How do you identify why an author wrote a text and explain the rhetorical choices and appeals they use to achieve that purpose?
Author's purpose and rhetoric in informational texts: identifying purpose (to inform, persuade, explain, or describe), reading the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos), and explaining how word choice, tone, and rhetorical strategies serve the purpose on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS informational passage.
How to analyze author's purpose and rhetoric on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS informational passage: identifying purpose (inform, persuade, explain, describe), reading the appeals (ethos, pathos, logos), and explaining how word choice and strategy serve that purpose. Reward effect, not labels.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this skill is asking
Author's purpose is why a text was written, and rhetoric is the set of choices the author makes to achieve that purpose, and the Grade 10 ELA MCAS asks you to read both. Purpose questions ask what the author wants the reader to do, think, or feel: to inform, to persuade, to explain a process, or to describe. Rhetoric questions ask how the author works toward that purpose, often through the three classical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) and through word choice and tone. As with literary craft, the test rewards effect over labels: not just "the author uses pathos" but what that appeal does and how it serves the purpose. This page covers identifying purpose, reading the three appeals, and explaining how rhetorical choices serve the goal. The transferable skill is reading nonfiction as something written for a reason, then asking how each choice advances that reason.
Identifying purpose
The first move is to name why the text exists.
To pin down purpose, ask what the author wants from the reader by the end: to know something, to do something, to understand a process, or to picture a scene. The verbs in a question often signal it ("urging," "explaining," "describing"). Then confirm by checking the choices: a persuasive purpose shows up in evaluative diction and appeals, while an informative purpose shows up in neutral, fact-led writing. Purpose is the frame for the rhetoric questions, because every rhetorical choice is a means to the purpose.
The three appeals
The appeals connect directly to argument analysis: logos overlaps with evidence and reasoning, ethos with the credibility of sources, and pathos with the emotional pull a writer adds. A passage may lean on one appeal heavily, and a question may ask why. As always, the label is the floor. "This is pathos" earns less than "this is pathos, and it makes the reader feel the urgency of the problem so they will support the cause." Tie the appeal to the purpose, and you have a complete answer.
Reading rhetoric for effect
Try this
Q1. What are the three classical rhetorical appeals, and what does each appeal to? [Recall]
- Cue. Ethos appeals to the writer's credibility or character; pathos appeals to the reader's emotions; logos appeals to logic and evidence.
Q2. A charity's article opens with a child's hungry morning, then gives donation statistics, then notes it has run food programs for thirty years. Which appeals are used, and to what purpose? [Short explanation]
- Cue. Pathos (the child's story moves feeling), logos (the statistics give reasoned support), and ethos (thirty years of programs build credibility), all serving the persuasive purpose of moving readers to donate.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of MA DESE exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Grade 10 ELA MCAS (style)1 marksAn author writes a column urging readers to vote in local elections, using statistics, a personal story, and an appeal to civic duty. What is the author's main purpose? A. To entertain with a funny story. B. To persuade readers to vote. C. To explain how ballots are counted. D. To describe a polling place.Show worked answer →
Answer: B. Purpose is why the author wrote the text, and the verbs in the question give it away: "urging readers to vote" signals persuasion. The statistics, personal story, and appeal to duty are all means to that persuasive end.
Why not the others: A, C, and D each name a purpose (entertain, explain a process, describe a place) the column does not pursue. Identify purpose by asking what the author wants the reader to do, think, or feel by the end, then check that the choices serve it.
Grade 10 ELA MCAS (style)1 marksA writer supports an argument by citing her twenty years as a nurse before giving medical advice. Which rhetorical appeal is this? A. Pathos (emotion). B. Ethos (credibility). C. Logos (logic). D. None of these.Show worked answer →
Answer: B. Ethos is the appeal to the writer's credibility or character. Citing twenty years as a nurse establishes expertise, inviting the reader to trust the advice because of who is giving it.
Why not the others: A (pathos) appeals to feeling; C (logos) appeals to reasoning and evidence; D ignores a clear appeal. To answer, ask what the strategy leans on, the writer's authority (ethos), the reader's emotions (pathos), or logic and evidence (logos), and then explain its effect.
Related dot points
- Analyzing arguments and claims in informational texts: identifying the central claim, separating reasons from evidence, distinguishing fact from opinion, evaluating whether the evidence is relevant and sufficient, and spotting weak reasoning on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS argumentative passage.
How to analyze an argument on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS passage: finding the central claim, separating reasons from evidence, telling fact from opinion, and judging whether the support is relevant and sufficient. Tested through multiple-choice and evidence-selection items.
- Central ideas in informational texts: identifying the main point a nonfiction text makes about its topic (not the topic itself and not a supporting detail), distinguishing the central idea from details and from a summary, and tracing how the writer develops and refines it across a Grade 10 ELA MCAS informational passage.
How to find the central idea of a Grade 10 ELA MCAS informational passage: telling the main point apart from the topic and from supporting details, distinguishing it from a summary, and tracing how the writer develops it. Tested through multiple-choice and two-part items.
- Text structure and features in informational texts: recognizing organizational patterns (cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological or sequential, description), explaining why a writer chose a structure, and using text features (headings, captions, graphics) to locate and understand information on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS informational passage.
How to analyze text structure and features on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS informational passage: recognizing organizational patterns (cause-effect, compare-contrast, problem-solution, sequence), explaining the writer's choice, and using headings and graphics. Tested through multiple-choice and ordering items.
- Tone and author's craft in literary texts: identifying tone (the writer's attitude) from diction and detail, distinguishing tone from mood (the feeling in the reader), and explaining how word choice, sentence style, and selection of detail create an effect on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS literary passage.
How to analyze tone and author's craft on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS literary passage: reading tone from diction and detail, telling tone apart from mood, and explaining how word choice and sentence style create an effect. Tone and craft questions reward effect, not labels.
- Text evidence and inference in informational texts: drawing an inference the text supports (reading between the lines without going beyond the evidence), citing the specific line that proves it, and handling the two-part evidence-based item where Part B must support the inference in Part A, on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS passage.
How to draw inferences and cite evidence on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS passage: reading between the lines without overreaching, finding the line that proves an answer, and handling the two-part evidence-based item where Part B supports Part A. The evidence habit wins points across the test.
Sources & how we know this
- Released Test Questions and Practice Tests — MA DESE (2024)
- Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy — MA DESE (2017)