A STUDENT reads a magazine.
STUDENT: Hey, there! I’m just in the middle of finishing this article and it got my mind thinking about, duh, writing! You see, every author has a purpose. What’s an author’s purpose in writing something? It’s the author’s reason for writing. Maybe they’re trying to explain why something happened. Maybe they want to entertain you with a fun story.
Maybe they even want you to look at something in a new way. The purposes are endless.
STUDENT: You can also look for the author’s point of view in the text. Even in an informational article, the author usually has a point of view, an opinion or a conclusion that the author has drawn. Let’s look at an example.
The STUDENT reads from the magazine.
STUDENT: People from all around the world visit Iceland every year. They enjoy taking a dip in its hot springs and exploring its fascinating, otherworldly landscape.
The STUDENT speaks directly to the camera again.
STUDENT: You start to get an idea of the author’s purpose from these few sentences. The author is trying to inform the readers about the positive things about Iceland and perhaps persuade the readers to visit Iceland. Even though the author doesn’t say it, you can usually tell her point of view. She uses positive words, like enjoy and fascinating, which reveals that she has a positive point of view about Iceland. Here, check out another one.
The STUDENT reads from the magazine again.
STUDENT: Most kids spend their days going to school and playing with friends. A few kids, though, find time to do truly exceptional things. Take Kelvin, a boy from Sierra Leone. His town had a problem with the lights always going out, so when he was 10, he invented a generator that charges batteries and keeps the lights on.
The STUDENT speaks directly to the camera.
STUDENT: Wow, that’s pretty cool. What’s the author’s purpose here? It sounds like he’s going to tell us about kids who did surprising and exceptional things. In this paragraph, he emphasizes the great things Kelvin did by comparing him to a typical kid. You can also tell his point of view. He’s impressed by Kelvin and he thinks you should be too. I know I sure am.
STUDENT: So next time, when you’re reading an informational text, keep an eye out for the author’s purpose and point of view. Knowing the purpose helps you understand what you’re reading and why it was written. Recognizing the author’s point of view can help you draw your own conclusion about what you’re reading.
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