A key part of evaluating a text is understanding the writer’s purpose, or goal, for writing.
If the exigence is the writer’s motivation, the purpose is what the writer wants to happen as a result of the writing. The writer may issue a “call to action,” urging readers to take an action to bring about change. Or the writer may simply argue for readers to reconsider an issue and affirm that the writer’s position is valid.
The method a writer chooses depends in part on that writer’s purpose. For example, if the purpose is to entertain, a writer might tell an engaging story. If the purpose is to inform readers, a writer might compare something— the difference between the terms “climate change” and “climate crisis,” for example—or explain or describe a subject in another way.
Whether a call to action or a desire to influence, inform, or entertain, purpose is intentional. Sometimes readers can find purpose explicitly in the text—they can point to where the writer makes it clear—while sometimes the writer only implies a purpose that is suggested at various points in the text. In either case, the writer wants something to happen in response to the exigence and decides to enter the conversation on a subject in order to make that happen.
The purpose of a text is what the writer hopes to accomplish with it. Writers may have more than one purpose in a text.