Kind of Text,Definition,Generic Structure and Example of Text

1.     Narrative

Purpose :
To amuse, entertain and to deal with actual or vicarious experience in different ways; narratives deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or lurning point of some kind, which in turn finds a resolution.
Type of Narrative :
Adventure, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, dilemma stories, dialogue, myths, legends, fairy tales, fables.
Example of Narrative Text :
                                                The Legend of Toba Lake
            Once upon time, there was a handsome man. His name was Batara Guru Sahala. He liked fishing. One day, he caught a fish. He was surprised to find out that the fish could talk. The fish begged him to set it free.
            Batara Guru could not bear it. He made the fish free. As soon as it was free, the fish changed into a very beautiful woman. She attracted Batara Guru so much. He felt in love with that fish-woman. The woman wanted to marry with him and said that Batara Guru had to keep the secret which she had been a fish. Batara Guru aggreed and promised that he would never tell anybody about it.
           They were married happily. They had two daughters. One day Batara Guru got very angry with his daughter. He could not control his mad. He shouted angrily and got the word of fish to his daugters. The daughters were crying. They found their mother and talked her about it.
            The mother was very annoyed. Batara Guru broke his promise. The mother was shouting angrily. Then the earth began to shake. Volcanoes started to erupt. The earth formed a very big hole. People believed that the big hole became a lake. Then this lake is known as Toba lake.
Generic Structure :
Orientation : sets the scene and introduces the participants.
Evaluation : a stepping back to evaluate the plight.
Complication : a crisis arises.
Resolution : the crisis is resolved, for better or for worse.
Re-orientation : optional.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus and specific and usually Individualized Participant.
Use of Material processes (and in this text, behavioual and verbal processes).
Use of Relational Processes and Mental Processes.
Use of temporal conjunctions and temporal Circumstances.
Use of past tense.\

2.      Recount Text

Purpose :
To retell something that happened in the past and to tell a series of past event.
Example of Recount Text :
Visiting Bali
            There were so many places to see in Bali that my friend decided to join the tours to see as much as possible. My friend stayed in Kuta on arrival. He spent the first three days swimming and surfing on Kuta beach. He visited some tour agents and selected two tours. The first one was to Singaraja, the second was to Ubud.
            On the day of the tour, he was ready. My friend and his group drove on through mountains. Singaraja is a city of about 90 thousands people. It is a busy but quiet town. The street are lined with trees and there are many old Dutch houses. Then they returned very late in the evening to Kuta.
            The second tour to Ubud was a very different tour. It was not to see the scenery but to see the art and the craft of the island. The first stop was at Batubulan, a center of stone sculpture. There my friend watched young boys were carving away at big blocks of stone. The next stop was Celuk, a center for silversmiths and goldensmiths. After that he stopped a little while for lunch at Sukawati and on to mass. Mass is a tourist center.
            My friend ten-day-stay ended very quickly beside his two tour, all his day was spent on the beach. He went sailing or surfboarding every day. He was quiet satisfied.

Generic Structure :
Orientation : provides the setting and introduces participants.
Events : tell what happened, in what sequence.
Re-orientation : optional-closure of events.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on specific Participant.
Use of material processes.
Circumstances of time and place.
Use of past tense.
Focus on temporal sequence.

3.     News Item

Social Function :
To inform leaders, listeners or viewers about events the day which are consideren newsworthy or important.
Example of News Item Text :

Malaysian Women Suggested to Carry Condoms
            Malaysian Deputy Health Ministry urged every woman to carry a condom to protect against HIV, a news report said.“This is not to debate them but to protect them. Women are the first ones to get exploited by their partners (whom are infected by HIV-positive)” Abdul Latiff Ahmad was quoted as saying by Sunday Star Newspaper. “But this just a suggestion, it’s up to them”.
            Abdul latiff made remark to coincide with the International Aids Memorial day, which was celebrated openly for the first time in Malaysia, in bid to reduce stigma for HIV-victim. In the past the event was held behind closed door.
            Last year, 745 Malaysian women were identified as HIV-positive and 193 were diagnosed with AIDS, he said in the report. Officials have said nearly 81000 Malaysian have been infected with HIV, less then 10 percent are woman, but the number is steadily rising.
            Malaysian Aids Council president, Adeebah Kamarulzaman, was quoted as saying besides sex workers, many women who contract HIV are housewives, were infected unknowingly by their husbands. “It’s not that people don’t know that condoms can protect them. But there are some men who don’t care to take precaution, even though they know they have HIV” she said.

Generic Structure :
Newsworthy event(s) : recounts the event in summary from.
Backround events : elaborate what happened, to whom, in what circumstances.
Sources : comments by participants in, witnesses to and authorities expert on the event.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Short, telegraphic information about story captured in headline.
Use of Material Processes to retell the events
(in the text bellow, many of the Material Processes are nominalised).
Use of projecting Verbal Processes in sources stage.
Focus on Circumstances (e.g.mostly within qualifiers).

