Refer to Document 1. What was the writers impression of Roosevelt?

6.i Purpose, Audition, Tone, and Content

Learning Objectives

1. Place the four common academic purposes.
2. Place audience, tone, and content.
3. Apply purpose, audition, tone, and content to a specific assignment.

Imagine reading i long block of text, with each thought blurring into the next. Even if you are reading a thrilling novel or an interesting news article, you lot volition likely lose interest in what the author has to say very quickly. During the writing process, information technology is helpful to position yourself as a reader. Enquire yourself whether y'all tin can focus easily on each point you make. One technique that effective writers utilize is to brainstorm a fresh paragraph for each new idea they introduce.

Paragraphs split up ideas into logical, manageable chunks. 1 paragraph focuses on only 1 main thought and presents coherent sentences to back up that i point. Considering all the sentences in one paragraph back up the aforementioned betoken, a paragraph may stand on its own. To create longer assignments and to talk over more one point, writers group together paragraphs.

Three elements shape the content of each paragraph:

1. Purpose . The reason the writer composes the paragraph.
2. Tone . The mental attitude the writer conveys nigh the paragraph's bailiwick.
3. Audience . The individual or group whom the writer intends to address.

Figure 6.1 Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content Triangle

The assignment's purpose, audience, and tone dictate what the paragraph covers and how it will support one main point. This section covers how purpose, audience, and tone affect reading and writing paragraphs.

Identifying Common Academic Purposes

The purpose for a piece of writing identifies the reason y'all write a item document. Basically, the purpose of a piece of writing answers the question "Why?" For example, why write a play? To entertain a packed theater. Why write instructions to the babysitter? To inform him or her of your schedule and rules. Why write a letter to your congressman? To persuade him to address your customs's needs.

In academic settings, the reasons for writing fulfill four principal purposes: to summarize, to analyze, to synthesize, and to evaluate. You lot volition come across these four purposes not simply as you read for your classes but also as you read for work or pleasure. Because reading and writing work together, your writing skills will improve as you lot read. To learn more virtually reading in the writing process, see Affiliate 8 "The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?".

Eventually, your instructors will ask yous to complete assignments specifically designed to run into 1 of the four purposes. As you will see, the purpose for writing will guide yous through each part of the paper, helping you make decisions near content and style. For now, identifying these purposes past reading paragraphs will fix you to write individual paragraphs and to build longer assignments.

Summary Paragraphs

A summary shrinks a big amount of information into simply the essentials. You probably summarize events, books, and movies daily. Think nearly the last blockbuster picture show y'all saw or the terminal novel you read. Chances are, at some bespeak in a casual chat with a friend, coworker, or classmate, you compressed all the action in a two-60 minutes motion picture or in a two-hundred-page book into a brief description of the major plot movements. While in conversation, you probably described the major highlights, or the main points in only a few sentences, using your own vocabulary and mode of speaking.

Similarly, a summary paragraph condenses a long piece of writing into a smaller paragraph by extracting but the vital information. A summary uses only the writer's own words. Similar the summary'due south purpose in daily conversation, the purpose of an bookish summary paragraph is to maintain all the essential information from a longer document. Although shorter than the original piece of writing, a summary should withal communicate all the key points and key back up. In other words, summary paragraphs should exist succinct and to the indicate.

A summary of the study should nowadays all the master points and supporting details in brief. Read the following summary of the study written by a student:

Notice how the summary retains the central points made by the writers of the original report but omits most of the statistical data. Summaries need not incorporate all the specific facts and figures in the original document; they provide but an overview of the essential information.

Assay Paragraphs

An assay separates complex materials in their different parts and studies how the parts relate to one some other. The analysis of simple table salt, for case, would require a deconstruction of its parts—the elements sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl). Then, scientists would study how the two elements interact to create the compound NaCl, or sodium chloride, which is besides called simple table table salt.

Assay is not limited to the sciences, of course. An analysis paragraph in bookish writing fulfills the aforementioned purpose. Instead of deconstructing compounds, academic analysis paragraphs typically deconstruct documents. An analysis takes apart a primary source (an essay, a volume, an commodity, etc.) point past point. It communicates the primary points of the document by examining individual points and identifying how the points chronicle to one another.

