Key conventions
Blogs:
• Sharing experiences
• Adopts a semi-formal to informal register
• Will use first person narration
• Vehicles for giving advice, selling or persuade
• Hyperlinks to related content
• Technical lexis/jargon targeted at a targeted
audience • Catchy headline, subheadings, bullet
points
Autobiography:
• Usually in first person
• Focus on key dates/facts related to author's life
• Records anecdotes or formative experiences
• Describe significant settings in writers’ life
Biography:
• Written about a person, authored by different
individuals • Third person
• Biased
• Authorized/ Unauthorized
• Length depends on audience
• Based on facts and anecdotes
• Educates readers on an individual
Journal/Diary
• First person
• Informal register
• Past tense – possibly present to describe momentary
feelings • Largely Chronological
• Journals are usually date and time-stamped
• Diaries may include salutation-depends on whose writing
it • Diaries entirely personal
• Journals wider audience impacts formality level
Interview
• First person
• Past tense to recall experience
• Formality dependent on setting
• Includes a mixture of facts, opinions, feelings and
intentions • Play/Script form
• Interviewer – one question at a time
• Interviewee – fully developed response that’s focused on topic
of questions
Podcast
• Authority for a topic
• Informative/Discursive/Persuasive
• Background information for the ‘non-expert’
• First person – more personal – or conversational
Letter
• Appropriate salutation:
o Dear Sir,
o Dear Editor,
o Dear Mr “Name”
o Dear Mum and Dad
• Purpose of the letter in the opening paragraph
• Appropriate sign-off:
o Yours faithfully,
o Yours Sincerely,
o With love,
Speech
• Always be compelling whether to inform or persuade
• Powerful opening with a hook to engage the
audience • Discourse markers
• Powerful conclusion
• Range of rhetorical devices
• Includes facts, statistics anecdotes and expert opinion
• Semi-formal to formal register
News Report
• Include 5 W’s in opening paragraph
• Develop more detail and background info
• Include direct and indirect speech
• Impersonal and detached
• Shorter paragraphs
• Explore newsworthy or topical issues
• Argumentative/Discursive/Persuasive
Articles
• Exploratory in nature
• Demonstrate understanding authority about the topic
• Give background information for the ‘non-expert’ •
Use present tense
• May use the past for background info
• Future tense to anticipate future developments
• Are usually written in the first person, but may be less
personal • Semi-formal to formal register
Formal Report
• Informative – finding of investigation, survey,
experiment • Factual statements with concise details
• No figurative language
• Formal in tone
• Structured chronologically or by subject matter
• May include quotations from participants/surveys etc.
Advertisements
• Have a strong, single point of view
• Use the direct address of the reader/listener
• Use highly charged language to persuade the
reader • Use vivid imagery or descriptions
• Use varied sentence structures for impact or to
elaborate • Use rhetorical devices
• Includes a ‘call to action’
Brochures and Leaflets
• Pamphlet intended for free publication
• Name, logo and slogan
• Semi-formal register and/or direct address to the intended
audience • Main text
• Contact information
• Single sheet of paper
Travelogues
• Anecdotal writing Aims to inform/expose/inspire
• First person
• Informal tone (chatty and personal)
• Descriptive (sensory details)
• Writers’ unique perspective
• Travel tips
• Relatable
Websites
• Eye-catching title/heading
• Subheading
• Sharing experience
• Specific audience
• Vehicles for giving advice
• Hyperlinks to related content
• Technical lexis/jargon targeted at the targeted
audience • Catchy headline
Reviews
• Key facts
• Convey the writer’s expertise or knowledge of the
field • Make comparisons (good or bad)
• Adopt informal, chatty language – engage with the reader •
Express an opinion through the use of language and
structure
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