Author's Perspective and Purpose

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To start, we will take a look at author's perspective and purpose. Purpose is covered first, and then perspective. Take notes on what is presented and be prepared to use it for the quiz that follows.

The author's purpose is the reason that the author chose to write the passage. When discussing an author’s purpose, we usually use verbs such as persuade, entertain, or inform, or some combination of these.

If readers enjoyed what they read, one of the author’s purposes may have been to entertain. If students learn while they are reading, one of the author’s purposes may have been to inform. If readers changed the way they thought about a topic or issue, one of the author’s purposes may have been to persuade. Authors may have more than one purpose for writing. Author’s purpose can be stated explicitly or readers may have to infer the intent.

Note: Only watch the video, no need to do the assignments mentioned as they are not for our class!

The author's perspective is how an author feels about the topic he or she is writing about.

The author’s perspective includes the content of the text and the language used to present the data. Thoughtful readers are able to pick out an author’s perspective, opinions, hypotheses, assumptions, and possible bias.

Tone, which is the author's attitude towards a subject, is closly related to perspective. If you can pick up on an author's tone, it will help you understand their perspective. For example, if you can see that someone has a sarcastic tone, then you can see that they might have a negative perspective about a topic.