Why Did the Author Include This Part?

Explain the purpose of a single sentence, paragraph, or text feature.

Purpose works at a small scale too. Every paragraph, quote, picture, or text feature was included for a reason. Common reasons include: to grab attention, to give an example, to define a word, to show evidence, to give background, to show a different side, or to conclude. Read this opening of an article: 'Imagine holding your breath for over an hour. For some whales, that's normal.

' Why did the author begin this way? To grab attention by making the reader picture something surprising. Later, the article includes a diagram of a whale's lungs. Its purpose is to show how whales store oxygen, which is hard to explain with words alone. When a question asks 'Why did the author include...? ', think about what that part adds to the whole text, and what would be missing without it.

• 1Every part of a text has a job.
• 2Common jobs: hook, example, definition, evidence, conclusion.
• 3Ask what would be missing without that part.