Take a look at a pupil's analysis of the periodical report.

Notice how the analysis does not simply repeat information from the original report, merely considers how the points within the written report relate to one some other. By doing this, the educatee uncovers a discrepancy between the points that are backed up by statistics and those that crave boosted information. Analyzing a document involves a close examination of each of the individual parts and how they work together.

Synthesis Paragraphs

A synthesis combines two or more than items to create an entirely new detail. Consider the electronic musical instrument aptly named the synthesizer. It looks similar a simple keyboard simply displays a dashboard of switches, buttons, and levers. With the flip of a few switches, a musician may combine the distinct sounds of a piano, a flute, or a guitar—or any other combination of instruments—to create a new sound. The purpose of the synthesizer is to blend together the notes from individual instruments to form new, unique notes.

The purpose of an academic synthesis is to alloy private documents into a new certificate. An academic synthesis paragraph considers the chief points from ane or more pieces of writing and links the main points together to create a new indicate, one not replicated in either document.

Take a wait at a student'southward synthesis of several sources near underage drinking.

Find how the synthesis paragraphs consider each source and utilise information from each to create a new thesis. A good synthesis does not repeat information; the writer uses a variety of sources to create a new idea.

Evaluation Paragraphs

An evaluation judges the value of something and determines its worth. Evaluations in everyday experiences are often not only dictated by set standards merely also influenced by opinion and prior knowledge. For example, at piece of work, a supervisor may complete an employee evaluation by judging his subordinate's operation based on the company's goals. If the company focuses on improving communication, the supervisor will rate the employee'south customer service co-ordinate to a standard calibration. However, the evaluation still depends on the supervisor's opinion and prior experience with the employee. The purpose of the evaluation is to determine how well the employee performs at his or her job.

An academic evaluation communicates your stance, and its justifications, about a certificate or a topic of discussion. Evaluations are influenced by your reading of the document, your prior knowledge, and your prior experience with the topic or upshot. Because an evaluation incorporates your point of view and reasons for your point of view, it typically requires more critical thinking and a combination of summary, assay, and synthesis skills. Thus evaluation paragraphs often follow summary, analysis, and synthesis paragraphs. Read a pupil'southward evaluation paragraph.

Notice how the paragraph incorporates the student'southward personal judgment within the evaluation. Evaluating a document requires prior cognition that is often based on additional research.

Tip

When reviewing directions for assignments, wait for the verbs summarize, analyze, synthesize, or evaluate. Instructors often use these words to conspicuously bespeak the assignment's purpose. These words will cue you on how to complete the consignment because yous volition know its exact purpose.

Exercise one

Read the post-obit paragraphs about four films and then place the purpose of each paragraph.

1. This picture show could hands have been cutting down to less than two hours. By the final scene, I noticed that most of my fellow moviegoers were snoozing in their seats and were barely paying attention to what was happening on screen. Although the manager sticks diligently to the book, he tries also hard to cram in all the activity, which is just too aggressive for such a item-oriented story. If you want my advice, read the book and requite the movie a miss.
2. During the opening scene, we acquire that the graphic symbol Laura is adopted and that she has spent the past three years badly trying to track downwardly her real parents. Having exhausted all the usual options—adoption agencies, online searches, family unit trees, and then on—she is on the verge of giving up when she meets a stranger on a bus. The chance meet leads to a complicated chain of events that ultimately result in Laura getting her lifelong wish. Just is it actually what she wants? Throughout the rest of the moving-picture show, Laura discovers that sometimes the past is best left where information technology belongs.
3. To create the feeling of beingness gripped in a vice, the director, May Lee, uses a variety of elements to gradually increase the tension. The creepy, haunting melody that subtly enhances the earlier scenes becomes always more insistent, rising to a disturbing crescendo toward the end of the moving picture. The desperation of the actors, combined with the claustrophobic atmosphere and tight camera angles create a realistic firestorm, from which there is trivial hope of escape. Walking out of the theater at the cease feels like staggering out of a Roman dungeon.
4. The scene in which Campbell and his swain prisoners assist the guards in shutting downwardly the riot immediately strikes the viewer every bit unrealistic. Based on the recent reports on prison house riots in both Detroit and California, information technology seems highly unlikely that a posse of hardened criminals volition intentionally help their captors at the chance of inciting future revenge from other inmates. Instead, both news reports and psychological studies betoken that prisoners who practice not actively participate in a riot will go back to their cells and avert conflict birthday. Examples of this lack of attention to detail occur throughout the film, making it nearly unbearable to spotter.

