Purpose and Point of View

Purpose and Point of View

Every book, essay, story, and article is written for a specific purpose. Your science textbook may be written to teach you about biology, while a novel may be written to tell the story of a fictional character or narrator. The purpose of a piece of writing is largely determined by the author. Even a supposedly objective news article is written through the lens and personal experience of the author. Writers may choose to write or structure sentences in certain ways in order to best convey their ideas. Therefore, the purpose of a piece of writing is influenced by the author’s point of view. In fictional writing, the point of view expressed in the story may be that of a fictional narrator, which is likely not the same as the author’s.

Purpose

The purpose of a passage is similar to the main idea, but while the main idea is what the passage is mainly about, the purpose is the reason why the passage was written. However, if you can determine the main idea of a passage, you can likely figure out the purpose as well. 

The following is an example passage from the ACT Reading section, followed by a Purpose and Point of View question:

This question is asking about the “main point” of the passage, which is the main idea that the author is trying to convey. To find the main idea or purpose of a passage, it is essential to have a solid understanding of the passage as a whole. We have often been taught that the main idea is stated in the first paragraph, but this can easily lead you to choosing the wrong answer. The purpose of a passage is going to be the idea or concept that occurs throughout the entire passage. If something is only mentioned once, it is likely not the purpose or main idea of the passage.

If the purpose of a passage is not clear to you after a thorough reading, it is likely that some parts of the passage were confusing or unclear to you. Therefore, a helpful strategy is to quickly paraphrase each paragraph in order to gain a better understanding of the passage.

We can then look at our paragraph summaries to easily find the main idea of the passage. 

Summary

Introduction

You are unable to see what happens inside a baby’s brain, but it involves electrical activity between the sense organs and the brain. As the different sense organs carry information to the baby’s brain, the brain is electrically encoding the information to create memories.

Possible Thesis/Main Idea

PET allows scientists to visually see the activity in different areas of the brain. PET allows scientists to see that a baby’s brain continues to form long after birth.

While scientists used to think that the structure of the brain was genetically determined, research now shows that early childhood experiences determine the wiring and shaping of the brain.

Supporting Evidence

Real world experience strengthens synapses and reinforces connections in the brain. Old-fashioned stimulation such as peekaboo and reading aloud are effective ways to permanently enhance brain development.

The emergence and pruning of synapses occurs in different parts of the brain at different times, depending on the emergence of different skills. The child’s brain consumes a large amount of energy as it develops and forms synapses throughout the child’s early years of life.

Looking at our summary, we can see that the main purpose of the passage has to do with the formation of children’s brains after birth and during development through stimulation. Therefore, the answer is C.

Point of View

Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. The point of view is likely, but not necessarily, a reflection of the author’s or narrator’s beliefs. Point of view questions may involve inferring the narrator’s opinion, or understanding what type of person the narrator is.

The following passage is an example of an ACT Reading passage, followed by a Point of View question.

This question is asking about the point of view from which the passage is told, or more simply, who the narrator is. We can see that the passage is written in the third person point-of-view. This means that rather than being written from the perspective of the person whom the story is about, it is instead told by a (usually unknown) narrator telling the story. Therefore, the answer cannot be A or B, since the narrator is not describing their own experiences, but the experiences of Abshu. After reading through the passage, you will see that the narrator is never identified, and so there is no evidence to support answer choice D.

Therefore, the answer is C.