An essay serves as the classic method of assessing a high school student's knowledge of a subject. Create an essay prompt to assess an author's purpose. For example, write a prompt that says, "What message does the author wish to convey within the novel?" Before assigning the essay, explain other methods of describing purpose. The terms theme, thesis and message are commonly used in place of purpose since only an author can definitively state his purpose.
Typically, a passage or piece of literature aims to entertain, persuade or inform. Test your students' ability to assess the difference with a pop quiz, worksheet or group activity. Provide students with a selection of short passages. Instruct the students to determine whether the author's purpose is to entertain, persuade or inform. This simple method of testing purpose best fits students in ninth or tenth grade. To increase the complexity of the subject, ask students to assess the purpose of a novel or essay and to briefly explain their reasoning.
To properly understand an author's intent, a student must understand an author's background and the history of the time period. The satirical essay "A Modest Proposal," relies on a reader's knowledge of Irish problems of famine and excessive population growth to effectively make its point. Provide students with a skill needed for higher level literature analysis by completing activities that compare the time period of a novel or essay with the purpose. Provide students with a passage or assign a novel as homework. After students complete the reading, explain the author's background or the relevance of the time period. Ask students to list ways the background information relates to the purpose of the passage. For example, pose the question "How do Harriet Beecher Stowe's beliefs and background relate to the purpose of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin?'"
To properly assess an author's purpose, students scan a passage for evidence of the purpose. Create a lesson on "evidence" by teaching students about literary techniques such as allusion, foreshadowing, epiphany, tone, metaphor, rhetorical question and motif. Devote each lesson to one or two techniques. Provide an example of the technique and ask students to explain how the technique relates to an author's purpose, message or theme. For example, take a look at "A Modest Proposal" from the lens of sarcasm. Without knowledge of sarcasm, many believe that the essay truly advocates the consumption of infants.