Learning Author's Purpose through Text Structure

Learning Author's Purpose through Text Structure

What are some ways to identify Author's Purpose?

• Scan the first and last sentences in a paragraph. For longer stories scan the first and last paragraphs.

• If used, Identify what text structure the author is using.

Multiple Choice

Ice-cream is a delicious frozen treat that comes in many different colors and flavors. Two of my favorite flavors are strawberry and chocolate. Though both of these flavors are delicious, strawberry may contain pieces of fruit while chocolate usually will not. Chocolate comes from a cocoa bean, while strawberry is picked as a fruit. Even though more chocolate ice-cream is sold across the country annually than strawberry, each flavor tastes great inside of a milk shake.

• Decription

• cause & effect

• Problem & Solution

• Compare & Contrast

• chronological/sequence

So our author's purpose is to....

compare and contrast chocolate and strawberry ice cream.

Multiple Choice

The ice-cream shop around the corner from my house has the best ice-cream in the city. When you first walk inside, there is a long chrome counter with matching stools extending alongside the far wall. Also, right where the counter stops, the booth seating begins. There are lots of old-timey knickknacks on the walls and chrome napkin holders on all the tables. My favorite part of the shop is behind the counter glass. where they keep all of the ice-cream flavors. A rainbow of delicious sugary flavors is specifically kept cool and delicious behind the counter glass.

• description

• cause & effect

• problem & solution

• compare & contrast

• chronological/sequence

Multiple Choice

Freezer burn is a problem that has wasted more ice-cream than sidewalks. If you don't know freezer burn is when ice crystals form on the surface of ice-cream. These ice crystals can ruin the texture and flavor of the ice cream. But you can prevent freezer burn. Since freezer burn is caused when melted ice-cream is refrozen, rather than eating your ice-cream from the container as it melts, scoop your ice-cream into a bowl and put the container back in the fridge immediately. Doing this should help you solve your issues with freezer burn.

• description

• cause & effect

• problem & solution

• compare & contrast

• chronological/sequence

Multiple Choice

No one knows the true origin of ice-cream, but the first published ice-cream recipe appears in “Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts,” a cook book that was printed in London in 1718. Sometime around 1832, an African American confectioner named Augustus Jackson created multiple ice cream recipes and invented a superior technique to manufacture ice cream. Ice cream soda was invented around 1874, but the real breakthrough may have been at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, when the American ice-cream cone was unveiled.

• description

• compare & contrast

• cause & effect

• problem & solution

• chronological order

Multiple Choice

Have you ever had an ice-cream headache? That’s when a painful sensation resonates in your head after eating something cold (usually ice-cream) on a hot day. This pain is produced by the dilation of a nerve center in the roof of your mouth. The nerve center is overreacting to the cold by trying to heat your brain. Ice-cream headaches have turned many smiles to frowns.

• description

• cause & effect

• compare & contrast

• chronological/sequence

Multiple Choice

Making ice-cream is not easy. Cream and sugar have to first be mixed in a frozen container. Ingredients may be added at this point, if desired. The mixture must be stirred and whipped until the cream and sugar mixture is frozen. Depending on the equipment, this may take as long as an hour. After the ice-cream is prepared, it must be kept frozen until it is ready to be enjoyed. Making ice-cream is difficult, but most people would agree that it is worth the trouble.

• description

• cause & effect

• sequential

• problem & solution

• compare & contrast

Multiple Choice

It was the most beautiful banana split that I had ever seen. In the middle of the bowl, there were three scoops of ice-cream: chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. On top of the ice-cream were a banana and a thick web of chocolate and caramel sauces. A huge puff of whipped cream covered the sauces and a handful of crushed nuts dappled the whipped cream. On top of it all was a cherry, but I’ve never liked the soggy squish of cherries.

• problem & solution

• cause & effect

• sequential

• description

• compare & contrast

Multiple Choice

When it comes to making ice-cream, you can do it the traditional way, by stirring it in a frozen container, or you can use liquid nitrogen to freeze your mixture. There are some advantages to using liquid nitrogen. Since liquid nitrogen freezes the mixture faster, the crystal grains are smaller, giving the ice-cream a creamier texture. The downside is that ice-crystals grow faster in ice-cream prepared using liquid nitrogen, so it must be stored at much colder temperatures. Both methods produce a distinct texture, and both are delicious.

• problem and solution

• compare and contrast

• cause and effect

• sequential

Remember

• An author can write to persuade, inform, entertain, explain, describe....

• but the structure they use can also provide insight to specific reasons they are writing:

• to describe a place

• to show the cause & effects

• the problems of a situations and its solutions

• a sequence of events in chronological order.