Communication: Higher

Purposes in writing

Writing always has a purpose – whether you’re writing a short note or a complicated essay, you are doing so for a purpose.

Purposes usually fall into some of the following categories:

To give information or to inform
To explain something
To demonstrate something
To express a point of view
To give an opinion
To argue for a particular case
To examine a range of views
To judge the worth of different points of view
To encourage people to think about things in different ways

To highlight an issue
To draw attention to something
To publicise an issue
To persuade people
To try to convince people of a view
To make people change their opinions
To win people over to a cause
To entertain
To make people think about something that they would normally ignore or be unaware of

These are the common purposes that writers have when they write. Many of the purposes in this list are closely related – several mean much the same thing.

Sometimes writers have more than one purpose – sometimes there are two or more purposes in their writing. For example, a writer might want to draw attention to an issue, while at the same time trying to make you change your opinion about it.