Uncover the Purpose

Every piece of writing should have a purpose, which is the thing that motivates writers to write in the first place.

Readers have the job of determining the purpose or purposes of a text by analyzing the writer's reason for writing and what the writer wants the reader to do with the text.

The three main categories of purposes that writers may choose from are to entertain, to inform, and to persuade.

<p>Texts created to entertain are often imaginative works like novels, stories, or poems.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The three main purposes of writing discussed in the text are to entertain, to inform, and to persuade.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The primary factor in texts created to entertain is the entertainment factor.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The purpose of informative writing is to provide facts about a topic that the writer believes is important and necessary for the reader to understand.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Yes, many texts have more than one purpose, but usually one will stand out as primary.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Some examples of informative texts are textbooks, encyclopedia articles, and instructional manuals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The purpose of instructional writing is to offer a series of steps to accomplish a specific task.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The purpose of persuasive writing is to persuade readers to assent to a particular belief or opinion or to act in a particular way.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The purpose of descriptive writing is to provide sensory details that allow the reader to form a mental picture of some person, place, or thing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>to entertain, to inform, and to persuade</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>imaginative works like novels, stories, or poems</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>facts about some topic that the writer believes is important and necessary for the reader to understand</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>they offer a series of steps to accomplish a specific task</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>they tell their readers how something works</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>sensory details that allow their readers to form a mental picture of some person, place, thing, or event</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>to convince readers to assent to a particular belief or opinion or to act in a particular way</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>by asking themselves a series of questions that help identify the text's main characteristics, and thereby, figure out why the writer is writing and how they should respond</p> Signup and view all the answers