Every piece of writing is written for someone and to do something. Audience is the reader or listener, and purpose is what you want to happen, such as persuade, inform, explain or entertain.
Register is the level of formality and tone you choose to suit both.
This module supports the writing tasks in Cambridge IGCSE First Language English 0500. Check the Cambridge syllabus page for the current assessment objectives and task types, because the precise wording depends on your exam year.
What should you already know?
You should be comfortable writing complete, accurate sentences and organising ideas into paragraphs. If you need practice with that, look at the modules on directed writing and argument structure first.
You do not need advanced vocabulary. Clear, controlled choices matter more than difficult words.
An orienting example
Here is one piece of news written for two readers.
For a friend: We got the library extended! It stays open until five now, so come revise with me.
For the principal: Thank you for agreeing to extend the library hours until 5.00 p.m. The change will help many students who have no quiet place to revise at home.
The facts are the same. The word choices (got and extended versus agreeing and extend), the sentence forms and the level of explanation change with the reader. Learning to make those changes on purpose is the whole module.
In what order should you study the lessons?
- Choose a register for a letter to an institution: start here, because formal writing is the clearest case of register.
- Adapt the same idea for peers and adults: practise changing the register without changing the facts.
- Sustain a purposeful voice in a speech: apply register to a listening audience.
- Avoid inappropriate conversational fillers: clean up the small words that lower tone.
- Make opening and closing choices fit the task: bring it all together at the start and end of a piece.
Finish with the mixed practice set, then use the revision compare view to check your own drafts.
What are the common traps?
- Starting formal and drifting casual. One slang phrase can undo a careful paragraph.
- Confusing formal with inflated. Long words in the wrong place sound false.
- Forgetting the purpose. A polite letter that never states its request has the right tone and still fails.
- Using one template for every task. A letter, a speech and an article need different openings and closings.
- Adding emphasis words. Really, truly and honestly do not replace a fact.
How should you use the practice set?
Attempt each question on paper first, then open the answer and compare. Do not just read the answer, because tone is easier to hear when you have tried to produce it. When you miss one, go back to the matching lesson, rewrite your version, and record the mistake in your mistake log.
The topic also connects with summary selection and paraphrase when you turn source material into your own words for a specific reader.
Students who want help hearing the difference between registers in their own writing can look at online one-to-one English First Language tuition, and the full subject map is on the English First Language learning guide.