Breaking Down Author’s Purpose: It’s Not as Easy as PIE

It’s time to talk about pie. Not the calorie-laden deliciousness that I will be serving (and eating) on Thanksgiving, but PIE, as in author’s purpose. Let’s talk about why the common “PIE” approach to author‘s purpose tends to go so wrong.  Let’s break down what author’s purpose actually means so we can go about teaching it correctly. It’s simply not as easy as PIE.

If you search Teachers Pay Teachers for author’s purpose, you will get over 24,000 hits. Not all, but most of the products sold are very surface level and only talk about author’s purpose in terms of persuade, inform, or entertain.  There are literally thousands that actually misleadingly advertise that this high level work is “easy as PIE.” 

Why is this a problem? Because author’s purpose goes so much deeper than that. Products like these grossly miss the point.  

Looking across a sampling of state standards across the nation, author’s purpose is described like this… 

-Determine and explain how an author’s purpose (e.g., what an author wants to answer, explain, or describe) is conveyed through the author’s perspective.  (SC)

-Explain or recognize how the author’s purpose affects the interpretation of a reading selection. (IN)

-Explain the author’s purpose and message within a text (TX)

The reason an author writes something goes far far beyond merely wanting to entertain, inform, or persuade. 

“Entertain” is a very broad category, and so many types of text can fall under it. Historical fiction is entertaining, but it is also informative. Poetry can be informative.  It can also be entertaining.  Or it can aim to persuade the reader.  The author’s style of writing could even mean a persuasive piece could actually be very funny.

A simple book like I Wanna Iguana or Click Clack Moo is exactly this.  Persuasive and entertaining.  Something a bit higher level like The Great Kapok Tree is another example a hybrid purpose. A much more complex text, like just about anything by Ray Bradbury, will be entertaining for sure.  But also persuasive in that his work typically warns against ways society is headed in the wrong direction.  An argument, meant to persuade, will also inform since arguments are all bolstered by including relevant factual information.  This, by definition, is what makes an argument a true argument and not just persuasion based on opinion.

Author‘s purpose goes so much deeper than the surface level verbs of persuade, inform, and entertain.  It’s absolutely not as easy as PIE.  

As shown in the sampling of state standards above, author’s purpose is all about determining what the author wants to convey.  It’s about figuring out what it is the author is trying to convince the reader of, or what the author wants to teach.  So much bigger than simply naming whether it’s an entertaining, persuasive, or informative piece. 

While it’s true that most stories are meant to provide entertainment, every single story also teaches a lesson. The character encounters an obstacle and learns a lesson.  That’s the basic structure of every story.  Even graphic novels like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Through the lesson the character learns there will be an evident theme.  A theme that the reader will gain insight from.  This is what the story author wants to convey. 

It is through story that the reader learns something important about life.  About people.  About the human condition. This is something renowned literacy expert Peter Johnston has spoken about quite a lot.

Another way of looking at stories that will much better lead to the bigger ideas?  

Think about them in terms of cause and effect. This text structure approach is exactly how narratives are taught using the KAT strategy, a fantastic concept that’s quickly gaining in popularity since it was first presented by Texas A&M researchers several years ago. 

Teachers always want students to think about the big main ideas of a text. Author’s purpose is very much tied to that. 

The way an author crafts a text–the way they weave words together and the way they structure it– has a reason. 

The author carefully thinks about who the intended audience is and what that audience should gain from reading the text. Even early level fiction has a message. There’s always a lesson.  Always a theme. 

Limiting kids to think only in terms like entertain, inform, or persuade does nothing to propel thinking forward.  

Even if these words are glued onto cute pie-shaped paper, going no further than simply labeling texts into these broad categories does nothing to help kids reach the bigger ideas an author actually wants to convey.  It does nothing to grow them as readers or thinkers.  And it certainly won’t grow them as humans. 

Let’s eschew the surface level practice of teaching author’s purpose as simply labeling whether something can be categorized as persuasive, informative, or entertaining. Instead, let’s help our students think more deeply and more critically.  Ask them what it is the author wanted the reader to get from their writing.  What was it the author wanted to convince the reader of?  What was it the author wanted to teach the reader? 

No, teaching author’s purpose in this way won’t be as easy as PIE.

But it will match what state standards are asking.  And it will show students that something is meant to be gleaned from reading.  It will better set them up for thinking more critically.  And it will show them that all writing, including their own, has a purpose.   

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Who is Coach from the Couch??  I’m Michelle, a 25-year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach.  I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can.  Because no one can do this work alone. I’m available to you, too, through virtual coaching calls!  Simply email me at [email protected] or reach out for a coaching call!

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