Writing does not spontaneously occur. All writing, from a novel to a grocery list, has a specific purpose intended by the writer of the piece. What is purpose?
PURPOSE IS WHY A WRITER WRITES.
Consideration #1: Audience
Before we can examine purpose, we must examine the audience that will read the piece -- both the direct audience and the indirect audience. The direct audience is the group intended readers of a piece. These are the readers the author knows their work will reach. When writers write inside a genre, they are automatically writing to a certain audience (for example, only horror lovers would read a horror novel). Sometimes the publisher or writer determines the audience: for example, an article published in the Journal of American Medicine will be for an audience of doctors, while a book written by John Green is most likely for a teen audience.
Despite the author trying to reach a specific audience, any publicly released work will be found by those outside the intended audience. The indirect audience is any group that is not an intended reader but likely to discover a piece. The word "likely" is key: while the internet and libraries are vast places where anyone can by chance stumble upon anything, an indirect audience isn't "everyone" but groups that have an outside interest in the topic or work. For example, Malcolm X wrote his lauded speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" for a group of two thousand Black social activists at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan -- that crowd and similar civil rights activists were his direct audience. However, as one of the key figures in the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X had a wide indirect audience interested in what he had to say: there was Lyndon B. Johnson, then-president running for reelection on Civil Rights that Malcolm X criticizes several times; there were other Civil Rights leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the NAACP whose methods of peaceful protest Malcolm X was criticizing; and there were white anti-Civil Rights leaders like Billy Graham, George Wallace, and the Dixiecrats -- those that read Malcolm X's speech so they could use his revolutionary words to stoke the fears of everyday white Americans that felt threatened by Civil Rights.
A good writer focuses on their direct audience, using language and rhetorical tactics that they know their audience enjoys and understands. Great writers go further and consider the impact of their words on their indirect audience as well. For "The Ballot and the Bullet," Malcolm X wants his audience to understand that the Black community in America will rise up and revolt violently for their rights (the bullet) if they cannot win equality and representation in the 1964 election (the ballot). Malcolm X plays up the anger and violence in his rhetoric not just to inspire his direct audience of activist but to also make his critics (those of his indirect audience) reconsider their stances on the fight for Civil Rights by inspiring fear of nationwide racial revolution.
Despite the author trying to reach a specific audience, any publicly released work will be found by those outside the intended audience. The indirect audience is any group that is not an intended reader but likely to discover a piece. The word "likely" is key: while the internet and libraries are vast places where anyone can by chance stumble upon anything, an indirect audience isn't "everyone" but groups that have an outside interest in the topic or work. For example, Malcolm X wrote his lauded speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" for a group of two thousand Black social activists at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan -- that crowd and similar civil rights activists were his direct audience. However, as one of the key figures in the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X had a wide indirect audience interested in what he had to say: there was Lyndon B. Johnson, then-president running for reelection on Civil Rights that Malcolm X criticizes several times; there were other Civil Rights leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the NAACP whose methods of peaceful protest Malcolm X was criticizing; and there were white anti-Civil Rights leaders like Billy Graham, George Wallace, and the Dixiecrats -- those that read Malcolm X's speech so they could use his revolutionary words to stoke the fears of everyday white Americans that felt threatened by Civil Rights.
A good writer focuses on their direct audience, using language and rhetorical tactics that they know their audience enjoys and understands. Great writers go further and consider the impact of their words on their indirect audience as well. For "The Ballot and the Bullet," Malcolm X wants his audience to understand that the Black community in America will rise up and revolt violently for their rights (the bullet) if they cannot win equality and representation in the 1964 election (the ballot). Malcolm X plays up the anger and violence in his rhetoric not just to inspire his direct audience of activist but to also make his critics (those of his indirect audience) reconsider their stances on the fight for Civil Rights by inspiring fear of nationwide racial revolution.
Consideration #2: Circumstance (Occasion, Kairos, and Exigence)
To understand purpose, it's also important to differentiate it from circumstance. Purpose is why the author writes what they write, while circumstance is the context around why the writer felt compelled to write anything at all. Circumstance was developed by the ancient Greek rhetors and has the same three elements of their works of drama and epic poetry: a single setting (occasion), a single moment (kairos), and a single action (exigence):
Let's take a very important "situation of a moment": the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1938, which was the event that triggered World War II. This event caused hundreds of Americans to pick up their pens and write -- yet they all wrote different pieces. Then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote one of his "Fireside Chat" radio speeches condemning the actions of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis with the purpose of moving Americans to condemn the invasion. Meanwhile, aviator Charles Lindburgh and radio priest Father Charles Coughlin wrote speeches arguing that America should ally themselves with the German Nazis in the emerging war. A British man living in America named Charlie Chaplin met the moment by writing a satirical film with the purpose of making fun of Adolf Hitler called The Great Dictator. Same exigence, many different purposes.
