OBJECTIVE: Identify author’s purpose and tone or mood.

Critical reading includes realizing that behind everything you read is an author. This author
has reasons for writing a piece and attitudes that may be revealed in it. To fully understand and
evaluate what you read, you must identify its purpose-the reason the author wrote a piece. You
must also recognize its tone or mood- the expression of an author’s attitude.

Authors write with a reason in mind, and you can evaluate what is being said by
determining what the reason is. The author’s reason for writing is also called the purpose of the
selection.

The following are the three common purpose of the author:

1. To inform – to give you factual information about a subject; relate events that happened or
describe the details about a subject.
2. To entertain – to amuse you; to appeal to your senses and/or your imagination and to brighten
one’s mood or feelings.
3. To persuade – to convince you to agree with the author’s point of view on a subject and to
influence minds and feelings.

Pointers:
1. To help you determine the author’s purpose, ask yourself. “Why did the author write this?”
or “what was the reason this material was written?”.
2. Remember that the title of the material and the tone of voice used by the author may
provide clues to his purpose for writing.

Tone

A writer’s tone reveals the attitude he or she has toward a subject. Tone is expressed
through the words and details the writer selects. Like tone of voice, tone in writing is a clue to the
author’s feelings and purpose. Any attitude that can be expressed through a tone of voice can be
expressed in writing as well. An author can show dislike, respect, admiration, or sympathy – or
even choose to laugh at his or her subject.

Mood

Mood is the emotional attitude the author takes toward his subject. It is similar to tone.
 The following are exercises on identifying author’s purpose and tone. Read each paragraph,
and then encircle the letter of your answer to the questions that follow.

A. Every weekend athlete is acquainted with sudden crippling pain known as “stitch in the
side”. The stitch is actually a cramp in the diaphragm, the muscle that separates the abdomen
from the chest activity. When you breathe too heavily in a short period of time-as during the
burst of athletic activity-the diaphragm suffers an oxygen shortage and reacts with the painful
cramp. To relieve stitch in your left side, say experts, lift your hands over your head and stretch
far to the right while breathing slowly and regularly. Reverse your stretch for a stitch on the
right.

1. The primary purpose of this paragraph is to

a. Inform readers what a “stitch in the side: is and how to relieve it.
b. Persuade readers to recognize and relieve a “stitch in the side”.
c. Entertain readers with the silly details of a “stitch in the side”.
d. Entertain readers to do the stretching.

2. The overall tone of this paragraph can be described as

a. Sarcastic
b. Sad
c. Matter-of-fact
d. Happiness

B. Nothing disturbs me more than those citizens who treat our country like an open garbage
pit. I am referring to people who toss from their cars soda cans, crumpled tissues and what
have you. I also have in mind the individual who casually drops candy wrappers, empty
cigarette packs, and other junk when walking along public streets. This type of uncaring
behavior is also behind our country’s most “popular” form of act – graffiti. Filipinos ought to
have more pride in their environment.

3. The primary purpose of this paragraph is to

a. present facts on the environment.

a. Forgiving
b. Critical
c. Cheerful
d. Amusing

C. Only his head and neck stuck out from the wooden enclosure in which he was cruelly
locked. The lower lid of his right eye was pulled forward and the test cosmetic was dropped in.
He struggled to brush the chemical from his eye, but the enclosure stopped him. Then he
started to scream with pain. Before he stopped screaming, the eye was blind. Even then, he was
unable to cry. Rabbits can cry- their helpless eyes produce no tears.

5. The primary purpose of this paragraph is to

a. inform readers of procedures used to test cosmetics.

6. The tone of this paragraph can be described as

a. Angry
b. Objective
c. Playful
d. Subjective

Each of the following passages illustrates one of the tones identified in the box below.
Write the letter of the tone that applies to each passage on the space provided for.

a. optimistic e. disappointed
b. tragic f. frightened
c. joyous g. angry
d. tolerant
____7. I wished the guy in the seat behind the bus driver would stop looking at me like he did.
He gave me the creeps. I was really glad why my step came, and I could get off the bus. It didn’t
take me long to realize, however, that he was getting off too. “Please God, let him go the other
way”, I thought I turned toward home. The streets were darker and emptier that I remembered they
could be. His footsteps followed mine. When I walked faster, he did too. When I crossed to the
other side, he crossed too. Finally, I began to run, the tears in my eyes blurred my vision.

____8. What a happy day for the families of the thirteen hostages! In a few short hours, the men
who have been held captive by terrorists for seventeen months will at long last be coming home.
The Philippines can be thankful that the hostages’ terrible experiences are over. The mood in
Maguindanao-indeed, throughout the nation-is happy and upbeat as we celebrate the freedom of
these thirteen brave men.

____9. The cold drizzling rain only added to the grim mood of the group of men, women and
children huddled under black umbrellas at the gravesite. As the priest began the service, his voice
trembled with emotion. Two of the women clutched each other’s hands, their faces stiff, with grief
and disbelief. At a nod from the priest, a young girl in a raincoat stepped forward and gently
placed a white rose on the small coffin.

____10. Unfortunately, this car is a lot less reliable than I’d like.
____11. It’s not the greatest car in the world but it usually takes me where I have to go.
____12. If car dealers weren’t so dishonest, I wouldn’t have bought this piece of junk for so much
money.
____13. The car does have a few problem- now and then, but I bet it will keep running forever.

Label each item according to its main purpose: to Inform (I), to Persuade (P), or to
Entertain (E).

____14. I had an uncle who knew he was going to die; the warden told him.

____15. Television networks should reduce the number of commercials shown during children’s
program.

____16. If you want him to abandon all women except you, wear Abandon perfume.

____17. In microwave ovens, electromagnetic energy creates heat from inside food by heating up
the food’s water molecules.
____18. Jane switched on the radio to her favorite station. Instead of hearing music, however, she
heard the voice of her brother, who had been murdered exactly a year ago.

____19. All states should pass laws protecting our children from being padded or hit in the
classroom. In forty-one states, it is still legal to discipline children in school with physical force.
This type of discipline is disgrace. There are many more humane and effective ways of handling
unruly students.

____20. The worst epidemic of all time was the bubonic plaque, also called the Black Death. It
swept Europe, Asia, and Africa from 1346 to 1353. So deadly was this disease that it killed one
third of all the population of these continents. Fleas infected with bacteria from disease rats spread
the plaque.

Below are five statements expressing different attitudes about blind dates. Five different
tones are used: pessimistic, self-pitying, ironic, enthusiastic, and angry. Label each statements
according to which of these five tones you think is present in it.

____21. Me, go on a blind date? Oh sure, I’ve always wanted to meet Vampire’s daughter.

____22. I just know I’m going to hate this guy my mother’s making me go out with. These things
never work out.

____23. No way I’m going on a blind date! You’ve got a lot of nerve trying to set me up. What do
you think I am-desperate?

____24. I’d love it if you would fix me up with your cousin from out of town. It sounds like a lot
of fun.

____25. Oh, I suppose I’ll go on a blind date. That’s probably the only kind of date I can get.