Types of Text: Expository, Argumentative, and Instructive
Types of Text
Expository Text
Expository text aims to inform and provide knowledge about a topic. Its intention is to teach and help readers understand an idea or concept.
Expository texts should be orderly, clear, and objective. Examples include reviews, notes, textbooks, encyclopedias, conferences, and newspaper articles.
Expository texts can be grouped into:
- Informative texts: Clearly and objectively report on a topic of general interest. They should be easy to understand because they speak to a large public sector.
- Scientific Exhibition: The development of modern science makes these texts form a very specialized subgenre, with a high degree of difficulty.
Structure:
- Introduction: Raises the issue.
- Development: Incorporates subtopics and examples.
- Conclusion: Summarizes the article and presents the view expressed at first.
Linguistic forms of exposure:
- In syntax, the sentences tend to be enunciative. Attributive sentences and conjunctions are also common, specifying the organization of ideas.
- The verb is usually in a timeless present. Impersonal forms dominate.
- The lexicon is clear and precise, mainly denotative. It avoids ambiguity, polysemy, and value judgments.
Argumentative Text
The argumentative essay aims to express opinions or convince a receiver. The argument is given on topics that lend themselves to discussion or that can be viewed from different points of view.
Argumentative texts include trials, political speeches, judicial defenses, advertisements, opinion editorials, letters to the editor, and cultural criticism.
Structure:
- Introduction: A brief statement of the subject, usually presenting the thesis (the idea being treated).
- Development: Displays the arguments, which can include:
- Authority: The case of an expert, including documents or data.
- Feeling of society: Arguments that match the majority opinion.
- Analogy: Reasoning related to similar cases or situations.
- Exemplification: Passing of a particular case to a generalization.
- Individual experience: Arguments that are the result of the issuer’s experiences.
- Conclusion: Reinforces the thesis, summarizes the development of arguments, or puts forward new evidence.
Linguistic forms and techniques of argumentation:
- The order of ideas is key, making it possible to follow the thread of argumentation and comprehend the text.
- Logical relationships between parts of the argument are made explicit through appropriate markers or connectors.
- Ideas are presented in a clear and direct manner.
- Examples and comparisons are effective resources.
- The lexicon includes voices related to the expression of opinions, as well as adverbs or adjectives that provide insight into the author’s opinion.
- The syntax is logical reasoning, so sentences that best fit the expression of reasoning dominate, often coordinates and subordinates.
- The present tense is common, expressing the shared transmitter and receiver, and the first and second persons are often used.
Instructive and Predictive Text
Instructive texts aim to instruct the receiver by directing, teaching, or advising certain actions. They are varied and frequent in everyday life, such as game rules, recipes, aircraft instructions, laws and regulations, and gymnastics instructions.
The goal is to inform on a topic to a receiver. However, the specifics of instructional text is intended to plan for future action.
Structure:
- Objective: The purpose of the text, which can be summarized in a title.
- Instructions: Follow a logical or chronological order, presenting the steps, orders, advice, actions, etc., to achieve the objective. Ideas are usually distributed in several paragraphs and may be grouped into sections and subsections.
Linguistic form:
- Frequent use of verbal forms conative or persuasive, such as the future nickname, the imperative, the infinitive, or paraphrase obliged.
- Using the second person, since the text is directed to a receiver.
- The lexicon is often denoted and accurate as they are utilitarian texts.
- The syntax is usually simple, with sentences ordered and not very long.
- Typographical resources, such as spatial arrangement of text, titles and indents, underlines, are very characteristic and facilitate reading. Iconic codes, such as graphics and illustrations, are also often used.