Determine author's purpose by analyzing text structure

What is text structure?

• How the author organizes information

• The way an author compares two different topics

• The way a text is supported by irelevent  details

What is the purpose of facts, examples, and details?

• They tell the topic

• They support the main idea by providing specific information

• They tell readers the topic of a text

How do you  find author purpose?

• You think about the key ideas or supporting details and why the author included the information.

• Ask the author why they wrote the text.

• The author usually provides the purpose in the introduction and restates it in the conclusion. 

Look at the supporting details.  Which of the following would be the best statement for the main idea of this paragraph?

• Dogfish do not taste very good.

• Fishermen often accidently catch sharks and they are bad for their business. 

• Dogfish, a type of shark, is spiny and has sandpaper-like skin. 

Which of the following is an important step if you want to figure out the author's purpose?

• identify the key details and evaluate them

• Identify the main idea of each paragraph

• As yourself why the author selected to write about this entire topic. 

Why would the author include information about the problem before providing possible solutions?

• To persuade readers to save sharks.

• To entertain readers with interesting information and details that catch their attention

• To inform readers by giving important background information about the problem and show that the solutions are good.