Purpose

Purpose: A persons motives behind their writing
EX: To inform, persuade..

In The REAL Life

• 1) Reading is a task I simply do not enjoy doing. (2) Oftentimes I find it boring and can rarely remember what I read, even if I just read it! (3) It doesn’t matter how many times I reread something, I still don’t know what it says. (4) It also takes too long. (5) Why spend so much time reading a book if you can just rent the movie? (6) I guess I like to read some things – things that are interesting and that I can relate to. (7) Otherwise, I would rather not read at all. (8) Movies are far more entertaining than a dull novel. (9) First of all, you don’t have to bother trying to visualize everything the author is saying – it’s all right there in front of you. (10) With a movie, you can get distracted or look away for a few seconds and still catch up. (11) If you did that in a book you’d be lost and have to reread the whole thing! (12) Movies are full of action and require little work on your part. (13) Who wants to work hard in their free time? (14) Why use your imagination when someone can do all the work for you? (15) That’s my motto anyway. (16) If it’s that good, I’ll just wait for the other to come out. (17) Although I will admit The Outsiders was a pretty good book. (18) That was full of non-stop action! I could hardly put it down. Example 1: The primary purpose of the passage is to: A. summarize a theoretical approach to a controversial topic. B. persuade the reader to stop buying books C. present a critical analysis on The Outsiders D. present both sides of an argument E. develop a personal opinion regarding a specific topic First, let’s read the entire passage and try to summarize the subject and author’s purpose in our own words. In the first paragraph, we find out that the author is mainly concerned with explaining why he dislikes reading. In the second paragraph, the author explains that he much prefers watching movies to reading books. Now let’s examine our answer choices: A: The author does not summarize a theoretical approach to a controversial topic; there is really nothing theoretical about this passage because it is all opinion. B. The author does not seem to try to preach his antipathy for books; he seems primarily concerned with expressing his own opinion about the matter. C. The Outsiders is only mentioned at the end of the passage, and there is no critical analysis about it anyway. D. Even if we considered the author’s opinion an argument, we still cannot choose D because he only presents one side of the argument. E. This is by far the best answer. The passage consists of the author expressing his opinion about reading books.

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