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MAIN IDEA / MAIN PURPOSE

What is the author doing?

The author could be:

1. Convincing you of a viewpoint (are there arguments and examples to support an argument?)

2. Comparing two different viewpoints (different arguments are presented, but the author doesn’t

pick a side)

3. Describing or explaining a phenomenon (is it mostly descriptive or explanatory?)

4. Telling a story (is there a clear narrative?)

The purpose and point of the passage are related, sometimes directly and sometimes in ways that are
less obvious, but they are not precisely the same thing.

Main Point/Idea - The primary argument the author is making. It is usually stated more or less directly in

the passage, in the introduction, the conlucison, or all three.

Primary Purpose - The goal of the passage as a whole (e.g. describe, emphasize, refute).

* Then the question we have discussed (What is the author doing?) is helping us find the primary
purpose of a text.

Main point questions ask us to identify the statement that best expresses the central idea or the main

point that the passage as a whole is designed to convey.

Format:

• “Identify the main point...”

• “... the main idea”

• “central idea of the paragraph...”

Primary purpose questions ask us to identify why the author may have written the passage. As you read

through the passage the first time, it’s a good idea to always be asking yourself: “So what?” “What’s the

point?”

Format:

• “The primary purpose of the paragraph is to...”

• “The author’s primary purpose in writing the paragraph is to...”

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Main Idea Sample Question

Americans have always been interested in their Presidents’ wives. Many First Ladies have been
remembered because of the ways they have influenced their husbands. Other First Ladies have
made the history books on their own. At least two First Ladies, Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson,
made it their business to send signals during their husbands’ speeches. It was First Lady Helen
Taft’s idea to plant the famous cherry trees in Washington, D.C. Shortly after President Woodrow
Wilson suffered a stroke, Edith Wilson unofficially took over most of the duties of the Presidency
until the end of her husband’s term. Dolly Madison saw to it that a magnificent painting of George
Washington was not destroyed during the War of 1812.

What is the main idea of this passage?

A) The Humanitarian work of the First Ladies is critical in American government.

B) Dolly Madison was the most influential president’s wife.

C) Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the First Lady image.

D) The First Ladies are important figures in American culture.

E) The First Ladies are key supporters of the Presidents

Explanation

Correct answer is D. The paragraph describes actions of various First Ladies as examples of their

importance in American culture.

That they are key supporters of the Presidents (E) is not the main idea because the first paragraph states

some First Ladies are remembered for influencing their husbands, while others “ ... have made the history

books on their own.”

Not all First Ladies are described here as doing humanitarian work (A). No one First Lady is singled out as

most important [(B), (C)].

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Main Idea Study Questions:

1. Of the many kinds of vegetables grown all over the world, which remains the favorite of young and
old alike? The potato, of course. Perhaps you know them as “taters,” “spuds,” or “Kennebees,” or as
“chips,” “Idahoes,” or even “shoestrings.” No matter, a potato by any other name is still a potato- the
world’s most widely grown vegetable. As a matter of fact, if you are an average potato eater, you will
put away at least 100 pounds of them each year. You can understand why most people agree that
this part of the food industry is no “small potatoes

Q: What is the main idea of this passage?

A) An average person eats 100 pounds of potatoes a year.

B) French fries are made from potatoes.

C) Potatoes are a key vegetable in the world.

D) There are various terms for potatoes.

2. Most people think that it’s fine to be “busy as a beaver.” Little do they know. Beavers may work
hard, but often they don’t get very much done. It is true that a beaver can gnaw through a tree
very quickly: A six-inch birch takes about 10 minutes. But then what? Often the beaver does not
make use of the tree. One expert says that beavers waste one out of every five trees they cut. For
one thing, they do not choose their trees wisely. One bunch of beavers cut down a cottonwood
tree more than 100 feet tall. Then they found that they could not move it. Beavers should learn that
it’s not enough to be busy. You have to know what you’re doing, too. For example, there was one
Oregon beaver that really was a worker. It decided to fix a leak in a man-made dam. After five days
of work it gave up. The leak it was trying to block was the lock that boats go through.

Q: What is the main idea of this passage?

A) Beavers may be hard-working animals, but they don’t always choose the most efficient mechanisms.

B) Beavers are excellent dam builders.

C) Beavers are well-developed tree cutters.

E) Beavers are actually lazy animals.

