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Author’s Purpose
Establishing the author’s purpose for writing a particular text is often the key to
understanding the text’s significance. In order to understand the meaning behind a
text the reader must pay close attention to several elements.
Questions about the author:
1. What is the background and context of the author’s life?
2. Did this particular author experience any milestone events?
3. Is there a hidden or manifest agenda?
Questions about the text:
1. What is the tone and voice of the piece of writing?
2. Is there a reoccurring lesson?
3. How is the main conflict resolved?
Questioning the Author
Directions: Fill out the graphic organizer and analyze the factors that might have
influenced the author.
Author being analyzed: _________________________________
Background Information:
Milestone Events:
Possible Agenda:
What is the author’s lifestyle
like? What are some of his or
her influences?
Were there any major events
that may have greatly influenced
this author?
Does the author have anything to
gain or anything to lose?
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Analyzing the Text
Directions: Choose three quotes from the text and use textual analysis to make
inferences about the message that the author is communicating.
Quote:
Tone, Voice, Diction:
Analysis:
Choose a quote from the text and
write it in this column.
What is the tone of this quote?
Is there anything particular
about the word choice?
Is there a particular mood that is
being established?
Why do you think the author
includes this quote in the text?
Is there anything particularly
telling about the way that this
quote is written? Is this a
reoccurring theme?
Now that you have analyzed the author and the text, what do you think is the author’s
purpose?