How do you identify an author's purpose and point of view, and explain how word choice, rhetoric, and other craft choices advance that purpose?
Author's purpose and craft in informational texts: identifying the author's purpose (to inform, persuade, or explain) and point of view, and analyzing how craft choices (word choice, tone, rhetorical appeals to logic, emotion, and credibility, and rhetorical devices) advance that purpose on a LEAP English I or II informational passage.
How to analyze author's purpose and craft on a LEAP English I or II informational passage: identifying the purpose and point of view, and explaining how word choice, tone, and rhetorical appeals (logic, emotion, credibility) advance it. The marks come from connecting a craft choice to the purpose it serves.
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What this skill is asking
Author's purpose is why a text was written, and craft is how the author's choices, word choice, tone, structure, and rhetoric, serve that purpose. LEAP English I and II ask you to identify the purpose and point of view of an informational passage and to analyze how the author advances them. You will see multiple-choice items ("what is the most likely purpose of this word choice"), items on rhetorical appeals, and evidence-based items that connect a craft choice to its effect. The skill that earns the marks is the link: not just "the author uses emotional words" but "the author uses emotional words to build sympathy, which serves the persuasive purpose." This page covers identifying purpose and point of view and analyzing the craft, including the three classic rhetorical appeals. The transferable skill is reading nonfiction as something deliberately made to do a job.
Purpose, point of view, and the appeals
Knowing the categories lets you read a passage as a made object.
Persuasive texts use all three appeals, and recognizing them is half the skill. The other half is connecting a choice to a purpose: loaded, emotional words signal pathos and usually serve a persuasive aim; citing credentials signals ethos; presenting data signals logos. Word choice also creates tone, which links this skill to connotation in the language module and to figurative language, where the effect of word choice is also the point. Louisiana standard RI.9-10.6 asks you to determine an author's point of view or purpose and analyze how they advance it, so the question is always about the link.
Why the link is the answer
LEAP almost never stops at identifying the purpose.
This skill is essential for the Research Simulation Task, where reading several sources critically means noticing each author's purpose and how their craft shapes the information, so you can synthesize fairly and choose strong evidence. It also feeds argument analysis, because rhetorical appeals are often how an author supports (or oversells) a claim. Reading for purpose and craft turns a passage from a block of facts into a set of choices you can explain.
Working a purpose-and-craft item
Try this
Q1. What are the three rhetorical appeals, and what does each rely on? [Recall]
- Cue. Logos appeals to logic (reasons, evidence, data); pathos appeals to emotion (loaded words, anecdotes); ethos appeals to credibility (expertise, fairness). On LEAP, connect the appeal to the purpose it serves.
Q2. An author opens a piece on road safety with a vivid story of one family's crash, then gives crash statistics. Identify the two appeals and the purpose they serve. [Short explanation]
- Cue. The opening story is pathos (it makes the danger feel real and builds emotional concern); the statistics are logos (they give logical, factual weight). Together they serve a persuasive purpose: to move readers to support safer roads by combining feeling and proof.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of LDOE exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
LEAP 2025 English II (style)1 marksAn author writing about a factory closure repeatedly uses words like 'devastated,' 'abandoned,' and 'broken.' What is the most likely purpose of this word choice? (1) To inform readers of the closure date. (2) To shape readers' emotional response and build sympathy for the workers. (3) To define an economic term. (4) To list the factory's products.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). The loaded, emotional words ("devastated," "abandoned," "broken") carry strong negative connotations that push the reader to feel for the workers. That is an appeal to emotion, and the word choice serves the author's persuasive purpose.
Why not the others: (1) and (4) describe neutral, informational moves the word choice is not making; (3) defining a term would not need emotional language. Louisiana standard RI.9-10.6 asks you to analyze how an author advances a purpose and point of view through craft, so connecting the words to the purpose is the point.
LEAP 2025 English I (style)2 marksAn author cites her thirty years as an emergency-room nurse before arguing for a health policy. Identify the rhetorical appeal and explain how it advances her purpose. (2 points: name the appeal and explain its effect.)Show worked answer →
Citing her thirty years as an ER nurse is an appeal to credibility (ethos): it establishes her as an experienced authority on health, so readers are more likely to trust her argument. It advances her persuasive purpose by making her position seem informed and reliable before she even makes the case.
A full-credit answer names the appeal (credibility or ethos) and explains the effect: it builds trust that supports her argument. Naming the appeal without explaining how it serves the purpose leaves credit on the table, because RI.9-10.6 rewards analyzing the craft, not just labeling it.
Related dot points
- Central ideas in informational texts: determining the central idea of a passage (stated as a full sentence, not a topic word), distinguishing the central idea from supporting details, writing an objective summary, and tracing how the author develops the central idea across paragraphs on a LEAP English I or II informational passage.
How to analyze the central idea of a LEAP English I or II informational passage: stating it as a full sentence, telling it apart from supporting details, writing an objective summary, and tracing its development across paragraphs. Central idea is the nonfiction cousin of theme and anchors the Research Simulation Task.
- Analyzing argument and claims in informational texts: identifying the author's central claim and supporting claims, distinguishing reasons from evidence, and evaluating whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence relevant and sufficient, including spotting unsupported assertions and fallacious reasoning, on a LEAP English I or II argumentative passage.
How to analyze argument on a LEAP English I or II passage: identifying the author's claim, telling reasons apart from evidence, and evaluating whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence sufficient, including spotting fallacies. Louisiana standard RI.9-10.8 makes evaluating an argument, not just summarizing it, the task.
- Text structure and organization in informational texts: recognizing common organizational patterns (cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological or sequence, and description), analyzing how sentences and paragraphs develop ideas, and explaining why an author's structural choice suits the content on a LEAP English I or II informational passage.
How to analyze text structure on a LEAP English I or II informational passage: recognizing patterns like cause and effect, compare and contrast, and problem and solution, and explaining why an author's structure suits the ideas. Louisiana standard RI.9-10.5 rewards analyzing how parts develop ideas, not just labeling the pattern.
- Figurative language and literary devices in literary texts: identifying simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, symbolism, hyperbole, and tone, and analyzing the effect of these choices and of an author's word choice on meaning and tone, on a LEAP English I or II literary passage.
How to analyze figurative language and literary devices on a LEAP English I or II literary passage: identifying simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, symbolism, and tone, and, crucially, explaining their effect. LEAP rewards analysis of how word choice shapes meaning and tone, not just labeling devices.
- The Research Simulation Task on LEAP English I and II: reading several related sources (often informational, sometimes with charts or other media), answering text-dependent questions, and writing an essay that analyzes or explains ideas across the sources using evidence from more than one, scored on combined Reading Comprehension and Written Expression plus Knowledge of Language and Conventions.
How to write a strong Research Simulation Task essay on LEAP English I and II: reading several related sources, then writing an evidence-based essay that synthesizes ideas across them using evidence from more than one source. The Research Simulation Task is required for every student and scored on combined reading and writing plus conventions.
Sources & how we know this
- LEAP 2025 Assessment Guide for English I and English II — LDOE (2025)
- Louisiana Student Standards for English Language Arts — LDOE (2025)