Author’s Purpose and Text Structure

PRESENTATION

Author’s Purpose and Text Structure

Lesson Standards

• 9.8(B)
• 9.1(A)
• 9.1(D)
• 9.4(F)
• 9.5(A)
• 9.5(E)
• 9.5(G)
• 9.8(B)

Language Objective

Language Objective:

I will use academic vocabulary to describe and discuss the author's purpose and text structure in written and spoken form.

Learning Intention

Learning Intention

I will understand the relationship between the author's purpose and text structure and apply this knowledge to interpret and analyze various texts effectively.

Success Criteria

• Identify the author's purpose in a given text.
• Describe and provide examples of different text structures used by authors.
• Explain how the text structure enhances the author's purpose.
• Analyze and discuss the author's purpose and text structure in written and spoken form using academic vocabulary.
• Apply their understanding to analyze a real-world text and determine the author's purpose and text structure.

Do Now:

Can you identify the author's purpose in this advertisement?Is it to

• persuade
• inform
• entertain

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Define

Author’s purpose is the author’s reason for writing. Authors typically write for one or more of the following purposes: to entertain, to inform, or to persuade. Text structure is the order or pattern a writer uses to organize events or ideas. Authors use text structures that support their purpose for writing. The following are examples of text structures:

Define

• Chronological Order: tells about events in the time order in which they occurred
• Sequential Order: describes the correct sequence of steps in a process
• Order of Importance: presents points in order from most to least important or from least to most important
• Problem and Solution: identifies a problem and offer solutions to solve it
• Cause and Effect: explains how or why something happened
• Compare and Contrast: compares and contrasts two or more things
• Definition: defines the essential qualities of a subject

Model

Review the Checklist for Author’s Purpose and Text Structure below. Then read the Skill Model to examine how one student used the checklist to analyze how text structure helps achieve the author’s purpose in the excerpt from Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. As you read, identify the question from the checklist the student used for each annotation.

Checklist for Author’s Purpose and Text Structure

In order to analyze use of text structure to achieve the author’s purpose, note the following:

• Note information about the genre, title, and author.
• Autobiographies often follow a chronological order to detail the events of an individual’s life. A memoir may use a cause-and-effect structure to explain why events occurred the way they did.
• Look for signal words to identify text structure:
• first, then, and next signal sequential order
• specific dates and times signal chronological order
• the problem is, one challenge is, and a solution may be signal problem and solution
• as a result, because of, and if-then signal cause and effect
• like, similar to, as opposed to, different from s ignal compare and contrast

Checklist for Author’s Purpose and Text Structure

To analyze use of text structure to achieve the author’s purpose, use the following questions as a guide:

• What is the author’s purpose? Note that an author may have more than one purpose for writing and may use more than one text structure.
• To entertain:
• Events narrated in time order
• Descriptions that include sensory and figurative language
• To inform:
• Steps in a process
• Research from a variety of sources on a topic
• Comparisons of key events, individuals, or ideas to explain
• To persuade:
• Reasons and evidence to prove a point of view
• Research or expert opinions that support a particular point of view
• Comparisons between two opposing perspectives to prove a point

Why did the author choose this text structure to support his or her purpose? Does this text structure effectively support the author’s purpose?

Strayed includes flashbacks to a conversation with a stranger and her family situation. By using a nonlinear structure, Strayed makes her purpose clear: to explain how she came to be so very alone on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Skill Model Noticing details and reading closely can help you identify a text’s structure and analyze how it achieves the author’s purpose. Let’s look at how one reader analyzes the text structure of the excerpt from Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and how it affects the author’s purpose for writing:

The reader pays close attention to the sequence of events in the passage and then considers what this might tell him about Strayed’s purpose for writing. In the text, the reader highlights that “a couple of weeks before” the author “explained how very loose [she] was in the world.” The reader also highlights information about events that happened in Strayed’s past: her father leaving, her mother dying, her stepfather and siblings detaching from her in their grief. Based on this evidence, the reader begins to understand that Strayed uses a nonlinear structure to explain why she ended up very alone on the Pacific Crest Trail. The reader continues reading the excerpt from Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and analyzes other text structures the author uses to achieve a particular purpose.

Strayed explains the events that led her to buy the book and the effect it had on her. This cause-and-effect structure helps her explain how she made the decision to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

END OF THE PRESENTATION

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