Identifying Author’s Purpose and Perspective World Lit DD

Authors write for many different reasons: To inform To Persuade To Entertain

Author’s Purpose: To Inform A piece that INFORMS might: Teach about history, science or other subjects Report an event Describe facts

Author’s Purpose: To Persuade Remember that to persuade means to convince. Commercials on TV try to persuade or convince you to DO or BUY something A piece that PERSUADES might: Argue for or against an idea Convince people to do or buy something Tell people how to act Offer the best solution to a problem

Author’s Purpose: To Entertain Remember that entertain means to make people enjoy something. A piece that ENTERTAINS might: Tell you about things you are already interested in Make people laugh Tell a personal story Put words together into a poem

You will be using this form to help you identify Author’s Purpose and Perspective There are 4 main parts to this activity. These will be explained on the next 4 slides

Identify the GENRE Novel Letter Science Fiction Biography Articles Genre is a fancy way of describing what kind of text something is. For example: Novel Letter Novel Short Story Mystery Article Biography Science Fiction Poetry Fiction Non-Fiction Diary Letter Science Fiction Biography Articles Mystery Poetry

Identify the GENRE Let’s say you read one of the texts below: What kind of GENRE is it? Article

Identify the Author’s PURPOSE Once you have read the text you must decide why you think the AUTHOR wrote the piece. Ask yourself if he or she was trying to: Inform you about something Persuade you or someone else to do something Entertain you or help you appreciate or enjoy something For LEVEL 4 you need to look for evidence in the text to support the answer you gave. Copy a passage that really shows the Author’s Purpose

Identify the MAIN IDEA THAT is the MAIN IDEA! Ask yourself: “What is the most important idea in this text?” What is the ONE thing the author really wants me to know? THAT is the MAIN IDEA! The MAIN IDEA is NOT a summary of the whole text that you read. Try to keep your main idea to 1 or 2 short sentences.

Identify the Author’s PERSPECTIVE The Author’s Perspective is: What the Author thinks about the MAIN IDEA For Example, if the MAIN IDEA is about Putting animals in zoos, Does the author think it is a GOOD thing or BAD thing? What is his or her opinion? Once you have the MAIN IDEA you can figure out the Author’s Perspective! For LEVEL 4 you need to look for evidence in the text to support the answer you gave. Copy a passage that really shows what the Author thinks!

Example Let’s abandon Zoos To Persuade Zoos might seem like a good thing, but really they are not. Article He thinks that it isn’t fair or right to keep animals in zoos “Instead of supporting zoos we should support groups that work to preserve animal’s natural habitats.” Use “quotes” from the text to provide evidence! He says “How could we think that keeping animals in cages for entertainment is a good and decent thing?” S. Metzler –Shaw Heights Middle School, 2010

Now you are READY to Identify Author’s Purpose and Perspective! For your first assignment pick a text that is NON-FICTION (this means that it is TRUE) Read a text and then fill in all the boxes on your paper You can always come back and watch the Power Point again if you need help!