Insofar as people know what they are doing, they plan their actions to achieve their purposes.
Someone who selects the purpose of being rich will design and carry out a set of actions, legal or
illegal, to gain the desired wealth. A person who wants to gain great wisdom will design an
entirely different life course. Writers, whether they want most to be wealthy or wise, have specific
purposes they hope to achieve by any piece of work. If they are skilled writers—that is, in control
of what they write—they design each aspect of what they are writing to achieve their purpose.
Being aware of the writer's purpose when you read helps you evaluate how well the writer has
achieved the purpose and decide whether you want to follow where the writer is trying to lead
you. The active reader reads more than the words and more than even the ideas: the active reader
reads what the writer is doing. The active reader reconstructs the overall design, both the writer's
purpose and the techniques used to realize that purpose.
In this chapter, we initially consider the various purposes a writer may have and the ways in
which a reader can discern that purpose. Next we discuss the various techniques available to
writers and in a case study look at several examples of how technique is related to purpose. The
chapter ends with specific instructions on how to write an essay analyzing purpose and
technique.
The Ad Writer's Purpose
Living as we do in a consumerist and merchandising society, we are all sensitive to the
designs of advertising. We know the purpose of most advertisements is to get us to open up our
wallets and surrender their contents willingly and even enthusiastically. We are also
intellectually aware of most of the techniques that advertisers use to entice us: emotionally
charged language, vivid art, attractive models, appeals to our fantasies and our fears.
Nike, a manufacturer of athletic shoes and sportswear, for example, has used ad campaigns
on television and in print media to encourage us to buy the newest, most high-tech, most
fashionable sneakers on the market. How can advertising make us purchase an eighty-dollar pair
of high-top basketball shoes when we don't even play basketball? By making us feel we need
them. Advertising tries to convince us that wearing Nike products will make us happy people. The
advertising would have us associate positive emotions springing from health and physical fitness
with Nike products and feel guilty for being lazy, eating junk food, and talking about turning over
a new le
challenge us to get off the sofa, put down the television remote control, and exercise
regularly-and then to associate our feelings of accomplishment and pride with Nike athletic
shoes. The slogan suggests that readers will be exchanging bad habits for good ones when they
buy a new pair of shoes. Of course, readers must do something to accomplish all this: in order to
“just do it” (stop being lazy and start exercising), they first have to buy a pair of Nikes. The slogan
also implies (perhaps legitimately) that consumers have something to gain (at the very least, a
fashionable new pair of shoes; at the most, better health) and nothing to lose (not exactly
true—the shoes are costly).
The two-page spread originally appeared in a weekly magazine targeting African Americans in
the business world. Like most of Nike's print ads, this one targets a specific audience: educated,
professional African-American males. By repeating the “JUST DO IT” slogan while challenging
potential consumers to achieve in every facet of experience, the company is insisting that wearing
Nike shoes is a sign of success not just on the basketball Court, but in the game of life. The visual
Chapter 7 Analyzing the Author's Purpose and Technique 105
impact of the ad is created by the contrast between light and dark in a wide-angle photograph of
a dimly lit alley. The only light appears in the distant figure dressed in a white sweat suit,
shooting hoops on an outdoor basketball court; in the white lettering of the printed copy running
down the right side of the right-hand page; and in the Nike logo in the top left corner of the
left-hand page. The lone athlete, the white lettering, and the Nike logo stand out and “rise above”
an obscure environment—challenging the potential consumer to do likewise. The narrative itself
reinforces and clarifies the message. The first seven lines list the nicknames of athletes who
