1. “Kabul’s Singing Sensation”
Text Analysis: Author’s Purpose
Reading Skill: Identify Main Ideas and Details

2. Author’s Purpose
Author’s purpose: what the writer hopes to achieve in a particular work
Common purposes for writing:
To express thoughts or feelings
To explain or inform
To entertain
To persuade
A combination of these things
Often a piece of writing will have more than one purpose.

3. Author’s Purpose Clues about an author’s purpose can be found in….
The tone of the author’s writing
Word choice
Choice in details included in the story or article

4. Author’s Purpose
Turn and Talk: Discuss the following prompt with your table. Be ready to share!
Based on the title of the article “Kabul’s Singing Sensation”, what do you think is author Tim McGirk’s purpose?
Answer: The title suggests that McGirk wants to inform readers about a human-interest story.
As you read “Kabul’s Singing Sensation” look for clues about the author’s purpose.

5. Identify Main Ideas and Details
Nonfiction writers usually organize their writing around main ideas, or central ideas
Main ideas: the most important ideas writers want to share about a topic
Sometimes main ideas are stated directly, often at the beginning of a section or paragraph
Other times main ideas may just be implied, or suggested
Supporting details, like facts and examples, help to illustrate or support main ideas

6. Identify Main Ideas and Details
“Kabul’s Singing Sensation” contains several main ideas illustrated by supporting details.
As you read the article, you will create an outline similar to the one below to record these ideas and details. Example:
Mirwais Najrabi is a talented young Afghan singer
Supporting detail A
Supporting detail B
Mirwais and his family have suffered hardship