Collaboration

Share with a classmate and compare your answers.

Writing at Work

Thinking near the purpose of writing a report in the workplace tin can help focus and structure the document. A summary should provide colleagues with a factual overview of your findings without going into likewise much specific detail. In dissimilarity, an evaluation should include your personal opinion, along with supporting evidence, research, or examples to back it up. Heed for words such every bit summarize, analyze, synthesize, or evaluate when your dominate asks you to complete a study to help determine a purpose for writing.

Practise 2

Consider the essay most recently assigned to you. Identify the most constructive academic purpose for the consignment.

My assignment: ____________________________________________

My purpose: ____________________________________________

Identifying the Audience

Imagine you must requite a presentation to a grouping of executives in an function. Weeks before the big day, y'all spend fourth dimension creating and rehearsing the presentation. You must make of import, conscientious decisions not merely most the content simply besides about your commitment. Will the presentation require technology to project figures and charts? Should the presentation define of import words, or will the executives already know the terms? Should y'all wear your suit and dress shirt? The answers to these questions volition aid you lot develop an appropriate human relationship with your audition, making them more than receptive to your message.

Now imagine you must explain the same business concepts from your presentation to a group of high schoolhouse students. Those important questions yous previously answered may now require unlike answers. The figures and charts may be besides sophisticated, and the terms will certainly require definitions. You may even reconsider your outfit and sport a more casual look. Considering the audience has shifted, your presentation and commitment volition shift also to create a new relationship with the new audition.

In these two situations, the audience—the individuals who will sentinel and listen to the presentation—plays a role in the development of presentation. As you lot prepare the presentation, you visualize the audience to anticipate their expectations and reactions. What you imagine affects the data you choose to present and how you will nowadays information technology. And then, during the presentation, you meet the audience in person and find immediately how well you perform.

Although the audience for writing assignments—your readers—may non appear in person, they play an equally vital role. Fifty-fifty in everyday writing activities, you place your readers' characteristics, interests, and expectations earlier making decisions about what you write. In fact, thinking most audience has go so common that you may non even observe the audience-driven decisions.

For example, you update your condition on a social networking site with the awareness of who will digitally follow the mail service. If you want to brag about a expert form, you may write the post to please family members. If you want to depict a funny moment, yous may write with your friends' senses of humor in mind. Even at work, you ship eastward-mails with an awareness of an unintended receiver who could intercept the message.

In other words, existence aware of "invisible" readers is a skill you most likely already possess and one you rely on every day. Consider the post-obit paragraphs. Which 1 would the writer send to her parents? Which one would she send to her all-time friend?

Example A

Concluding Saturday, I volunteered at a local hospital. The visit was fun and rewarding. I even learned how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR. Unfortunately, I think caught a common cold from one of the patients. This calendar week, I will rest in bed and potable plenty of clear fluids. I hope I am well past next Sabbatum to volunteer again.

Case B

OMG! You won't believe this! My counselor forced me to practice my community service hours at this hospital all weekend! We learned CPR merely we did it on dummies, not even real peeps. And some kid sneezed on me and got me sick! I was so bored and sniffling all weekend; I hope I don't accept to go back next calendar week. I def do NOT want to miss the basketball tournament!

Most likely, you matched each paragraph to its intended audience with little hesitation. Because each paragraph reveals the author'south relationship with her intended readers, you tin can place the audition fairly quickly. When writing your ain paragraphs, you must engage with your audience to build an appropriate relationship given your subject. Imagining your readers during each stage of the writing process volition assistance you make decisions about your writing. Ultimately, the people you visualize volition touch what and how yous write.

