes.

  1. Write a label and an instruction using only the supplied cube-display facts.
  2. Add a clearly fictional two-sentence scene, marking which details you invented.
  3. Choose one reader question and explain which text answers it most directly.

Optional. Use the supplied fictional example, pencil and paper, or explain your choices aloud. No personal story, account, purchase, public sharing or contact is needed.