Authors+viewpointobservationfinalcopy
- 2. What is it? Imagine the author sitting in front of a blank computer screen. The author’s viewpoint is the very reason the author types anything at all on his/her computer! Author’s viewpoint is the way an author looks at topic or idea and their feeling towards that topic. For example…
- 3. Why did Robert D. Ballard write Finding the Titanic?
- 4. To give us information about the Titanic’s fateful journey and tell us that he believes we should now leave the remains of the Titanic alone!!
- 5. So how do we know what the author’s viewpoint is, anyway (and why should we care?)
- 6. It is important because………… If we figure out the author’s views, we can better understand what he/she wrote! Of course!
- 7. So how do we find the author’s viewpoint of a certain topic?
- 8. The author’s words help us figure out the view of the author. The author usually doesn’t state his or her viewpoint directly. The words the author uses and his/her opinions give us clues about how the author feels about life’s issues! For example……………
- 9. If an author used the following words to describe the beach: cold, bitter wind, nauseating smell of fish, shrieking seagulls …we can infer ( piece the clues together, remember? ) that the author’s view or opinion about life at the beach is…
- 10. An awful, cruddy way to spend vacation!
- 11. Authors don’t also just use strong words in their opinions however. The author can also use facts to support their viewpoint. This makes their argument stronger and you are more likely to agree with them.
- 12. The Story’s Illustrations The pictures that are in your story can also be clues of the author’s views about life. For example, in a story about factories, if you saw pictures like these, what would you infer (put the pieces together) about the author’s views about factories?
- 13. In Conclusion: The author’s viewpoint tells us why the author bothered to write the story in the first place. It is the author’s view about a certain topic. You can tell what the author’s viewpoint is by looking at the words he/she used when stating their opinions about a topic. Also look for facts that support the author’s viewpoint. You can use the illustrations to help identify the author’s viewpoint.
- 14. Now it’s time to practice Now we are going to look at a series of short passages. We will identify the author’s viewpoint using the illustrations and words used to express the author’s opinions in each passage. We will also look to see if there are any facts that support their argument.