Tip

While giving a speech, y'all may clear an inspiring or critical message, only if you left your hair a mess and laced upwardly mismatched shoes, your audition would not accept y'all seriously. They may be as well distracted by your advent to mind to your words.

Similarly, grammar and sentence construction serve every bit the advent of a piece of writing. Polishing your piece of work using right grammer volition impress your readers and allow them to focus on what you lot have to say.

Because focusing on audience will raise your writing, your procedure, and your finished product, you must consider the specific traits of your audience members. Employ your imagination to anticipate the readers' demographics, teaching, prior knowledge, and expectations.

• Demographics. These measure important data nearly a group of people, such as their age range, their ethnicity, their religious beliefs, or their gender. Sure topics and assignments will require these kinds of considerations near your audience. For other topics and assignments, these measurements may not influence your writing in the end. Regardless, information technology is of import to consider demographics when yous begin to think about your purpose for writing.
• Education. Teaching considers the audience'due south level of schooling. If audience members accept earned a doctorate degree, for example, you may demand to elevate your style and apply more than formal linguistic communication. Or, if audience members are still in college, yous could write in a more relaxed fashion. An audition member's major or emphasis may also dictate your writing.
• Prior knowledge. This refers to what the audition already knows well-nigh your topic. If your readers have studied certain topics, they may already know some terms and concepts related to the topic. You may decide whether to define terms and explain concepts based on your audition's prior knowledge. Although you cannot peer inside the brains of your readers to observe their knowledge, you tin can make reasonable assumptions. For instance, a nursing major would presumably know more most health-related topics than a business major would.
• Expectations. These indicate what readers volition wait for while reading your assignment. Readers may expect consistencies in the assignment's appearance, such as correct grammar and traditional formatting similar double-spaced lines and legible font. Readers may also have content-based expectations given the assignment'southward purpose and organization. In an essay titled "The Economics of Enlightenment: The Effects of Rise Tuition," for example, audition members may expect to read about the economical repercussions of higher tuition costs.

Exercise three

On your own sheet of paper, generate a list of characteristics under each category for each audience. This list will assist you afterward when you read about tone and content.

i. Your classmates

• Demographics ____________________________________________
• Education ____________________________________________
• Prior knowledge ____________________________________________
• Expectations ____________________________________________

ii. Your instructor

• Demographics ____________________________________________
• Pedagogy ____________________________________________
• Prior cognition ____________________________________________
• Expectations ____________________________________________

3. The head of your academic department

• Demographics ____________________________________________
• Education ____________________________________________
• Prior cognition ____________________________________________
• Expectations ____________________________________________

four. Now remember nearly your next writing assignment. Identify the purpose (you may use the same purpose listed in Notation 6.12 "Do ii"), and so identify the audience. Create a listing of characteristics under each category.

My assignment: ____________________________________________

My purpose: ____________________________________________

My audience: ____________________________________________

• Demographics ____________________________________________
• Education ____________________________________________
• Prior knowledge ____________________________________________
• Expectations ____________________________________________

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

Keep in mind that every bit your topic shifts in the writing process, your audience may as well shift. For more than data nearly the writing process, see Chapter viii "The Writing Procedure: How Practise I Begin?".

Also, call up that decisions nearly style depend on audience, purpose, and content. Identifying your audience'southward demographics, didactics, prior knowledge, and expectations will touch on how you write, merely purpose and content play an equally of import role. The next subsection covers how to select an appropriate tone to match the audience and purpose.

Selecting an Appropriate Tone

Tone identifies a speaker's attitude toward a subject field or another person. You may option up a person's tone of vocalisation adequately easily in conversation. A friend who tells you about her weekend may speak excitedly well-nigh a fun skiing trip. An instructor who means business may speak in a low, slow voice to emphasize her serious mood. Or, a coworker who needs to let off some steam after a long coming together may crack a sarcastic joke.

Just as speakers transmit emotion through voice, writers can transmit through writing a range of attitudes, from excited and humorous to somber and disquisitional. These emotions create connections among the audience, the author, and the subject field, ultimately building a human relationship between the audience and the text. To stimulate these connections, writers intimate their attitudes and feelings with useful devices, such as sentence structure, word selection, punctuation, and formal or informal language. Keep in mind that the writer's attitude should always appropriately lucifer the audience and the purpose.

