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Non-fiction: purpose, audience and form

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Non-fiction is everywhere: articles, speeches, adverts, letters, reviews and blogs. To understand a non-fiction text, first ask three questions: why was it written, who is it for, and what form does it take?

Purpose, audience, form

Fact and opinion

A fact can be checked and proved true: 'The park opened in 1910.'
An opinion is what someone thinks or feels: 'It is the best park in town.'
Persuasive writers often mix facts and opinions so that opinions sound like facts.

Practice extract

Read this original piece, then decide its purpose and audience.
Worked example

What are the purpose and audience of the Millbrook Park extract?

  1. It ends 'Councillors, I urge you', so the audience is the local councillors.
  2. It wants them to keep the park open.
  3. So its purpose is to persuade.

Answer: Purpose: to persuade. Audience: the local council (and local people). Form: probably a letter or a speech.

Key idea

Ask purpose (why?), audience (who for?) and form (what type?). Separate facts, which can be checked, from opinions, which are what someone thinks.

The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.

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