Do Now: Read the texts below and identify the ways in which the

passages are similar and different. List them in your notebook.

Aim: How can readers

identify an authors purpose
and intended audience?

Why Do Authors Write?

For many reasons!
-An author may give you facts or true
information about a subject.
-Some authors write fiction stories or stories to
entertain you.
-Some authors may write to persuade or to try
to get you to do or think something.

Why Authors Write

Usually to:
-Persuade
-Inform
-Entertain

How to Determine An Authors

Purpose
1. Find the main idea
2. Ask yourself who or what kind of person
would be interested in the subject
3. Find the authors evidence and ask yourself
who would be persuaded by the
support/evidence
4. Identify the authors choice in words--what
kind of language is s/he using?

Model Text: Authors Purpose and Audience

Fullers purpose for writing Young Students is to share with the general
public the research conducted by Plotnick and students from East Side
Middle. He uses casual language, describing the hallmarks of academic
literature to share with readers the experiments conducted by Plotnick and
students on several captive elephants in northern Thailand.

Lets Revisit those First 2 Texts...

Homework: Due Tomorrow & Rubric

Read In a Birds Nest: An Animal Behavior
Puzzle and identify both the authors purpose
and audience.
--Explain why the identified purpose & audience
are correct by using logic, reason, and textual
evidence (at least 1 piece for both purpose &
audience)

New Reading Assignment

At your tables come up with one to two new
reading assignment options
As a class, well discuss the options