Instructions / guidelines
Help a reader complete a task or act appropriately through audience-aware writing.
Write for the situation
Audience
students taking part in an activity
Purpose
Help a reader complete a task or act appropriately
Register and tone
Clear, helpful and appropriately direct
Avoid
Vague advice or steps in an unusable order
Conventions that help the reader
A title or aim; ordered steps or grouped guidelines; precise actions; necessary conditions and cautions; an achievable end point. These are adaptable guidance: task, audience and purpose decide the choices.
A flexible route through the text
- 1Purpose and preparation
- 2Ordered actions
- 3Checks and cautions
- 4Completion or follow-up
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
Could a new participant follow this without guessing?
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.
Guidelines for your first mentoring meeting
1. Agree a suitable meeting place and check that both students know the adult contact.
2. Ask which school routine or activity the newcomer would like help with. Listen before offering suggestions.
3. Choose one manageable shared task, such as finding a club meeting or checking an unfamiliar timetable.
4. Agree the next meeting time and the best way to communicate.
If a serious concern arises, contact the designated adult. Do not promise secrecy or try to resolve it alone.
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
New participants need guidance before joining a multilingual welcome project.
Write an instructions / guidelines for students taking part in an activity. Explain preparation, provide usable actions and include a relevant caution or check.
Theme connection: how language choices shape belonging.
Planning focus: Could a new participant follow this without guessing?
Plan this taskExperiences
New participants need guidance before joining a student exchange programme.
Write an instructions / guidelines for students taking part in an activity. Explain preparation, provide usable actions and include a relevant caution or check.
Theme connection: what students gain from an unfamiliar experience.
Planning focus: Could a new participant follow this without guessing?
Plan this taskHuman ingenuity
New participants need guidance before joining an AI-supported language-learning app.
Write an instructions / guidelines for students taking part in an activity. Explain preparation, provide usable actions and include a relevant caution or check.
Theme connection: how technology helps learners and where its limits lie.
Planning focus: Could a new participant follow this without guessing?
Plan this taskSocial organization
New participants need guidance before joining a school peer-mentoring programme.
Write an instructions / guidelines for students taking part in an activity. Explain preparation, provide usable actions and include a relevant caution or check.
Theme connection: how a community can support newcomers.
Planning focus: Could a new participant follow this without guessing?
Plan this taskSharing the planet
New participants need guidance before joining a student-led food-waste project.
Write an instructions / guidelines for students taking part in an activity. Explain preparation, provide usable actions and include a relevant caution or check.
Theme connection: how individuals and institutions can reduce waste.
Planning focus: Could a new participant follow this without guessing?
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
Could a new participant follow this without guessing?
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?