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

There are 4 main parts to this activity.

These will be explained on the next 4 slides

Genre is a fancy way of describing what kind of text something is.

For example:•Novel•Short Story•Mystery•Article•Biography•Science Fiction•Poetry•Fiction•Non-Fiction•Diary•Letter

Letter

Novel

Science Fiction

Articles

Biography

PoetryMystery

Article

Let’s say you read one of the texts below:•What kind of GENRE is it?

Once you have read the text you must decide why you think the AUTHOR wrote the piece.

Ask yourself if he or she was trying to:A)Inform you about somethingB)Persuade you or someone else to do somethingC)Entertain you or help you appreciate or enjoy something

For LEVEL 4 you need to look for evidence in the text to support the answer you gave. Copy a passage that really shows the Author’s Purpose

Ask yourself:“What is the most important

idea in this text?” What is the ONE thing the

author really wants me to know?

The MAIN IDEA is NOT a summary of the whole text that you read. Try to keep your main idea to 1 or 2 short sentences.

THAT is the MAIN IDEA!

The Author’s Perspective is:•What the Author

thinks about the MAIN IDEAFor Example, if the MAIN IDEA is about Putting animals in zoos,Does the author think it is a GOOD thing or BAD thing? What is his or her opinion?

Once you have the MAIN IDEA you can figure out the Author’s

Perspective!For LEVEL 4 you need to look for evidence in the text to support the answer you gave. Copy a passage that really shows what the Author thinks!

S. Metzler –Shaw Heights Middle School, 2010

Let’s abandon Zoos

ArticleTo Persuade

“Instead of supporting zoos we should support groups that work to preserve animal’s natural habitats.”

Zoos might seem like a good thing, but really they are not.

He thinks that it isn’t fair or right to keep animals in zoos

He says “How could we think that keeping animals in cages for entertainment is a good and decent thing?”

Use “quotes” from the text to provide evidence!

For your first assignment pick a text that is NON-FICTION (this means that it is

TRUE)

Read a text and then fill in all the boxes on your paper

You can always come back and watch the Power Point again if you need help!