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Have you ever spied before?
What are some of spying?
• Identify the target• Keep in mind your goal • Look closely for important details• Develop solid evidence • Make accurate inferences • Use your tools effectively• Draw a conclusion and
report back to your superiors
Do you think you could pull it off?
Oh yeah? Think so? Well, today’s your chance to prove it…whether you like it or not.
Becoming a More Critical Reader and Writer:
Unlocking and Applying Author’s Purpose
Definition: What is "author's purpose"?
• An author’s purpose is an author’s reason for writing something.
• When you read anything, it’s important to know and understand the reason why an author is writing. The same is true when you yourself are writing something.
• This “reason for writing” is called an author’s purpose.
SPIED!... Explained• SPIED! is an acronym used to remember the
different purposes an author may use.
• It stands for:– share feelings – persuade – inform– entertain – describe
author’s purpose for
writing
SPIED!... Explained
• Sometimes authors combine these purposes. In fact, this is often the case.
• For instance, your purpose might be to inform the audience about the history of a volcano you visited AND to describe what it was like to be there.
What’s our goal?
• We’re going to be using SPIED! to identify author’s purpose of what we read.
• We’re also going to be using SPIED! to explore these purposes as writers. – There will be a writing project.
personal story
anecdote – a short story about someone or an experience
expressing emotions,
feelings, and thoughts
may be “heavier”
in tone
you may feel empathy or
sympathy for author
Did the author share something personal with me?
opinion
tone depends on the topic
uses evidence to support a claim or thesis
makes an argument
convinces the reader to believe
something
may have a “call to action” –
what to do next
commercials and ads
Did the author use evidence to make an argument?
reader is learning
typically flatter in tone – “dry”
lots of facts/details
unbiased “Did you know?”
gives information
Did I learn something?
read for enjoyment
“light” reading
narratives/stories
may be humorous or silly in tone
may contain characters
may be dramatic fictional real-life
Did the author write for my enjoyment?
paints a picture in the reader’s
mind.
- sight - hearing - touch - smell - taste
contains sensory details
vividly illustrates a
scene or experience
uses many details
uses imagery
Did the author appeal to my senses?
The Modes of Writing After we determine the author’s purpose, we
can identify the mode of writing for a given piece. Modes are like a genres or a categories for writing.
The Five Core Modes expository/informational technical narrative (fiction + nonfiction) persuasive descriptive
The Modes of Writing
What is a mode? A “mode” is a form, type, or domain of writing.
Basically, a mode is a category.
Each of the modes has an author’s purpose or two associated with it.
Expository/Informational Writing
•Explains something to the reader by providing facts and details.
•Shares information about a topic OR explains how to do something.
•The main idea is often made clear by the title.
•Author’s Purpose(s): to inform, to explain, to describe.
Expository/Informational Writing
•Writing in this mode may explain to us or inform us of…
–how to do something
–how things are similar or different (comparison)
–the kinds of something
Expository/Informational Writing
• Writing in this mode may explain to us or inform us of…
–the causes of something (and the effects)
–the definition of something –how something works
– the history of something
–a process
Expository/Informational WritingExamples: brochures, reports, newspaper and
magazine articles, how-to manuals, cookbooks, instructions, handbooks, photo books, encyclopedias, almanacs, news reports, timelines, graphs, charts, etc.
ANYTHING THAT GIVES YOU INFORMATION OR INSTRUCTS YOU.
Narrative Writing
There are two types of narrative writing: fiction and nonfiction.
Narrative writing tells a story.
Narrative Writing: Fiction• As you know, fiction is NOT factual.
• Fictional narrative writing tells a unique story. Creative (fictional) narrative writing has a plot, setting, and characters who have motives or reasons for what they do. Good narrative writing also has tension -- a problem to be solved or a challenge to overcome. There is a point to the story.
• Author's Purpose: to entertain by telling a story
• Examples: novels, short stories, myths, some poems, plays, diaries, etc.
Narrative Writing: Nonfiction
• As you know, nonfiction is factual.
• Narrative writing that is nonfiction is used to tell about an important historical event, a person's life, or a news story.
• Author's Purpose: to entertain by telling a story and to provide important facts and details (inform)
Examples: biographies, historical memoirs (ex: a Holocaust survivor's tale), etc.
Persuasive Writing• Persuasive writing states the opinion of the writer
and attempts to convince or influence the reader to believe, agree, or understand by offering evidence. HAS A CLAIM/THESIS.
• Author's Purpose: to persuade someone to believe as they do; to express feelings; to inform.
• Examples: Unspecific: book, film, or restaurant reviews; editorials,
advertisements and commercials. Specific: An article calling for no new nuclear power plants to be built, a letter to a newspaper editor calling for a specific NFL
player to be named MVP, an essay explaining why 13 is the best age, a paragraph on why rocky road is the best flavor of ice cream, etc.
Descriptive Writing• Descriptive writing Paints a picture in the reader's
mind, making use of imagery (sensory details: what the writer sees, hears, smells, and feels).
• Author's Purpose(s): to describe something (a person, place, thing, process, etc.); to express feelings; to entertain.
• Examples: – Specific: An article describing the life of a worker ant, a poem that
describes how it feels to jump in the ocean on a hot summer day, etc.– Unspecific: Menus, catalogs, travel brochures
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