Public, personal or private text?

When trying to work out whether the text you are looking at is a speech, letter or diary entry where should you look for clues?

Look at these openings from various texts. They are all from either letters, speeches or diary entries. Drag and drop the correct label to identify each extract.

Look at this extract from a speech given by Tony Blair at the Labour party Conference. Choose the correct language feature from the drop-down menus to show the rhetorical devices being used here.

Which of the following are the most common purposes for speeches?

We refer to letters as being personal texts because they are always written from one person to just one other.

Read this letter from a soldier who served in the first World War and then drag and drop the annotations to show what we learn about the writer and recipient of this letter.

When should you end a letter with 'yours sincerely'

Which of the following features would you expect to find in a diary?

This extract comes from a diary written by Lt. Edwin Jones, an officer who saw action in Mesopotamia during the First World War. It provides a unique glimpse into the everyday life of a junior officer at the time. This extract was written on Christmas day 1915. Choose from the drop down menus to annotate the extract to show how the language features reflect the personality, attitude, values and emotions of the writer.

Diaries are never intended to be read by anyone other than the writer.