Introduction to Author’s Purpose and Perspective, Diction and Tone

Notes and Practice Activities

Essential Question for Unit 5:

Essential Questions: Why do writers write? How does a writer’s perspective affect their work? How do writers create tone by using specific diction? How do format and organization help readers understand a text’s purpose?

Before automobile engineers design a car and draft their blueprints, they need to understand the purpose for the proposed vehicle. Is it to safely transport cattle across the country? Haul kids and families to and from school? Win a NASCAR race? The purpose will determine each choice the engineer makes, from the design of the engine to the design of the car’s body. Just like engineers, authors carefully construct their texts with a specific purpose in mind.

Common Core Standards Included in this Workshop: RI. 3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them. RI.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone RI. 5 Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text RI..6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.

Section #1: Author’s Purpose

You can discover an author’s purpose by observing the decision the writer made. Every decision, from the subject and the tone to the particular words and other vital details, is a clue that can uncover the purpose. Another hint can be your reaction to what you read. For example, if you are convinced by an argument to fight for a cause, then the author’s central idea, or main argument, is probably that people should support that cause. Thus, the author’s principal purpose in this case is to persuade.

Author’s Purpose / Hints and Clues in the Writing
To inform or explain: Examples include encyclopedia or magazine articles, documentaries, instruction manuals, Web sites / -facts and statistics
-steps in a process
-diagrams or illustrated explanations
To Persuade or Convince: Examples include, editorials, TV ads, political speeches / -an assertion of opinion
-supporting evidence
-appeals to emotions
-a call to action
To Entertain: Examples include, short stories, novels, plays, humorous essays, movies / - enthralling or exciting situations
-humorous or interesting details
- fascinating characters
To Express Thoughts or Feelings: Examples include personal essays, poems, diaries, and journals. / -thoughtful descriptions
-insightful reflections
-the author’s personal feelings and introspective thoughts

Activity #1: Inform or explain

Writing that informs or explains typically leaves you feel more knowledgeable on the subject. As you read this article, look for hints that suggest its purpose.

“Everyday Mysteries” From the Library of Congress
Spiders are able to spin sticky and non-sticky silk. They avoid walking on the sticky silk. In addition, spiders have moveable claws on their feet that grip and release the web’s threads as they walk.
Spiders are invertebrate creatures in the araneae order of the class arachnida in the phylum arthropoda. A spider has up to eight eyes, eight legs and seven silk-producing glands in its abdomen. These glands secrete proteins that are extruded through spinnerets to produce different kinds of silk. Many spiders, particularly orb, funnel, sheet and cob-weaving spiders, use this silk to build webs with which to catch prey.
The sticky, complex nets of silk used for the catching spiral are effective hunting tools, but have often made people wonder how the spiders themselves avoid entangling themselves in their own webs. Many people believe that spiders have special oils that repel the stickiness of their threads. This, however, has never been proven. Scientists are still not entirely certain how most spiders manage to avoid ending up ensnared in their own trap, but there are a few accepted theories. Spiders can spin different kinds of silk, and not all of their silk is sticky. In fact, in a spider web only the silk used for the intricate catching spirals are dotted with glue, so spiders know which threads to avoid. In addition to producing different kinds of silk, web-spinning spiders also have an extra set of claws on their feet. All spiders have two claws on their feet; web-spinning ones have three. These claws are used to grasp threads and provide traction as the spider moves along.
This spider has decorated its web to attract more prey. Photo from the National Park Service Web site. Read more about these "home decorators" in this article on the National Geographic Home page: Artistic" Spiders Trap Prey With Light, Study Finds. / Close Read Questions
What words or phrases suggest that this is an informative article? Provide two examples from the first two paragraphs.
Identify one other important detail from the third paragraph that suggests the author’s purpose is to inform or explain. How does this detail advance the author’s purpose?

Activity #2: Express thoughts or Feelings

This essay also focuses on spiders, but the writer includes minimal facts. How do the details, the language, and the writer’s tone help the reader comprehend her feelings about spiders?

From “Weaving the World” a Personal Essay by author, Dr. Janisse Ray Janisse Ray on her Montana Farm
Every night the spiders weave the world back together. This morning I see webs whole again, shining freshly gossamer in the new sun, webs we tore down last night accidentally, setting up the tent on the platform. All day paddling, we have been watching for them – zippers and bananas and crabs, colorful and intriguing. They are everywhere, stitching leaves to trees, and trees to shrubs, and shrubs to ground…
The spiders have adapted to their fragility, their vulnerability; when we humans bungle into their webs, they scurry off, up a single thread into a sweet bay. They have no new technologies, no new economics. Across the prairies they a spin and spin, as they have done for thousands of years, holding this outrageously glorious world together. / Close Read Questions
Study the underlined details that the author uses to describe spiders and their webs. How do these details differ from those in “Web Masters”?
Is the writer’s attitude toward spiders admiring or simply factual? Support your answer.

Recognizing Author’s Perspective

No two authors will approach a topic in the same way, even if they have comparable purposes. Their perspectives will influence what they write and how they write it. An author’s perspective is the lens through which a writer looks at a topic, and this lens is colored by the writer’s personal experiences, values, and feelings.

