How do you determine why a writer wrote a text and analyze the craft choices (structure, word choice, text features) they used to achieve it?
Author's purpose and craft: determining an author's purpose (to inform, persuade, or entertain) and point of view, and analyzing the craft choices, text structure, word choice, tone, and text features, that an author uses to achieve that purpose in a STAAR informational text.
How to analyze author's purpose and craft on STAAR English I: determining purpose (inform, persuade, entertain) and point of view, and analyzing the craft choices (structure, word choice, tone, text features) used to achieve it. STAAR tests this with multiple choice, hot text, and short constructed responses.
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What this skill is asking
Author's purpose is why a writer wrote a text, and author's craft is the set of choices they made to achieve that purpose. STAAR English I tests both: questions ask for the author's main purpose (to inform, persuade, or entertain), the author's point of view, and how a specific craft choice (text structure, word choice, tone, or a text feature) serves the purpose. The skill students under-perform on is connecting a craft choice to a purpose, explaining why a writer made a choice, not just noticing it. This page covers determining purpose and point of view and analyzing the craft choices that achieve them. The transferable skill is reading every choice a writer makes as serving a goal.
Determining purpose and point of view
Purpose is inferred from how a text is built and what it tries to do.
Read for the dominant aim. Vivid humor and exaggeration point to entertain; a clear position backed by evidence points to persuade; neutral explanation with facts and text features points to inform. The clue is the craft: writers choose techniques that fit their goal, so the techniques reveal the goal.
Craft choices and how they serve purpose
Craft is where STAAR rewards the deeper answer.
The highest-leverage habit is to connect the choice to the purpose. Noticing that an article has headings is observation; explaining that the headings organize the information so readers can find key points, which serves the purpose of informing clearly, is analysis. STAAR rewards the analysis.
Analyzing purpose and craft under time pressure
Try this
Q1. What are the three common author's purposes, and how do you tell them apart? [Recall]
- Cue. To inform (explain plainly with facts and features), to persuade (argue a position with evidence and appeals), and to entertain (engage with story, humor, or vivid description). The dominant techniques reveal which.
Q2. An author uses a problem-solution structure and an urgent tone in an article about water shortages. How do these choices serve the author's purpose? [Short explanation]
- Cue. They serve persuasion: the problem-solution structure builds toward the action the author recommends, and the urgent tone presses the reader to feel the issue matters and act, both pushing the reader toward the writer's position.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of TEA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
STAAR English I (informational, style)1 marksAn author writes a vivid, funny account of learning to cook, full of exaggerated disasters and warm humor. What is the author's main purpose? (1) To persuade readers to become chefs. (2) To entertain readers with an amusing personal story. (3) To inform readers of cooking techniques. (4) To sell a cookbook.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). Purpose is judged from how a text is written and what it aims to do. The humor, exaggeration, and warmth signal a text built to entertain, not to argue a position or teach a method.
Why not the others: (1) persuasion would push a position; (3) information would explain techniques plainly; (4) selling is not supported by the excerpt. The craft choices (humor, exaggeration) reveal the purpose, which is to entertain.
STAAR English I (informational, style)1 marksIn an article on river pollution, the author uses headings, a labeled diagram, and a bolded list of solutions. How do these text features mainly help the author's purpose? (1) They make the article longer. (2) They organize information and make the solutions easy to locate, supporting the goal of informing readers clearly. (3) They prove the author is an expert. (4) They add emotion.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). Text features (headings, diagrams, bolded lists) are craft choices that organize information and guide the reader. In an informational article, they serve the purpose of presenting information clearly and making key points easy to find.
Why not the others: (1) length is not a purpose; (3) features organize, they do not establish expertise; (4) these features aid clarity, not emotion. STAAR craft questions ask how a choice serves the author's purpose, and these features serve clear information.
Related dot points
- Central ideas in informational texts: determining the central idea of an informational passage, distinguishing it from the topic and from supporting details, and tracing how details and text structure develop the central idea across a STAAR informational text.
How to determine the central idea of a STAAR English I informational passage: telling the central idea apart from the topic and from supporting details, and tracing how details and text structure develop it. STAAR tests central idea with multiple choice, multiselect, hot text, and short constructed responses.
- Analyzing argument and claims: identifying the central claim of an argumentative text, separating reasons and evidence from the claim, recognizing rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, pathos), and evaluating whether the support is relevant and sufficient in a STAAR argumentative passage.
How to analyze argument on a STAAR English I argumentative passage: identifying the central claim, separating reasons and evidence, recognizing rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, pathos), and evaluating whether support is relevant and sufficient. STAAR tests this with multiple choice, multiselect, and short constructed responses.
- Reading cross-curricular passages: approaching informational passages with topics drawn from science, social studies, or the arts, understanding that the questions assess reading skill rather than subject knowledge, and handling unfamiliar terminology, data, and graphics in a STAAR passage.
How to read cross-curricular informational passages on STAAR English I: science, history, or arts topics where questions assess reading skill, not subject knowledge. Handling unfamiliar terms, data, and graphics. STAAR tests this with multiple choice, hot text, and graphic-based items.
- Figurative language and literary devices: identifying metaphor, simile, personification, imagery, symbolism, and hyperbole, and analyzing the effect each device creates, the move from naming a device to explaining what it does in a STAAR literary text.
How to analyze figurative language on STAAR English I: identifying metaphor, simile, personification, imagery, symbolism, and hyperbole, and explaining the effect each creates rather than just naming it. STAAR tests devices with multiple choice, hot text, and short constructed response items.
- Text evidence and inference: drawing inferences that an informational text supports, anchoring each inference to its textual trigger, selecting the evidence that best supports a given conclusion, and rejecting the over-reaching and unsupported inferences that STAAR distractors are built from.
How to make inferences and select evidence on STAAR English I informational passages: drawing conclusions the text supports, anchoring each to its trigger, choosing the evidence that proves a conclusion, and rejecting over-reach. STAAR tests this with multiple choice, multiselect, hot text, and multipart items.