T YPES OF T EXT
October 2014. Kindly contributed by Samantha Dowd, Wigan.
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Curriculum links and teaching notes
L1 Functional English and Adult Literacy.

Lesson objective
• By the end of this session you will be able to:
• Correctly identify the 4 types of text
• List at least 2 features of each of the 4 different texts

What is a text?
• Task:
• Think of the types of text that you read as part of your course and also in your spare time. How many can you list?

Types of text
• Each text that you have mentioned has a purpose (has a reason for being written)
• They can be:
• Instructive
• Informative
• Persuasive
• Descriptive

Instructive texts (a text that instructs you or tells you how to do something)
• Examples include:
• Recipe
• Training plan
• Manual
• Possible features of instructive texts:
• Use ‘must’ or ‘must not’
• Short sentences
• Use bullet points or numbers
• Use pictures to help your understanding
• Run to the end of the road. Turn left. Run to the corner, then stop.

Informative texts ( a text that wants to advise or tell you something)
• Examples include:
• A newspaper article about a post match report
• A website giving information about a band/team/event
• Features of informative texts are:
• Avoid repetition
• Give facts
• Provide information in a clear way
• In today’s lesson you will learn about 4 different types of text

Persuasive texts (created to make you do something)
• Examples include:
• Advert
• Charity event
• Joining a gym
• Features of persuasive texts are:
• Text in capital letters
• Exclamation marks
• Repeated words
• SPECIAL OFFER! Buy today! MISS IT OR MISS OUT!

Descriptive texts (a text that want you to picture or imagine something)
• Examples include:
• Novels such as Harry Potter
• Song lyrics
• Features of descriptive texts are:
• Using comparisons to help picture the scene (something is ‘like’ something else)
• Employ the reader’s five senses
• He ran so fast, as fast as lightening strikes.

Texts - Activity
• Refer back to the list of documents you made at the start.
What types of text are they?

Texts - Activity
• Look at the texts provided
• In your groups decide what type of texts they are and put them under the correct heading.

Objectives recapped
• What are the 4 types of texts?
• Provide 2 examples of each type of text
• Name 2 features of a persuasive text
• Name 2 features of an instructive text

Skimming
• Used to identify main points and ideas from a text
• You skim a text to obtain the gist - the overall sense - of a piece of writing. This can help you decide whether to read it more slowly and in more detail.
• How do you skim read?
• Read the title, subtitles and subheadings to find out what the text is about.
• Look at the illustrations to give you more information about the topic.
• Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph.
• Don’t read every word or every sentence. Let your eyes skim over the text and look out for key words.
• Continue to think about the meaning of the text.

Scanning
• You scan a text to obtain specific information. For example, to find a particular number in a telephone directory.
• For these tasks you don’t need to read or understand every word.
• Use clues on the page, such as headings and titles, to help you.
• In a dictionary or phone book, use the header words to help you scan.
You can find these in bold type at the top of each page.
• Many texts list things in alphabetical order from A to Z. These include everyday materials, such as the phone book or indexes to books and catalogues.