4.     Review

Purpose :
To critique an art work, event for a public audience.
Such works of art include movies TV shows, books, plays, operas, recordings, exhibitons, concerts and ballets.
Example of Review Text :
Book Title : UML By Example
Type : Book
Author : Jalloul, Ghinwa
Publisher : Cambridge
            The book is designed to be a step-by-step introduction to object-oriented software development, and intended for teaching as well as practical applications.
            It presents a systematic approach to the development of analysis models. In this respect, this is exactly what teachers would like to have: in the early stages of learning the UML students like to have a process to follow in a systematic fashion. If too much is ‘left to one’s own judgement’ in the early stages at least, it tends to put students off, and so the book is a welcome addition to possible core texts in that respect.
            The book presents a process and case studies. The process is entitled Bridge , and the book leads the learner by examples. The process is described as a grammatically-based approach (p. 56) According to the introduction, the back cover, and page xxi of the preface, there are seven case studies. The reader will look in vain (as I did) for the remaining two: in fact, there are five case studies, and it is this inattention to detail which sets the tone for the rest of the book.
            Indeed, it is a closer inspection of the systematic approach which reveals holes, particularly in the quality of expression used. Perhaps this is a result of insufficient attention to detail in the editing stages. For example, let us focus in on the first case study on an online reservations agency. The user requirements are presented in textual form, and the analysis proceeds from there. Occasionally the quality of expression could be enhanced: the first line of these requirements starts ‘a software for a travel agency…’ and begins by identifying actors through the listing of all the ‘names’ in the text. This was certainly confusing for my students, who would have preferred the use of the word ‘nouns’. The use cases are determined by considering the verb phrases in the requirements that are associated with the selected actors, but the listing conflates update and access to update access, and fails to mention ‘complain’, which then turns out to be a use case in the subsequent model. The text refers to the use cases of Reserving, Canceling, etc, but labels them on the model as Reserve a tour, Cancel a reservation, and so on. This accompanying diagram also leaves the ‘complain’ use case hanging in mid-air, associated with no actor. These may seem like minor quibbles, but these are exactly the kinds of inconsistencies which are off-putting for learners.
            In many ways I like the focus of the book, as the concept of a step-by-step approach is very appealing to teachers and learners alike, but I would have appreciated more attention to detail. In particular, the illustrative diagrams would have benefited from a re-read: page 13 figure 1-14 is supposed to depict two musical devices playing music, where the text identifies 2 different use cases, but the diagram only labels one of them, and has four associations, two of which are uni-directional, without any explanation in the text. The text-diagram inconsistencies on page 17 are particularly irritating, as the focus is on an explanation of the ‘uses’ relationship; the reader searches for two ‘distinct’ use cases, ‘Checks Move’ and ‘Checks Legal Move’, and finds only one. Page 16 has a database model where a use case called ‘Print Student’s Biographic File’ is later referred to in the text as ‘Print Student File’. This tends to confuse the novice learner. There is a need to go through the text and related diagrams with a fine-toothed comb. Similarly, there is a tendency towards random capitalisation, as well as random subject-verb agreement: again with use cases, in some instances (for example, page 14) it is ‘Add User’ (as opposed to ‘Add user’) but in others ‘Decorates a house’ (as opposed to ‘Decorate a house’, or ‘Decorates a House’, and so on). Page 46 has an object model for joke-teller software, which does not differ from a class model, and again suffers from random capitalisation where all the classes are upper case with the exception of ‘password’ although this is capitalised in the text.        The diagram on page 39 is particularly prone to this random approach. More complicated diagrams such as that on page 121 contain such a mix of upper and lower case as well as an inconsistent use of underscore (and a strange relationship where an employee turns out to be an aggregation of a travel agency) that I would be reluctant to let my students loose on them. In many cases, the text appears to deal with the ‘correct’ version; it is the diagram which needs revision.
            I like the aims of the book, I like the concept of a systematic approach, and I find the case studies useful, attractive and realistic, but the insufficient attention to detail, and occasional unfathomable prose, tend to jar on occasion. I could recommend the text to lecturers who were prepared to tidy up the prose and inconsistencies, but I would not like my students to think that they could ‘get away’ with such an approach.
Generic Structure :
Orientation :
places the wook in its general and particular context, often by comparing it with others of its kind or through analogue with a non-art object or event.
Interpretive Recount summaries the plot and/or provides an account of how the reviewed rendition of the wook came into being; is optional, but if present often recursive.
Evaluation :
provides an evaluation of the wook and/or its performance or production; is usually recursive.
Evaluative Summation :
provides a kind of punchline which sums up the reviewr’s opinion of the art event as a whole; is optional.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on Particular Participant.
Direct expression of options through use of Attitudinal Ephitots in nominal groups; qualitative attributes and affective Mental Processes.
Use of elaborating and extending clause and group complexes to package the information.
Use of metaphorical language(e.g., The wit was there,dexterously ping ponged to and fro..).

