Week 5 — Point of View, Purpose, and Rhetoric

MCAP ELA 10 practice · Point of view, purpose, and rhetoric · Download .docx

Objectives

Determine an author's point of view and purpose in an informational text and explain how specific word choices reveal them.
Analyze how an author or speaker uses rhetoric, such as appeals, repetition, questions, and concession, to advance a purpose.
Analyze how a narrator's or character's point of view shapes what readers learn and how they feel in a literary text.

Key terms

Point of view: In nonfiction, the author's attitude or position; in fiction, the perspective the story is told from.
Purpose: What a text is trying to accomplish for its readers.
Rhetorical appeal: A strategy that persuades through credibility (ethos), emotion (pathos), or logic (logos).
Connotation: The feelings a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning, which often signal the author's attitude.
Concession and rebuttal: Admitting a fair point from the other side, then answering it.
Limited narrator: A narrator who knows only part of what is happening, so readers must infer the rest.
Dramatic irony: A situation in which readers know something a character does not.

The concept

What point of view means on MCAP

MCAP uses point of view in two ways. In informational texts, it means the author's stance: does the writer support, oppose, doubt, or admire the subject? In literature, it means who tells the story and what that narrator knows. Both versions ask the same deeper question: how does the perspective shape what the reader understands?

Finding an author's purpose

Start by asking what the text wants readers to do or believe after reading. A news feature may inform; an editorial may persuade; a speech may rally. Then look for a secondary purpose. An article about an apprenticeship program might inform readers about it and also recruit them with a sign-up link at the end. The correct answer to a purpose question fits the whole passage, not just one paragraph.

Reading attitude through word choice

Authors rarely say 'I disapprove.' They show it. 'The board rushed the vote' and 'the board acted quickly' describe the same event with different attitudes. When you see a loaded word, ask what feeling it carries and whether the author would choose it about something they admire.

Rhetoric: name it, then explain it

Rhetoric is how writers and speakers move an audience. Ethos builds trust (a coach of twenty years speaking about players). Pathos stirs feeling (a single nurse waiting at a dark bus stop). Logos uses evidence and reasoning (three hundred people turned away). Devices such as repetition, rhetorical questions, and parallel structure add emphasis. On the test, a correct answer usually connects the device to its effect: the repeated phrase stresses how many people the library serves; the questions shift attention from money to students' health.

Concession is a power move

When a writer says 'critics have a point,' the writer is not giving up. Conceding first makes the writer seem fair, which makes the rebuttal that follows more convincing.

Narrators and what they know

A first-person narrator gives you one mind. If that narrator is young, biased, or upset, you may see clues they miss, which is how authors create irony and suspense. A third-person omniscient narrator can show several minds at once, letting readers know what characters do not. Always ask: what do I know that the character does not, and why did the author set it up that way?

Worked examples

Example 1: Passage: 'The developers promise a vibrant town center. What they have delivered so far is a fence, a sign, and eighteen months of silence.' Question: What is the author's point of view? Step 1: Find loaded words. 'Promise' and 'delivered so far' set up a contrast between words and action. Step 2: Ask what the contrast suggests. The author doubts the developers will keep their word. Step 3: Check the whole passage. Every detail points to waiting and broken promises. Answer: The author is skeptical of the developers, shown by the contrast between their promise and 'eighteen months of silence.'

Example 2: Passage (first person): 'Grandpa said the shop was doing fine. He said it while he counted the register twice. I believed him.' Question: What does the point of view let readers understand? Step 1: Note what the narrator believes: the shop is fine. Step 2: Note the details the narrator reports but does not interpret: counting the register twice, the quiet bell. Step 3: Combine them. Readers infer the shop is struggling even though the narrator, a child at the time, does not. Answer: The first-person view lets readers see warning signs the young narrator missed, which creates sympathy and tension.

Common mistakes

Naming a device without explaining its effect. Fix: after you identify repetition or a rhetorical question, finish the thought with 'which makes the audience…' and connect it to the author's purpose.
Choosing a purpose that fits only one sentence. Fix: test each answer against the first and last sentences of the passage; the right purpose explains why the whole section exists.
Assuming a first-person narrator knows everything. Fix: separate what the narrator reports from what the narrator concludes, then ask whether the details support a different conclusion.

Self-check

Try each one before you look. A miss here costs nothing and tells you exactly what to reread.

1. A writer calls a new parking rule 'a thoughtful compromise.' What does this phrase suggest about the writer's point of view?

2. A speaker begins, 'As a firefighter for eighteen years, I have walked into homes with no smoke alarms.' Which appeal is strongest here?

3. Why might an editorial writer concede a point to critics before giving a rebuttal?

4. A story's narrator says she 'never holds a grudge' but lists every insult her neighbor made over ten years. What is the best description of this narrator?

5. In a speech, a student asks the school board, 'What is the cost of a student who falls asleep in class every day?' What is the main purpose of this question?

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