Main content

Author's attitude | Quick guide

How does the author feel about this?

Authors write things for a variety of reasons.

To report facts (without bias or opinion)
To report facts reported by someone else in a study (without bias or opinion)
To persuade the reader of the merits of some position (positive attitude)
To disprove or attack a position (negative attitude)

You will encounter questions that ask directly about the author’s attitude, or about the attitudes of people or groups that are mentioned. While not explicitly stated, these attitudes can be discovered from both the language and content of the passage.

Examples

Most Author's Attitude questions go something like this:

"The author’s attitude toward ___ can best be described as"
"Which best characterizes how the author feels about __?"
"The author of the passage would be most likely to characterize/describe __ as"
“The tone of lines 5-6 can best be described as”

Strategies

Top tip: Charge it! Is the attitude or tone charged positively ( + ) or negatively ( – )? Pay attention to whether authors, by employing a certain tone or by choosing to use certain words, reveal how they feel about the material they are presenting. Use + and – to quickly note your impressions on scratch paper as you read.

When you get to the question, ask yourself: "on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the most negative and 5 being the most positive, where does the author’s attitude fall?"

Beware! Tone can change: Authors might praise one aspect of their subject and later criticize another. Explore your options carefully: the best choice will reflect the author's overall attitude.

Common wrong choice types

The wrong choices for this kind of question are usually too positive, too neutral, or too negative to accurately reflect the author’s tone.

Your turn!

Practice these strategies with the example below!

Question about author's attitude

Parents usually do not insist that their children learn to walk by a certain age. Parents feel confident that the children will learn to walk within a reasonable period of time, when their bodies are ready for such an undertaking. Teachers should adopt the same attitude when teaching children in school how to read. If teachers did this, children might learn to read much more quickly and experience less anxiety while doing so.

The author's attitude toward teachers who try to force children to learn how to read once they reach a certain age can best be described as

Want to join the conversation?

Sort by:

꒰ jennie ꒱
Posted 2 years ago. Direct link to ꒰ jennie ꒱'s post “how does the authors atti...”
how does the authors attitude affect the perspective?
Button navigates to signup pageButton navigates to signup page
(3 votes)
Answer
- blaze
  Posted a year ago. Direct link to blaze's post “it changes the charachter...”
  it changes the charachter along with the authors attitude cuz whatever attitude the author is in the character ,ust be formed to that attitude
  Button navigates to signup page
  (0 votes)
blaze
Posted a year ago. Direct link to blaze's post “also i aint been on in 5 ...”
also i aint been on in 5 months i got no clue where i am in my schoolwork what am i supposed to be learning with this lesson anyway??
Button navigates to signup pageButton navigates to signup page
(1 vote)
Answer