Diary / journal
Record and reflect privately through audience-aware writing.
Write for the situation
Audience
the writer themself
Purpose
Record and reflect privately
Register and tone
Personal, reflective and emotionally believable
Avoid
A public speech or factual report with no reflection
Conventions that help the reader
A date or time marker where useful; first-person perspective; reflection on events; a private voice. These are adaptable guidance: task, audience and purpose decide the choices.
A flexible route through the text
- 1What happened
- 2What I felt
- 3What I understand now
- 4What I may do next
Language to develop
Choose precise verbs and examples. Connect reasons and consequences, qualify claims when necessary and vary sentence forms without forcing unfamiliar language.
Planning question
What changed between your first feeling and your later understanding?
Model extract · Social organization
This original teaching extract shows selected choices. It is shorter than a complete Paper 1 response and is not an IB-marked exemplar.
Tuesday evening
I nearly turned down the invitation. Joining a mentoring group sounded like admitting that I needed help, and I wanted everyone to think I was fine. But my mentor was nervous too. Once she admitted she had forgotten her timetable twice on her first day, the conversation felt less like an interview. I still do not know everyone’s name. That is all right. Today I learned that accepting one small invitation does not mean giving up my independence.
Read as a writer
Find evidence of the intended reader, purpose and register. Identify a convention that makes the text usable.
Explore the content
Underline an example, reason or practical detail. Explain what it contributes, then develop the next paragraph yourself.
Connect it to each core theme
Identities
You have taken part in a multilingual welcome project and your experience changed how you think about language, culture and belonging.
Write a diary / journal for the writer themself. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: how language choices shape belonging.
Planning focus: What changed between your first feeling and your later understanding?
Plan this taskExperiences
You have taken part in a student exchange programme and your experience changed how you think about travel, transitions and learning through experience.
Write a diary / journal for the writer themself. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: what students gain from an unfamiliar experience.
Planning focus: What changed between your first feeling and your later understanding?
Plan this taskHuman ingenuity
You have taken part in an AI-supported language-learning app and your experience changed how you think about innovation, media and technology.
Write a diary / journal for the writer themself. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: how technology helps learners and where its limits lie.
Planning focus: What changed between your first feeling and your later understanding?
Plan this taskSocial organization
You have taken part in a school peer-mentoring programme and your experience changed how you think about education, community and participation.
Write a diary / journal for the writer themself. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: how a community can support newcomers.
Planning focus: What changed between your first feeling and your later understanding?
Plan this taskSharing the planet
You have taken part in a student-led food-waste project and your experience changed how you think about environment, responsibility and shared resources.
Write a diary / journal for the writer themself. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: how individuals and institutions can reduce waste.
Planning focus: What changed between your first feeling and your later understanding?
Plan this taskTeach, practise and refine
- Read a real example of this text type and identify its readership and purpose.
- Annotate the model extract, then discuss how a different audience would change its wording.
- Select a theme task. Plan all required actions before writing; develop examples rather than listing them.
- Draft independently, review audience and task coverage, then revise one paragraph.
Teacher language
What changed between your first feeling and your later understanding?
Support without fixing every sentence
Offer an audience–purpose planning grid, a few useful connectors and oral rehearsal. Then remove the paragraph openings and ask for independent wording. Extend by developing an alternative viewpoint or a justified qualification.
Self-check
- Have I addressed every instruction?
- Do the reader, purpose, tone and conventions match?
- Does each main idea have a developed example or explanation?
- Have I checked verb forms, reference, spelling and punctuation?