Speech / presentation
Address, inform or persuade an audience through audience-aware writing.
Write for the situation
Audience
students at an assembly or event
Purpose
Address, inform or persuade an audience
Register and tone
Speakable, audience-aware and purposeful
Avoid
An essay with a greeting pasted on top
Conventions that help the reader
An audience greeting; a clear purpose; signposting; developed examples; rhetorical choices used meaningfully; a strong close. These are adaptable guidance: task, audience and purpose decide the choices.
A flexible route through the text
- 1Greeting and hook
- 2Main point
- 3Develop reasons and acknowledge a concern
- 4Call to action or memorable close
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 helps listeners follow your argument as they hear it?
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.
Good morning, everyone.
Think back to your first week here. Was the hardest part finding a classroom, or finding someone to ask? A peer-mentoring pilot could help with both. We are not proposing that students become counsellors. We are proposing practical guidance, shared activities and an adult contact when a problem needs more support. Some of you may worry about the time involved. That is why we suggest brief scheduled meetings. If we want a welcoming school, let us make welcome a routine rather than a one-day event.
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 speech / presentation for students at an assembly or event. 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 helps listeners follow your argument as they hear it?
Plan this taskExperiences
Your school is considering a student exchange programme.
Write a speech / presentation for students at an assembly or event. 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 helps listeners follow your argument as they hear it?
Plan this taskHuman ingenuity
Your school is considering an AI-supported language-learning app.
Write a speech / presentation for students at an assembly or event. 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 helps listeners follow your argument as they hear it?
Plan this taskSocial organization
Your school is considering a school peer-mentoring programme.
Write a speech / presentation for students at an assembly or event. 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 helps listeners follow your argument as they hear it?
Plan this taskSharing the planet
Your school is considering a student-led food-waste project.
Write a speech / presentation for students at an assembly or event. 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 helps listeners follow your argument as they hear it?
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 helps listeners follow your argument as they hear it?
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?