Author’s purpose refers to the author’s intention in writing a certain article, passage, or story.  This purpose may be stated openly in a particular article or readers may need to dig a little deeper in terms of their reading in terms of getting the author’s purpose or actual intent. The author’s purpose may be informative in nature wherein the article or story presented includes information and details regarding a certain character or topic. The author may also intend to entertain his/her audience of readers by providing amusing storylines or jokes. There are also authors who wish to persuade people in terms of their ideas regarding a certain issue or concern.

For students, knowing the author’s purpose at the beginning is greatly beneficial in so many ways. By knowing what an article is intended for, students for example can adjust to his/her reading routine to get the most out of the experience.  If the author’s purpose is known to be informative and descriptive, the readers can then decide to read at a pace slow enough to get the details that the author wants to convey.  If the author’s purpose is known at first to be romantically entertaining, readers can then also anticipate certain scenes in the storyline.

The author’s purpose may not be very obvious up front on some articles or books.  While some books have titles or subtitles that have obvious intentions, some are meant to be reflected upon to know the actual purpose of the author.  Clever authors also give out clues on his/her purpose as a particular story progresses. For readers to determine the author’s purpose, he/she may check on how the details of the story are presented in terms of the choice of words, the way of explanation, or how certain things are described for example. Authors may use certain words and phrases to compare ideas, criticize or give praise to certain issues, and/or suggest or persuade a certain idea to people.  Using these clues, readers can then get the author’s purpose or intention in writing the whole book or story.