Types of text or text typologies are word and phrase sequences that form the texts we use in our daily lives. They are text types o narrative, O descriptive, O essay, O injunctive, O explanatory it's the predictive.
Textual genres (novels, poems, reports, emails, theses, entries, etc.) are composed of textual types. For example: to write a short story (textual genre), it is essential to use narration (textual type). Generally, a single text is made up of more than one text type.
Narrative text
narrate is tell a story, an event, a scene. This is what the narrative text does: storytelling. For this, there must be elements such as character, space and time. Furthermore, narratives are often organized around a conflict - a problematic situation that catches our attention.
Examples of predominantly narrative genres:
- Romance
- Tale
- Chronicle
- Novel
- Fable
- Legend
- Biography
See too: Narrative text, meaning of narrative and Narrative Text Characteristics.
Descriptive Text
describe is show something (a place, a landscape, a character), characterizing it. Description is part of many genres, but it is rare to find a genre where it is the predominant type.
The profile, a genre dedicated to presenting the traits of a person and their life, is an example of a predominantly descriptive text. Novels, short stories, novels and chronicles are predominantly narrative genres that contain descriptions.
Essay Text
Disseminate is the same as talk - talk about a certain topic. When it has an argumentative nature, the dissertation presents a thesis and presents arguments in order to demonstrate the validity of this point of view. The purpose of argumentative essay text is to convince the interlocutor.
Examples of predominantly essay genres:
- Entrance exam and competitions dissertation
- Scientific (or academic) article
- Doctoral thesis
- Opinion article
- Rehearsal
- Monography
- Newspaper editorial
Read more about Dissertation.
Injunctive Text
The injunctive text is the one that issues action orders or instructions (hence it is also called instructional text). Its characteristic verbal mode is the imperative: “Do”, “Use”, “Act”, “Must” etc.
Examples of predominantly injunctive genres:
- medical prescription
- Instruction manual
- medicine package
- Doctor's prescription
- military call
- Normative Instruction
Expository Text
The exhibition is the presentation of something: an idea, a thought, a concept, a given etc. In the exhibition, the focus is not on problematizing or arguing, but on the exhibition of knowledge, in a logical and organized way.
Examples of predominantly expository texts:
- dictionary entry
- Encyclopedia entry
- Textbook
- Seminar
- project presentation
predictive text
Predictive text is one in which the author anticipates (that is, predicts) something.
Examples of predominantly predictive genres:
- Weather report
- Schedule (of conferences, meetings, events, etc.)
- Travel itinerary
- Prophecy
Differences between textual genre and textual type
Textual genre is a form of writing that has peculiar characteristics in relation to its structure, style, content and function. Textual types are sequences of words and phrases that are part of the genres.
It is common for a text to contain within it more than one text type. A short story, for example, can contain narrative excerpts, other descriptive ones, other essays… Likewise, a Thesis, predominantly dissertation, may contain narrative excerpts (reports of a field research, for example).
| Textual Genre | Text Type |
|---|---|
| Form of writing that is part of our daily life | Sequence of words and phrases that make up the text genres |
| Varies over time | Does not vary over time |
| There are numerous literary genres | There are few textual types: some authors speak in 5, others in 6 |
| Examples: report, poem, short story, entry, manifesto, novel, letter, cooking recipe, instruction manual, conversation, review, note, chronicle, essay, etc. | Textual types: narrative, explanatory, dissertation, descriptive, injunctive and predictive |
See too:
- What are text genres
- Literary Text Meaning
- Text meaning