Homework answers / question archive / Author’s life, works, and purpose Questions to ask: What was the author’s knowledge base and personal experience? How might these experiences influence his/her opinions on the topic at hand? What was this author’s job and overall role in public life? How influential and respected is he/she, and in what communities? What overall purpose did the author want to accomplish by being a writer? Did the author write about this topic or related ones frequently? Was this topic a preoccupation, or does this work stand out from the other ones? Did the author change his/her opinion about this topic over the course of his/her life? If so, at what point was this argument written? Might the author’s viewpoint have changed later on? How would the answers to the questions above influence the author’s opinions and willingness to publish those opinions? 2

Author’s life, works, and purpose Questions to ask: What was the author’s knowledge base and personal experience? How might these experiences influence his/her opinions on the topic at hand? What was this author’s job and overall role in public life? How influential and respected is he/she, and in what communities? What overall purpose did the author want to accomplish by being a writer? Did the author write about this topic or related ones frequently? Was this topic a preoccupation, or does this work stand out from the other ones? Did the author change his/her opinion about this topic over the course of his/her life? If so, at what point was this argument written? Might the author’s viewpoint have changed later on? How would the answers to the questions above influence the author’s opinions and willingness to publish those opinions? 2

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Author’s life, works, and purpose

Questions to ask:

• What was the author’s knowledge base and personal experience? How might these experiences influence his/her opinions on the topic at hand?
• What was this author’s job and overall role in public life? How influential and respected is he/she, and in what communities?
• What overall purpose did the author want to accomplish by being a writer?
• Did the author write about this topic or related ones frequently? Was this topic a preoccupation, or does this work stand out from the other ones?
• Did the author change his/her opinion about this topic over the course of his/her life? If so, at what point was this argument written? Might the author’s viewpoint have changed later on?
• How would the answers to the questions above influence the author’s opinions and willingness to publish those opinions? 2. Context of publication (including audience and genre)

• What is the genre of this piece (academic essay, op-ed, film, etc)? What is the usual purpose of this genre?
• For what audience was the piece created? What does this audience want and expect from this genre and this author? How widely was it read? How was it expected to be consumed?
• During what time period was this piece published? How was the piece received? How important was it to audiences at the time and later on?
• How might these elements of audience and genre influence how the author had to shape the argument in order to be effective?

3. The larger conversation

• What were other people during this time period writing and saying about this topic? Are there indications in the text of common opinions of the time?
• What were people in the recent and more distant past saying about this topic? Are there indications in the text that the author is drawing on a tradition or debunking a tradition?
• What have people since the publication of this work written about this topic? Have opinions changed, or has the direction of the conversation changed? Does the author seem to hope that opinions will change in the future?
• How common a topic does this seem to be in the larger society? Is the author addressing widespread concerns or trying to raise consciousness about a little-discussed issue?
• What other concerns and issues does this topic seem to be connected to?
• How does this larger conversation influence the author’s opinions and how he/she writes the argument? Are there important traditions to be invoked? Specific counter-arguments to be defused?
• How does the larger conversation influence how you read the argument? Are you aware of opposing opinions, or later opinions, which the author does not address? 4. Historical context
  • When was this piece published? What was the general tone of society at the time? What were people anxious about or hopeful about?
  • What was the contemporary audience’s understanding of this topic? What pictures did they get in their heads when the topic was mentioned? (For example: did “poverty” mean immigrant slums in 19th c. New York, breadlines of unemployed workers in the Depression, or the maligned “welfare queens” of the ‘90’s?)
  • What events from the past might have influenced people’s opinions? (For example: people are now looking to the Great Depression and to the stock collapse of the 1980’s.) What events elsewhere in the world might influence the author’s hopes, fears, and opinions about the topic?

• How do these assumptions about how the world works and where it is heading influence the author’s knowledge and opinions of this topic? Are there clues in the text that reflect these assumptions?
• How does this historical context limit the author’s viewpoint, or provide you with a deeper understanding of the argument?