Adapting an idea means keeping the facts and purpose while changing how you express them for a different reader. A message to a friend and a message to a head of year can carry exactly the same news, but their words, sentence shapes and level of explanation should differ.
This lesson follows choosing a register for a letter to an institution and builds the flexibility that all audience, purpose and register tasks need.
What exactly changes between the two versions?
Ask three questions before you write.
- How well does my reader know me? A friend accepts shorthand. An adult needs a clear introduction.
- What does my reader already know? A classmate saw the event. An adult may not have heard of it.
- What do I want them to do? A friend may just be invited. An adult may need to approve or help.
Then adjust four features: vocabulary, sentence length, level of background detail, and the way you close.
Worked example
Idea: Your school is holding a recycling drive on Friday and needs volunteers.
Version for a peer:
Hey Mira, the recycling drive is on Friday after school and they still need people to help. It should be quick, about an hour, and there’s free juice. Come with me? I’ll save you a place.
Version for an adult (the head of year, asking for permission to advertise in assembly):
Dear Mr Hassan, I am writing on behalf of the Environment Club to ask whether we may announce our recycling drive in Thursday’s assembly. The drive will take place on Friday after school and will last about an hour. We still need volunteers, and an announcement would help us reach more students.
What stayed the same: the event, the day, the length, the need for volunteers.
What changed:
- The greeting moved from Hey Mira to Dear Mr Hassan.
- Come with me? became a reasoned request about the assembly.
- there’s free juice was dropped, because it is not relevant to an adult deciding whether to allow an announcement.
- The adult version explains who is writing and why, because the reader does not share the background.
The mistake to watch for
The common slip is to treat “adult” as meaning “longer and fancier”.
Mistaken adult version: I am writing to inform you of a most momentous environmental initiative, the like of which this institution has scarcely witnessed.
This is inflated. It sounds false and hides the information the reader needs. The better version is shorter and plainer: who, what, when, and what you are asking for.
The opposite mistake is also common: giving an adult the peer version with a greeting added. Dear Mr Hassan, the recycling drive is on Friday and they still need people to help, come along! The opening is formal, but the sentence beneath it is not.
Check yourself
1. Rewrite for a teacher: “Sorry, I can’t hand it in today, my printer died.”
Show answer
For example: “I apologise that I am unable to submit the work today, as my printer has stopped working. May I bring it tomorrow morning?” The contraction goes, the excuse becomes a reason, and a polite request is added.
2. Rewrite for a close friend: “I would be delighted if you could attend the screening on Saturday.”
Show answer
For example: “Want to come to the film on Saturday? It would be great to see you there.” Shorter, direct and friendly.
3. Which detail could be safely dropped in the adult version of a message about a school trip: the trip date, the bus cost, or “the bus has a really cool driver”?
Show answer
The comment about the driver. It is a personal remark of no use to the adult reader. The date and cost are practical information.
Where this leads next
Adapting for a listener is a different challenge, because the audience cannot reread. Continue with sustaining a purposeful voice in a speech.
If you want to compare two versions of your own writing, try the writing revision compare view. Students who can explain their choices aloud usually control register better, and this is a natural part of online one-to-one English First Language tuition.