KS2 English textbook

Chapter 12: Writing for purpose: narrative, non-fiction, persuasive and discursive

Strand Composition
Level Year 6
Practice 82 questions with step-by-step solutions

National Curriculum for England, Key Stage 2 English, Year 6. Content: Plan writing by identifying the audience and the purpose, choosing the form, and using similar writing as a model (Y5-6 writing), Choose grammar and vocabulary, and see how each choice changes the meaning (Y5-6 writing), Write narratives that describe settings, characters and atmosphere, and use dialogue to show character and move the action on (Y5-6 writing), Summarise a longer passage in fewer words, keeping the key points (précis) (Y5-6 writing), Write non-fiction, persuasive and discursive texts, and poems, for a range of purposes and readers (Y5-6 writing).

Open Year 6 chapter

By the end of this chapter you will be able to

Name the audience, purpose and form for a piece of writing before drafting
Choose a word or sentence that creates the effect the writer wants
Write a setting and a character that create an atmosphere, with dialogue that moves the story on
Summarise a passage in no more than 25 words, keeping the key points
Use a rhetorical question, and a balanced argument, in a persuasive or discursive text

You should already know

Planning a story: setting, characters and the five parts of a plot (Year 4 Chapter 11)
Expanded noun phrases, relative clauses and modal verbs (Chapters 5 and 6 of this book)

Where this leads

Cohesion, editing and reading your own writing aloud (Chapter 13 of this book)

Lessons in this chapter

Read the whole chapter on one page (good for printing).

Practise with real exam questions

The DfE publishes every past KS2 test, with mark schemes, for free.

KS2 English past papers