Directions, Part 1: Pretend you were doing some shopping at your local mall when you noticed some commotion inside a jewelry store. There were two men in black masks pointing guns at the employees. All of a sudden, the men came running out of the store and were being chased by mall security guards. The mall entrance doors flung open and police officers came running down the main corridor to catch up to the chase. You turned to see one of the men be captured by police and the other run into a clothing store and hide under the racks. A police officer came up to you and asked if you saw where he went, and you told him where he was hiding. After the police captured the men, they asked you to come into the police station as a witness. You need to write out a document that states exactly what you saw, from beginning to end, and you need to be as factual and as specific as possible as it will be used in court. Using the Text Editor, write a possible statement about the scene on the lines below, and assume your audience is other police officers, lawyers, court officials, etc.

Directions, Part 2: After news of the incident spreads, the editor of your school newspaper calls and asks you to write a brief article about what happened for the paper. He’d like the article to be factual but exciting and interesting for readers. Use the Text Editor to write a description about what happened that might be appropriate for a newspaper article.

Directions, Part 3: Now pretend that you are finally at home and want to share what happened to you that afternoon with your friends. You write a group message to them giving them the details of your exciting afternoon. Using the Text Editor to write the message as if you are describing the incident to your close friends.

Now review all three documents. How are they different for each audience? What changed about them? You might notice that your language in the first document for the police was more formal and factual, and maybe the newspaper article was more creative or you used different language to make things sound exciting for readers. Your language in the email to your friends was probably much more casual, and maybe included slang or informal words that you often use while talking together. This shows that audience has a great impact on what you write and how you choose to write it. Keep this in mind while reading the rest of the Unit and when writing your own speeches.