English: Writing That Knows Its Purpose

This is Unit Five of ACT Preparation: writing that knows its purpose. Unit four chose the exact word; this unit steps back to the passage and asks what it is for, and whether each part serves it. By the end you will be able to name a passage's purpose and audience. To find the main point of a paragraph. To choose support that proves the exact claim. To decide whether a sentence should be added or deleted. And to name what a sentence does, and judge whether a passage met its goal.

Seven entries on purpose, audience, and the idea that controls a text.

What a text is for.

ACT 0401 Every Text Has a Purpose

A text's purpose is the effect its writer wants on the reader: to inform, to persuade, to challenge thinking, or to connect emotionally. A safety leaflet informs; a petition persuades. Purpose is decided by the intended effect, not the topic.

Who the writer is trying to reach.

ACT 0402 Purpose and Audience

The audience is the person or group a writer means to reach; the purpose is what that audience should think, feel or do. A memo to parents informs; a letter to the council asks it to act. What the audience needs decides what a passage includes.

Naming the purpose, step by step.

ACT 0403 Naming a Passage's Purpose

Identify the audience, see what the passage does most, and state the purpose as an effect. The recycling passage explains sorting and lists pickup days, so it informs residents; ending instead with a call to vote would make it persuade. A passage can inform on the way to persuading, so judge the whole, which its opening and ending often show.

The controlling idea.

ACT 0404 The Thesis

A thesis is a text's controlling idea, and everything else develops or supports it; in academic writing it often closes the introduction. "School gardens teach more science than a textbook can" is a thesis. A topic is not a thesis: a thesis takes an angle.

One point per paragraph.

ACT 0405 One Main Point per Paragraph

An effective paragraph centers on one main point, supported and sensibly organized. A new paragraph signals a new idea, more development, or a new direction. A second main point is a signal to start a second paragraph.

The sentence that states the point.

ACT 0406 The Topic Sentence

The topic sentence states a paragraph's main point, and every other sentence supports it. It often comes first, but not always. Find it by asking which sentence the others explain; its position does not decide it.

Finding the main point, step by step.

ACT 0407 Finding the Main Point of a Paragraph

Read the whole paragraph, sort each sentence into claim or support, and find the claim the others support; if none states it, word it yourself. In the garden paragraph, volunteers, free seeds and donated tools add up to the last sentence: the garden cost the school nothing. The first sentence is the natural guess, so read to the end before accepting it.

Six entries on support: evidence, analysis, and telling strong from weak.

What support is.

ACT 0408 Support: Evidence

Every sentence that develops a paragraph should support its main point, with facts, statistics, expert opinion, reasons, quotations or examples. Attendance figures support a claim that the garden improved attendance. A sentence can be true and still support nothing.

The writer's explanation.

ACT 0409 Analysis Explains the Evidence

Analysis is the writer's own explanation of why the evidence matters, connecting it to the main point. After the attendance figures: students came on days they could tend their plants. Evidence alone leaves the reader to draw the connection; analysis draws it.

Strong support and weak.

ACT 0410 Good and Weak Support

Good support is relevant, focused, developed, specific and organized; weak support is disconnected, vague or disjointed. "Attendance rose eight percent" is specific; "things got better" is vague. Ask what point a detail proves, and whether it proves it precisely.

Support that goes too far.

ACT 0411 Too Much Detail Is Weak Too

Support can fail by excess as well as by lack: detail beyond what the point needs buries the point. A paragraph on attendance does not need the brand of seed. Keep the detail the point requires.

Choosing the strongest support.

ACT 0412 Choosing the Strongest Support

Restate the claim exactly, ask whether each choice proves that claim or only something near it, and prefer the specific. For "the bike lanes made the street safer," enjoyment, green paint and "safety is important" all miss; "crashes fell from twelve to three in the first year" proves it. Every wrong choice was on topic; proving the claim is the test.

The most specific choice.

ACT 0413 The Most Specific Choice

Rank the choices from category to kind to a particular named thing with a measure, and pick the most specific one the passage supports. "A 1902 printing press and two hundred hand-set type trays" beats "historical artifacts" in a passage about the printing collection. Specific is a test of the words; fit is a test of the passage.

Four entries on whether a sentence belongs, and why.

