While planning a lesson, one of the objectives is to enable learners to…

Concept: In English-language pedagogy, texts are classified by genre according to their communicative purpose and form. Functional or transactional writing (letters, applications, notices, invitations) is used for direct, practical correspondence between people or organisations, following a fixed addressed format (opening, body, closing). This is distinct from descriptive writing (portraying qualities of a person/place/object), expository writing such as a report (presenting findings or data for analysis or record-keeping), and writing meant for a general public audience such as an article (informing or engaging readers at large).

Application: The stated lesson objective is for learners to produce a text that carries out typical business communication with customers - that is, direct, addressed correspondence for a practical business purpose such as placing or acknowledging an order, raising a query, or resolving a complaint. This purpose matches the functional/transactional genre, whose standard written form is the letter.

Cross-check - contrasting the other genres by what they actually do:

• A report presents findings, data, or analysis gathered through investigation, mainly for internal record-keeping or decision-making, rather than as direct correspondence with a specific customer.

• A description portrays the qualities, appearance, or characteristics of a person, place, process, or object - it informs about something rather than exchanging correspondence with a reader.

• An article is composed for publication to inform or engage a general readership - it is not addressed to, or exchanged with, one specific customer.

Since only the letter genre carries out direct, addressed correspondence for a practical business purpose, it is the genre that matches the stated objective.