Read the following paragraph and consider the writer'southward tone. How would you lot describe the author's attitude toward wildlife conservation?

Many species of plants and animals are disappearing correct before our optics. If we don't act fast, it might be likewise late to save them. Human activities, including pollution, deforestation, hunting, and overpopulation, are devastating the natural environment. Without our help, many species volition not survive long enough for our children to come across them in the wild. Take the tiger, for example. Today, tigers occupy merely 7 percent of their historical range, and many local populations are already extinct. Hunted for their beautiful pelt and other torso parts, the tiger population has plummeted from i hundred grand in 1920 to merely a few 1000. Contact your local wildlife conservation society today to notice out how you can cease this terrible destruction.

Exercise 4

Recall about the consignment and purpose yous selected in Note six.12 "Do 2", and the audience you selected in Note half dozen.sixteen "Practise 3". Now, identify the tone you would use in the assignment.

My assignment: ____________________________________________

My purpose: ____________________________________________

My audience: ____________________________________________

My tone: ____________________________________________

Choosing Appropriate, Interesting Content

Content refers to all the written substance in a certificate. Afterwards selecting an audition and a purpose, you must choose what information will make information technology to the page. Content may consist of examples, statistics, facts, anecdotes, testimonies, and observations, but no matter the type, the data must be appropriate and interesting for the audition and purpose. An essay written for third graders that summarizes the legislative process, for example, would have to contain succinct and uncomplicated content.

Content is too shaped past tone. When the tone matches the content, the audition will be more engaged, and you will build a stronger relationship with your readers. Consider that audience of third graders. You would choose uncomplicated content that the audience will hands empathise, and you would express that content through an enthusiastic tone. The same considerations utilize to all audiences and purposes.

Do 5

Match the content in the box to the appropriate audience and purpose. On your own sheet of paper, write the correct alphabetic character next to the number.

1. Whereas economist Holmes contends that the financial crunch is far from over, the presidential advisor Jones points out that information technology is vital to grab the starting time moving ridge of opportunity to increase market share. Nosotros can use elements of both experts' visions. Let me explain how.
2. In 2000, foreign money flowed into the United States, contributing to easy credit weather. People bought larger houses than they could beget, eventually defaulting on their loans as interest rates rose.
3. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, known by most of usa as the humungous authorities bailout, acquired mixed reactions. Although supported by many political leaders, the statute provoked outrage among grassroots groups. In their stance, the authorities was actually rewarding banks for their appalling behavior.

1. Audition: An instructor

   Purpose: To analyze the reasons behind the 2007 fiscal crisis

   Content: ____________________________________________

2. Audience: Classmates

   Purpose: To summarize the furnishings of the $700 billion government bailout

   Content: ____________________________________________

3. Audience: An employer

   Purpose: To synthesize two articles on preparing businesses for economic recovery

   Content: ____________________________________________

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

Exercise six

Using the consignment, purpose, audience, and tone from Note 6.xviii "Exercise 4", generate a listing of content ideas. Recollect that content consists of examples, statistics, facts, anecdotes, testimonies, and observations.

My assignment: ____________________________________________

My purpose: ____________________________________________

My audience: ____________________________________________

My tone: ____________________________________________

My content ideas: ____________________________________________

Central Takeaways

• Paragraphs separate ideas into logical, manageable chunks of information.
• The content of each paragraph and certificate is shaped by purpose, audition, and tone.
• The iv common academic purposes are to summarize, to analyze, to synthesize, and to evaluate.
• Identifying the audition'due south demographics, education, prior cognition, and expectations volition affect how and what you write.
• Devices such as sentence construction, word choice, punctuation, and formal or breezy language communicate tone and create a relationship between the writer and his or her audience.
• Content may consist of examples, statistics, facts, anecdotes, testimonies, and observations. All content must exist appropriate and interesting for the audience, purpose and tone.

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Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/chapter/6-1-purpose-audience-tone-and-content/

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