English · Identifying the Author's Purpose
Purpose Press
Drag every sentence into the hopper for what it DOES. Then read the purpose off the pile.
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Why this works
Nowhere in this piece does the writer say why they wrote it, so there is nothing to underline. Purpose has to be worked out from what the writing DOES, move by move. Sorted out, 3 of the 7 sentences tells you what to do, against 2 that pushes an opinion - so the writer is here to guide you through a night of counting owls. The other three purposes are all real moves this text makes, which is exactly why they are tempting: there IS a feeling stirred, there ARE instructions, there IS an opinion. None of them is what the writing mostly does. That is the whole test: not "is this move in there" but "which move is the writing built out of".
Helping a child through Purpose Press
It runs in 2 steps
- 1. Sort the moves. Every sentence is a move the writer made. Drop each card into the hopper for what it DOES - not what it is about.
- 2. Read the pile. Now look at the stacks. Which purpose does this pile add up to?
Hints, least revealing first
- A sentence is not what it is about, it is what it does. Ask of each one: could I check this in a book, does it want me to feel something, is it telling me to do something, or is somebody arguing?
- A fact survives being checked. An opinion is somebody's judgement and another person could disagree with it. An instruction has a job for you in it.
- Once every card has landed, look at the stacks rather than the sentences. The tallest stack is what this writing spends most of its time doing, and that is its purpose - here it is the "tells you what to do" stack, 3 cards to 2.
When they finish it: “Purpose pressed out of the pile!”
11+ skill this exercise practises
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Purpose Press practises one skill. English has 41 of them
A free diagnostic covers every english skill and the other three subjects, and comes back with a shortlist rather than a list.