How do you identify an author's purpose and point of view, and how do you analyze the rhetorical choices, including word choice and appeals, that advance it?
Analyzing author's purpose and rhetoric in informational texts on the Ohio English II test: determining the author's purpose and point of view, distinguishing purpose (to inform, persuade, or explain) from topic, and analyzing rhetorical choices such as word choice, tone, and the appeals to logic, emotion, and credibility (logos, pathos, ethos) and their effect.
How to analyze author's purpose and rhetoric on the Ohio English II test: determining purpose and point of view, telling purpose apart from topic, and analyzing word choice, tone, and the appeals to logic, emotion, and credibility. The test rewards explaining how a rhetorical choice advances the purpose.
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What this skill is asking
Every informational text is written for a reason and shaped by choices, and Ohio's State Test for English Language Arts II asks you to read both. Author's purpose is why the text was written, to inform, to persuade, to explain, sometimes to entertain, and point of view is the author's stance toward the subject. Rhetoric is the set of choices, word choice, tone, structure, and the classical appeals, that the author uses to advance that purpose. Ohio's Learning Standards place this under Craft and Structure in the Reading: Informational Text strand. As with literary devices, naming the purpose or the appeal is only the floor; the marks come from explaining how a particular choice serves the author's aim. This page covers how to determine purpose and point of view, how to tell purpose apart from topic, and how to analyze rhetorical choices including logos, pathos, and ethos.
Purpose and point of view
A quick way to find purpose is to ask what the author wants the reader to do or feel by the end: know something (inform), agree and perhaps act (persuade), understand a process (explain). The point of view often shows in the tone and word choice, which is why this skill leans on the diction reading developed in denotation, connotation, and figurative meaning. When the purpose is to persuade, purpose and argument overlap, linking to analyzing argument and claims.
The three appeals
Analyzing a rhetorical choice
Try this
Q1. What is the difference between an author's topic and an author's purpose? [Recall]
- Cue. The topic is what the text is about (city parks); the purpose is what the author is trying to do (inform, persuade, or explain). Two texts can share a topic but have different purposes.
Q2. An author supports a claim about online safety by citing her years as a cybersecurity expert. Name the appeal and explain its effect. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Ethos, an appeal to credibility: her expertise is meant to make the reader trust her judgement, so the claim seems more believable. Name the appeal and say what it does for the argument.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of ODEW exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Ohio English II EOC (style)1 marksAn author writing about factory pollution repeatedly calls the river 'poisoned,' 'choking,' and 'dying.' What is the most likely effect of this word choice? (1) It keeps the article neutral. (2) It builds an emotional appeal that pushes the reader to see the pollution as urgent and harmful. (3) It has no effect. (4) It proves the author is a scientist.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). Loaded words like "poisoned," "choking," and "dying" are an emotional appeal (pathos) that frames the pollution as urgent and harmful, advancing a persuasive purpose. The standard rewards explaining how the word choice serves the author's aim, which is exactly what (2) does.
The trap is (1): charged diction is the opposite of neutral. When an item asks about word choice, connect it to the purpose, the feeling it creates and the response it is meant to produce in the reader.
Ohio English II EOC (style)1 marksAn author cites her twenty years as an emergency doctor before arguing for a health policy. Which appeal is she using?Show worked answer →
An appeal to credibility (ethos): by establishing her experience as an emergency doctor, the author asks the reader to trust her judgement on a health question. Recognizing the appeal is the first step; the marks come from explaining its effect, that the credential is meant to make her claim more believable.
Logos would be an appeal to logic and evidence (data, reasoning); pathos would be an appeal to emotion. Authors often combine all three, so name the one the question points to and say what it does.
Related dot points
- Analyzing argument and claims in informational texts on the Ohio English II test: identifying the central claim, the reasons that support it, and the evidence behind the reasons, distinguishing a claim from a fact and from an opinion, recognizing a counterclaim, and evaluating whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence relevant and sufficient.
How to analyze argument on the Ohio English II test: identifying the central claim, reasons, and evidence, telling a claim apart from a fact, recognizing a counterclaim, and judging whether reasoning is valid and evidence is relevant and sufficient. The test rewards evaluating reasoning, not just summarizing it.
- Analyzing central ideas in informational texts on the Ohio English II test: stating the controlling idea of an article or essay as a full sentence, distinguishing the central idea from supporting details and from the topic, tracing how the central idea is developed across paragraphs, and writing an objective summary that captures it.
How to analyze central ideas on the Ohio English II test: stating the controlling idea of an informational text as a full sentence, telling it apart from a detail or the topic, tracing how it is developed, and writing an objective summary. The central idea is the nonfiction cousin of theme.
- Analyzing text structure and organization in informational texts on the Ohio English II test: recognizing common structures (cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological or sequential, claim and support) and explaining how an author's structural choice, including the order of paragraphs and the placement of a key idea, advances the central idea or argument.
How to analyze text structure on the Ohio English II test: recognizing cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, chronological, and claim and support structures, and explaining how the organization helps the text make its point. The test rewards effect, not just naming the structure.
- Analyzing denotation, connotation, and figurative meaning on the Ohio English II test: distinguishing a word's denotation (literal dictionary meaning) from its connotation (the feeling or association it carries), reading figurative meaning including idiom and figures of speech, and explaining how an author's word choice shapes tone and meaning.
How to analyze denotation, connotation, and figurative meaning on the Ohio English II test: telling a word's literal meaning from its connotation, reading idiom and figures of speech, and explaining how word choice shapes tone. The test rewards reading the feeling a word carries, not just its definition.
- Making inferences and citing text evidence on the Ohio English II test: drawing a logical inference from what a text states and implies, distinguishing an inference from a guess and from a restatement, citing the strongest evidence that supports an analysis, and handling evidence-based two-part items where Part A is the inference and Part B is the supporting line.
How to make inferences and cite evidence on the Ohio English II test: drawing a logical inference, telling it apart from a guess or a restatement, and citing the strongest supporting line. The evidence-based two-part items make this the most tested habit on the whole test.
Sources & how we know this
- ELA II course resources — ODEW (2025)
- Ohio's Learning Standards for English Language Arts — ODEW (2025)