Chapter 11: More On Purpose, Tone,
and Bias
From this chapter, you’ll learn
1.how to tell the difference between
informative and persuasive writing.
2.how the author’s reliance on fact or opinion
reveals the author’s purpose.
3.how tone relates to purpose.
4.how to recognize when a writer’s bias, or
personal preference, has become excessive.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.1 Defining Terms
The Two Basic Purposes of Writing:
• to inform: When the writer’s purpose is informative, the
writer tries to explain an issue or describe a topic without
evaluating it or trying to tell readers how they should feel
about the subject under discussion.
• to persuade: When the writer’s purpose is persuasive, the
intent is to convince readers to share or at least strongly
consider a particular point of view.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Just so You Know
There’s a third purpose not addressed either here or in your text,
it’s aesthetic, or artistic, appreciation. Addressing that purpose
would take an entire book, maybe two, to discuss it in ways that
aren’t trivial or silly. Still, it seems important to mention that in
classes where you read, say, poetry or short stories, you are
encountering material that doesn’t quite fit into either of the
categories described here or in your text. Really good artists aren’t
all that interested in dispensing information or sharing opinions.
Their goal is to make you participate in the world more intensely.
When works of art are successful, they help you feel and
experience worlds other than your own.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.1 Defining Terms
Informative writing has the following characteristics. It
• makes no attempt to convince readers to share a
specific opinion or take a specific action.
• describes or explains the ideas of others without
evaluating them. “John Dewey’s theory of education
was based on the belief that children learn by doing.”
• suggests that the opinions expressed belong to people
other than the author. “According to science writer
Gina Kolata, ‘The Hawthorne Effect,’ much written
about in psychology and business texts, is based on
very little sound evidence.”
• expresses both sides of an argument with equal
effectiveness.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Informative Writing (continued)
• relies on language that has little or no emotional
impact on readers.
• appears mainly in reference works, newspaper
articles, journals, and educational web sites.
• relies heavily on factual statements and avoids
colorful imagery.
• includes no references to the author’s personal
feelings.
• avoids appealing to the audience’s emotions.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11. 1 Example of Informative Writing
Sleep researcher Robert Stickgold says that rapid-eye
movement, or REM, sleep is essential to memory consolidation.
In other words, it is during REM that new information is
analyzed, categorized, and stored in long-term memory. In
support of his theory, Stickgold cites numerous studies in which
researchers teach subjects a new task and then break the
subjects into two different groups: (1) subjects who get tested
later the same day and (2) subjects who get re-tested after a
night’s sleep. Based on his research, Stickgold maintains that
subjects who sleep after learning consistently perform better
than those who got no sleep.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11. 1 Defining Terms
Persuasive writing has the following characteristics. It
• attempts to convince readers to share or at least consider a
specific point of view.
• often announces that something should be understood, done,
or evaluated in a certain way. “We need to promote Internet
literacy in our schools”; “Urban renewal has been a massive
failure.”
• expresses competing points of view while pointing out that one
opinion or perspective is better than another.
• explicitly or implicitly reveals the author’s bias, or personal
leanings.
• usually employs emotionally charged language.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Writing to Persuade (continued)
• appears in editorials, reviews, books that are not
reference works—such as encyclopedias and
dictionaries—and web sites promoting a theory or person.
• makes use of strong imagery designed to sway emotions.
“Muzzle the trumpets, still the drums. The market for
reason is slipping fast. The currency of ignorance and
demagoguery* is daily gathering strength.”
• often includes personal pronouns that refer to the author
and/or the audience. “We cannot allow the teaching of
literature to be abandoned in favor of job training.”
*demagoguery: the use of speech to appeal to prejudice and uncontrolled
emotion.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.1 Example of Persuasive Writing
The highly-regarded sleep researcher Robert Stickgold has solved the
mystery of rapid-eye movement, or REM, sleep, which has long been
a puzzle. REM has been a mystery because the brain waves recorded
by electroencephalographs during this stage of the sleep cycle suggest
a highly active state of mind, similar to the state of being awake.
Stickgold, however, has solved the mystery, and his research shows
that during REM, new learning is analyzed, categorized, and stored in
memory. In other words, it’s during REM sleep that memory
consolidation takes place. While Stickgold’s theory still has its critics,
the majority of those engaged in sleep research believe he has figured
out why brain activity during REM sleep is so intense: It’s because the
sleeping brain is busy working on consolidating the news of the day.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
A Word to the Wise
The two purposes can intermingle, but one is almost always primary, or more
important, than the other. For instance, to convince you that the global
warming is a reality, not a myth, a writer might start an essay with a
straightforward list of facts about changes in temperature, sea level, plant,
and animal life. That information is there mainly to introduce the writer’s
point, which is persuasive: “We must begin to reduce energy consumption or
the damage to Earth and its inhabitants will only grow worse.” In this case,
the primary purpose is persuasive, and the informative writing just paves the
way for the author’s attempts to convince.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
1.1 Recognizing the Primary Purpose
When thinking about the primary purpose, keep in mind that
1. the purpose sometimes changes as the reading develops.