Whether a sentence belongs.

ACT 0414 Relevance: Every Sentence Serves the Point

A sentence belongs only if it serves the paragraph's main point and the passage's focus. In a paragraph on how bees pollinate crops, the history of honey is off the point. Interesting and relevant are different tests; relevance counts.

The reason attached to yes or no.

ACT 0415 The Reason Is the Answer

Add-or-delete questions pair yes or no with a reason, and the reason is what is tested: a right yes with a wrong reason is a wrong answer. Check each reason against the sentence and the paragraph.

Deciding whether to add, step by step.

ACT 0416 Should the Sentence Be Added?

State the paragraph's point, ask what the sentence would do there, and choose yes only with the reason that describes what it actually does. In a paragraph on weekday-evening crowds at the library, its 1931 founding gets a no, because it shifts from use to origins; "yes, because it shows popularity" fails. The same fact might belong in the passage's opening and not here.

Deciding whether to delete.

ACT 0417 Should the Sentence Be Deleted?

State the point, read the paragraph without the sentence, and keep it if the point loses support, clarity or a link. In the crosswalk paragraph, forty seconds instead of ninety is the evidence, so it stays; "the signals are made in Ohio" loses nothing, so it goes. Before deleting, find what the sentence proves.

Seven entries on function, goals and audience, and the whole unit in one passage.

The job each part does.

ACT 0418 What a Part Does

Every part of a text has a function as well as a content: it may introduce, give an example, add evidence, contrast, explain or conclude. "For instance, one school saved two thousand dollars" gives an example. Ask what a sentence does, not only what it says.

Naming a sentence's function, step by step.

ACT 0419 Naming the Function of a Sentence

Read the sentences before and after, ask how this one relates to them, and test the answer against both neighbors. After "most solar panels lose efficiency in heat," the Arizona panel that lost twelve percent gives evidence for the claim; "introduces a new topic" fails, because the topic did not change. Match the verb, then check its object.

A goal named in a question.

ACT 0420 Meeting a Goal

A question may name a goal and ask whether the passage meets it; the test is that goal, not the passage's quality. A lively history of a bridge does not explain how bridges carry weight. Judge the passage as a whole.

Judging a goal, step by step.

ACT 0421 Did the Passage Meet Its Goal?

Restate the goal's verb and object, summarize what the passage mostly does, and say yes only if both match. A goal of comparing two ways to heat a home is not met by a passage that explains heat pumps and mentions furnaces once. "Yes, because it explains how a heat pump works" is true and still fails; the reason must address the goal.

A detail that fits the reader.

ACT 0422 Which Detail Fits the Audience

Identify the audience, ask what it knows and needs, and choose the detail it can use. For new gardeners, "water when the top inch of soil is dry" beats a tensiometer reading they cannot take, a vague "water often," and an off-point history. A technically better answer can be wrong; the audience defines what precise means.

Revising a paragraph for focus.

ACT 0423 Revising a Paragraph for Focus

Find the main point, test each sentence, delete or move what does not serve it, and check the evidence remains. In the invented composting paragraph, the Latin origin goes, enriched soil moves to its own paragraph as a second benefit, and the Lees, who now fill their bin half as often, stay as evidence. Moving is not deleting.

The whole unit in one passage.

ACT 0424 One Passage, Five Decisions

Production of Writing asks what a passage is for and whether each part serves it. Purpose is the effect on an audience; the thesis controls; each paragraph has one main point. Support proves the point specifically, analysis explains it, and a sentence belongs only if it serves the point where it sits. In the invented shade-tree passage, pavement fifteen degrees cooler replaces "trees are beautiful"; oaks living for centuries gets a no; Elm Street's cooling bill illustrates cost; and the goal of persuading residents is met, because each paragraph gives a reason with evidence. State the point before judging, test reasons as hard as answers, and separate interesting from relevant.

Look at what you can now do. You can name a passage's purpose from the effect it is built to have on its audience. You can find a paragraph's main point by reading to the end. You can choose support that proves the exact claim, specifically. You can decide whether a sentence belongs at its position, and test the reason as hard as the answer. And you can name what a sentence does and judge a goal by its verb and object. Unit six turns to order: where each sentence goes, and how sentences connect.