7

Chapter

PURPOSE, TONE, AUDIENCE AND BIAS

 LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

❑Determine the author’s purpose
❑Determine the author’s tone
❑Determine the author’s intended audience
❑Identify bias in language

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 DETERMINING THE PURPOSE

PURPOSES FOR WRITING

Inform Persuade Entertain

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 DETERMINING THE PURPOSE (cont.)

Writing to Inform
❑The author provides information about a topic.
– This information is normally true or contains facts.
– Informative writing appears in:
• textbooks
• reports
• encyclopaedias
• reference books
• brochures
• magazines and news articles

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DETERMINING THE PURPOSE (cont.)

❑ The information aims to answer the 5W + 1H

questions:
– why
– when
– who
– what
– where
– how

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DETERMINING THE PURPOSE (cont.)

Writing to Persuade
❑The author aims to convince the audience to
agree with his or her position on a topic.
– Facts are used to:
• inform the audience about the topic
• support his or her position on the topic

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DETERMINING THE PURPOSE (cont.)

❑ In addition, the author may also use opinions

and biased language to further strengthen the
position.
– Persuasive writing appears in:
• advertisements
• campaigns
• political speeches
• stories

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DETERMINING THE PURPOSE (cont.)

Writing to Entertain
❑The author writes to appeal to senses and
imagination.

❑The author usually describes places, ideas and

characters to amuse and engage the audience.

❑These places, ideas and characters may be real or

imaginary.
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DETERMINING THE TONE

❑ An author’s tone is the language used to

express his or her attitude towards a topic.

❑The tone is what the author feels about the

subject.

❑The mood is how the audience feels about the

subject.

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DETERMINING THE TONE (cont.)

TYPES OF TONES

Objective Subjective
Impersonal Personal
Unbiased Biased
Unemotional Emotional

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DETERMINING THE TONE (cont.)

❑ Sample of subjective and objective tones:

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DETERMINING THE TONE (cont.)

❑ Other subjective tones include:

– ambivalence, amusement, anger, bitterness,
candidness, concern, fear, frustration, happiness,
horror, humour, irony, optimism, pessimism,
pompousness, sadness, seriousness, suspicion,
tolerance and wittiness

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DETERMINING THE AUDIENCE

❑ To determine the audience, ask yourself the following

questions:
– Who is the author addressing?
– Who would be interested in his/her idea?

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IDENTIFYING BIASES IN LANGUAGE

❑ Biased language refers to the use of words and

phrases which are considered prejudiced,
offensive and hurtful.

❑ Biased language demean and/or exclude

people based on:
– social class, age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion,
skin colour or any other physical or mental traits,
and even professions.

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IDENTIFYING BIASES IN LANGUAGE
(cont.)

❑ Words or phrases which are prejudiced, offensive and

hurtful indicate a bias against something or someone.
– E.g.

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IDENTIFYING BIASES IN LANGUAGE
(cont.)

❑ Words or phrases which are favourable indicate a

bias towards something or someone.
– E.g.

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CONCLUSION

❑ The author’s choice and order of words are

used to convey different:
– purposes
– tones
– biases
to an intended audience.

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