2. a persuasive piece of writing can open with a purely informative
introduction but then move steadily in the direction of
persuasion.
3. if informative writing turns persuasive, the author’s overall
intent is usually persuasion, not a balance of the two.
4. it’s far less likely for a writer to open with a persuasive passage
and then become strictly informative.
5. when it comes to identifying the primary purpose, how the
author ends up is more important than how he or she begins.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.1 Now that you’ve seen examples of both
informative and persuasive writing, what’s the
author’s purpose in this paragraph?
Many people with a product to sell seem to think that
creating a web site would be good for business. However,
what they don’t seem to realize is that not just any web
site will do. Anyone looking to sell products on the web
needs to meet the needs of online consumers. Those
who buy online, for instance, are impatient. If the pages
on a site take more than a second or two to download,
consumers are likely to leave without buying. Similarly,
online shoppers of all ages are not fond of small print or
excessively busy pages. Too many bells and whistles on a
site, accompanied by tiny print, and the seller can forget
about increasing sales via the Internet, no matter how
good the available product actually is.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.1 And the purpose here is?
At 11:30 p.m. on December 6, 1982, Charles Brooks, the first
convicted murderer to be executed through lethal injection
lay down on a hospital gurney. His body was secured by five
leather straps, and at 11:35 medical technicians inserted two
intravenous needles, one in each arm. A saline solution began
flowing into Brooks’s bloodstream, and that harmless solution
was quickly followed by a mix of three chemicals, all of them fatal
to the human body. Brooks died within ten to thirty seconds from
an overdose of barbiturates. The other two drugs, which caused a
fatal muscle paralysis and cardiac arrest, were a form of insurance.
If the lethal dose of barbiturates didn’t kill Brooks, one or both of
the other drugs would ensure his death.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
A Word to the Wise
The more you are aware of a writer’s purpose, the more
attuned you will be to writers who end up conveying
their personal prejudices despite the neutral context of
their work, e.g., textbooks and references works and their
own stated or implied intention to supply you with facts
minus any value judgments. You’ll also be primed to
identify writers who want so badly to persuade their
readers, they end up producing careless arguments,
which rely more on emotional intensity or careless
reasoning than they do on logic.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 Determining Purpose by
Looking at Facts and Opinions
Recognizing the balance between fact and opinion in a piece
of writing can help you determine an author’s purpose.
However, that means you need to clearly understand the
difference between fact and option. Which of the following
statements, then, is a fact and which one is an opinion?
1.
On August 17, 1896, forty-four-year-old Bridget Driscoll
became the first woman to be killed by a car; the car was
traveling four miles per hour and the impact proved fatal.
2.
The traffic death of forty-four-year-old Bridget Driscoll
in August of 1896 was the first sign that the auto, hailed
as an industrial triumph, was to become a weapon of
mass destruction.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 Fact Versus Opinion
The first statement is a fact, the second an
opinion.
Now the key question is this: Why is the
first statement a fact and the second an
opinion, given that the two statements
share similar information?
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 Comparing Facts and Opinions
Statement 1 is a fact because it can be verified, or proven
true, by any of the following sources: records, witness
statements, reference books, and photos.
Statement 2 is an opinion because not everyone in the
world would see that first traffic accident as a sign of the
auto’s destructive power. That’s a personal interpretation,
or understanding, of how that incident might be viewed.
Ask other people if they agree, and the answers will vary
from person to person. Facts do not vary with their
source.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 Defining Terms
Factual statements
• are likely to use dates, numbers, and statistics.
• are not affected by the person who reports them.
• identify and describe events in language that has little
or no emotional effect on the listener or reader.
• don’t make predictions, express value judgments,
or offer interpretations.
• can be verified, or checked, for accuracy.
• aren’t subject to change unless previously unavailable
information or new technology arrives on the scene.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 Defining Terms
Statements of opinion
• often use language that packs an emotional punch.
• reflect a personal interpretation or point of view.
• often make value judgments, e.g., “Jimmy Carter was
a better president than most people think.”
• frequently predict future events, e.g. “We are going to
regret our failure to address the problem of
homelessness.”
