Texts types and conventions

Question	Answer
Assignment for a professional qualification	Conventions: Limited use of ‘first person’ (I, we), clear introduction, main part and conclusion
Email to request information about a car advertised on the internet	Conventions: Direct questions (e.g. ‘How much is it?’ ‘How old is it?’)
Formal letter giving information to a solicitor	Conventions: Indirect questions (e.g. ‘I would be grateful if you could send me the…’)
Completed risk assessment in a work setting	Conventions: Factual information, use of pre-defined headings
Text message to a close friend / family member	Conventions: Short forms / abbreviations / symbols (e.g. R U going?, ‘I dunno, m/be ltr’ ‘wat time?’, ttfn, LOL, OMG, xx, £?)
Hand-written memo to a doctor requesting a sick note for an insurance claim	Conventions: Semi-formal and polite – including personal information such as date of birth, full name
Entry on a blog (on the topic of bird watching)	Conventions: Use of jargon (words / phrases known by some people only) and first person (‘I think…’, ‘I saw...’ etc)
A forum entry asking other people for information about washing machine models.	Conventions: Use of semi-formal, direct requests for information to an unknown audience
Feedback on a public website about a terrible holiday complex you visited	Conventions: Frequent use of adjectives / examples, written in first person (I, we, etc.)

Resource summary

	Created by Claire Collins over 8 years ago