Review
Evaluate and advise potential users through audience-aware writing.
Write for the situation
Audience
people considering a product, event or experience
Purpose
Evaluate and advise potential users
Register and tone
Engaging and evaluative; judgment supported by specific details
Avoid
Retelling the plot or describing a product without evaluation
Conventions that help the reader
Identify what is reviewed; brief context; evaluation using clear criteria; balanced judgment; recommendation for an audience. These are adaptable guidance: task, audience and purpose decide the choices.
A flexible route through the text
- 1Introduce the subject
- 2Give relevant context
- 3Evaluate strengths and limitations
- 4Recommend for a particular audience
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
Who would benefit from it, and which detail supports your recommendation?
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.
A useful welcome, with room to improve
The pilot mentoring programme offers more than a tour of the school. Its strongest feature is the shared activity: pairs have a reason to talk, and newcomers can explore an interest. The meetings are short enough to fit around lessons. However, the programme would benefit from a clearer process for changing partners. I would recommend it to students who want practical guidance and a first connection, provided they understand that mentors offer peer support rather than professional counselling.
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 experienced a multilingual welcome project and have been asked to advise other students.
Write a review for people considering a product, event or experience. Explain what it offers, evaluate a strength and a limitation with examples, and recommend it for a specific audience.
Theme connection: how language choices shape belonging.
Planning focus: Who would benefit from it, and which detail supports your recommendation?
Plan this taskExperiences
You have experienced a student exchange programme and have been asked to advise other students.
Write a review for people considering a product, event or experience. Explain what it offers, evaluate a strength and a limitation with examples, and recommend it for a specific audience.
Theme connection: what students gain from an unfamiliar experience.
Planning focus: Who would benefit from it, and which detail supports your recommendation?
Plan this taskHuman ingenuity
You have experienced an AI-supported language-learning app and have been asked to advise other students.
Write a review for people considering a product, event or experience. Explain what it offers, evaluate a strength and a limitation with examples, and recommend it for a specific audience.
Theme connection: how technology helps learners and where its limits lie.
Planning focus: Who would benefit from it, and which detail supports your recommendation?
Plan this taskSocial organization
You have experienced a school peer-mentoring programme and have been asked to advise other students.
Write a review for people considering a product, event or experience. Explain what it offers, evaluate a strength and a limitation with examples, and recommend it for a specific audience.
Theme connection: how a community can support newcomers.
Planning focus: Who would benefit from it, and which detail supports your recommendation?
Plan this taskSharing the planet
You have experienced a student-led food-waste project and have been asked to advise other students.
Write a review for people considering a product, event or experience. Explain what it offers, evaluate a strength and a limitation with examples, and recommend it for a specific audience.
Theme connection: how individuals and institutions can reduce waste.
Planning focus: Who would benefit from it, and which detail supports your recommendation?
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
Who would benefit from it, and which detail supports your recommendation?
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?