ACARA v9 CONTENT DESCRIPTION “write and create texts to communicate ideas, findings and arguments effectively for identified purposes and audiences, including selection of appropriate content, language and text features, using digital tools as appropriate”
Builds on shaping one finding for a single audience. Now a reaction-rate result has to be rebuilt as several texts, each carrying both the finding and the argument it supports, with the content depth, the language register and the text features all chosen to fit a named purpose and audience. Digital tools build the table, the graph and the labelled diagram that carry the case.
One investigation, several audiences
Suppose you timed how fast magnesium reacts with dilute acid at five temperatures and found that the reaction rate climbs steeply as the acid warms. You now hold a finding and an argument: that raising the temperature speeds the reaction, and the data backs it. That same result can become a marked laboratory report for a chemistry examiner, a plain explainer for younger students, or a labelled infographic for a science-week display. The three are not interchangeable. Each serves a different purpose and audience, and each calls for different content, language and text features. Selecting well is part of the chemistry, not a finishing touch added at the end.
Build the text feature that carries the argument
You timed the reaction at five temperatures and worked out a rate for each. Switch between the table, the bar chart and the line graph and decide which form makes the relationship easiest for a reader to grasp.
Temperature is a continuous quantity, not five separate categories, so the line graph carries the argument best: the rising curve shows at a glance that rate climbs faster and faster as the acid warms. That is exactly the relationship the report is arguing for, made visible in a single text feature.
The purpose and audience decide the text type
There is no single best way to share this finding. A form that satisfies a marking examiner may overwhelm a younger reader, and a form that fits a display panel may be too thin for a formal record. Each text type wins something for one audience and gives something up for another. Pick a way to present the reaction-rate result, name its identified audience, and weigh what that choice gains against what it costs.
Choose the text type for an identified audience
You must share the reaction-rate finding. Each text type suits a particular purpose and audience. Choose one and weigh the gain against the cost.
Communicating effectively is a chain of choices, not one right answer. The strongest text type depends on who the reader is and what they need to do with it.
Choose a response to see what is gained and what is given up.
Within a text, every choice is a choice
Once the text type is set, the content depth, the language register and the text features still have to fit the purpose. A heading, a caption, a results table, a labelled graph and a cited reference can each sharpen an argument or blur it, depending on how they are used. Below is a draft laboratory report on the reaction-rate investigation, written for a chemistry examiner to mark. Sort the choices that fit that purpose and audience from the ones that work against them.
Which choices fit the report’s purpose?
A student is drafting a laboratory report on how reaction rate changes with temperature, written for a chemistry examiner to mark. Sort each choice as one that fits the purpose and audience, or one that misfits.
Claim: The report communicates the reaction-rate finding and argument effectively to its audience.
The graph is titled "Reaction rate against temperature" and each axis is labelled with its quantity and unit.
A line graph is used, because temperature is a continuous quantity rather than five separate categories.
The method and the references are stated so the examiner can trace the evidence and repeat the trials.
Casual asides and inside jokes written for friends replace the precise wording a formal report needs.
A bright untitled picture with no axis labels is added so the reader has to guess what it shows.
Decide whether each statement is evidence for the claim, or not.
Why this matters
A finding that no one can act on changes nothing. A chemist scaling a process, a regulator setting a safe storage temperature and a teacher explaining a result all depend on shaping the same evidence for very different readers. Choosing the right text type, the right content depth, the right register and the right features, and using digital tools to build them, turns your results into an argument others can understand, trust and use.
Quick self-check
1. You investigated how temperature changes the rate of a reaction, and you must submit a formal report to a chemistry examiner who will mark the method and conclusion. Which text type fits that purpose best?
2. You are reshaping the same reaction-rate finding into a one-page explainer for younger students who have not met rate equations. Which register fits that audience?
3. Which text feature would most help any reader see how reaction rate rises with temperature across your five trials?
4. When you decide between a lab report, an infographic and a recorded explainer for the same chemistry finding, what should drive the choice?
5. Why does citing your references and stating the method strengthen the lab report for a scientific audience?