Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
A letter to customers, posted in a restaurant window, written for this example
What is the main purpose of the letter?A. to entertain customers with a story about a refrigeratorLast week, a city inspector gave our restaurant a B grade. Some of you have asked whether our kitchen is clean. It is. The inspector found that one refrigerator was two degrees too warm, and we replaced it that same afternoon. We have earned an A at every inspection since we opened in 2012. We will ask for a new inspection, and we expect our A back. Thank you for standing by us.
B. to explain how city inspectors give grades
C. to defend the restaurant against doubts about its kitchen
D. to call on customers to complain to the city
- First, the six purposes, in plain words. To inform: to report facts. To explain: to tell how something works or how to do it. To persuade: to bring the reader around to an opinion. To call to action: to get the reader to do a particular thing. To entertain: to amuse. To defend oneself: to answer a charge or a doubt against the writer.
- Now ask what the writer wants the reader to know, think, or do. Look at how the letter begins: “Some of you have asked whether our kitchen is clean. It is.” The writer is answering a doubt about the writer’s own business.
- Everything after that supports the answer: the problem was small, it was fixed the same day, and the restaurant has earned an A every time before.
- A: the refrigerator is a fact in the defense, not a story told to amuse.
- B: the letter says nothing about how grades are given.
- D: the letter asks customers to stand by the restaurant, not to complain.
- So the main purpose is C, to defend oneself. Remember Quiz 8: a defense written by the accused is excellent evidence of what the writer wants believed. To know how clean the kitchen is, a careful reader would look at the inspector’s report too.
Answer: C
Example 2
A speech at a union meeting, written for this example
Who is the most likely audience of this speech?A. the managers of the companyTonight you will vote on the new contract. Your bargaining committee met with the company eleven times since March. We did not get everything we asked for. We did win a raise in each of the next three years, and we kept our health plan with no new costs to you. You have all received a copy. Read it, ask your shop steward any question you have, and then vote. This is your contract, and it is your decision.
B. members of the union who will vote on the contract
C. newspaper readers across the country
D. workers at another company
- To find the audience, ask three questions. Whom does the speaker address? What does the speaker assume they already know? What does the speaker ask them to do?
- Whom: the speaker says “you” and “your contract.” The listeners are the people the contract belongs to.
- What they know: the speaker mentions “your shop steward” without explaining what a shop steward is, a union member who speaks for the workers in one shop. The listeners are expected to know already.
- What they will do: “Tonight you will vote on the new contract.”
- All three point to B: the members of the union, who will vote.
- A: the managers are on the other side of the bargaining table, and they do not vote on the union’s contract.
- C and D: people far away would not be told to ask their shop steward, and they have no vote.
- Knowing the audience helps you read the speech. A speech to members before a vote stresses what was won, the raise and the health plan, and it is honest that “we did not get everything we asked for.” An account bends toward what its listeners need to hear.
Answer: B
Where this is taught: Skills Quiz 8, Point of view and bias: First, the idea · Skills Quiz 8: the worked example · Skills Diagnostic, Part 8
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 1, Lesson 3: Analyze Author's Purpose and Point of View · Map of the Terrain, topic 8: Point of view, purpose, and bias
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Read what is in the box first. Then tap your answer; a few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Press Check my answers at the bottom.Read what is in the box first. Circle your answer; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.