Author’s Intent

2 skills1. Author’s purpose2. Author’s Tone

1. Author’s PurposeDefinition: The reason the author wrote the

passage.

Tip: Author’s purpose is usually found in the beginning and/ or end of the passage

Possible PurposesTo inform

Encyclopedias, phonebooks, statistics, news reports, history textbooks

To persuadePolitical brochures, advertising, TV

commercials, Editorial section of newspaper

To instructHow to manuals, instruction books,

math textbooksTo entertain

Comic strips, fictional novels

•We must begin to teach vegetarianism because it is the way to end world hunger.

•Angora sweaters are made from the long, silky hair of Angora goats or rabbits.

•If you’re not wearing Wright brand shoes, you’re wearing the wrong ones.

•As it grows older and larger, the anemone fish changes from male to female.

2. Author’s ToneDefinition: this is the attitude that an author

has towards the topic he/she is writing about.Use the author’s choice of words to figure out

the author’s tone.

Some possible tones: optimistic /pessimistic, matter of fact / objective , critical, dramatic, factual sarcastic,

George and Martha Washington never had children of their own, but Martha had two children from a previous marriage. Also, after her son Jacky died at the age of twenty-seven, George and Martha adopted two of his children.

A. critical B. objective C. loving

1. purpose?

What is the author’s tone?

I’ve sent out dozens of résumés and gone on exactly ten interviews, and I still haven’t gotten a job offer. But now I have two more job interviews set up, and I have a feeling in my bones that one of these is going to be a winner.

A. optimistic B. amused C. regretful

What is the author’s tone?

The people in the apartment across the hallway are good communicators. When they have a party, they communicate it to us by turning the music up so loud that we can’t hear our own TV. And when they have an argument, they let us know about that too, by yelling at the top of their lungs.

A. straightforward B. sarcastic C. cruel

What is the author’s tone?

Time is dangerous. If you don’t control it, it will control you! If you don’t make it work for you, it will work against you. You must

become the master of time, not the servant. In other words, as a college

student, time management will be your number-one problem.

1. What is the author’s tone?2. What is the author’s purpose?

As a high school principal, I strongly believe that there shouldn’t be any

penalties for students who are caught cheating. After all, everyone does it. Besides, cheating in school will help

prepare these same students to cheat on their employers later on, to cheat on

their spouses when they marry, and to cheat on their taxes. In fact we could

help students even more if we offered a course on how to cheat.1. What is the author’s tone?

2. What is the author’s purpose?

I can’t thank Rob and Elsie sincerely enough for introducing me to Sheila. They promised me she was exactly my type, and how accurate they were—I’ve been yearning for a vain, shallow woman with the IQ of a turnip. Sheila and I hit it off immediately. When I picked her up in my Ford Escort, she wrinkled her adorable nose with exasperation and said, “I thought Elsie said you had a decent car.” I took her to eat at Luigi’s and was thrilled by the way she sneered and said, “You are a cheapskate, aren’t you?” When I suggested we see a foreign film and she announced that she never sees anything with subtitles because she hates to read, I wanted to marry her on the spot. I’ll certainly have to think of some way to repay my dear friends for fixing me up with such a marvelous girl.

1. What is the author’s tone?2. What is the author’s purpose?