TEXT TYPES

Interpersonal Text
Tom : Hi John, how are you?
John : Hi Tom, I am fine, thanks. How about
you?
Tom : I am fine too. This is my brother,
Jerry.
Jerry : How do you do?
John : How do you do?
Jerry : Nice to meet you.
John : Nice to meet you too.
 TRANSACTIONAL DIALOGUE

Asking someone to do something

Yeni : Fetch me that paper, please.

Yono : The paper on the table over there?
Yeni : Yes.
Yono : Here you are.
Yeni : Thanks. ..Well, Yon. Could you do me a favour?
Yono : Sure.
Yeni : I want to send a document but I don’t know to use
the fax machine.
Yono : Well. Let me show you. Put the document you want to
send here then dial the number.
Yeni : OK. Then?
Yono : Just push the start button.
Yeni : Hmm. It was easy. Thank you, Yon.
 Transactional
Tom : Jane, can you help me?
Jane : Sure what can I do for you?
Tom : Open the door, please!
Jane : Ok.
Tom : But don’t touch the wet paint!
Jane : I know.
•
 RECOUNT
General Features of Recount
Social Purpose
Recounts ‘tell what happened’. The purpose of a
factual recount is to document a series of events
and evaluate their significance in some way. The
purpose of the literary or story recount is to tell a
sequence of events so that it entertains. The story
recount has expressions of attitude and feeling,
usually made by the narrator about the events.
Structure
Recounts are organised to include:
• an orientation providing information about ‘who’,
‘where’ and ‘when’;
• a record of events usually recounted in
chronological order;
• personal comments and/or evaluative remarks
that are interspersed throughout
• the record of events;
• reorientation that ‘rounds off’ the sequence of
events.
Grammar
Common grammatical patterns of a recount include:
• use of nouns and pronouns to identify people, animals or
things involved;
• use of action verbs to refer to events;
• use of past tense to locate events in relation to speaker’s
or writer’s time;
• use of conjunctions and time connectives to sequence
the events;
• use of adverbs and adverbial phrases to indicate place
and time;
• use of adjectives to describe nouns.
RECOUNT 1
 NARRATIVE
General Features of Narrative
Social Purpose
Narratives construct a pattern of events with a problematic
and/or unexpected outcome that entertains and instructs
the reader or listener.
Narratives entertain because they deal with the unusual
and unexpected development of events. They instruct
because they teach readers and listeners that problems
should be confronted, and attempts made to resolve
them.
Narratives incorporate patterns of behaviour that are
generally highly valued.
Structure
Narratives are usually organised to include:
Orientation — this stage ‘alerts’ the listener and/or
reader to what is to follow, usually by introducing the
main character/s in a setting of time and place.
Complication — in this stage a sequence of events,
which may begin in a usual pattern, is disrupted or
changed in some way so that the pattern of events
becomes a problem for one or more of the characters,
eg a visit to a deserted house becomes a serious
problem for the narrator when he finds himself locked in
a house where there is no handle to the door.
The events are evaluated by the
character/s, thus making it clear to the
reader/listener that a crisis has
developed, eg ‘I was terrified when the
door slammed shut. How was I going to
get out? There was no handle on the
inside and nobody knew where I was.
My heart was racing and I felt sick with
fear as I banged on the door’.
Resolution — the problem or the complication is
resolved or attempted to be resolved in the
resolution. A pattern of normalcy is restored to the
events, but the main character/s has changed as a
consequence of the experience.
Coda — this stage is optional. It makes explicit
how the character/s has changed and what has
been learned from the experience.
 Grammar
Common grammatical features of narrative texts
include:
• use of particular nouns to refer to or describe the
particular people, animals and things that the
story is about;
• use of adjectives to build noun groups to
describe the people, animals or things in the
story;
• use of conjunctions and time connectives to
sequence events through time;
• use of adverbs and adverbial phrases to
locate the particular incidents or events;
• use of past tense action verbs to indicate
the actions in a narrative;
• use of saying and thinking verbs to
indicate what characters are feeling,
thinking or saying.
NARRATIVE 1
 PROCEDURE
General Features of Procedure
Social Purpose
Procedures tell how to do something. This
might include instructions for how to carry
out a task or play a game, directions for
getting to a place, and rules of behaviour.
Structure
A procedure is usually organised to include:
