Language Arts
“Every message has a voice, a reason, and someone it is trying to reach.” — Lady Flawless
🎯 Your Mission
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
Determine an author’s purpose.
Identify an author’s point of view.
Recognize the intended audience.
Explain how details support the author’s position.
🎙️ Lady Flawless Intro
Lady Flawless holds up her tablet:
“Champ, look at this status:
They cut the tutoring hours again. How are working students supposed to prepare for the GED?
That message was created for a reason.”
“It has someone speaking, someone listening, a purpose, and a situation surrounding it.”
“That is called the rhetorical situation.”
⭐ The Four Parts
Author or Speaker
Who created the message?
Audience
Who is the message trying to reach?
Purpose
Why was the message created?
Context
What situation caused the message?
🧠 The Flawless Communication Map
Author → Audience → Purpose → Context
Ask:
Who created this message?
Who should read it?
What does the author want the audience to think, understand, or do?
What situation caused the author to write?
⭐ Common Author Purposes
To Inform
Provides facts or information.
To Explain
Shows how or why something happens.
To Persuade
Attempts to convince the audience to agree or take action.
To Entertain
Uses a story or humor to engage the reader.
Lady Flawless explains:
“A passage can do more than one thing. Choose its main purpose.”
⭐ What Is Point of View?
An author’s point of view is the author’s position, perspective, or attitude toward the subject.
Ask:
“What does the author believe about this issue?”
This is different from simply identifying first-person or third-person pronouns.
📖 Original Informational Passage
Keep Route 6 Running Later
Paragraph 1
Many employees in the West Market District finish work after 10:30 p.m. However, the final Route 6 bus currently leaves the district before several restaurants, stores, and medical offices close.
Paragraph 2
Without later bus service, some employees must pay for more expensive transportation or walk long distances at night. Extending Route 6 for one additional hour would give these workers a safer and more affordable way to travel home.
Paragraph 3
Some residents may be concerned about the cost of adding another bus. The transit department could address this concern by testing the later service for three months. During the trial, the department could measure ridership before deciding whether to make the change permanent.
Paragraph 4
The transit board should approve a three-month trial of extended Route 6 service. Working residents deserve the opportunity to show whether the later bus is needed.
🎮Question 1
What is the author’s main purpose?
A. To entertain readers with a story about riding a bus
B. To explain how buses are manufactured
C. To persuade the transit board to test later bus service
D. To compare buses with trains
✅ Correct Answer: C
The author directly asks the transit board to approve a three-month trial.
🎮Question 2
What is the author’s point of view?
A. Route 6 should stop running earlier.
B. The transit board should test later service for working residents.
C. Employees should avoid working evening shifts.
D. Public transportation should be completely free.
✅ Correct Answer: B
The author believes later service could help workers and should be tested.
🎮 Question 3
Who is the intended audience?
A. Children learning how to ride a bus
B. Members of the transit board and local community
C. People purchasing private vehicles
D. Employees who manufacture buses
✅ Correct Answer: B
The passage addresses a transportation decision that the transit board and community would consider.
🎮 Question 4
Why does the author mention concerns about cost in Paragraph 3?
A. To prove that later service is impossible
B. To introduce an unrelated subject
C. To acknowledge an opposing concern and offer a possible solution
D. To argue that workers should pay for the additional bus
✅ Correct Answer: C
The author recognizes a possible objection and responds with a temporary trial.
🔎 Explicit and Implied Purpose
Explicit Purpose
The author directly states what should happen:
The transit board should approve a three-month trial.
Implied Purpose
The author provides clues without directly announcing the purpose.
For example, describing workers walking long distances at night encourages the reader to see later transportation as necessary.
🧠 Inform or Persuade?
Informational Statement
The final Route 6 bus leaves at 10:30 p.m.
This provides information.
Persuasive Statement
The transit board should approve later service.
This asks the audience to support an action.
Lady Flawless explains:
“Facts may appear inside a persuasive passage. Ask what the author does with those facts.”
🚫 Watch Out for Purpose Traps
A wrong answer may:
Describe the topic instead of the purpose.
Focus on one paragraph instead of the entire passage.
Mention something the author never asks readers to believe.
Confuse providing facts with remaining neutral.
🧠 Your Turn
Read this original informational passage:
Beginning next month, the Riverside Learning Center will remain open until 9:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During the three-month trial, staff members will record attendance and ask visitors which services they use. The center will review the results before deciding whether to make the evening schedule permanent.
What is the author’s primary purpose?
A. To persuade every learning center to remain open all night
B. To inform readers about a trial of extended hours
C. To entertain readers with a story about the center
D. To criticize visitors who arrive late
✅ Correct Answer: B
The passage explains what will happen during the trial without asking readers to support or oppose it.
✍️ Prove Your Answer
Complete the response:
The author’s purpose is to .
The detail “” supports this answer because ____________.
Possible Answer
The author’s purpose is to inform readers about the extended-hours trial. The passage gives the new hours and explains how the center will evaluate the trial.
⭐ Exit Ticket
What is the difference between purpose and point of view?
A. Purpose explains why the author wrote, while point of view explains the author’s position or perspective.
B. Purpose and point of view always mean exactly the same thing.
C. Purpose identifies the passage’s length, while point of view identifies its title.
D. Purpose belongs to the reader, while point of view belongs to the test grader.
✅ Correct Answer: A
🎤 Lady Flawless Outro
“Champ, every passage is communication.”
“Find the author, identify the audience, determine the purpose, and uncover the author’s position. Then return to the passage and prove your answer.”