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 choosing a text type for one audience. Now a single finding must be shaped for more than one identified audience and carry an argument, with the content depth, the language register and the text features all chosen to fit each purpose. Digital tools help you build the table, the chart and the diagram that make the case.
One investigation, several texts
Suppose your class measured how much electrical energy five household appliances waste as heat over an hour of use, and found that older, simpler appliances waste far more than newer efficient ones. You now hold a finding and an argument: that choosing an efficient appliance cuts wasted energy, and the data backs it. That same result can become a formal report for a science teacher, a public explainer for a school assembly, or an infographic for a noticeboard. The three are not interchangeable. Each suits a different purpose and audience, and each calls for different content, language and text features. Selecting well is part of the science, not a decoration added at the end.
Build the text feature that carries the argument
Your class measured the energy wasted as heat by five appliances over an hour, ordered from the most efficient to the least. Switch between the table, the bar chart and the line graph and decide which form makes the comparison easiest for a reader to grasp.
These are five separate appliances, not points on a continuous scale, so the bar chart carries the argument best: lined up side by side, the bars let a reader compare the waste at a glance and see at once that the older appliances waste far more. That is exactly the idea 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 teacher may overwhelm a passer-by at an assembly, and a form that fits a poster may be too thin for a formal record. Each text type gains something for one audience and gives something up for another. Pick a way to present the energy result, name its identified audience, and weigh what that choice wins against what it costs.
Choose the text type for an identified audience
You must share the energy-efficiency 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 data table, a labelled chart and a cited source can each sharpen an argument or blur it, depending on how they are used. Below is a draft formal report on the energy investigation, written for a science teacher to assess. 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 formal report on how the five appliances differ in wasted energy, written for a science teacher to assess. Sort each choice as one that fits the purpose and audience, or one that misfits.
Claim: The report communicates the energy finding and argument effectively to its audience.
The chart is titled "Energy wasted as heat by appliance" and the axis is labelled with its unit, kilojoules.
A bar chart is used, because the five appliances are separate categories rather than points on a continuous scale.
The data source and the method are cited so the teacher can check the evidence and repeat the measurements.
Slang and casual asides written for friends replace the precise wording a formal report needs.
A bright untitled picture with no axis label is added so readers must guess what it shows.
Decide whether each statement is evidence for the claim, or not.
An argument can be refined as it is communicated
Communicating a finding is also where an argument gets tested. As you draft, a reader or a fresh measurement can expose a gap, and a careful communicator updates the claim rather than defending the first version. Step through how the energy argument tightened as each response came in.
How the argument was refined as it was shared
Step through the responses the draft argument received and watch the claim sharpen each time.
New evidence (1 of 3)
The first draft simply states that the newer appliances wasted less energy as heat.
Accepted model: Newer appliances waste less energy.
Add the next piece of evidence and watch whether the accepted model holds or has to change.
Why this matters
A finding that no one can act on changes nothing. An engineer rating a product, a council advising households and a reporter 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. Your class measured how much electricity five household appliances waste as heat, and you must report it to a science teacher who will assess the investigation. Which text type fits that purpose best?
2. You are turning the same energy-efficiency finding into a hallway poster for the whole school. Which language choice best fits that audience?
3. Which text feature would most help a reader compare the energy wasted by the five appliances at a glance?
4. When you choose between a formal report, an infographic and a recorded talk for the same finding, what should decide the choice?
5. Why is citing your data source and method in the report a sound communication choice for a scientific audience?