Words with Purpose: Author’s Purpose for Grade 8 Readers 

This Grade 8 Literature Skills worksheet helps students explore how authors write with different purposes such as informing, persuading, and entertaining readers. Through engaging reading comprehension activities, learners discover how facts, storytelling, emotional arguments, and viewpoints work together to shape meaning and influence readers. 

The worksheet focuses on Literature Skills – Author’s Purpose (Inform, Persuade, Entertain) and encourages students to identify why an author writes a text and how different writing techniques support that purpose. With activities like multiple choice questions, matching exercises, true or false, sorting tasks, and short answer responses, students strengthen reading comprehension, interpretation, and critical thinking skills. 

Why Author’s Purpose Matters in Grammar and Literature? 

Understanding author’s purpose is an essential reading skill because it helps students analyze texts more thoughtfully and recognize how writers communicate ideas effectively. For Grade 8 learners, this topic is important because: 

1. It helps students identify whether a text aims to inform, persuade, or entertain. 
2. It improves comprehension by focusing on the writer’s intention. 
3. It develops critical thinking and interpretation skills. 
4. It teaches students how facts, emotions, and storytelling influence readers. 
 

What’s Inside This Worksheet? 

This worksheet includes five engaging activities that strengthen understanding of author’s purpose: 

🧠 Exercise 1 – Multiple Choice Questions 
Students answer questions about the author’s purpose and writing techniques used in the passage. Example: “Why did the author include facts in the story?” 

🔗 Exercise 2 – Match the Following 
Learners match purposes and features with their correct examples. Example: “Persuade → Attempts to change opinions.” 

✅ Exercise 3 – True or False 
Students identify whether statements about the passage and author’s purpose are true or false. Example: “Authors can write with multiple purposes.” 

📋 Exercise 4 – Sort the Words 
Students sort words into categories such as inform and persuade. Example: “Statistics → Inform.” 

✍️ Exercise 5 – Short Answer Questions 
Learners explain how the passage combines informing, persuading, and entertaining techniques. Example: “Why does the author include emotional arguments?” 
 

✅ Answer Key (For Parents & Educators) 
 

Exercise 1 – Multiple Choice Questions 
1. a) Building a school 
2. a) To inform readers 
3. a) Persuade readers 
4. a) It engages readers 
5. a) Education 
6. a) Emotional arguments 
7. a) Yes 
8. a) Multiple perspectives 
9. a) It provides facts 
10. a) Inform persuade and entertain 

Exercise 2 – Match the Following 
1. Inform → Gives useful information 
2. Persuade → Attempts to change opinions 
3. Entertain → Keeps readers interested 
4. Facts about education → Details about issues 
5. Emotional arguments → Strong feelings and ideas 
6. Storytelling → Narrative style 
7. Different viewpoints → More than one side 
8. Village meeting → Community discussion 
9. School discussion → Topic of education 
10. Readers engaged → Captures attention 

Exercise 3 – True or False 
1. False 
2. True 
3. True 
4. True 
5. True 
6. False 
7. True 
8. True 
9. True 
10. True 

Exercise 4 – Sort the Words 

Inform: 
Facts, Education details, Statistics, School information, Viewpoints 

Persuade: 
Emotional arguments, Strong opinions, Convincing ideas, Reader support, Appeal to feelings 

Exercise 5 – Short Answer Questions 

1. The author informs readers by sharing facts about students traveling long distances for education and discussing the need for a new school. 

2. The author includes emotional arguments to persuade readers about the importance of education and encourage support for the school. 

3. The passage combines different author purposes by using facts to inform, emotional arguments to persuade, and storytelling to entertain readers. 

Help your child master reading comprehension and critical thinking by learning how authors use information, persuasion, and storytelling to shape powerful texts. 
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