• often provide interpretations, e.g., “Tupac Shakur could
not escape his violent past.”
• cannot be checked for accuracy.
• are reflections of what the speaker or writer has learned
and experienced.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 From Fact to Opinion
The following statement is a fact:
“In 2008 Beyoncé Knowles played the blues singer
Etta James.
How might you change it into an opinion?
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 From Fact to Opinion
Here’s one possibility:
“Beyoncé Knowles rose to the occasion when she
played blues legend Etta James in the movie
Cadillac Records.”
Rephrased in this way, the statement now offers a value
judgment. Beyoncé excelled in playing the part of blues
singer Etta James, whom the author considers a “legend.”
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 From Opinion to Fact
The following statement is an opinion:
“Lance Armstrong had no business trying to make
a comeback in the 2009 Tour de France bicycle race.”
Can you transform that opinion into a statement of fact?
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.2 From Opinion to Fact
Here’s one possibility:
“In 2008, Lance Armstrong announced, he was
coming out of retirement in order to participate in
the next Tour de France.”
Now the statement excludes any interpretation,
prediction, or value judgment. Everything stated can be
verified in some way.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
A Word to the Wise
A heavy emphasis on facts along with a cool, neutral
tone are a dead giveaway to the writer’s informative
purpose. Similarly revealing are the use of a
passionate tone to express personal opinions. The
two together are marks of a persuasive purpose,
which makes attending to a writer’s tone
particularly important to critical reading.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.3 Defining Terms: A Writer’s Tone
Like the tone of a person’s voice, tone, or voice, in writing
refers to the attitude, emotion, or feeling about the
subject matter that a writer conveys to the reader.
Although non-fiction writers often become identified with
a particular tone, they can shift the tone or voice of their
writing to suit the context or subject matter.
Here are a few of many possibilities:
• furious
• sympathetic
• neutral
• comical
• bullying
• solemn
• curious
• cautious
• mistrustful
• confident
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.3 How Writers Choose a Tone
Writers choose a tone based on
• their personal feelings about a subject.
• purpose, i.e., informative or persuasive.
• context , e.g., for a reference book or
a weekly magazine, a newspaper front page, or an inside
editorial.
• personal preference: some writers vary their tones;
others are more comfortable assuming a comic or a
serious tone.
• the audience.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
A Word to the Wise
The factors that go into choosing or assuming a tone
can vary with the circumstances. A writer who pens a
letter protesting a bad review may not bother to control
her angry tone. However, if she is assigned to write an
entry for, say, a dictionary of global culture, she is not
going to let anger play a role in the tone of the entry.
Her tone will be more controlled and neutral. The
context requires the change in tone.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.3 Writers Vary Their Tone Based on a Number of
Different Factors
What tone do you hear in the following snippet from Calvin
Trillin’s collection of food essays called “Alice, Let’s Eat.”
• “If a research team systematically interviewed serious shellfish
eaters about their most memorable shellfish experience, I
suspect that the unifying theme would be messiness. Ask
anyone who truly loves shellfish about the best he ever had,
and the answer tends to be a story ending with the table being
hosed down after the meal or mountains of shells being
shoveled into trash bins. It is apparent to serious shellfish
eaters that in the great evolutionary scheme of things,
crustaceans developed shells to protect them from knives and
forks.”
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.3 What tone do you hear in the following excerpt
from Trillin’s memoir about the loss of his wife, Alice, who
died in 2001?
• “…she would have been right in saying that the people whose
exposure to her had been through my stories didn't know her.
Still, in the weeks after she died I was touched by their letters.
They may not have known her, but they knew how I felt about
her. It surprised me that they had managed to divine that
from reading stories that were essentially sitcoms. Even after
I'd taken in most episodes of The Honeymooners… it had
never occurred to me to ponder the feelings Ralph Kramden
must have had for Alice Kramden. Yet I got a lot of letters like
the one from a young woman in New York who wrote that she
sometimes looked at her boyfriend and thought, "But will he
love me like Calvin loves Alice?"
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.3 How Does a Writer Create a Tone?
All of the following can play a role in making readers hear a feeling
or an attitude in the writer’s words:
• word choice
• imagery
• sentence and paragraph length
• grammar, i.e., formal or conversational
• references to the audience or self
• selection of details
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Just so you Know
Writers spend an extraordinary amount of time thinking about how
they sound on the page. They worry about how they are presenting
themselves to their readers. The Dominican American writer Junot
Díaz, for instance, has said somewhat regretfully “…my personality
tends to be blunt, straightforward, outspoken. My written personality
is nowhere near as dynamic.” Writer Anna Quindlen has suggested that
speech therapy for stuttering may have helped her find her voice as a
writer,“ I don’t know whether I developed the written voice and then
imitated it, once I had speech therapy, or vice versa. But in any case, I
know that I have a distinctive voice on the page, and that it’s intimately
related to my actual voice.”