• the goal of the activity;
• any materials needed to achieve the goal;
• steps to accomplish the goal.
Some procedures have optional stages such
as explaining reasons for a step, providing
alternative steps, giving cautions, or
mentioning possible consequences.
Directions, rules and spoken procedures will
have a slightly different structure from those
which give instructions to make something.
 Grammar
Common grammatical patterns of a
procedure include:
• the use of commands (ie the imperative
form of the verb), eg ‘put’, ‘don’t mix’;
• the use of action verbs, eg ‘turn’, ‘pick up’,
‘don’t run’;
• the use of precise vocabulary, eg ‘whisk’,
‘lukewarm’;
• the use of connectives to sequence the
actions in time, eg ‘then’, ‘while’;
• the use of adverbials to express details of
time and place, manner, and so on, eg ‘for
five minutes’, ‘2 centimetres from the top’,
‘carefully’.
PROCEDURE 1
 REPORT
General Features of Information Report
Social Purpose
Information reports are used to present
information about something. They generally
describe an entire class of things, whether
natural or made: mammals, the planets,
rocks, plants, computers, countries of the
region, transport, and so on.
 Structure
Information reports are usually organised
to include:
• a general statement identifying the
subject of the information report, perhaps
defining and classifying it;
• description (‘bundles’ of information
relating to, for example, features,
behaviour, or types).
 Grammar
Common grammatical patterns of an
information report include:
• use of general nouns, eg ‘hunting dogs’,
rather than particular nouns, eg ‘our dog’ ;
• use of relating verbs to describe features,
eg ‘Koalas are marsupials’;
• some use of action verbs when describing
behaviour, eg ‘Emus cannot fly’;
• use of timeless present tense to indicate
usuality, eg ‘Koalas eat eucalyptus
leaves’;
• use of technical terms, eg ‘Spiders spin
their webs out of silk thread’;
• use of paragraphs with topic sentences to
organise bundles of information;
• repeated naming of the topic as the
beginning focus of the clause.
REPORT 1
 DESCRIPTION
General Features of Description
Social Purpose
Descriptions focus our attention on the
characteristic features of a particular thing, eg
Toby the Mongrel (as opposed to information
reports, which deal with a general class of things,
eg hunting dogs).
The subject might be a person, eg Grandpa, a
place, eg our house, or a thing, eg my favourite
toy. It might be impressionistic/imaginative, eg a
description as a poem or part of a narrative, or an
objective description, eg of a robbery suspect.
While descriptions can occur as ‘stand
alone’ texts, they are often part of a longer
text, such as the description of a character
or setting in a story or biography. Although
they might not always be seen as a
distinct text type, it is felt that the ability to
describe someone or something in detail is
an important skill that can contribute to a
number of different text types.
Structure
Descriptions are usually organised to include:
• an introduction to the subject of the description;
• characteristic features of the subject, eg physical
appearance, qualities, habitual behaviour,
significant attributes.
There may also be some optional evaluation
interspersed through the text and an optional
concluding comment.
Grammar
Common grammatical patterns of a description include:
• use of particular nouns, eg my teacher, the Opera
House, our cubby;
• use of detailed noun groups to provide information about
the subject, eg It was a large open rowboat with a tall
front and a tall back (like a Viking boat of old), and it was
of such a shining sparkling glistening pink colour ;
• use of a variety of types of adjectives, eg describing,
numbering, classifying ;
• use of relating verbs to provide information about the
subject, eg My mum is really cool;
• use of thinking and feeling verbs to express the writer’s
personal view about the subject, eg Police believe the
suspect is armed, or to give an insight into the subject’s
thoughts and feelings, eg My friend Amanda adores
chocolate ice-cream;
• use of action verbs to describe the subject’s behaviour,
eg Our new puppy nips at our heels and wrestles with
our slippers;
• use of adverbials to provide more information about this
behaviour, eg Our new puppy always nips playfully at
our heels;
• use of similes, metaphors and other types of figurative
language, particularly in literary descriptions, eg But
Mulga Bill, as white as chalk, sat tight …; that two-
wheeled outlaw (Mulga Bill’s Bicycle).
DESCRIPTION 1
RECOUNT 2
NARRATIVE 2
PROCEDURE 2
REPORT 2
DESCRIPTION 2
RECOUNT 3
NARRATIVE 3
PROCEDURE 3
REPORT 3
DESCRIPTION 3
RECOUNT 4
NARRATIVE 4
PROCEDURE 4
REPORT 4
DESCRIPTION 4
Short functional texts