Rhetorical terms · AP English Language, SAT Reading and Writing, ACT Reading
Purpose
Purpose: What a writer wants a text to accomplish: to persuade, inform, move, warn, defend or call the audience to action.
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What it means
Purpose is more specific than topic. The topic of a speech might be climate change; its purpose might be to persuade city residents to support a bond measure for flood barriers. A precise statement of purpose names the audience and the change in belief or action the writer wants.
Texts can have more than one purpose, and purposes can shift over the course of a passage. A speech might begin by reassuring an audience and end by challenging it.
Example
Topic: school start times. Purpose: to persuade the school board that a later start would reduce student absences enough to justify the cost of changing bus routes.
On the exam
SAT and ACT reading questions ask about a text's main purpose or the function of a sentence. In AP Lang, linking each choice to the purpose is the core of rhetorical analysis.
Lessons and practice questions
Related terms
- Rhetorical situationThe circumstances of a piece of communication: who is speaking, to whom, about what, for what purpose, and in what context.
- AudienceThe people a text is meant to reach, whose beliefs, values and expectations shape the writer's choices.
- ClaimAn arguable statement a writer asks the audience to accept, supported by reasons and evidence.