5.     Descriptive

Purpose :
To describe a particular person, place or thing in detail.
Example of Descriptive Text :
                                                            Borobudur Temple
            Borobudur is Hindu – Budhist temple. It was build in the nineth century under Sailendra dynasty of ancient Mataram kingdom. Borobudur is located in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia.
            Borobudur is well-known all over the world. Its construction is influenced by the Gupta architecture of India. The temple is constructed on a hill 46 m high and consist of eight step like stone terrace. The first five terrace are square and surrounded by walls adorned with Budist sculpture in bas-relief. The upper three are circular. Each of them is with a circle of bell shape-stupa. The entire adifice is crowned by a large stupa at the centre at the centre of the top circle. The way to the summit extends through some 4.8 km of passage and starways. The design of borobudur which symbolizes the structure of universe influences temples at Angkor, Cambodia.
Borobudur temple which is rededicated as an Indonesian monument in 1983 is a valuable treasure for Indonesian people.
Generic Structure :
Identifications : identifies phenomenon to be described.
Description : describes parts qualities, characteristics.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on particular Participant.
Use of Attributive and Identifying Processes.
Frequent use of Epithets and Classifiers in nominal groups.
Use of simple present tense.

6.      Report

Purpose :
To describe the way things are, with reference to arange of natural, man-made and social phenomena in our environment.
Example of Report Text :
                                                            Human Body Energy
            Human body is actually a living machine and is like all other machines. This living machine needs fuel to supply it with energy. The fuel is provided by the food which we eat. However do we know how much we need to stay healthy?
            The energy value of food is usually measured in calories. A calorie is the amount of heat which is required to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree C. The number of calories which people need per day varies. It depends on the activity which the people are involved in. For example; people will need more calories for standing than for sitting, people need more for running than for walking, etc.
            The energy which is provided by food is in the form of three kinds of chemical substances. They are carbohydrate, protein and fat. Carbohydrate provides 8.8 calories per gram (cal/gm) of energy, protein 4.0 cal/gm and fat 8.0 cal/gm. Each food contains different proportion of these substances.These three chemical substances are all important for body staying healthy.
Generic Structure :
General classifications : tells what the phenomenon under discussion is.
Description tells what the phenomenon under discussion is like in terms of (1) parts, (2) qulitifies, (3) habits or behaviors, if living; uses, if non-natural.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on Generic Participant.
Use of Relational Processes to state what is and that which it is.
Use of simple present tense (uniess extinct).
No temporal sequence.

7.     Explanation

Purpose :
To explain the processes involved in the formation or working of natural or socio-cultural phenomena.
Example of Explanation Text :
                                                                        Tsunami
            The term of “tsunami” comes from the Japanese which means harbour (“tsu”) and wave (“nami”). A tsunami is a series of waves generated when water in a lake or a sea is rapidly displaced on a massive scale.
            A tsunami can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Such large vertical movements of the earth’s crust can occur at plate boundaries.
            Subduction of earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunami, and occur where denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates.
            As the displaced water mass moves under the influence of gravity to regain its equilibrium, it radiates across the ocean like ripples on a pond.
            Tsunami always bring great damage. Most of the damage is caused by the huge mass of water behind the initial wave front, as the height of the sea keeps rising fast and floods powerfully into the coastal area.
Generic Structure :
A general statement to position the readers.
A sequenced explanation of why or how something occurs.
Closing.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on generic, non-human Participants.
Use mainly of Material and Relational Processes.
Use mainly of temporal and causal Circumstances and Conjuctions.
Some use of Passive voice to get theme right.

8.     Procedure

Purpose :
To describe how something is accomplished through a sequence of actions or steps.
Example of Procedure Text :
                                                            Planting Chilies

            Planting is a nice activity in our spare time. The following is guided information on how to plant a chili-plant easily.
Here are the steps.
1. Dry a handful seeding under the sunlight
2. Put the seeding on the soil. It should be in open area
3. Wait it. There will come out the sprout after that let it be bigger.
4. Put it in another big pot. It will soon grow bigger and bigger and yield us some fresh chilies soon.
Generic Structure :
Goal
Material (not required for all procedural texts).
Step 1-n (i.e. Goal followed by a series of steps oriented to achieving the Goal)
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on generalized human agents.
Use of simple present tense, often Imperative.
Use mainly of temporal conjuctions (or numbering to indicate sequence).
Use mainly of Material Processes.