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3. In late August the grapes start to ripen. The growers wait until the sugar content is twenty-one
percent. Then they know the grapes are ripe enough to be picked. Skilled workers come to the
vineyards. They pick the grapes by hand in bunches. The workers fill their flat pans with grapes.
They gently empty the pans onto squares of paper. These squares lie between the long rows of
vines. They sit in the sun. Here the grapes stay while the sun does its work. It may take two weeks
or longer. The grapes are first dried on one side. When they have reached the right color, they are
turned to dry on the other side. The grapes are dried until only fifteen percent of the moisture is left.
Then they have turned into raisins.

Q: What is the main idea of this passage?

A) The creation of raisins in America.

B) The process of raisin development requires multiple steps.

C) Raisins are cleaned thoroughly at the packing plant.

D) The sugar content in raisin development is crucial.

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Primary Purpose Sample (Alternative) Question:

Early in the morning of May 7, 1869, an employee of the Union Pacific Company in Promontory
Summit, Utah, received news that suggested at least a day’s delay for an important company event.
According to the telegram, a powerful thunderstorm was approaching that promised to disrupt
and interfere with the golden spike ceremony celebrating the First Transcontinental Railroad
connecting the American East Coast to California. Despite the threat of storms, that afternoon
onlookers applauded as the final golden spike was placed over the last railroad tie. Almost forty
years of planning and construction had come to an end, and a railroad now connected New York to
San Francisco.

Suppose that the writer’s initial purpose was to write a brief essay describing the entire process of
planning and constructing the First Transcontinental Railroad. Would this essay successfully fulfill
that purpose?

A) Yes, because it offers important details including the path that the railroad took from Nebraska to

northern California.

B) Yes, because it carefully describes each significant step in the planning and construction of the

railroad.

C) No, because its primary focus is not on the entire process of building the railroad, but on one moment

in its construction.

D) No, because it is mostly a study of difficulties in the initial stages of creating the railroad.

Explanation

The correct answer is C.

It’s important to look at the different events discussed in the paragraph. Does it cover an entire history of

building the transcontinental railroad? Actually, the passage covers the ceremony commemorating the

completion of the railroad.

So, A and B aren’t correct because there are not many details or careful descriptions about the building

process.

C looks right, since the focus, as we decided above, was on one event.

Still, we have to make sure D isn’t a better answer.

But, since the paragraph doesn’t touch upon any difficulties at the project’s inception, we now know the

answer’s C.

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Primary Purpose Study Questions:

1. In Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry does not reject integration or the economic and moral
promise of the American dream; rather, she remains loyal to this dream while looking, realistically,
at its incomplete realization. Once we recognize this dual vision, we can accept the play’s ironic
nuances as deliberate social commentaries by Hansberry rather than as the “unintentional” irony
that Bigsby attributes to the work. Indeed, a curiously persistent refusal to credit Hansberry with a
capacity for intentional irony has led some critics to interpret the play’s thematic conflicts as mere
confusion, contradiction, or eclecticism. Isaacs, for example, cannot easily reconcile Hansberry’s
intense concern for her race with her ideal of human reconciliation. But the play’s complex view
of Black self-esteem and human solidarity as compatible is no more “contradictory” than Du Bois’
famous, well-considered ideal of ethnic self-awareness coexisting with human unity, or Fanon’s
emphasis on an ideal internationalism that also accommodates national identities and roles.

Q: The author’s primary purpose in the passage is to

A) explain some critics’ refusal to consider Raisin in the Sun a deliberately ironic play.

B) suggest that ironic nuances ally Raisin in the Sun with Du Bois’ and Fanon’s writings.

C) analyze the fundamental dramatic conflicts in Raisin in the Sun.

D) affirm the thematic coherence underlying Raisin in the Sun.

2. It would be expected that a novel by a figure as prominent as W.E.B Du Bois would attract the
attention of literary critics. Additionally, when the novel subtly engages the issue of race, as Du Bois’s
The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911) does, it would be surprising not to encounter an abundance of
scholarly work about that text. But though valuable scholarship has examined Du Bois’ political and
historical thought, his novels have received scant attention. Perhaps Du Bois the novelist must wait
his turn behind Du Bois the philosopher, historian, and editor. But what if the truth lies elsewhere:
what if his novels do not speak to current concerns?

Q: What is the primary purpose of the passage?

A) The nature of DuBois’ engagement with the issue of race in The Quest of the Silver Fleece i

B) Whether DuBois’ novels are of high quality and relevant to current concerns

C) The relationship between DuBois the novelist and DuBois the philosopher, historian and editor.

D) The degree of consideration that has been given to Du Bois’ novels, including The Quest of the Silver

Fleece

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Answer Key (Study Questions)

Main Idea Questions:

1. C

2. A

3. B

Primary Purpose Questions

1. D

2. D