DETERMINING THE AUTHOR’S PURPOSES AND INTENDED AUDIENCE

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3 GENERAL PURPOSES OF AN AUTHOR

 Persuasive
 Informative
 Expressive
EXAMPLE:
Title of the Printed Text Intended Audience Purpose

My first ABC’s Babies Informative

The PH Times Flight Passengers Informative

( newspaper)

Advance (Sexy tabloid) Stand-by / street Expressive

vendors

Deceptive Heart Teenagers Expressive / informative

(Fiction)

Chew, baby! Chew! Babies Expressive

Dogs Are Better Than Toddlers Persuasive

Cats

Chemistry 101 Students Informative

TO PERSUADE
 To change your mind
 To make an action
· TOOLS: Factual Evidence
· GOAL: To Convince

TO INFORM
 Validity
 Reliability
 TOOLS : Research
 GOAL : To Inform

TO EXPRESS
 TOOLS : Personal opinions and experiences
 GOAL : To engage the reader’s emotions

FACTS, OPINIONS, AND INCORRECT INFORMATION

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·
 An OPINION is SUBJECTIVE. It is based on or influenced by personal beliefs or feelings
- E.G “ Dogs are better than cats “

· An FACT is OBJECTIVE. It is not influenced by personal feelings or judgment

- E.G “ King John of England signed the magna Carta in 1215 “

· The opposite of a fact is INCORRECT INFORMATION

- E.G “ Philippine’s capital is Cebu

EXAMPLE
1. Benedict is a Fashion Model
= FACT
Benedict is a great, handsome Fashion Model
= OPINION
2. Peter is very successful in tourism
= OPINION
Peter is in the tourism business
= FACT
3. The Mall of Asia in the Philippines is located at the heart of makati city.
= INCORRECT INFORMATION
The Mall of Asia in the Philippines is huge
= FACT

FALLACIES IN REASONING 1.1

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INDUCTIVE GENERALIZATION
- Inductive generalizations use observations about a sample to come to a conclusion about the population
it came from.
Inductive generalizations are also called induction by enumeration.

Example:
1. The flamingos here are all pink.
2. All flamingos I’ve ever seen are pink.
3. All flamingos must be pink.

DEDUCTIVE REASONING
is a logical approach where you progress from general ideas to specific conclusions. It's often contrasted
with inductive reasoning, where you start with specific observations and form general conclusions.
Deductive reasoning is also called deductive logic or top-down reasoning.

"All dogs have four legs, John's pet is a dog, therefore John's pet has four legs."

3 STAGES OF INDUCTIVE REASONING

 SPECIFIC OBSERVATION
 PATTERN RECOGNITION
 GENERAL CONCLUSION
STATISTICAL GENERALIZATION
use specific numbers to make statements about populations, while non-statistical generalizations aren’t as
specific. These generalizations are a subtype of inductive generalizations, and they’re also called
statistical syllogisms. Here’s an example of a statistical generalization contrasted with a non-statistical
generalization.

SOUND REASONING
 one’s ability to objectively assess situations or circumstances using all the relevant
information and apply past experience in order to come to a conclusion or make a
decision.

CAUSAL REASONING
 making cause-and-effect links between different things.

SIGN REASONING
 making correlational connections between different things.

Using inductive reasoning, you infer a purely correlational relationship where nothing causes the
other thing to occur. Instead, one event may act as a “sign” that another event will occur or is
currently occurring.

ANALOGICAL REASONING
drawing conclusions about something based on its similarities to another thing. You first link two things
together and then conclude that some attribute of one thing must also hold true for the other thing.

- Analogical reasoning is also called comparison reasoning.

INDUCTIVE GENERALIZATIONS ARE EVALUATED USING SEVERAL CRITERIA

Large sample: Your sample should be large for a solid set of observations.

Random sampling: Probability sampling methods let you generalize your findings.
Variety: Your observations should be externally valid.

Counter evidence: Any observations that refute yours falsify your generalization.

FALLACIES IN REASONING 1.2

- A fallacy in reasoning makes an argument false or unreliable.

Here are a few most common fallacies in reasoning:

· HASTY GENERALIZATION
 This is reasoning based on popularity rather than on on scientific evidence or facts

· APPEAL TO AUTHORITY
 When an argument quotes an expert who is not qualified for a particular subject.

· RED HERRING
 is an argument that distracts the opponent away from the real issue and leads them to an
irrelevant issue.

· ATTACK ON A PERSON
 This reasoning attacks the person instead of the issue.

· BANDWAGON
 This is reasoning based on popularity rather than on scientific evidence or facts.

· EITHER-OR-REASONING
 This presents only two alternatives and acts as if there are no other choices.

· APPEAL TO EMOTIONS
 Appeals to emotion focus on eliciting a particular feeling in a viewer, even if those
feelings have no logical basis.

· SCARE TACTIC
 A scare tactic is a type of emotional appeal that uses fear to convince customers to
purchase a product or service.

JOURNAL ARTICLES
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A journal article is a piece of research, usually scientific or scholarly, published in a peer-reviewed
academic journal. They are usually written by professionals and reviewed by other professionals in the
same field before publication.

Topic
 A topic is simply who or what is being talked or written about.

The Main Idea

  After determining the topic of the written passage, your next question to yourself is,
“What is the whole point of this write-up?”

There are two types of main ideas:

 The stated main idea
 The implied main idea.

How do you identify the main idea?

The main idea should be stated in one sentence only. It should be a complete declarative sentence.

In identifying the main idea, you must identify the supporting details, too.
- “Is this a main idea, or is this a supporting detail?”

In the case of written passages with implied main ideas

- “What is the essential point of this passage?”