9.     Analytical

Purpose :
To persuade the reader or listener that somethings the case.
Example of Analytical Text :
                                    Jakarta as a Bad Working Place for Expatriates

            Jakarta is the second-worst place for expatriates to work in outside of the United States of America, Canada and Western Europe. It is according to a recent report published by Businessweek.
            The Businessweek report ranked emerging markets that might be challenging to move into due to their level of pollution, disease, political violence and availability of good and services.
            The report ranked Jakarta second, just below lagos in Nageria and above Riyadh Saudi Arabia, saying the threat of violence from extremest, in particular, was serious drawback to living in Jakarta. Bombings targeting foreign interests in Jakarta, such as the JW Marriot hotel bombing in 2003, have been repeated elsewhere in the city.
            The report said despite problem common to many developing cities such as the risk of disease, poor sanitation, and excessive pollution, Indonesia can be an enticing location.
In response, the Jakarta administration took the report positively, saying it could spur the administration to improve its performance.
Generic Structure :
Thesis
Position : introduces topic and indicates writer’s position.
Preview : outlines the main arguments to be presented.
Arguments
Point : reslates main arguments outlined in Preview.
Elaboration : develops and supports each point/argument
Reiteration : reslates writer’s position
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on generic human and non-human Participants.
Use simple present tense.
Use of Relational Processes.
Use of internal conjunction to state argument
Reasoning through Causal Conjunction or nominalization.

10.                      Hortatory

Purpose :
To persuade the readers or listener that somethings should or should not be the case.
Example of Hortatory Text :
                                                                        Wearing Helmet
            Why Should Wearing a Helmet when Motorcycling.
  We often hear lots of stories from road regarding people taking spill on motorcycle when they are riding without using helmet. Mostly the riders badly end up in mess.
            Wearing a fitted protective helmet offers many benefits which reduces the negative aspects of riding. First and the most important is that wearing the correct helmet can save a rider’s life, physical ability, family pain, and money. The recommended designs of motorcycle helmets can provide total protection. They not only protect riders from getting a worse road injured accident but also from flying bugs, such as rain, sleet, mud and other potential projectiles.
            Second, wearing a helmet can gives the raiders a matter of style. Helmets give the opportunity for rider to express the image they may want to project when riding on they way. This benefit may not be important to some people, but to others, it means a lot and important. By choosing the most appropriate helmet from all of the various styles, such as beanie, shorty, German, and many others, wearing a helmet which can projecting an image is an inherent crucial part of motorcycling and help riders feel more confident when riding on the road.
            However, what most important is wearing helmet when riding is a matter of using it properly. Bikers should use the helmets which are fixed to their head. It is really not good if they places simply the helmets on the head without settling them properly. The bikers should fasten the helmet correctly to their head in order to get safe and comfort.
Generic Structure :
Thesis : announcement of issue concern.
Arguments : reasons for concern, leading to recommendation.
Recommendation : statement of what ought or ought not to happen.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on generic human and non-human Participants, except for speaker or writers referring to self.
Use of :
Mental Processes : to state what writer thinks or feels about issue, e.g. realize, feel, appreciate.
Material Processes : to state what happens e.g., is polluting, drive, travel, spend, should be treated.
Relational Processes : to state what is or should be, e.g., doesn’t seem to have been, is.Use of simple
present tense

11.                     Discussion

Purpose :
To present information and opinions about issues in more one side of an issue (‘For/Pros’ and ‘Against/Cons’).
Example of Discussion Text :

Nuclear Power
            The Advantage and Disadvantage of Nuclear Power
Nuclear power is generated by using uranium which is a metal mined in various part of the world. The first large scale of nuclear power station was opened at Calder Hall in Cumbria, England in 1956.
            Some military ships and submarines have nuclear power plant for engine. Nuclear power produces around 11% of the world’s energy needed, and produces huge amounts of energy. It cause no pollution as we would get when burning fossil fuels. The advantages of nuclear plant are as follow:
* It costs about the same coal, so it is not expansive to make.
* It does not produce smoke or carbon dioxide, so it does not contribute to the greenhouse
effect.
* It produces huge amounts of energy from small amount of uranium.
* It produces small amount of waste.
* It is reliable.
            On the other hand, nuclear power is very, very dangerous. It must be sealed up and buried for many years to allow the radioactivity to die away. Furthermore, although it is reliable, a lot of money has to be spent on safety because if it does go wrong, a nuclear accident ca be a major accident.

Generic Structure :
Issue.
Statement.
Preview.
Arguments for and against or statement of differing points of view.
Point.
Elaboration .
Conclusion or Recommendation.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features :
Focus on generic human and non-human Participants.
Use of :
Material Processes, e.g. has produced, have developed, to feed.
Relational Processes, e.g., is could have, cause, are.
Mental Processes, e.g. feel
Use of Comperative : contrastive and Consequential cinjunctions.
Reasoning expressed as verbs and nouns(abstraction).