1. Author’s Purpose P I E S
PIES

2. To Persuade
To Persuade: When an author wishes to make an audience feel a certain way about a topic.

3. To Inform
To inform: When an author wishes to simply covey information to an audience

4. To Entertain
To Entertain: When an author wishes to simply entertain an audience

5. To Describe or Share a Personal Experience
To Describe: When an author wishes to convey a picture or feeling to an audience.

6. Point of View
When an FCAT question refers to an author’s point of view, it is not referring to the traditional 1st person or 3rd person voice, but rather the perspective of the author towards his or her subject. The way that the author’s point of view can be determined is by looking at the words he/she chooses to use to describe situations or people.

7. Author’s Purpose Types of Writing
Persuasive: To persuade: to express an opinion and convince readers to think/feel/act a certain way ex. Newspaper or magazine articles

8. Expository
Expository: To inform-explain, illustrate, or present information ex. Science, educational or journal articles

9. Narrative
Narrative: To entertain- To tell a story ex. fiction

10. Descriptive
To describe: To describe or share a personal experience- a person, event, or place: convey a mood.
ex. Poetry, restaurant review

11. Methods of Organization
Cause & Effect:
Why it happened Cause)
Something that has happened (effect)
Compare & Contrast:
How two or more things are alike and different.

12. Spatial Order To describe how something looks or its location.
Spatial order description might proceed from bottom to top, left to right, or from nearby to far away.

13. Time Order
Events in chronological order.
Example a time line.

14. Flashback
The author starts with a situation and then flashes-back to an earlier event.

15. Bulleted lists Used for informational texts to make important points

16. Foreshadowing
Used in literary texts. Early on, the author will give hints of things that will happen later in the story.

17. Question/Answer Used in informational texts.
The author asks a question in the first paragraph or two and then answers it.

18. Argument/Support
Used in informational texts. The author takes a stand on an issue and than supports it with details.

19. Cause/Effect Signal Words
because of
created by
caused by
led to
the reason for
on account of
since
due to
since
therefore
consequently
outcome so
then
as a result of
finally
thus
for this reason