Author’s Purpose

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To Persuade

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

To Inform

• To inform: When an author wishes to simply covey information to an audience

To Entertain

• To Entertain: When an author wishes to simply entertain an audience

To Describe or Share a Personal Experience

• To Describe: When an author wishes to convey a picture or feeling to an audience.

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.

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

Expository

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

Narrative

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

Descriptive

• To describe: To describe or share a personal experience- a person, event, or place: convey a mood.

ex. Poetry, restaurant review

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.

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.

Time Order

• Events in chronological order. • Example a time line.

Flashback

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

Bulleted lists

• Used for informational texts to make important points

• Point 1• Point 2• Point 3

Foreshadowing

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

Question/Answer

• Used in informational texts.• The author asks a question in the first

paragraph or two and then answers it.

Argument/Support

Used in informational texts.The author takes a stand on an issue and

than supports it with details.

Cause/Effect Signal Words

Cause• because of• created by• caused by• led to • the reason for • on account of • since• due to

Effect• since• therefore• consequently• outcome• so• then• as a result of • finally• thus• for this reason