📖 ReadingGrade 3Lesson 15
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Find Author's Purpose

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Learning Objectives

  • 1Identify whether an author's purpose is to persuade, inform, or entertain
  • 2Use text features and language choices as clues to determine the author's purpose
  • 3Explain how knowing the author's purpose helps you read more critically
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Mini Lesson

Every author writes for a reason. That reason is called the author's purpose. The three main purposes are to persuade, to inform, and to entertain. Knowing the purpose helps you understand why the author made certain choices.

P.I.E. — The Three Purposes

  • Persuade — the author wants to convince you to agree with an opinion or take an action.
  • Inform — the author wants to teach you facts or explain how something works.
  • Entertain — the author wants you to enjoy the text through a story, poem, or humor.

Clues to Find the Purpose

  • Persuade: opinion words (should, must, best), call to action, one-sided arguments.
  • Inform: facts, dates, diagrams, headings, a neutral tone, "how to" structure.
  • Entertain: characters, plot, dialogue, humor, rhyme, descriptive language.
P.I.E. — Three author purposesThree colored sections labeled Persuade, Inform, and Entertain with key clues for each.P.I.E. — Author's PurposePPersuadeOpinion words, call to actionIInformFacts, headings, neutral toneEEntertainCharacters, plot, dialogue
Text type examples for each author purposeThree groups showing text types for persuade, inform, and entertain purposes.Text Types by PurposePersuadeAdverts · Opinion essaysSpeechesInformEncyclopedias · ReportsHow-to guidesEntertainNovels · PoemsComics
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A text can have more than one purpose — a nature documentary can entertain AND inform. Ask: which purpose is the MAIN one?

Vocabulary
Author
The person who writes a book or articlee.g. The author of this book is Roald Dahl.
Author's purpose
The reason an author wrote a piece — to inform, entertain, or persuadee.g. The author's purpose was to entertain me with a funny story.
Inform
To teach the reader factse.g. A science article informs us about animals.
Entertain
To make the reader enjoy readinge.g. A funny story entertains us.
Persuade
To try to change the reader's minde.g. An ad persuades us to buy something.
Genre
A kind or style of writinge.g. Mystery is one genre of story.
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← Lesson 14: Make Predictions and InferencesLesson 16: Discuss Story Morals or Themes →