2.2.1: Identifying Your Purpose, Purpose
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Purpose
The second rhetorical element that influences the rhetorical situation is purpose. You have an audience, but why do you want to write for them? What are you trying to achieve? Purpose determines how you write to your audience, but also how your audience receives your writing. Aside from thinking about your own purpose, think about why the audience may be interested in reading your work. Read this article and think about the different types of purposes you might see in academic writing. How would each of these purposes change the way you write an academic essay?
Purpose
Rhetorically speaking, purpose is about making decisions as a writer about why you are writing and what you want your audience to take from your work.
There are three objectives you may have when writing a research paper.
- To inform – When you write a research paper to inform, you're not making an argument, but you do want to stress the importance of your topic. You might think about your purpose as educating your audience on a particular topic.
- To persuade – When you write a research paper to persuade, your purpose should be to take a stance on your topic. You'll want to develop a thesis statement that makes a clear assertion about some aspect of your topic.
- To analyze – Although all research papers require some analysis, some research papers make analysis a primary purpose. So, your focus wouldn't be to inform or persuade, but to analyze your topic. You will want to synthesize your research and, ideally, reach new, thoughtful conclusions based on your research.
TIPS! Here are a few tips when it comes to thinking about purpose.
You must be able to move beyond the idea that you are writing your research paper only because your professor is making you. While that may be true on some level, you must decide on a purpose based on what topic you're researching and what you want to say about that topic.
You must decide for yourself, within the requirements of your assignment, why you are engaging in the research process and writing a paper. Only when you do this will your writing be engaging for your audience.
Your assignment or project instructions affect purpose. If your professor gives you a formal writing assignment sheet for your research paper, it is especially important to read very carefully through your professor's expectations. If your professor does not provide a formal assignment sheet, be prepared to ask questions about the purpose of the assignment.