TEXT
TYPES
OBJECTIVES:
• Identify the different text types and its
characteristics.
• Get information from various text types that
can be used in everyday life.
• Use these text types in writing a text.
What type of text is used in Task 1 “You’ve Got a
Friend”?
What can you say about the activity?
How did you feel when you recalled or shared all
those experiences?
What insights have you gained from the above
activity?
Narrative?
Descriptive?
Instructional?
Argumentative?
Expository?
Narrative?
Descriptive?
Instructional?
Argumentative?
Expository?
Narrative?
Descriptive?
Instructional?
Argumentative
?
Expository?
Narrative?
Descriptive?
Instructional?
Argumentative?
Expository?
Narrative?
Descriptive?
Instructional?
Argumentative?
Expository?
WHAT IS A TEXT???
A text is …
▪ A language unit
▪ With a definable communicative
function
▪ Can be spoken or written
DIFFERENT TEXTS SERVE DIFFERENT PURPOSES:
• To describe an entity or event
• To tell a story
• To provide instructions on how to operate a
device
• 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 provide instructions - Instructional
• To convince - Argumentative
• To explain - Expository
TEXT AND TEXT TYPES
Labov’s schema:
• Orientation (time and setting of the story)
• Complication of story, a quest, an obstacle, or a
series of obstacles,
• Resolution to the complication.
• (optional) a Coda, which signals the story is ended.
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.
DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS:
- information describing a scene, person or object
CHARACTERISTICS OF A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
• Use of relational processes: It is big, it has 2
sides
• Use of adjectives: He has very large eyes.
• General structure is a LIST of attributes or facts
• Mostly simple present tense (universal truths
INSTRUCTIONAL TEXT
• Information about how to achieve a goal
• Give the steps to follow
CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INSTRUCTIONAL TEXT:
• Sequences of actions: To clean the device: (1) (2) (3)
• Use of imperatives: Open the lid.
• Conditional Adjuncts: When the machine has stopped…
• Purpose Adjuncts: To open the case…
ARGUMENTATIVE TEXT
Present arguments for or against a case
EXPOSITORY TEXT
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.
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:
READ THE FOLLOWING TEXT AND ANSWER THE
QUESTIONS BELOW.
• Which of the 5 text types does this text
belong to?
• What grammatical features are in the text
that allow you to say it belongs to a
particular text type?
TEXT A
TEXT B
TEXT C
TEXT D
TEXT D
TEXT E
