Social media post / online forum
Share a position and interact with a community through audience-aware writing.
Write for the situation
Audience
members of a defined online community
Purpose
Share a position and interact with a community
Register and tone
Conversational and respectful, adapted to the platform
Avoid
Hashtags and fragments replacing a developed response
Conventions that help the reader
Clear topic and viewpoint; reader awareness; organised development; constructive engagement; a purposeful invitation to respond. These are adaptable guidance: task, audience and purpose decide the choices.
A flexible route through the text
- 1Introduce the issue
- 2Explain a position
- 3Support it and engage another view
- 4Invite a useful response
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 contribution do you want from the community?
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.
Should our school try peer mentoring?
I support a small pilot because a student guide could explain the routines that a welcome booklet misses. A shared activity might also make the first conversation less awkward. I understand the concern that volunteers could be given too much responsibility. We should therefore agree clear boundaries and an adult contact before starting. What would have helped you during your first week? Please suggest one practical feature rather than naming individual students or sharing anyone’s private experience.
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
Your school is considering a multilingual welcome project.
Write a social media post / online forum for members of a defined online community. Explain the issue, develop an example and suggest a useful next step for your audience.
Theme connection: how language choices shape belonging.
Planning focus: What contribution do you want from the community?
Plan this taskExperiences
Your school is considering a student exchange programme.
Write a social media post / online forum for members of a defined online community. Explain the issue, develop an example and suggest a useful next step for your audience.
Theme connection: what students gain from an unfamiliar experience.
Planning focus: What contribution do you want from the community?
Plan this taskHuman ingenuity
Your school is considering an AI-supported language-learning app.
Write a social media post / online forum for members of a defined online community. Explain the issue, develop an example and suggest a useful next step for your audience.
Theme connection: how technology helps learners and where its limits lie.
Planning focus: What contribution do you want from the community?
Plan this taskSocial organization
Your school is considering a school peer-mentoring programme.
Write a social media post / online forum for members of a defined online community. Explain the issue, develop an example and suggest a useful next step for your audience.
Theme connection: how a community can support newcomers.
Planning focus: What contribution do you want from the community?
Plan this taskSharing the planet
Your school is considering a student-led food-waste project.
Write a social media post / online forum for members of a defined online community. Explain the issue, develop an example and suggest a useful next step for your audience.
Theme connection: how individuals and institutions can reduce waste.
Planning focus: What contribution do you want from the community?
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 contribution do you want from the community?
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?