RAFT

1. RAFT Role, Audience, Format, Topic + Strong Verb

2. Role of writer • Who are you? • What is your role as a writer? • A soldier, an athlete, a movie star? • An animal, a lawyer, a cartoonist?

3. Audience • To whom is this written? • Must be someone other than the teacher • Is your audience a TV character, a younger child, an editor? • Is it a poet, a politician, a party planner?

4. Format • What form will it take? • Will it be a letter, a speech, a conversation? • Will it be a wanted poster, a warning, an apology? • Maybe it will be an interview, a marriage proposal, or a sermon • How about a poem, a news story, or a confession?

5. Topic + Strong Verb • Incorporate strong verbs to set the tone of your response. • Admonish, accuse, welcome, pester • Congratulate, pacify, insult, flatter • Interpret, justify, urge, attack • Define, demand, discourage, deny • Scare, inquire, harass, evaluate • Condemn, advise, plea, formulate

6. Example • R: blood cell • A: the human body • F: travelogue • T + strong verb: Explain the function of the blood cells as they travel through the human body.

7. RAFT for science Hello, human body. I am one of your very own red blood cells. I want to tell you a few things about myself and then talk about how I travel through the highways in your body. I am a cell in your blood. I carry oxygen. I am quite small. If you were to line me up in a row of 150 red blood cells, we would be only one millimeter long…

8. Other Examples • Use a travelogue to explain the function of red blood cells in the circulatory system. • Persuade a soldier to spare your life although you are the enemy • Demand equal pay for equal work even though you don’t have the same education