Audience and Purpose

Year 7 English • Sustainability Infographic • Week 2 • 45-55 minutes • Whole class

"Everyone" is not an audience. A specific audience changes what you explain, how much text you use, which examples you choose, and what you ask them to do.

Success criteria

I can describe a specific target audience, not a general public.
I can state my purpose using a precise verb and a clear message.
I can predict what my audience already knows and how they might feel.
I can choose a realistic action for my audience.

Start with a specific audience

Too general	More specific	Why it helps
Everyone	Year 7 students who buy lunch at the school canteen	You can use familiar examples and a realistic action.
Parents	Parents of primary-school children who pack lunchboxes	You can address time, cost, and routines.
The government	Local council members deciding on a food-waste collection trial	You can focus on evidence, cost, and implementation.
People who care about the environment	Students who support sustainability but do not know where to start	You can move them from concern to action.

Audience profile

Question	Your answer
Who exactly is this for?
What do they already know about the issue?
What might surprise or interest them?
How might they feel about the issue?
What might stop them from acting?
What do I want them to think, feel, or do after viewing?
What tone will reach them without patronising or alarming them?

Choose a precise purpose

Your task brief asks you to choose the purposes that apply. Choose no more than two main purposes. Too many purposes make the design unclear.

Inform

Give the audience accurate information they did not have.

Persuade

Shift a belief or decision using evidence and reasoning.

Raise awareness

Make an issue visible and help the audience notice it.

Educate or instruct

Teach a process or skill so the audience can act correctly.

Compare and contrast

Help the audience judge options against fair criteria.

Provoke discussion

Open a question rather than close it with a simple answer.

Suggest action

Recommend a specific, realistic next step.

Challenge misconceptions

Replace a false belief with better evidence.

Warn

Show risk, but avoid exaggeration and fear without agency.

Write a purpose statement

Use this frame to write your purpose statement:

The purpose of my infographic is to [verb] [specific audience] about [focused issue] by showing [causes, impacts, and solutions].

Weak purpose statement	Why it is weak	Stronger version
To tell people about pollution.	Vague audience, vague message, no action.	To persuade Year 7 students who use the canteen that soft-plastic wrappers belong in the bin, not the recycling, by showing what contamination does to a recycling load.
To show information about food waste.	"Show information" is not a purpose.	To educate families about three common causes of lunchbox waste and one simple planning routine that reduces it.
To make everyone care about climate change.	Too broad; no specific audience or action.	To raise awareness among Year 7 students about one local climate impact and invite them to join a school action.

Match design to audience

Audience	What they need	Design implication
Busy students	Fast comprehension and a clear action	Large headings, few words, icons, one memorable number.
Parents	Practical steps, cost, and reliability	Checklists, comparisons, realistic examples.
Council decision-makers	Evidence, scale, feasibility, and cost	Clear data, source line, comparison of options, implementation steps.
Younger students	Simple language and concrete examples	Short sentences, familiar objects, one action at a time.
People who disagree	Respect, evidence, and a fair hearing	Acknowledge the counter-argument; avoid caricature.

Tone

Urgent can motivate, but fear without a solution makes audiences switch off.
Hopeful works when the solution is credible and specific.
Formal suits decision-makers, but should still be readable.
Conversational suits students, but avoid slang that dates quickly.
Respectful matters when the audience is being criticised or blamed.

Check your thinking

My audience is a group I can describe in one sentence.
My purpose uses a precise verb, not "show" or "tell".
My message can be stated in one sentence.
My call to action is something the audience can realistically do.
My tone matches the audience and the issue.
My design choices follow from the audience, not from personal taste alone.

Assessment link: purpose and audience usually carry a large share of the marks. Your teacher will judge whether every design choice connects back to this profile, so keep it visible while you design.