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So far we've considered questions about audience with regard to those we can ask when reading and rereading material. Now, let's consider a few questions about purpose, about the purpose of the author, and the writing of the piece. First question, what was the author's purpose in writing the piece? Or rather, what is the author's purpose? If it's more contemporary? Second question, you can ask, what is the author's thesis? Your favorite word in English thesis? So what is the thesis of the author? For the piece that you're reading? And third question in this section, does the author successfully achieve their goals? Have they developed their thesis adequately? Have they thereby achieved their purpose in writing the piece? See how these questions can link to each other and move one way and back, kind of like a tide flowing in and out? You can follow from the beginning to the end, and you can trace things back to the beginning, and asking questions about purpose. Now that we have our questions, let's think about them in more detail. Okay, generally, when writing a text an author will have one of three aims to entertain to inform or to persuade their readers. Sometimes a work will serve multiple purposes. They will both entertain and inform or inform and persuade or modulate between some combination of these three aims. However, as a critical reader, you ought to identify the primary purpose of the piece you were reading. For example, if all the author intended was to write an informative essay, than to criticize an article what they wrote for failing to present an effective argument on a topic would be unproductive. A situation like that really underscores the importance of accurately determining an author's purpose or goal. But proceeding with that kind of determination is not the easiest thing. It can be very difficult sometimes. But there are some tips and hints and clues that you can remember as you move through this process. For example, in scientific publications in peer reviewed journals like that, in those fields, what you can do is look for the author's stated purpose within their abstract, or their thesis, which is often plainly stated. For example, they'll say the purpose of this article is very straightforward, right? Or the author's seek to prove that x is the case or what have you. The feature of the abstract as convention and scientific peer reviewed journal articles, is well conventional, but it's far less so and much rarer. And humanities journals. The conventions of most humanities journals require authors to be less straightforward, or declaratory in stating their purpose. But again, thesis statements and abstracts are good places to start your search. If they're available, especially the abstract because it's more comprehensive. You have the whole scope or the whole play, instead of only a look into the first scene, which you might think of as like the thesis. All that said, though, remember this, even if the author states their goal somewhere in the paper or abstract? Be wary? When you finish rereading the piece? Ask yourself this question. Given the content, language and structure of this piece, what do I determine to be the writers primary goal or purpose? What have I determined it to be and even beyond determinations, what do I believe it to be?
Transcribed by https://otter.ai