Literature technique
7
ANALYZING THE AUTHOR’S
PURPOSE AND TECHNIQUE
T
he writer’s overall purpose determines the techniques he or she uses. The writer’s reason for writing a particular article or book may be manipulative, as in propaganda or advertising, or may be more straightforward, as in informative writing. In either case, understanding the writer’s underlying purpose will help you interpret the context of the writing. It will also help you see why writers make the decisions they do—from the largest decisions about what information to present to the smallest details of what words to use. The chapter concludes with instructions on how to write an analysis of purpose and technique. This kind of rhetorical analysis will provide the perspective required to keep you from being pushed by words in directions you don’t want to go.
103
104
Part 1
Writing About Reading
The Writer's Purpose
Insofar as people know what they are doing, they plan their actions to achieve their purposes.
Someone who selects the purpose of being rich will design and carry out a set of actions, legal or illegal, to gain the desired wealth. A person who wants to gain great wisdom will design an entirely different life course. Writers, whether they want most to be wealthy or wise, have specific purposes they hope to achieve by any piece of work. If they are skilled writers—that is, in control of what they write—they design each aspect of what they are writing to achieve their purpose.
Being aware of the writer's purpose when you read helps you evaluate how well the writer has achieved the purpose and decide whether you want to follow where the writer is trying to lead you. The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose.
In this chapter, we initially consider the various
ANALYZING THE AUTHOR’S
PURPOSE AND TECHNIQUE
T
he writer’s overall purpose determines the techniques he or she uses. The writer’s reason for writing a particular article or book may be manipulative, as in propaganda or advertising, or may be more straightforward, as in informative writing. In either case, understanding the writer’s underlying purpose will help you interpret the context of the writing. It will also help you see why writers make the decisions they do—from the largest decisions about what information to present to the smallest details of what words to use. The chapter concludes with instructions on how to write an analysis of purpose and technique. This kind of rhetorical analysis will provide the perspective required to keep you from being pushed by words in directions you don’t want to go.
103
104
Part 1
Writing About Reading
The Writer's Purpose
Insofar as people know what they are doing, they plan their actions to achieve their purposes.
Someone who selects the purpose of being rich will design and carry out a set of actions, legal or illegal, to gain the desired wealth. A person who wants to gain great wisdom will design an entirely different life course. Writers, whether they want most to be wealthy or wise, have specific purposes they hope to achieve by any piece of work. If they are skilled writers—that is, in control of what they write—they design each aspect of what they are writing to achieve their purpose.
Being aware of the writer's purpose when you read helps you evaluate how well the writer has achieved the purpose and decide whether you want to follow where the writer is trying to lead you. The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose.
In this chapter, we initially consider the various