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.3 Tone and Readers
Readers need to pay attention to tone because
• it helps reveal the writer’s purpose.
• it helps them better understand the effect of tone on their
response.
• it offers a solid clue to the writer’s degree of bias, i.e., the
more emotional the tone, the greater the bias.
• it will make them better readers, more aware of the many
different ingredients that go into an effective piece of writing.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.4 The Role of Bias in Informative and
Persuasive Writing
The more passionate the tone the more likely it is that the
author harbors a bias for or against the subject or issue under
discussion.
In persuasive writing,
• bias is to be expected.
• bias is only bad if the writer goes overboard and insults or
won’t even acknowledge an opposing point of view.
In informative writing,
•
authorial bias is supposed to be almost completely eliminated.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.4 What’s the author’s purpose and can you detect a
bias?
What’s a Mining Hall of Fame without Miners?
The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, first opened in
1988, cries out to be included in any discussion of how history can
be distorted. The Mining Museum doesn’t say much about those
who have done the actual mining in the United States; the
luminaries* it does showcase are mainly white Anglo-Saxon
Protestant men, most of them mine owners, executives, or
engineers rather than, god forbid, actual miners, who risked their
life to dig metals from the earth. In reality, mining has been one of
America’s most multicultural occupations with, among others,
Italians mining granite in Vermont, Finns digging for copper in
Michigan, and Chinese Americans panning for gold in the West, but
you’d never know that from visiting the National Mining Hall of
Fame.
* luminaries: famous people, stars
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.4 What’s the author’s purpose and can you
detect a bias?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The signs for a persuasive purpose and a strong bias are certainly
there:
The language sometimes packs an emotional punch, for instance,
the mining museum is an example of history being “distorted,” or
misrepresented.
This opinion, for that’s what it is, is not attributed to someone else.
The author takes full responsibility for it.
The tone with its sarcasm—”rather than, god forbid, actual
miners”—makes it clear that the author has strong feelings on the
subject. So, yes, there is a bias.
The selection of detail highlights the contrast between what’s
displayed in the museum as the history of mining and the reality of
mining across the country.
Above all, there’s no hint of an opposing point of view.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.4 The Experienced Reader’s Response to Bias
Now that you know the purpose and can detect a
strong bias, the question is, Is the writer’s bias so
strong readers need to learn more before sharing the
opinion expressed?
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.4 What about this next passage drawn from an encyclopedia of famous
spies? What’s the author’s purpose and can you detect a bias?
Although no state historical marker tells us about her, visitors who step inside Bellevue
elementary school in Richmond, Virginia can learn about Elizabeth Van Lew, the woman
Donald E. Markle, author of Spies and Spymasters of the Civil War, called “one of the great
female spies of all time.” Born in 1818, Van Lew had been introduced to the fight against
slavery when, as a child, her family sent her to a Quaker school in Philadelphia. When the
American Civil War began in 1860, Van Lew had no doubts about which side she was on
and she was determined to do everything she could to further the Union cause of
abolition. To that end, she developed a spy ring consisting of about a dozen wealthy
citizens who shared her Unionist sympathies. Setting up a series of check points on route
to Union headquarters at Hampton Roads, Virginia, Van Lew sent messages to General
Grant’s forces. Like that other tactical genius, Sojourner Truth, who freed countless slaves
by guiding them through the underground railroad, Van Lew knew how to cover her tracks:
She let her hair grow wild and took to mumbling to herself when she was out in public, so
that those who might have suspected her of siding with the enemy considered her crazy
rather than dangerous. Van Lew’s actions in service to the Union were never discovered.
After the war ended, she managed to get her war records from the federal government so
no one could know the extent of her activities. But somehow her neighbors found out,
and Van Lew was shunned by most of the community for the rest of her life.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
11.4 What about this passage? Can you identify the purpose and
do you detect a bias?
At least where laundry is concerned, going green is causing friction between
those who favor hanging laundry on a clothesline to save both energy and
money and those who feel the sight of someone else’s “unmentionables”
blowing in the wind is distasteful. Some states are already taking sides.
Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws
restricting housing associations from creating legislation or rules that might
stop a person from pegging clothes on a clothes line. The legislation in other
states, however, doesn’t help people like Kevin Firth of Pennsylvania. Firth,
who lives in a condominium, was fined $100 for hanging his laundry up
outside. And Firth is not alone, so much so that a group called “Product
Laundry List” has formed around one core issue—the right to hang laundry
out-of-doors. Members of the group are determined to fight the housing
associations they think are denying them a basic American right. Carl Weiner,
a lawyer for a number of homeowners associations, says that the “no-laundry
outside” attitude of his clients may change in time as people become more
aware of how much energy clothes dryers consume: Dryers account for about
6 percent of residential electricity use. But for now, their attitude is “Keep
your unmentionables in your own home. We do not want to see them.”
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Finishing Up: More on Purpose, Tone and Bias2
You’ve previewed the major concepts and skills introduced in Chapter 11. Take this quick
quiz to test your mastery of those skills and concepts, and you are ready to read the
chapter.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Finishing Up: More on Purpose, Tone, and Bias
1. What’s the primary purpose of the following reading?
Dwight D. (Ike) Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United
States, was born in Denison, Texas in 1890. He was the first
professional soldier elected to office since Ulysses S. Grant and
the first president to preside over 50 states. Eisenhower’s
public image was that of a conservative thinker, who believed
deeply in the rights of the states to govern themselves. But the
real “Ike” was a good deal more devious and less conservative
than the public knew. People were profoundly shocked when
Eisenhower called in the national guard to protect black
students trying to enter an all-white high school in Little Rock,
Arkansas. Conservatives didn’t interfere with states rights.
Eisenhower, however, was never a conservative. As he himself
expressed it in a 1951 letter kept secret for years, he had always
had “liberal sympathies.” He just kept them hidden.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Finishing Up: More on Purpose, Tone, and Bias
Although the paragraph initially seems to serve an informative
purpose, the primary pattern is persuasive because
1. the author directly expresses a personal opinion,
e.g., Ike was not what he seemed.
2. some of the language is emotionally charged,
e.g., uses the word “devious.”
3. no opposing point of view is expressed.
4. the opinion expressed is the author’s; it’s not attributed
to someone else.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Finishing Up: More on Purpose, Tone, and Bias
2. How would you label the following
sentences, fact or opinion?
a. Dwight D. (Ike) Eisenhower, the 34th President
of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas
in 1890.
b. He was the first professional soldier elected to
office since Ulysses S. Grant and the first
president to preside over 50 states.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Finishing Up: More on Purpose, Tone and Bias
3. How would you label these two statements,
fact or opinion?
a. Eisenhower, however, was never a
conservative.
b. As he himself expressed it in a 1951 letter he
kept hidden for years, he had always had
“liberal sympathies.”
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Finishing Up: More on Purpose, Tone and Bias
4. What tone do you hear in the following
passage from Jessica Valenti’s blog
“Feministing”?
Is her tone
a. enthusiastic?
b. critical?
c. astonished?
d. horrified?
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Finishing Up: More on Purpose, Tone and Bias
• “As I grew up and began identifying myself as a feminist, there
were plenty of issues that continued to make me question
marriage: the father "giving" the bride away, women taking
their husband's last name, the white dress, the vows
promising to "obey" the groom. And that only covers the
wedding. Once you get married, women are still implicitly
expected to do the majority of the housework and take care
of any future children. I remember reading one study that
said that even couples who had been living together for years
in equitable* bliss ended up with a more "traditional" division
of household labor if they got married—as though signing
that piece of paper somehow skewed their sense of fair play.”
*equitable: equal
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Finishing Up: More on Purpose, Tone, and Bias
5. Does the author of the following reading express a bias
in favor of or against the prime minister of Russia?
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin is a mysterious figure. He has
been accused of many things, among them ordering the murder of
journalists who oppose him. But is the fear and mistrust of Putin
deserved or merited? It’s hard to say. Putin is most frequently accused
of tearing up the Russian constitution and destroying civil rights. Yet if
that is true, how does one explain that Putin won two presidential
elections, 2000 and 2004, with impressive margins? And despite
descriptions to the contrary, Putin has a light side. He’s a music lover,
with a passion for Russian folk songs. Plus he can carry a tune. He’s
even been known to turn up at hip hop events, claiming that hip hop
promotes a “healthy life style.”
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Brain Teaser Challenge
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009
Brain Teaser Challenge
The Greek philosopher Aristotle said that “Character may
almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.”
How might a writer, with the intention to persuade, make
practical use of that information? Do you think Aristotle is
correct? Whether your answer is yes or not, please explain it
as persuasively as possible.
Copyright Laraine Flemming 2009