Determining the Author’s Purpose and

Tone

• When an author writes something (book, magazine, textbook, newspaper article), he/she chooses his/her words for a purpose.

• An author’s purpose is simply his or her reason for writing.

• Common purposes include: to inform (to give information) to persuade (to convince readers to do or believe

something) to entertain (to amuse and delight; to appeal

to the reader’s senses and imagination.

I know the purpose!

• When you are able to recognize the author’s purpose, you will have a better understanding of the text.

• Also, the purpose will determine how you read a text.

1. Author’s Purpose: Inform• If the author’s purpose is to

inform, you will learn something from the selection.

• Information texts sometime use one or more of the following:• Facts• Details/Instructions• Places• Events • People

2. Author’s Purpose: Persuade

• If the author’s purpose is to persuade, the author will want you to believe his/her position.

• Persuasive texts are usually non-fiction.

• Although there are facts, it contains the author’s opinions.

• With persuasive texts, it is clear on the author’s point of view (if he/she is FOR or AGAINST it).

3. Author’s Purpose: Entertain

• If the author’s purpose is to entertain, one goal may be to tell a story or to describe characters, places or events (real or imaginary).

• Examples of entertaining texts include: plays, poems, stories, jokes, or even comic strips.

What is the author’s Purpose?

The cover and title of anything you read often suggest the author’s primary purpose. What do you think is the main purpose of each of these books?

Primary purpose:A. to informB. to persuadeC. to entertain

Primary purpose:A. to informB. to persuadeC. to entertain

Primary purpose:A. to informB. to persuadeC. to entertain

Determine the author’s purpose

• Use the information on the bottle to determine the author’s purpose.

A. To Inform

B. To Entertain

C. To Persuade

• It is recommended that parents read to their children everyday, starting as early as six months of age. When you read with your children, you are starting them off in life as a life-long reader and learner. It is never too late to pick up a book and read; people in their eighties have learned how to read and discovered the pleasure of reading. Turn off the television and read a book!

Can you identify the author’s purpose?

Can you identify the author’s purpose?• The correct answer is to

persuade.persuade.

• This is an emotional appeal to do the right thing: READ!

• Also, the last sentence tells you encourages you to do something: “Turn off the television”

His face appeared in the window. She knew he had been the cause of her waking at 3 a.m. Was she seeing things? Was his face real? She tried to lie still and decide what to do. Just then, the window shattered. She flew across the room to the hallway and straight into her mother’s room. The author tried to capture a suspenseful mood in the story.

Inform, Persuade, or Entertain?

1. ____ The National Hurricane Center predicts a record number of hurricanes in the upcoming months.

2. ____ Rely on Denta-Fresh toothpaste to stop bad breath just as millions of others have.

3. _____ A healthy diet includes several daily servings from each of the major food groups.

4. _____ Required physical education classes should be a part of public school education from elementary through high school.”

What is the primary purpose?

Think of long-term memory as a “data bank” for all of your feelings and ideas. Information you heard hours, days, weeks, even years ago is stored in long-term memory. Long term memory can handle large amounts of information; short-term memory has less space for storage. Putting information in and getting it out again is a slow process in long-term memory. On the other hand, short-term memory is a rapid process.

a. To argue against poor memory skills.b. To amuse the reader with humorous details

about long-term memory.c. To inform the reader about the differences

between long-term and short-term memory.

I don’t know which is harder, taking my body to the doctor or my car to the garage. Both worry me. I’m always afraid they’ll find something I didn’t know about. The only advantage of taking my body to the doctor over taking my car to the garage is that the doctor never asks me to leave it overnight.

Read the paragraph below and decide what the author’s purpose is.

Primary purpose:A. to informB. to persuadeC. to entertain

The author’s purpose is to entertain with playful and exaggerated details. (Clearly, the doctor is not going to ask the writer to leave his body

overnight!)

Sometimes a text can have two purposes

• Some selections will have two purposes.

• For example, if the article is about eating healthy, it will try to persuade you to eat your vegetables as well as, inform you about the different types of food groups.

• Tone refers to the author’s use of words and writing style to convey his or her attitude or feelings towards a topic.

• If you misinterpret the tone (such as sarcasm), you may misinterpret the message.

• Tone and purpose go together.• Ask yourself what the author’s tone would sound like if

he or she had spoken the words rather than written them.

• The tone can range from happy, sad, humorous, gloomy, happy, sad, humorous, gloomy, respectful or angry, ironic, nostalgic, to analytical, skeptical, respectful or angry, ironic, nostalgic, to analytical, skeptical, formal, objective or inspiring or insensitive.formal, objective or inspiring or insensitive.

• Tone is not an action. It is an attitude.

• A reader must “read between the lines” to feel the author’s attitude and identify the tone.

Choose the tone:1. “Mom, please!” she said as she rolled her eyes, “I would rather

do it myself.”a. emotional b. neutral

a. emotional b. neutral

2. “Mother, I would like to introduce you to my professor, Dr. Henry!”

a. formal b. Informal

a. formal b. Informal

3. “My mother’s name is Gerta Powell, and she was born in 1933.”

a. objective b. Subjective

a. objective b. subjective

Below are four statements by students of a demanding teacher. Notice the differences in tone.

2. Yeah, I love her. Just like I love sleeping on a bed of nails or having pins pushed under my fingernails.

3. I might as well stop going to class now. I’m never going to understand the material. It’s hopeless.

4. She hates students, that’s all there is to it. I can’t wait until I’m out of her class.

1. She’s tough, but she’s also really good. I’ve learned more from her than I’ve learned from any other teacher.

“Finally, one of the girls pointed to the grass and giggled. "Meow!" A cat sat on the edge of the field and licked its paw. They did indeed have company. The girls ran over to the cat and pet his belly. They laughed and the cat walked back to the field.”

a. sarcastic b. happy c. sympathetic d. humorous

“By nightfall on Monday, the center of the storm had barely moved, and very cold winds of hurricane force swept across an area from Virginia up to Nova Scotia, Canada. The wind was so powerful that in New York the local train station had its roof entirely ripped off …”

a. scary b. violent c. cautious d. serious