Author's Purpose Nonfiction Text

A wave is any movement that carries energy. Some waves carry energy through water. Others carry energy through gases, like air, or solid materials. If you drop a rock into a pool of water, a wave, or ripple of energy, skims across the pool's surface. In the same way, an underwater earthquake can release energy into ocean water. Then it carries a giant wave, or tsunami, across the surface until it hits land.

What is the author's most important purpose for writing this selection?

• to persuade readers to throw rocks into the water.

• to entertain readers with the legend of Wally Wave.

• to inform readers about different kinds of waves

If you hear a clap of thunder, sound waves (or vibrations) have carried the crashing BOOM to your ears. Sound waves speed through the air at about 1,100 feet (335 meters) per second. Light also travels through the air in waves. They travel at more than 186,000 miles (300 million meters) per second. So the light waves from a flash of lightning reach your eyes before that clap of thunder reaches your ears!

Electrons travel in waves, too. They move back and forth in a solid wire, sending waves of electricity so you can turn on a light during the storm!

Which question could best help someone figure out this author’s purpose?

• Did I learn how to make an electric light?

• Did the author give me information?

• Did the author want me to make waves?

Which might also have been an author’s purpose for the selection about different types of waves?

• To persuade readers to study more about tsunamis

• To entertain readers with a little humor

• To teach readers why people wave at one another

What is the author's purpose in this passage?

An article in a magazine comparing and contrasting waste management in New York City and Mexico City

• Entertain

• Inform

• Persuade

What is the author's purpose in this passage?

The story of a garbage truck who has a hard time making friends.

• Entertain

• Inform

• Persuade

What is the author's purpose in this passage?

A billboard asking voters to appoint Joe Santiago as Sanitation Commissioner.

• Entertain

• Inform

• Persuade