Author’s Purpose (Why? Just why?)

Author’s Purpose: the reason an author writes a particular work. A writer’s purpose could be any one of the following:

1) Inform or Explain: web sites, newspaper or magazine articles, how-to instruction manuals Clues: * Facts and statistics * Steps in a process * Diagrams and charts

2) Persuade: speeches, TV or internet advertisements, newspaper or magazine editorials. Clues: * Opinions * Evidence * Emotional appeal * Call to action

3) Entertain: novels, short stories, plays, humorous essays, movie or television scripts. Clues: * Suspenseful or exciting situations * Humorous or fascinating details * Interesting characters and story

4) Self Expression: diaries, journals, poems, personal essays. Clues: * Descriptions of real experiences * Observations about situations in life * Personal feelings and thoughts

Nonfiction: writing that tells about real people, places, and events. The main purpose of nonfiction is to give information. Text features: the way information is organized and highlighted on the page. Before reading nonfiction, preview the following text features:

* Subheadings: smaller headings below the main title that break up the writing and tell what each section is about. * Graphic aids: diagrams, maps, or pictures that give more information. * Captions: words that explain a picture or photograph. * Numbered Lists: numbers that show the order in which steps should be followed.