What is the writer’s purpose?
Let’s pull all of the points together, and make them into one answer.In the article ‘Excluded by the system’ the author uses the opening paragraph to tell us that there is something wrong with an education system that allows a boy to attend school for only three hours a day. From this, we can conclude that the writer’s purpose is to discuss what is wrong with this practice.
The writer tells us in the closing paragraph that the Labour Party must look again at its policies. From this, we can say that the purpose is to attack the government’s policy on education.
The writer says ‘He is not taught English or maths because his school cannot provide him with a support teacher.’ Reading between the lines, we can infer that the writer would like to see more support teachers, although this isn’t stated openly. This suggests that another purpose of the article is to argue that more support teachers should be employed in schools. The title of the article is ‘Excluded by the system’ and this suggests that the purpose of the article is to discuss exclusions.
The writer quotes directly from the mother of a boy who has been excluded from school. This suggests that part of the purpose was to make us see things from the excluded boy’s point of view. It suggests that maybe we should feel sympathetic towards him.
Note
When you sit the assessment you will not be expected to give an answer as detailed as the one here. All you need to do is to identify one or two purposes, and give one or two reasons for each purpose.
