ATI TEAS guideSections & content
ATI TEAS Author’s Purpose and Tone
Author’s purpose items ask why the passage was written—inform, explain, persuade, or entertain—not what the topic is. Use verbs, audience, and what the text is trying to do.
Short answer
Author’s purpose items sit in ATI TEAS 7 Reading Craft & Structure (9 scored items in that area). They ask why the writer produced the text: to inform, explain, persuade, describe, or entertain. Topic is what the passage is about. Main idea is what it says. Tone is the attitude of the wording. Answer from verbs, audience, and what the passage is trying to accomplish, using only evidence in the text.
Why the writer wrote it, not what the title names
Author’s purpose items ask why the passage exists, not whether you liked the topic. Name inform, explain, persuade, or entertain before you argue about details. Label the job of the passage first, then hunt for a matching verb in the choices. The parent map is ATI TEAS Reading. Craft & Structure is 9 scored items. This page is only purpose, tone, and point of view—not the whole 45-item section.
Topic: the subject. Main idea: the central claim. Purpose: the writer’s job. Tone: the attitude (neutral, urgent, skeptical). Mixing those four is the usual miss.
A method that fits 55 minutes
Read the stem. If it says purpose, primarily written to, or author’s intent, do not answer with a fact from sentence two.
Skim for what the text does:
- defines or reports → inform or explain
- argues, recommends, warns → persuade
- tells a story or amuses → entertain
- paints a scene → describe
Then check audience. A memo to staff is doing a different job than a brochure to patients even if both mention “hours.”
Original example (Passy): “City Health will begin offering Saturday vaccination clinics in March. Appointments open online next Monday. Bring your immunization record.”
Topic: Saturday clinics. Purpose: inform readers how to get a shot—not persuade them that vaccines are morally required, and not entertain.
Second original example: “Saturday clinics are the only fair way to reach night-shift workers, and the council should fund them now.”
Same topic. Purpose: persuade. Tone: urgent, argumentative.
These are teaching sketches. They are not live TEAS items.
If purpose and tone still swap, use stems that keep the same facts and only change the verbs.
Tone is not purpose
A sarcastic restaurant review can still have the purpose “to evaluate” or “to persuade readers to avoid the place.” Naming sarcastic answers tone. Naming persuade answers purpose. The stem tells you which one it wants.
Point of view is whose outlook shapes the wording: first person, a reporter, a critic. It is adjacent Craft & Structure skill, still not Key Ideas.
English & Language Usage tests grammar and word choice. Do not import a comma rule into a purpose item.
What is on the TEAS keeps the four-section clock. Purpose questions still have to finish inside the Reading 55 minutes.
Wrong answers that look educated
The choice that restates a detail. The choice that names the topic. The choice that imports your opinion of the subject. The choice that is true about the world but not what this passage is doing.
When a miss repeats, keep a purpose-only TEAS Reading block.
The study guide and Guides hub remain the wider plan. Purpose is one Craft & Structure habit.
If you can state the purpose in four words before you look at choices, drop that habit into mixed Reading practice so it survives charts and paired passages too.
Trust the source
Official sources
Exam policies can change. Use these primary sources for the most current details.