Author's Purpose, Diction, and Rhetorical Questions

Author's Purpose and Message

• An author's purpose is their reason for writing.
• Authors write reflective essays to share what they have learned by thinking deeply about a topic or some part of life.
• Authors reflect on and write about the effects that their experiences have had on their own personal development.
• An author's message is the new understanding that they gain and share in writing as a result of reflection.

Diction

• Diction is an author's word choice.
• It is part of an author's style and helps the author express their message.
• Diction may be described as formal, informal, down-to-earth, sophisticated, technical, slangy, and so on.

Rhetorical Questions

• In a reflective essay, an author may include rhetorical questions.
• Rhetorical questions are questions that often have obvious answers and are asked for effect or to raise a point, rather than to be answered.
• Examples of rhetorical questions:
  • How could I not act?
  • If not now, when?