Think about the two excerpts you just read. Articles based on facts alone, such as “Everyday Mysteries,” usually don’t reveal a writer’s viewpoint. However, literary essays, such as “Weaving the World,” include clues that share the author’s perspective. Even though the writer of “Weaving the World” includes some factual information, personal examples and opinions play a great role in her description. Notice how the hints show a writer who values nature:

Word Choice / Diction: Words such as “colorful and intriguing” and “vulnerablity” expose the writers captivation with the marvels of nature, and spiders in particular. / Tone: A writer’s tone is their attitude toward their subject. The writer does not focus on spiders’ scary qualities. Her tone is respectful and apprciative, not frightened.

Section 2: Organization and Format

To achieve their purpose, writers of both literary and expository nonfiction choose particular patterns of organization, such as cause-effect and classification. Being familiar with these patterns can help readers determine an author’s purpose, find information, and comprehend the relationships between ideas. Here are examples of two universal patterns.

Chronological / Comparison – Contrast
What is does
-Describes events in time order / What it does
-highlights similarities and differences between two or more subjects
Why Writers Use it
-To explain a sequence of events in an easy-to-follow way
-To tell a suspenseful or exciting story / Why Writers Use it
-To show the benefits of one subject over another
-To compare an unfamiliar subject with a familiar one
How to Identify it
-Look for signal words such as before, finally, first, next, and then / How to Identify it
-Look for signal words such as also, and, but, in contrast, unlike, and while

In addition to these patterns, nonfiction writers use text features to help readers understand a topic. Imagine a scientific article without subheadings, captions, or boldfaced type to help guide the reader through the complicated text. Who wouldn’t be confused? Look at the scientific text on the next page. Which text features are used by the author to help the reader understand and process the information?

Activity #3 Text Features

Take a Look at the Scientific Text below and answer the close reading questions.

/ Close Read:
Into what main categories is the information grouped?
Notice the visuals used throughout the document. What purposes do the serve?

Section 3: Comparing Texts

The next two excerpts both have to do with being on an airplane that is danger of crashing. However, although both texts deal with this issue, they are not similar in any other ways. As you read, utilize what you just learned about hints – details, tone, and diction (word choice), to determine each other’s purpose and perspective.

From “Aha Moment “an essay by Julia Alvarez
I was in the tiny bathroom in the back of the plane when I felt the slamming jolt, then the horrible swerve that threw me against the door. Oh, Lord, I thought, this is it! Somehow I managed to unbolt the door and scramble out. The flight attendants, already strapped in, waved wildly for me to sit down. As I lunged ahead toward my seat, passengers looked up at me with the stricken expression of creatures who know they are about to die.
“I think we got hit by lightning,” the girl in the seat next to
mine said. She was from a small town in east Texas, and this
was only her second time on an airplane. She had won a trip to
England by competing in a high school geography bee and was
supposed to make a connecting flight when we landed in Newark.
In the next seat, at the window, sat a young businessman
who had been confidently working. Now he looked worried—
something that really worries me: when confident-looking
businessmen look worried. The laptop was put away.
“Something’s not right,” he said.
The pilot’s voice came over the speaker. I heard vaguely
through my fear, “Engine number two…hit…emergency
landing…New Orleans.” When he was done, the voice of a flight
attendant came on, reminding us of the emergency procedures
she had reviewed before takeoff. Of course I never paid attention
to this drill, always figuring that if we ever got to the point where
we needed to use life jackets, I would have already died of terror.
Now we began a roller-coaster ride through the thunderclouds.
I was ready to faint, but when I saw the face of the girl
next to me I pulled myself together. I reached for her hand and
reassured her that we were going to make it. “What a story
you’re going to tell when you get home!” I said. “After this,
London’s going to seem like small potatoes.” / Close Read
Reread the underlined sentence. Is Alvarez reporting facts or is she sharing personal impressions as well? Explain the intended effect of these details.
Although the author is sharing a scary experience, her tone is not frightened. Identify the tone and three details that help you understand the tone.
What do you think the author’s primary purpose is with this essay? What important details from the essay help to assert this purpose? Explain your answer.
Reread the bolded portions of the essay and how they express Alvarez’s tone. What can you infer about her perspective?

Read this article and compare it to Alvarez’s dramatic account. Use the clues in the text to identify the author’s purpose and perspective.

Aircraft Built To Shrug Off Lightning Strike
Newspaper article by Tom McNamee for the Chicago Sun-Times
Lightning strikes airplanes now and again, but seldom with tragic
results.
In a typical year, lightning causes only a handful of aircraft
accidents in the United States, and occasionally none at all. From
1983 through 1995, 29 accidents resulted in 37 deaths. But a 30th accident proved the exception. On Aug. 2, 1985, lightning struck a Lockheed L-1011 as it came in for a landing at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, slamming the jet to the ground and killing 137 passengers.
One witness on the ground, an aviation weather expert, recalled
seeing “lightning from cloud to cloud.” Another witness said the
plane exploded even before crashing into “just a big ball of fire.”
A Plane’s Built-in Protection
As a rule, however, the laws of nature favor aircraft in a collision with lightning. Lightning’s electrical charge usually spreads across the entire outer skin of the craft, robbing it of its concentrated power, before it is shed like rainwater.