Directions: Read the descriptions of each item and determine the author’s main purpose (to entertain, persuade, inform, or a combination of the three). Then, in a sentence or two, explain your answer. Please note there are ten questions.
1. A story about a family trying to stick together and survive through the Great Depression in the Midwest in the 1930s
Author’s Purpose(s): Entertain and Inform.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: The story itself is a work of entertainment and the survival and struggle in the storyline. However, the temporal and spatial setting of the story makes it informative as well.
2. A section in a history book describing the conditions and causes of the Great
Depression in the Midwest in the 1930s
Author’s Purpose(s): Inform.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: The purpose of a history book is to inform the reader about the causes & conditions of the mentioned temporal and spatial settings.
3. An instructional booklet describing how to operate a smartphone
Author’s Purpose(s): Inform.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: The author’s main purpose is to inform the reader about the operation of smartphones through the instructional booklet.
4. An article where the author argues that an iPhone is better than an Android phone
Author’s Purpose(s): Persuade.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: Persuading reader to value the iPhone more in comparison to the Android phone. There are no supporting facts.
5. A poem about why the iPhone is the greatest consumer electronic device ever made
Author’s Purpose(s): Entertain and Inform.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: The purpose is to entertain the reader with a sarcastic tone but difficult to deny. It has the element of informing because the writer presents the thesis of the iPhone as the greatest consumer electronic device.
6. The story of a young athlete who takes steroids and his life and future fall apart
Author’s Purpose(s): Entertain and Inform.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: The author attempts to entertain the reader with a story which contains the consequences of steroids in the long term, which also makes it informative.
7. A medical report describing the effects of steroids on the human body
Author’s Purpose(s): Inform.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: Informing the reader about the effects of steroids through a medical report, which is solid documentation of diagnosis or treatment.
8. A speech written by a professional athlete listing the negative effects of steroids and urging young athletes not to use steroids
Author’s Purpose(s): Persuade and Inform.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: Speech itself is used to inform and persuade simultaneously. Arguments used in speech are there to catch the reader’s emotions, along with intellect.
9. A booklet containing the school rules and the consequences for violating those rules
Author’s Purpose(s): Inform and Persuade.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: The booklet with school rules serves the author’s purpose of informing, whereas the consequence of violation is persuasion against doing it.
10. A story written about a young boy who moves to a new school and is bullied, but he gains self-confidence by joining a sports team and learns to stand up for himself.
Author’s Purpose(s): Entertain and Persuade.
Explain your answer in a sentence or two: As a story, the reader is entertained with the details of a young boy who faces bullying. And the gains the young boy made are components of persuasion.
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