The main purpose of the primary school curriculum in all aspects of teaching is to provide students with skills that will help them function adequately within society at academic and social level. Writing, of course, is a crucial part of the primary school curriculum as it not only gives students the ability to communicate effectively, but also to experiment with language and express ideas. DET 2002:84 states that "through writing students can reflect on experience, marshal ideas to create new knowledge, and find relationships with the old and the new." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The intention of writing now goes far beyond students composing sentences or stories in a logical sequence or pre-1960s drilling processes. We have now come to understand that texts are socially constructed and have a real-life purpose. These purposes are important now as we teach children to write. It is understood that we must clearly outline to students the purpose of why they are writing and by what means we are asking them to write. (DET 2002:1) As capable writers, it is necessary for students to become aware of which texts are most appropriate to fit the message they are trying to convey and the importance of who they are trying to convey it. There is also to consider how they position the reader, whether they intend to inform, persuade or entertain, as this will influence their choices in the structure of the text and the language in which they use it. Within the school curriculum each audience or context involves a specific genre Cope & Kalantiz (1993:2). Genre is therefore the way we compose texts to accomplish certain things. It is seen through language and the way we exchange information, knowledge and interact socially." Knapp and Watkins (1994:20). Knapp and Watkins (1994:20) describe gender as "a useful way of categorizing social processes carried out through the use of language" This constitutes what is now the genre-based approach or text-type approach that primary schools are currently implementing. Its place in the school curriculum is that it gives students a purpose for writing and enables to explore how text takes on different forms when they are required to do different things. Primary schools focus on a number of genres, each with its own purpose, structure and social function. The purpose of writing within the primary school curriculum is to provide students with the ability to determine what function, structure, and social purpose their writing has in relation to themselves and the world in which they live. These three key elements determine how children see their text, construct the their text and criticize their writing. The function of the texts is determined by the intended purpose. Each purpose therefore having a specific genre. Primary schools currently work within a variety of genres. (Stories, Reports, Procedures, Explanation, Expositions and Discussions) their purpose and structure vary. Example: stories build a past event or experience, its purpose is to tell what happened or happened. Its purpose can be to inform or entertain. Events are usually written sequentially. Its generic (schematic) structure consists of an orientation and then the events to follow. Its linguistic feature includes the use of past tense, clauses and processes. (DET 1991:12) We can then compare it to the exhibition genre, which as mentioned shares a.