IXL | Identify audience and purpose | 10th grade language arts

Read the science textbook excerpt and then answer the question.

Genes and Behavior

In the 1940s, behavioral psychologist Robert Tryon conducted an experiment in which rats were placed in a complex maze that had a food reward at one exit. Rats that made fewer errors navigating the maze were bred together to create a "maze-bright colony." Rats that made more errors were bred together to create a "maze-dull colony." After selectively breeding the mice for seven generations, Tryon tested offspring from each colony to determine how quickly those rats would learn the maze. Offspring of the maze-bright rats consistently made fewer errors than the maze-dull offspring. Tyron's research therefore suggests that the ability to navigate the maze successfully was influenced by genes passed from parent to offspring.

Who is the primary audience?

biology students

professional psychologists

genetics researchers

people who own pet rats

ref_doc_title.

Learn with an example

question

Read the letter to the editor and then answer the question.

As a parent, I'm concerned that students are buying soda in the school cafeteria every day, which affects their ability to learn. Too much sugar and caffeine makes it challenging for our students to concentrate. In addition, soda consumption can contribute to long-term health problems such as obesity and diabetes. I am not suggesting that Summerfield's public schools should dictate what students eat and drink, but I do believe our schools should promote and foster healthy lifestyles, including proper nutrition. Students should be allowed to bring their own soda from home, but offering soda in our cafeterias is unacceptable.

Who is the primary audience?

readers in the Summerfield school district

students at public schools

nutrition experts

a national news audience

key idea

Audience and purpose are important factors that work together to guide writers' decisions about word choice, sentence style, tone, and use of evidence.

Audience refers to the intended readers of a text. Writers use their understanding of audience to make choices about what information readers need, what evidence readers will find convincing, and what language is most appropriate for those readers. For example:

A car ad targeted toward an audience of new parents might describe a vehicle as "spacious" and boast about its crash test ratings. Meanwhile, an ad for the same car targeted toward outdoor enthusiasts might use words like "rugged" and emphasize the vehicle's four-wheel drive capability.

Purpose refers to a writer's reason for writing, or what he or she hopes to accomplish. Two primary purposes of nonfiction writing are to inform readers, as with a textbook or lab report, and to persuade readers to change the way they think or act, as with an advertisement or a newspaper opinion piece. Individual pieces of writing will typically have more specific and complex purposes. For example:

A news report might inform voters of politicians' voting records by providing that information without commentary. A political website might try to persuade voters to support a particular candidate by highlighting the specific portions of his or her record that the website's visitors are likely to approve of.

solution

The primary audience of the text is readers in the Summerfield school district. The letter to the editor is written with them in mind.

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Work it out

Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

C.1Identify the author's purpose

B.1Which text is most formal?

B.4Compare passages for tone

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