ACT® · Reading — Craft and Structure: Purpose and Point of View
Inferring a Purpose
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does the accumulation of a writer's choices point at a purpose none of them states?
- Worked exampleShow me inferring a purpose from a text that spends four paragraphs on one overlooked inventor.
- Going furtherWhat happens to a purpose question when the text is a memoir rather than an argument?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the purpose of a text simply to inform whenever it contains facts?
Check yourself
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Informational passage:
The patent for the 1831 loom mechanism stands in the name of the mill's owner. The drawings are in another hand, and the 15 letters in the county archive are signed by Sarah Weald, the mechanic he employed, who describes the mechanism 19 months before the filing and asks twice about payment.
Her name appears in no history of the trade. The county record office catalogued her letters under the owner's name, where they sat unread. The standard account credits the owner, cites the patent, and has been copied into 9 textbooks.
The author's purpose is best described as a purpose to:End of topic.