How many purposes are there for writing

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Close Reading of Complex Texts Grades 3—8. Sadlier Phonics. ELA Blog. Math Blog. Think love for example: love may be the topic, but learning to love yourself may be the theme. Themes are used to communicate important ideas and messages about issues that face the characters and the setting of a narrative. Often the theme of a story is a broad message about life. The author has a message he wants to share with readers, and he uses his story as a way to get that message across.

A theme in literature is the central idea explored in the story. Works of literature can have more than one theme. By using your theme in the right way, you end up creating an emotional connection between your readers and characters.

A theme is a set of colors, fonts, and effects that determines the overall look of your document. Themes are a great way to change the tone of your entire document quickly and easily. A document theme is a unique set of colors, fonts, and effects. Themes are shared across Office programs so that all your Office documents can have the same, uniform look.

Right-click the text on which you want to base a new style. In the mini toolbar that appears, click Styles, and then click Create a Style. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Essay What are the main purposes of writing?

Examples and illustrations are a basic kind of evidence and support in expository and argumentative writing. In her essay about anorexia nervosa, student writer Nancie Brosseau uses several examples to develop a paragraph:. Another problem, lying, occurred most often when my parents tried to force me to eat. Because I was at the gym until around eight o'clock every night, I told my mother not to save me dinner.

I would come home and make a sandwich and feed it to my dog. I lied to my parents every day about eating lunch at school. For example, I would bring a sack lunch and sell it to someone and use the money to buy diet pills. I always told my parents that I ate my own lunch.

Classification is a form of analyzing a subject into types. Comparison and contrast can be used to organize an essay. Consider whether either of the following two outlines would help you organize your comparison essay. Analysis is simply dividing some whole into its parts. A library has distinct parts: stacks, electronic catalog, reserve desk, government documents section, interlibrary loan desk, etc. If you are writing about a library, you may need to know all the parts that exist in that library.

Look at your own topic. Would analysis of the parts help you understand and explain your subject? Although we usually think of description as visual, we may also use other senses--hearing, touch, feeling, smell-- in our attempt to describe something for our readers. I awoke this morning with a sense of unexplainable anticipation gnawing away at the back of my mind, that this chilly, leaden day at Mesa Verde would bring something new.

They are a haunting sight, these broken houses, clustered together down in the gloom of the canyon. The silence is broken only by the rush of the wind in the trees and the trickling of a tiny stream of melting snow springing from ledge to ledge. This small, abandoned village of tiny houses seems almost as the Indians left it, reduced by the passage of nearly a thousand years to piles of rubble through which protrude broken red adobe walls surrounding ghostly jet black openings, undisturbed by modern man.

Process analysis is analyzing the chronological steps in any operation. A recipe contains process analysis. First, sift the flour. Next, mix the eggs, milk, and oil. Then fold in the flour with the eggs, milk and oil. Then add baking soda, salt and spices. Finally, pour the pancake batter onto the griddle. Narration is possibly the most effective strategy essay writers can use. Readers are quickly caught up in reading any story, no matter how short it is.

Writers of exposition and argument should consider where a short narrative might enliven their essay. Typically, this narrative can relate some of your own experiences with the subject of your essay. Where might a short narrative help you explain your subject? In cause and effect analysis, you map out possible causes and effects. All readers have expectations. They assume what they read will meet their expectations. As a writer, your job is to make sure those expectations are met, while at the same time, fulfilling the purpose of your writing.

Once you have determined what type of purpose best conveys your motivations, you will then need to examine how this will affect your readers. Perhaps you are explaining your topic when you really should be convincing readers to see your point. Writers and readers may approach a topic with conflicting purposes. Your job, as a writer, is to make sure both are being met. Often your audience will help you determine your purpose. The beliefs they hold will tell you whether or not they agree with what you have to say.

Suppose, for example, you are writing to persuade readers against Internet censorship. Your purpose will differ depending on the audience who will read your writing. If your audience is computer users who surf the net daily, you could appear foolish trying to persuade them to react against Internet censorship.

It's likely they are already against such a movement. Instead, they might expect more information on the topic. If your audience is parents who don't want their small children surfing the net, you'll need to convince them that censorship is not the solution to the problem.

You should persuade this audience to consider other options. Your focus otherwise known as thesis, claim, main idea, or problem statement is a reflection of your purpose. If these two do not agree, you will not accomplish what you set out to do. Consider the following examples below:. Suppose your purpose is to inform readers about relationships between Type A personalities and heart attacks.

Your focus could then be: Type A personalities do not have an abnormally high risk of suffering heart attacks. Suppose your purpose is to persuade readers not to quarantine AIDS victims. Your focus could then be: Children afflicted with AIDS should not be prevented from attending school.

Kate Kiefer, English Department Readers and writers both have goals when they engage in reading and writing. Writers typically define their goals in several categories-to inform, persuade, entertain, explore. When writers and readers have mutually fulfilling goals-to inform and to look for information-then writing and reading are most efficient.

At times, these goals overlap one another. Many readers of science essays are looking for science information when they often get science philosophy.

This mismatch of goals tends to leave readers frustrated, and if they communicate that frustration to the writer, then the writer feels misunderstood or unsuccessful. Donna Lecourt, English Department Whatever reality you are writing within, whatever you chose to write about, implies a certain audience as well as your purpose for writing. You decide you have something to write about, or something you care about, then purpose determines audience.

Steve Reid, English Department A general definition of purpose relates to motivation. For instance, "I'm angry, and that's why I'm writing this.