In ancient Rome, the great orator Cicero noted that a good speech generally fulfills one of three major purposes: to delight, to teach, or to move. Today, our purposes when we communicate with one another remain pretty much the same: we seek to entertain (delight), to inform or explain (teach), and to persuade or convince (move).

Whether you choose to communicate for purposes of your own or have that purpose set for you by an instructor or employer, you should consider the purpose for any communication carefully. For the writing you do that is not connected to a class or work assignment, your purpose may be very clear to you: you may want to convince neighbors to support a community garden, get others in your office to help keep the kitchen clean, or tell blog readers what you like or hate about your new phone. Even so, analyzing what you want to accomplish and why can make you a more effective communicator.

Considering purposes for academic writing

Academic work requires particular attention to your reasons for writing. On one level, you are writing to establish your credibility with your instructor, to demonstrate that you are a careful thinker and an effective communicator. On another level, though, you are writing to achieve goals of your own, to say as clearly and forcefully as possible what you think about a topic.

For most college writing, consider purpose in terms of the assignment, the instructor’s expectations, and your own goals.

Considering your rhetorical stance

Thinking about your own position as a communicator and your attitude toward your text—your rhetorical stance—has several advantages. It will help you examine where your opinions come from and thus help you address the topic fully; it will help you see how your stance might differ from the stances held by members of your audience; and it will help you establish your credibility with that audience. This part of your rhetorical stance—your ethos or credibility—helps determine how well your message will be received. To be credible, you will need to do your homework on your subject, present your information fairly and honestly, and be respectful of your audience.

A student writing a proposal for increased services for people with disabilities, for instance, knew that having a brother with Down syndrome gave her an intense interest that her audience might not have in this topic. She needed to work hard, then, to get her audience to understand—and share—her stance.

Purpose and stance of visuals and media

Images and media you choose to include in your writing can help establish credibility. But remember that they, too, always have a point of view or perspective. This postcard, for example, illustrates two physical perspectives—a photo of the Carquinez Bridge and a road map showing the bridge’s location. It also shows a time perspective from 1927, when the bridge was new. This postcard, captioned “America’s Greatest Highway Bridge,” presents the construction of the bridge (now demolished) as a triumph of modern technology. So when you choose an image, think hard about its perspective and about how well it fits in with your topic and purpose. Does the image have an attitude—and does that attitude serve the purpose of your writing?

Emily Lesk’s purposes

As she considered the assignment, Emily Lesk saw that her primary purpose was to explain the significance and implications of her topic to herself and her readers, but she recognized some other purposes as well. Because this essay was assigned early in the term, she wanted to get off to a good start; thus, one of her purposes was to write as well as she could to demonstrate her ability to her classmates and instructor. In addition, she decided that she wanted to find out something new about herself and to use this knowledge to get her readers to think about themselves.

For the first draft of Emily Lesk’s essay, see 3g. For the final draft of her essay, see 4l.