Several common "purposes" that someone can give for a piece are actually circumstance. These include:
So let's leave circumstance behind and get to true purpose:
- Occasion refers to the place and time the piece will be released to the public. For example, the occasion for the "The Ballot or the Bullet" was a church in Detroit on the evening before he went on his Hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim goes on once in their life.
- Kairos refers to the timing of the release of the written piece -- while occasion refers to when a piece is released, kairos is the consideration of how the timing of the piece will hit the audience, as not even the most well-structured argument will convince an audience that isn't ready to hear it. For "The Ballot and the Bullet," Malcolm X chose April 12, 1964 for his speech as the idea of the upcoming election is critical to his message -- the speech was before the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, where listeners to the speech could campaign for their ideal Civil Rights candidates to get on the ballot.
- Exigence is the most important consideration when it comes to circumstance. Exigence is the event that inspires the author to write and has more to do with what the author wants from their piece as contrasted with purpose, which concerns what the audience will take from the piece. Exigence is an "aha!" moment by the author -- what Lloyd F. Blitzer calls "a thing which is other than it should be" in life that gets an author's attention and inspires them to say something.
Let's take a very important "situation of a moment": the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1938, which was the event that triggered World War II. This event caused hundreds of Americans to pick up their pens and write -- yet they all wrote different pieces. Then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wrote one of his "Fireside Chat" radio speeches condemning the actions of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis with the purpose of moving Americans to condemn the invasion. Meanwhile, aviator Charles Lindburgh and radio priest Father Charles Coughlin wrote speeches arguing that America should ally themselves with the German Nazis in the emerging war. A British man living in America named Charlie Chaplin met the moment by writing a satirical film with the purpose of making fun of Adolf Hitler called The Great Dictator. Same exigence, many different purposes.
Several common "purposes" that someone can give for a piece are actually circumstance. These include:
- It was the author's job to write the text (think professional journalists or politicians)
- The author wanted to make money through their writing
- The author enjoys writing
- The author wanted to try something new with their writing
So let's leave circumstance behind and get to true purpose:
Purpose 1: to entertain an audience
A great many texts are made to entertain audiences and sell copies of the text. Most poems, dramas, and narrative genres are made to entertain, such as mysteries, true crime, fantasy, horror, romance, and comedy. Even a text that has another primary purpose has to, on some level, entertain readers enough to keep them captivated throughout the text.
Purpose 2: to inform or teach an audience
Texts with the purpose of informing or teaching are objective or didactic in tone and are based in facts. Though edifying texts like textbooks, essays, and articles come to mind with informative purpose, most mythic texts are also informational, as they explain the origin of something (like the story of Pandora's box) or explain the correct behavior one should have (like the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper).
Purpose 3: to persuade an audience
Persuasive texts intend to actively convince an audience to believe in the same ideas as the writer. All rhetorical texts and essays are persuasive in nature as they make an argument. Sometimes a narrative or dramatic work can also have a persuasive theme. The key term here is "actively:" any text can theoretically change someone's opinion on a matter, but only texts with an active and obvious intent are persuasive.
Purpose 4: to warn an audience
Sometimes persuasion goes beyond trying to change a mind and goes into providing a warning to readers that, should something continue or come to pass, what positive or negative consequences will occur. This is the basis of science fiction writing, documentary film, and political-based narratives and rhetoric. Warning texts are usually about stopping a practice or idea that happening or going to happen.
Purpose 5: to call an audience to action
Conversely, call to action texts are usually about starting a practice or idea. A call to action is a persuasive text that goes beyond trying to change an opinion but tries to change how a person acts. Many persuasive texts have a call to action at the end, and all advertisements are a call to action (specifically, "buy X").
Purpose: to reflect and share
Finally, reflective writing is nonfictional and intended to relive or process a personal experience. For this to be a literary purpose and not an exercise in exigence, the reflection must be written for an audience to read or watch (though it may not be tailored to that audience at all). Most poems and memoirs fall into reflective writing, as well as live Q and A and interviews. Since reflective writing has no direct audience in mind, it is usually seen as the most "honest" reflection of a writer from a biographical critical perspective.