1. Author’s Purpose
P I
E S
PIES

2. To Persuade
To Persuade: When an author wishes to
make an audience feel a certain way
about a topic.

3. To Inform
• To inform: When an author wishes to
simply covey information to an audience

4. To Entertain
• To Entertain: When an author wishes to
simply entertain an audience

5. To Describe or Share a Personal
Experience
• To Describe: When an author wishes to
convey a picture or feeling to an audience.

6. Point of View
• When an FCAT question refers to an
author’s point of view, it is not referring to
the traditional 1st person or 3rd person
voice, but rather the perspective of the
author towards his or her subject. The way
that the author’s point of view can be
determined is by looking at the words
he/she chooses to use to describe
situations or people.

7. Author’s Purpose
Types of Writing
• Persuasive: To persuade: to express an
opinion and convince readers to
think/feel/act a certain way.
ex. Newspaper or magazine articles

8. Expository
• Expository: To inform-explain, illustrate, or
present information.
ex. Science, educational or journal articles

9. Narrative
• Narrative: To entertain- To tell a story
ex. fiction

10. Descriptive
• To describe: To describe or share a
personal experience- a person, event, or
place: convey a mood.
ex. Poetry, restaurant review

11. Methods of Organization
• Cause & Effect:
Why it happened Cause)
Something that has happened (effect)
Compare & Contrast:
How two or more things are alike and
different.

12. Spatial Order
• To describe how something looks or its
location.
• Spatial order description might proceed
from bottom to top, left to right, or from
nearby to far away.

13. Time Order
• Events in chronological order.
• Example a time line.

14. Flashback
• The author starts with a situation and then
flashes-back to an earlier event.

15. Bulleted lists
• Used for informational texts to make
important points
• Point 1
• Point 2
• Point 3

16. Foreshadowing
• Used in literary texts. Early on, the author
will give hints of things that will happen
later in the story.

17. Question/Answer
• Used in informational texts.
• The author asks a question in the first
paragraph or two and then answers it.

18. Argument/Support
Used in informational texts.
The author takes a stand on an issue and
than supports it with details.

19. Cause/Effect Signal Words
Cause Effect
• because of • since
• created by • therefore
• caused by • consequently
• led to • outcome
• the reason for • so
• on account of • then
• since • as a result of
• due to • finally
• thus
• for this reason