What is a strategy for determining the author's purpose in a passage?

• A. Look for clues about why the author wrote it (to inform, persuade, entertain) and analyze tone, diction, and the presence of evidence or arguments.
• B. Guess based on the author’s name.
• C. Ignore tone and evidence.
• D. Assume the author’s purpose is to entertain.

Answer: (A)

Understanding an author's purpose means pinpointing why the writer created the text and how they shape it to achieve that aim. The best strategy is to look for clues about why the author wrote it and to analyze the tone, word choice, and the presence of evidence or arguments. If the piece mainly presents facts, explanations, and definitions with little opinion, the purpose is to inform. If it presents claims, reasons, emotional appeals, and calls to action, it’s aiming to persuade. If it relies on narrative, humor, or imaginative elements to engage the reader, it’s to entertain. By identifying the function of the writing and noting how the author uses tone and evidence to support that function, you determine the purpose more reliably than by guessing from a name, ignoring tone and evidence, or assuming it’s meant solely to entertain.