Discover Why Authors Write Amazing Stories and Books!

You will learn about authors main purpose and discover why writers create different types of books and stories. Every author has a special reason for writing, and you can learn to figure out what that reason is! Understanding Why Authors Write helps you become a better reader who thinks about what you read.

An author's main purpose is the most important reason why they wrote something. You can think of it as the author's big goal or what they most wanted to do with their writing. When you understand an author's purpose, you understand their book or story much better!

Authors write for three main reasons: to entertain you, to inform you, or to persuade you. Each purpose helps the author share different things with readers like you.

To Entertain

When authors want to entertain you, they write fun stories that make you laugh, feel excited, or use your imagination. These stories often have interesting characters who go on adventures or do silly things. You read these books because they are fun and enjoyable!

To Inform

When authors want to inform you, they write to teach you new facts and information. These books help you learn about animals, places, science, or other interesting topics. The author wants to share knowledge with you so you can learn something new.

To Persuade

When authors want to persuade you, they try to change your mind about something or get you to agree with their ideas. They give you reasons why you should think or do something in a certain way.

Author: The person who writes a book, story, or poem. You can find the author's name on the cover of books.

Purpose: The main reason why someone does something. An author's purpose is why they decided to write their book or story.

Entertain: To make someone have fun, laugh, or feel excited. Stories that entertain you are enjoyable to read.

Inform: To teach someone new facts or information. Books that inform you help you learn about the world.

Persuade: To try to change someone's mind or get them to agree with you. Authors persuade by giving reasons for their ideas.

Facts: True information about something. Facts help you learn real things about the world around you.

Story: A tale about characters and events that an author creates. Stories can be real or made-up.

You can be a detective and look for clues to find an author's main purpose! Ask yourself these questions when you read:

Is this book trying to make me laugh or feel excited? Then the author wants to entertain you. Is this book teaching me new facts about something? Then the author wants to inform you. Is this book trying to get me to think a certain way? Then the author wants to persuade you.

Practice with Prereading Identify Text Purpose helps you get better at finding these clues before you even start reading!

Before learning about author's main purpose, you already learned important skills that help you now. You know that Text Conveys Ideas And Messages Meaning and can understand that books share important ideas with readers.

You also learned about Defining Author And Illustrator Roles and Naming Author And Illustrator Roles, so you know who creates the words and pictures in books. Understanding Identifying Author Support Reasons helps you see how authors give reasons for their ideas.

Learning about author's main purpose connects to many other reading skills you will develop. Reading With Purpose teaches you how to read with your own goals in mind, while Purpose Audience Topic And Writing Goals shows you how authors think about who will read their writing.

You will also learn to Finding Evidence to Answer Questions and Detecting Evidence Behind Author Claims to support your understanding of what authors write.

Next, you will learn more advanced skills like Identifying Author Purpose In Text and Author Purpose and Key Points. You will also practice Using Evidence to Support Ideas and Find Evidence in Text to become an even better reader!