Author’s Purpose Author’s purpose is pretty simple. Author’s purpose is the point or the information that the author wants the reader to take away with him/her once he/she has finished reading the work. There are many reasons why an author might write something. Some of the common reasons are to explain (explanatory), to convince (persuasive), to entertain, to teach (didactic), to criticize (satire or black comedy), and to inform. You have probably heard of most of these academic terms; however, a few might be unfamiliar to you. Satire is a work that is biting in nature; it pokes fun (sometimes in a mean way) in order to make a point and teach a lesson. Black comedy is very much the same as satire, but there is humor involved (less mean and a little funnier, although the fun is being aimed at someone with the intent to teach something). Didactic simply means that something has been written with the sole intent to teach a lesson – that is it’s only purpose.