Author’s Purpose

Standards: ELACC8RI1 (Cite textual evidence)ELACC8RI6 (Determine POV or purpose in text)ELACC8RI7 (Evaluate use of different mediums)ELACC8RI10 (Read and comprehend nonfiction)

Essential Question:How much information is enough?

To Inform

To Persuade

To Entertain

A piece that INFORMS might:

•Teach about history, science or other subjects•Report an event

•Describe facts

Remember that to persuade means to convince. Commercials on TV try to persuade or convince you to DO or BUY something

•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

A piece that PERSUADES might:

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

Some selections will have two purposes.

For example, if the article is about eating healthy, it will try to persuade you to eat your vegetables as well as, inform you about the different types of food groups.

Check for words and phrases that indicate how the author feels about a topic.

The main reason authors write nonfictional passages is to inform. They may also hope to instruct, persuade, or entertain their readers.

Where you read a selection can provide an important clue as to an author’s purpose. Newspaper editorials are usually intended to persuade. School texts are intended to instruct.

It may help if you know who the author is. Humorous writers, for example, probably want to amuse and entertain you.

Use the information on the bottle to determine the author’s purpose.A. To InformB. To EntertainC. To Persuade

The correct answer is A, to inform.

The label contained information and instructions on how to use the medicine.

His face appeared in the window. She knew he had been the cause of her waking at 3 a.m. Was she seeing things? Was his face real? She tried to lie still and decide what to do. Just then, the window shattered. She flew across the room to the hallway and straight into her mother’s room. What is the author’s

purpose?

A. Inform?

B. Entertain?

C. Persuade?

The correct answer is to B. entertain.

The author tried to capture a suspenseful mood in the story.

The story is probably fiction.

It is recommended that parents read to their children everyday, starting as early as six months of age. When you read with your children, you are starting them off in life as a life-long reader and learner. It is never too late to pick up a book and read; people in their eighties have learned how to read and discovered the pleasure of reading. Turn off the television and read a book!

You can tell the author wrote this passage to A. Inform B. Entertain C. Persuade

The correct answer is C, to persuade.

This is an emotional appeal to do the right thing: READ!

Also, the last sentence tells you encourages you to do something: “Turn off the television”

1. Read the selection carefully.

2. Determine if the selection is fiction or nonfiction.

Turn to p. 233 ‘The Trouble with Television”

~ What do you think this selection is going to be about?

oAs you read, underline the KEY POINTS the AUTHOR makes to show why the purpose for writing this selection. oYou can make notes in the margin to show their town or if they are using persuasion in this selection.

On a sticky note answer the following question.

~How did what we learned today connect with what we learned yesterday?