1.
What
2. Text is aTypes
and Text text?
A text is …
A language unit
communicative
function
Can be spoken or
written
2. Text Types
2. Text and Text Types
Different texts serve different purposes:
To tell a story
To describe an entity or event
To convince someone of something
To explain how something works
Etc.
Our society has evolved standard ways of writing a
text for a given purpose, e.g.,
To tell a story Narrative
To describe Descriptive
To convince Persuasive
To explain Expository
2.1 Narrative Texts
2. Text and Text Types
Title Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Once upon a time in a place far far away, there lived a beautiful
Orientation princess.
A wicked witch, jealous of her beauty, gave the princess a
poisoned apple. The princess took a bite from the apple and fell
Complication into a deep sleep from which no-one could wake her.
Years later, a handsome prince saw the sleeping princess, and
Resolution kissed her. The princess awoke, and they married
Coda and lived happily ever after.
2.1 Narrative Texts
2. Text and Text Types
Real narratives go through cycles of this narrative
structure:
What happened first.
What happened next.
Etc.
Characteristics of a Narrative
Detail what happened and in which order
Contain mainly actions: She bit the apple.
some verbal: The bad witch said …
Mainly in simple past tense.
Some past perfect to skip back to the past:
She had lost her way.
2.2 Descriptive Texts
2. Text and Text Types
Descriptive texts:
Information describing a scene, person or object
Revered in times past as a sign of good fortune, this
scarab is beautiful. An inch long and inch wide, this
beetle features a deep cobalt blue body, blue and white
Austrian Crystal wings, and golden accents. It would
look fabulous on your favorite jacket.
Thomastown is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia, 17 km north from Melbourne's central
business district. Its Local Government Area is the City
of Whittlesea. At the 2006 Census, Thomastown had a
population of 20,603.
2.2 Descriptive Texts
2. Text and Text Types
Characteristics of a Descriptive Text
Use of adjectives: He has very large
eyes.
General structure is a LIST of attributes
or facts
Mostly simple present tense (universal
truths). Ex. It creates a loud gurgling
sound
2.4 Persuasive Texts
2. Text and Text Types
Mario Santos has been the student
council treasurer for three years in a
row. He has safeguarded our money
and has maintained his integrity and
honesty. We should vote for him once
again, this time as an auditor, because
of all his accomplishments.
2.4 Persuasive Texts
2. Text and Text Types
Typical Structure
presenta point of view, an
opinion, ideas, or reasons to
persuade the reader to
believe something or to
perform an action.
2.5 Expository Texts
2. Text and Text Types
Texts that explain some natural or sociocultural phenomena
Provide factual information rather than try to convince (not
an argument)
Can include a variety of texts, such as newspaper articles
and reports, textbooks, and scientific and academic essays,
which present factual information.
Why does it rain?
Warm air turns the water from rivers, lakes, and oceans into
water vapor that rises into the air. That water vapor forms
clouds, which contain small drops of water or ice crystals
(depending on how high the cloud is and how cold it is).
As clouds rise higher and higher, the air gets colder and
colder. When the water vapor in the cloud becomes too heavy,
it falls back to the ground as rain or snow.
2.5 Expository Texts
2. Text and Text Types
Generic structure:
1. A general statement to position the reader
2. A sequenced explanation of why or how something
occurs
Characteristics:
Focus on generic participants
Temporal and causal circumstances and conjunctions
Use of simple present tense
Exercises: Text A
2. Text and Text Types
Read the following text and answer the questions below.
1. Which of the 4 text types does this text belong to?
2. What grammatical features are in the text that allow you to say it
belongs to a particular text type?
There was once an old farmer who owned a very
stubborn donkey. One evening, the farmer was trying to
put his donkey into its shed. The farmer pushed the
donkey, but the donkey wouldn’t move. Then the farmer
pulled the donkey, but the donkey still wouldn’t move ...
as soon as the cat scratched the dog, the dog began to
bark. The barking dog frightened the donkey who
jumped immediately into its shed.
Exercises: Text B
2. Text and Text Types
1. Which of the 4 text types does this text belong to?
2. What grammatical features are in the text that allow
you to say it belongs to a particular text type?
The gardens of Lowfield Hall are overgrown now and weeds
push their way up through the gravel of the drive. One of the
drawing-room windows, broken by a village boy, has been
boarded up, and wisteria, killed by summer drought, hangs
above the front door like an old dried net ...
There are six bedrooms in Lowfield Hall, a drawing room, a
dining room, a morning room, three bathrooms, a kitchen,
and what are known as usual offices. In this case, the usual
offices were the back kitchen and the gun room. On that April
morning the house wasn’t exactly dirty, but it wasn’t clean
either. There was a bluish film on all the thirty-three windows,
and the film was decorated with fingerprints ...
From Ruth Rendell, A Judgement in Stone.
Exercises: Text C
2. Text and
WhichText
[Link] the 4 Types
text types does this text belong to?
2. What grammatical features are in the text that allow
you to say it belongs to a particular text type?
Speech production is made possible by the specialised movements of
our vocal organs that generate speech sounds waves.
Like all sound production, speech production requires a source of
energy. The source of energy for speech production is the steady
stream of air that comes from the lungs as we exhale. When we
breathe normally, the air stream is inaudible. To become audible, the
air stream must vibrate rapidly. The vocal cords cause the air stream
to vibrate.
As we talk, the vocal cords open and close rapidly, chopping up the
steady air stream into a series of puffs. These puffs are heard as a
buzz. But this buzz is still not speech.
To produce speech sounds, the vocal tract must change shape. During
speech we continually alter the shape of the vocal tract by moving the
tongue and lips, etc. These movements change the acoustic properties
of the vocal tract, which in turn produce the different sounds of
speech.
(Text adapted by Gerot & Wignell 1994 from Denes & Pinson 1963)
Raising taxes is wrong because people
should be entitled to keep their own
money and because an increase in tax
revenue will be stifling to businesses. We
should keep taxes low or even reduce
tax rates to encourage growth.
1. Which of the 4 text
types does this text
belong to?