I love sticky notes. If you were to look at my desk or at my planner or at my laptop lid, you would see sticky notes filled with information. A reminder to talk to a teacher. A list of three items to grab at the grocery store. A to-do list to accomplish during my planning period.

ACHIEVING YOUR WRITING PURPOSE

Purpose is the reason why we write, and we write for many different purposes. There are many ways to achieve your writing purpose: choose a form, choose the correct language, choose the style, organization, and kinds of evidence.

Here are some questions students should consider when deciding on writing purpose:

• Are you trying to sound more personal or authoritative?

• Are you wanting to entertain or inform?

• Are you relating to your audience or keeping the audience distant?

• Do you want to sound formal or informal?

Focusing on writing purpose will give students a rhetorical sense to their writing. This will also help students be aware of the audience for which they are writing. 

There are many purposes to writing. The most popular are to inform, to entertain, to explain, or to persuade. However, there are many more including to express feelings, explore an idea, evaluate, mediate, problem solve, or argue for or against an idea.

Writers often combine purposes in a single piece of writing.

In the coming weeks, this blog post will feature an in-depth look at many different purposes of writing. The first post will investigate informative writing.

ACHIEVING YOUR WRITING PURPOSE

Purpose is the reason why we write, and we write for many different purposes. There are many ways to achieve your writing purpose: choose a form, choose the correct language, choose the style, organization, and kinds of evidence.

Here are some questions students should consider when deciding on writing purpose:

• Are you trying to sound more personal or authoritative?

• Are you wanting to entertain or inform?

• Are you relating to your audience or keeping the audience distant?

• Do you want to sound formal or informal?

Focusing on writing purpose will give students a rhetorical sense to their writing. This will also help students be aware of the audience for which they are writing. 

Until then, download a poster and tip sheet the reminds students about why they are writing. This poster and tip sheet includes types of purposes with definitions.

MORE RESOURCES