THEA Reading Objective #3

Author’s Intent

4 types of questions (skills)

1. Author’s purpose

2. Author’s Intended Audience

3. Author’s Point of View

4. Author’s Tone

1. Author’s Purpose

Definition: The reason the author wrote the passage.

Tip: Author’s purpose is usually found in the beginning and/ or end of the passage

Possible PurposesTo inform

Encyclopedias, phonebooks, statistics, news reports, history textbooks

To persuadePolitical brochures, advertising, TV

commercials, Editorial section of newspaper

To instructHow to manuals, instruction books,

math textbooksTo entertain

Comic strips, fictional novels

To informEncyclopedias, phonebooks, statistics, news reports, history textbooks

The author shows no emotion , no feeling—only information is given

To persuadePolitical brochures, advertising, TV commercials, Editorial section of newspaper

The author gives his/her opinionThe author tells the reader what to doThe author uses words like should,

ought, or must to give the reader suggestions

To instructHow to manuals, instruction books, math textbooks

The author explains how to do somethingThe author often speaks of steps, using

sequence as a writing patternYour textbook does not recognize this

purpose

To entertainComic strips, fictional novels

The author tells a storyThis purpose often has characters and

tells a storyThe author may attempt to make you

laugh or cry

•Given all the injuries that occur, boxing is a sport that should be banned.

• Soils can be classified in various ways, including according to color, texture, and the type of crops they support.

• With funerals so expensive, I’d better not die soon; I can’t afford to.

•Thomas Jefferson promised his wife he would never remarry; she died at thirty-three, and he kept his promise.

•July is Bargain Month at Fred’s Used Cars and Trucks. Now’s your chance to make a real deal and drive away with the car of your dreams.

• March 1 is the deadline for all applications for scholarships and student loans.

• The spaceship landed. Stella’s heart pounded as two aliens stepped out. Would Jeffrey be in there, and alive?

•Unless citizens work together to stop developers from turning parkland into parking lots, our children won’t recognize a tree or a blade of grass.

2. Author’s Intended Audience

Definition: This is who the author has in mind as readers for his/ her passage.

Ask yourself: WHO is the author writing for?

who…who…?

3. Author’s Point of View

Definition: The point the author is trying to make. This is the Main Idea of the passage.

Ask yourself: What is the author trying to tell me? What is the Main Idea?

4. Author’s Tone

Definition: this is the attitude that an author has towards the topic he/she is writing about.

Some possible tones: serious, comical, sarcastic, mournful, dramatic, factual (see pg 346)

Use the author’s choice of words to figure out the author’s tone.

George and Martha Washington never had children of their own, but Martha had two children from a previous marriage. Also, after her son Jacky died at the age of twenty-seven, George and Martha adopted two of his children.

A. critical B. objective C. loving

1. purpose?2. intended audience?3. point of view?

What is the author’s tone?

The people in the apartment across the hallway are good communicators. When they have a party, they communicate it to us by turning the music up so loud that we can’t hear our own TV. And when they have an argument, they let us know about that too, by yelling at the top of their lungs.

A. straightforward B. sarcastic C. cruel

What is the author’s tone?

I’ve sent out dozens of résumés and gone on exactly ten interviews, and I still haven’t gotten a job offer. But now I have two more job interviews set up, and I have a feeling in my bones that one of these is going to be a winner.

A. optimistic B. amused C. regretful

What is the author’s tone?

How could our own children have forgotten our anniversary? I don’t even care if they don’t give us a present, but they could at least have called and wished us a happy anniversary. They always seem to remember to call us when they need money or a babysitter.

A. complaining B. revengeful C. tolerant

1. purpose?2. intended audience?3. point of view?

What is the author’s tone?

Time is dangerous. If you don’t control it, it will control you! If you don’t make it work for you, it will work against you. You must become the master of time, not the servant. In other words, as a

college student, time management will be your number-one problem.

1. What is the author’s tone?2. What is the author’s purpose?3. Who is the author’s intended audience?4. What is the author’s point of view?

As a high school principal, I strongly believe that there shouldn’t be any penalties for

students who are caught cheating. After all, everyone does it. Besides, cheating in school

will help prepare these same students to cheat on their employers later on, to cheat on their spouses when they marry, and to cheat on their taxes. In fact we could help students even more if we offered a course on how to

cheat.

1. What is the author’s tone?2. What is the author’s purpose?3. Who is the author’s intended audience?4. What is the author’s point of view?

I can’t thank Rob and Elsie sincerely enough for introducing me to Sheila. They promised me she was exactly my type, and how accurate they were—I’ve been yearning for a vain, shallow woman with the IQ of a turnip. Sheila and I hit it off immediately. When I picked her up in my Ford Escort, she wrinkled her adorable nose with exasperation and said, “I thought Elsie said you had a decent car.” I took her to eat at Luigi’s and was thrilled by the way she sneered and said, “You are a cheapskate, aren’t you?” When I suggested we see a foreign film and she announced that she never sees anything with subtitles because she hates to read, I wanted to marry her on the spot. I’ll certainly have to think of some way to repay my dear friends for fixing me up with such a marvelous girl.

1. What is the author’s tone?2. What is the author’s purpose?3. Who is the author’s intended audience?4. What is the author’s point of view?

Homework

•70— obj 3 handout•80—pg 348-351 Review test 2 and 3 (yes, with paraphrase)•90—