This document provides questions to guide writers in developing a statement of explanation (SOE) for a written piece. It prompts the writer to consider their audience and intentions, how their writing engages with key concepts, their use of language and style, and how their writing connects to source texts. The questions are meant to help the writer consciously choose techniques that best suit their goals of informing and persuading their intended readership.

1. Statement of explanation
Why is your piece written like that?

2. Who is the audience and why might the engage
with this piece of writing?
• Who are you trying to persuade and why?
• What is the reason for you writing or speaking on
this issue?
• Who is your piece aimed at and what will they
get out of reading it?
• Which less obvious groups might get something
out of reading your piece?
• What kind of publication would you imagine it
would appear in and what kind of readership
does it attract?

3. What is it you intend your audience to
understand as a result of reading your piece?
• What opinions are you trying to change?
• What is your contention?

4. How does your piece show an understanding of
Encountering Conflit?
• Is there an idea commonly associated with
E.C. that you have tried to over turn?
• Have added something new to the debate?
• What is your opinion on the issue? Are ther
other opinions that you differ with?

5. What choices did you make in terms of vocabulary,
punctuation and language techniques to best suit your
intentions?
• Did you choose sophisticated and understated
language to show that you’re being
considered and restrained even though you’re
angry? ‘I’m rather disappointed that . . .’
• What persuasive techniques did you use and
why?
• Have you used deliberately short sentences to
make it sound more forceful and abrupt?

6. Link to the TEXT
• What aspect of TRM have you used in your
piece?
• Why do you think this is the best example
from the text to persuade your audience?
• What other texts have you drawn upon and
how did you use them to persuade your
audience?

7. REMEMBER
• You don’t need to address every question that
has been raised in this presentation
• Choose a couple of questions for each section of
your SOE and be concise
• This is designed to show us that you have
deliberately used some writing techniques and
not others
• This happens naturally when you write with a
particular audience in mind so make sure you
have a very clear idea who that is