Scribd
Upload
378 views1 page

Text Types Vs Text Forms

The document discusses four major text types: narrative, descriptive, directive, and expository. Narrative texts involve sequencing of real-world events, descriptive texts concern the location of persons and things in space, directive texts involve imperatives or suggestions about future actions, and expository texts identify and characterize phenomena through definitions, summaries, or essays. While the first three text types are centered around real-world events and things, expository texts are cognitively oriented as they aim to explain or persuade through mental processes.

Uploaded by

learningself
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
378 views1 page

Text Types Vs Text Forms

The document discusses four major text types: narrative, descriptive, directive, and expository. Narrative texts involve sequencing of real-world events, descriptive texts concern the location of persons and things in space, directive texts involve imperatives or suggestions about future actions, and expository texts identify and characterize phenomena through definitions, summaries, or essays. While the first three text types are centered around real-world events and things, expository texts are cognitively oriented as they aim to explain or persuade through mental processes.

Uploaded by

learningself
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Text Types

There are 4 major texts types: narrative, descriptive, directive, expository

Text types vs text forms


Text types are general semantic-functional concepts and are not to be confused with text forms
(advertisements, editorials, sermons, shopping lists, poems, telephone books, novels, etc.)

Narrative texts
 Narrative texts have to do with real-world events and time.
 They may be fictional (fairy tales, novels) or nonfictional (newspaper report).
 They are characterised by a sequencing of events expressed by adverbials such as “and then”,
“first”, “second”, “third”
 Example: First we packed our bags and then we
 called a taxi. After that we…etc.

Descriptive texts
 Descriptive texts are concerned with the location of persons and things in space.
 They will tell us what lies to the right or left, in the background or foreground, or they will provide
background information which, perhaps,
 sets the stage for narration.
 Examples: The operation panel is located on the right-hand side at the rear;

Directive texts
 Directive texts are concerned with concrete future activity.
 Central to these texts are imperatives (Hand me the paper) or forms which substitute for them,
such as polite questions (Would you hand me the paper?) or suggestive remarks (I wonder what
the paper says about the weather).

Expository texts
 Expository texts identify and characterize phenomena.
 They include text forms such as definitions, summaries, and many types of essay.
 May be subjective (essay) or objective (summary, definition)
 May be analytical (starting from a concept and then characterizing its parts; e.g. definitions) or
synthetic (recounting characteristics and ending with an appropriate concept or conclusion; e.g.
summaries)

Narrative, descriptive and directive texts are all centred around real-world events and things. In contrast,
expositorytexts are cognitively oriented, as they are concerned with explanation and persuasion, which are
both mental processes.

You might also like