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Purpose

A document's purpose is the outcome it seeks to achieve given its audience and context. Purposes should be articulated as specifically as possible. As a designer, ask yourself what your document attempts to do that other similar documents do not. An example of a weak purpose is: "This book jacket intends to sell the associated book." That's not a full explication of purpose; it is a statement of something that every example of the book jacket genre attempts. A stronger statement of purpose might be: "This book jacket leverages the dark color palette and sexualized imagery characteristic of supernatural young adult novels to suggest a narrative of corporeal empowerment to a primary audience of girls aged 12–19 and a secondary audience of males and females aged 30–55." A thorough statement of purpose accounts for aspects of the corresponding document's audience, context, medium, and strategies.