Identifying an Author's Purpose

Analyze the author's stated or implied purpose in an informational text. Middle schoolers identify the loaded words in the example selections and determine the purpose. Use this activity as a preparation for finding the author's purpose...

It's important that readers can identify the author's purpose in a piece of writing. Give them different examples and this graphic organizer to help them keep track of how the tone and word choice can give hints to the purpose. Complete...

The multi-lesson, 47-page packet contains everything you need to ensure kids can recognize the clues provided to identify the type of text, the intended audience, and the author's purpose in writing the passage.

Model for readers how to identify an author’s purpose in a nonfiction text.  Using a document camera, conduct a close reading and annotate a passage from N. Scott Momaday’s, “Riding is an Exercise of the Mind.” Groups then read and...

Explore genre, subgenre, and author's purpose in this helpful worksheet. Middle schoolers read several summaries of books and short stories, and identify the genre and subgenre. They also determine if the author's purpose is to...

President Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech, delivered on June 12, 1987 before the Berlin Wall, provides class members with an opportunity to examine three key aspects of informational text: author bias, the use of facts and...

Determine the author's purpose in writing a memoir. Eighth graders work in groups  to elicit author's purpose in memoirs, taking care to note how subtle the message can be hidden throughout the work. This lesson is a good way to...

Suggestions for how to identify an author's purpose in writing a text are featured in a resource that is both a reference and a worksheet. Information about texts that are meant to persuade, inform, and entertain is included as are...

Why do people write? Every text has a specific purpose, whether it's meant to entertain, persuade, or to educate. This lesson contains two excerpts to read with your class, having them identify the author's purpose for each. Consider...

Why do people write books? Pupils discover how to identify the author's viewpoint. They read non-fiction passages their instructor selects (the plan has the class look at nonfiction children's picture books), and then identify the...