Text Types

Text Types

1. Narrative

   • Adventure
     • Works with very attractive features such as action, travel, risk and mystery
     • The scenarios are usually exotic away from reality.
     • Its plot is based on a hero and on quick and concrete actions.
   • The essential purpose of narrative is to tell a story.
   • Mystery
     • Its aim is to create uncertainty for the reader
     • Different cultures often share views about the kinds of settings that seem mysterious
     • Its plot is based on death and things out of this world
   • Science Fiction
     • Existence of fictitious or yet to be developed technologies
     • Future, spatial or fictional environments
   • Fantasy
     • It has supernatural or inexplicable elements that create a break with reality.
     • There are several types of worlds
     • Can set aside physical laws and conventional norms.
   • Historical fiction
     • Is about something that has already happened in the past
     • Requires a historical setting but can also be an adventure or a mystery.
   • Dilemma Stories
     • The strength of the story often depends on a character facing a difficult dilemma.
     • Makes the reader wait to find out how it is dealt with.
   • Contemporary fiction
     • This type of narrative includes school stories, things that happen in the home or in local settings
     • Stories therefore often reflect children’s own experiences, are often personal and structured as a recount.
   • Myths
     • The plot is often based on a long and dangerous journey, a quest or a series of trials for the hero
     • They provide a very useful contrast with shorter forms of traditional narrative such as fables
   • Legends
     • Structure is usually chronological, with one episode told after another
     • Some legends tell the whole life story of their hero as a series of linked episodes
   • Fairy Tales
     • Structure is most typically a recount in chronological order
     • Often the hero or heroine is searching for something and in many tales dreams are fulfilled with a little help from magic
   • Fables
     • Two characters (often animals) meet, an event occurs and they go on their way with one of them having learned an important lesson about life.
   • Dialogue, play scripts, and film narrative
     • Comic strip and some digital animations usually include speech bubbles within the images
     • Interactive texts may include combinations of on-screen speech bubbles and audio dialogue, e.g. accessed by rollover or mouse click.

2. Non-fiction

   • Refers to literature based in fact.
   • Discussion texts
     • To present a reasoned and balanced overview of an issue or controversial topic.
       • Argumens
       • Suppording
       • Against
   • Explanatory texts
     • To explain how or why, e.g. to explain the processes involved in natural/social phenomena or to explain why something is the way it is.
       • The steps or phases in a process are explained logically, in order.
   • Instructional/procedural texts
     • To ensure something is done effectively and/or correctly with a successful outcome for the participant(s).
       • Text are found in all areas of the curriculum and include rules for games, recipes, instructions for making something and directions.
   • Persuasion texts
     • To argue a case from a particular point of view and to encourage the reader/listener towards the same way of seeing things.
       • Elements of persuasive writing are found in many different texts including moving image texts and digital multimedia texts.
   • Non-chronological reports
     • To provide detailed information about the way things are or were.
     • To help readers/listeners understand what is being described by organising or categorising information.
     • Reports describe things the way they are, so they usually present information in an objective way.
   • Recounts
     • The primary purpose of recounts is to retell events
     • Their most common intentions are to inform and/or entertain
     • Stories and anecdotes can have a range of purposes, frequently depending on the genre being used

3. Poetry

   • It is characterized by being the most refined manifestation, through words, of feelings, emotions and reflections that can be expressed by the human being around beauty, love, life or death.
     • Free verse
       • Is not restricted by conventions of form or pattern and does not have to rhyme or maintain a consistent structure (such as line-length) throughout.
         • Monologue
         • Conversation poems
     • Visual poems
       • The words are presented to create a particular shape, to create an image or to convey a visual message.
         • Meaning may be literal or rely on metaphor.
           • Letter shapes may be exaggerated in the design.
     • Structured poems
       • Follow a consistent framework based on features such as line length, syllable count, rhyme pattern, rhythm, metre or a combination of these.
         • There are many forms of structured poetry. Some are culturally specific.
           • Cinquain
           • Quatrain
           • Couplets
           • Rap
           • Limerick
           • Kennings
           • Haiku
           • Tanka
           • Renga
           • Ballads
           • Question and answer poems

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