Lesson #1: Basics of Analyzing

When analyzing a text the first thing to do is read the text to conclude what the author’s purpose for the text is and their message. Purpose is what the author wants the audience “to do” and message is what the author wants “to teach”. These two concepts tend to get most people confused. The “to do” is usually something along the lines of the following criteria: to educate, to enlighten, to entertain, to call to action, to motivate, to inspire, to evaluate, and to inform with many others as well but these being the most common among them.

Purpose can also be defined as the author’s intent for the text. Why do you believe the author wrote this text? In recent years test creators have made it more obvious as to what the intent is for the text a student may be reading by clearly defining it in the writing prompt. Even if what is asked is not the entire intent of the author it does give the student a great idea on what they need to focus on when they read the text. One of my number #1 strategies for preparing students for FRQs( Free Response Questions; aka essay questions) is by annotating previous essays from successful and unsuccessful student’s works by identifying key elements that the students did or did not do that the prompt and rubric ask for. When analyzing, it’s important that a person understands what they’re looking for. Otherwise, the person will come up with premises leading them to the wrong conclusion and therefore creating an inaccurate description of the text.

Strategies
When identifying the intent of an essay there are keywords that one should seek out. Such things relate to author’s bias towards something which could be used to persuade a reader’s opinion on the subject. Seek out language that reflects a prejudice in favor of or against one thing. If there is no clear bias then perhaps the author is trying to inform the reader, so seek out language that is objective and not subjective. Objective means to write without personal opinion or feelings and the author is only writing facts about a subject. If the author doesn’t demonstrate a clear bias or objective language then seek language that demonstrates a call to action which could also include inspirational or motivational text. Seek language that compels the reader to take action, such as, “act now”, “subscribe today”, “get it before it’s gone”. The author could also use a anecdotal story,(story of personal experience or simply a short story with significance to enhancing the writers lesson or point of view on a subject), to inspire or motivate people to act right away.

These strategies are meant to enhance your abilities to identify an author’s intent/purpose for their writing. Next time the focus will be on the message!