Senin, 10 Agustus 2009

The Differences between Report Text and Descriptive Text

Some text types are quite difficult to differ. Such report and descriptive text have the similarity in the social function and generic structure. However if they are analyzed carefully, the slight difference between the two text types will reveal.
The purpose of the two texts are to give the live-description of the object/participant. Both the report and descriptive text try to show rather than tell the reader about the factual condition of the object. Readers by themselves will catch the impressive point of the object through that showing writing style. What make different, between report and descriptive text, is the scope of the written object. If we talk about, eg: bicycle, it belongs to report text. It will talk about bicycle in general; its parts, physical strengh, function for certain people or other general characters of bike. In the other hand, descriptive text will convey more focus, for example "my bicycle" with its specific characters; colour, lengh, wheel style, etc.
In short, report text describes the way of certain things and frequently refer to phenomenon of nature, animal and scientific object. Mostly, report is written after getting careful observation. This scientific and technical sense make clearer difference from descriptive text. The way of descriptive text in showing thing is based on the objective fact of the thing. It describe the specific thing simply as the thing is.
taken from;understandingtext.blogspot.com

Senin, 27 Juli 2009

Report Text


Social function:

to describe the way things are, with reference to a range of natural, manmade and social phenomena in our environment.

Generic structure:

- General classification : introducing the thing that will be talked about.

- Description : elaborating and reporting on the subject in detail.

Language features:

- Focus on generic participant

- Use simple present tense

- No temporal sequence



example:

Whales [title]

Whales are sea-livings mammals. [general classification]

They therefore breathe air but cannot survive on land. Some species are very large indeed and the blue whale, which

can exceed 30 meters in length, is the largest animal to have lived on earth. Superficially, the whale looks rather like a

fish, but there are important differences in its external structure; its tail consists of a pair of broad, flat horizontal

paddles (the tail of a fish is vertical) and it has a single nostril on top of its large, broad head. The skin is smooth and

shiny and beneath it lies a layer of fat (blubber). It can be up to 30 meters in thickness and serves heat and body fluids. [ description]




Sources: Active English XI