Author's Purpose

Author's Purpose

An author's purpose is what he or she hopes to accomplish with a given text. You can determine an author's purpose by looking at the types of words, phrases, and sentences that an author chooses to include.

Persuade

• Author tries to convince the reader

Inform

• Author gives information about a topic

Explain

• Author breaks down information into a process or steps

Entertain

• Author writes for reader to enjoy

Describe

• Author uses sensory details to appeal to reader

Multiple Choice

Yodeling is a vocal technique once used by shepherds in the Swiss Alps. To yodel, you first have to find your normal, or "chest," voice, and your high, or "head," voice. Yodeling involves switching between these two ranges of sound, or registers, and finding the break between them. To begin, make an "ah" sound and move your voice from low to high, listening for the break. Try to keep your voice relaxed, but don't allow the notes to flow smoothly. Unlike other styles of singing, yodeling requires you to emphasize the break between notes.

Which author's purpose is suggested by the text?

• To convince readers that yodeling is easy

• To teach readers how to yodel

Multiple Choice

Which best shows that the author's purpose is to teach readers how to yodel?

• The author breaks down the process of yodeling into steps

• The author gives the definition of yodeling

Multiple Choice

I'd been fantasizing about this moment . . . for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care.

It was early in the afternoon of May 10, 1996. I hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours. The only food I'd been able to force down over the preceding three days was a bowl of ramen soup and a handful of peanut M&Ms. Weeks of violent coughing had left me with two separated ribs that made ordinary breathing an excruciating trial. At 29,028 feet up in the troposphere, so little oxygen was reaching my brain that my mental capacity was that of a slow child. Under the circumstances, I was incapable of feeling much of anything except cold and tired.

Which author's purpose is suggested by the text?

• to explain how to prepare to climb Mount Everest

• To describe how it felt to reach the top

Multiple Choice

Which best shows that the author's purpose is to describe how it felt to reach the summit of Mount Everest?

• The author provides facts like the date May 10, 1996

• The author uses details like a handful of peanut M&M's