2.9  Section Summary: Focus & Meaning

The three ingredients to Focus & Meaning are:

1. analyzing and understanding the purpose of the task with the audience and establishing a controlling or central idea;

2. analyzing and understanding any text or texts involved;

3. making connections between the task and any texts.

Writer's Terms

Audience: the reader(s) of an essay.

Context: the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a writing task: writer, audience, subject, purpose, and pattern.

Controlling Idea: a controlling idea is the central or main idea of your entire writing. Often, the controlling idea makes the connection between the task and the texts or readings that go with it.

Purpose: the reason for writing the essay.

Analyzing the Task

Analyzing a task (here, an independent writing task) means deciding on contexts: Read the task and underline the key words that reveal or show the context. This task will be developed in detail in various parts of the Writer's Guide

Prompt Title: Time Capsule

The Task:

Your school is preparing a time capsule. The capsule will contain items that represent life at our school today. One hundred years from now, the capsule will be opened and the students of the future will look at the items to see what school was like way back then. You have been asked to recommend an item to be included in the time capsule. What item would you recommend?

Write an essay persuading the time capsule selection committee to include the item you recommend.

The Contexts:

Writer's Role: myself, as a student in my school

Audience: time capsule selection committee

Subject: what to bury that represents school life today

Purpose: to persuade them to accept my recommendation

Pattern (Form): persuasive (opinion-reason)

Controlling Idea: The item I recommend be buried in the time capsule is a(n) ________. One hundred years from now, people seeing the _________ will immediately know something about what our school.

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