No one writes without a very good reason for writing! As you cannot usually ask the writer about his or her purpose, intention or reason, you must develop your own insights into what a text means by interpreting it.

 Interpretation means trying to understand the layers of meaning in a text and looking for the way particular choices and uses of language can shape meaning. Only by doing this will you come to recognise the writer's true purpose, theme or controlling idea.

A good tip when considering purpose, is to take account of the writer's context. This means the circumstances in which the text was written - the time, place and social conditions or situation in which the author wrote.

It is also important to consider the context of various readers or audiences when discussing meaning - the audience's context. You can imagine a modern reader's context.

No single interpretation is ever really possible as not every reader will 'read' or interpret a text in quite the same way.

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