Text Type Conventions
Before you start your creative task,
please review the guidelines of the
genre of writing you have chosen so
that you can properly emulate it.
There’s about a million types of texts.
To name a few:
Advertisement
Appeal
Biography
Brochure/leaflet
Cartoon
Database
Diary
Editorial
Electronic texts (such as social networking sites, discussion forums or blogs)
Encyclopedia entry
Essay
this is not an academic essay of the sort you write at school, but a poetic essay (something like a literary opinion column)
Film/television
Guide book
Interview
Letter (formal/informal)
Magazine article
Manifesto
Memoir
News report
Opinion column
Parody
Pastiche- a pastiche is a serious attempt to reproduce the style of another text
Poem
Radio broadcast
Report
Screenplay
Set of instructions
Song lyric
Speech
Textbook
Travel writing
So Far, We have covered:
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Poem (Alabanza by Martin Espada and Sonrisas by Pat Mora)
Personal Essay (“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, “On Liberty” by John Stuart Mill)
News Article (“The Definitive Slang Dictionary” by Ben Zimmer, “A Language
Without Limits” by Deena Kamel, “English grows into strange shapes when
transplanted into foreign soil” by Ben Macintyre)
Song (Strange Fruit, by Billie Holliday and other protest songs)
Speech (“Ain’t I a Woman” by Sojourner Truth, “Disappointment is the Lot of
Women” by Lucy Stone, “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Blog (“POC is Inherently a Racist Term” by socialjusticefail and other blogs )
Open Letter (“Open Letter To Kansas School Board” and John Greene’s “An Open
Letter to Students Returning to School)
Slam (Touchscreen, by Marshall “Soulful” Jones and other slam poetry / spoken
word)
Commercial (Census Commercials)
Novel (Animal Farm,by George Orwell)
Propaganda (Orals on Animal Farm)
Art (Christina’s World, y Andrew Wyeth, “Napalm Girl” by Banksy and others in ART
packet)
Poem
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Conveys emotion or ideas to audience
can be free verse or contain rhyme scheme
Considers auditory devices (rhythm)
Connotative diction and imagery
Other literary devices including symbolism
Employ a vast amount of figurative language
Title (usually)
Focuses on how it is said, not just what is being
said.
• May not follow traditional sentence structure
Personal Essay
• Relies mostly on personal stories to make
points
• Relevant to author’s daily life
• Has a message for the audience
• Uses personal pronouns (I, me)
• Paragraph format
• Has an intro and conclusion
• Often includes a call to action
News Article
Purpose:
1. Gives up-to-date information, quickly and clearly
2. Topical; concerned with the latest development
3. Short
4. As objective as possible
5. Gets straight to the point; formal style
6. Will be near the front of the newspaper or in the front section
7. Will follow a pyramid structure: who, what, where, when, why, how
8. Will not have a special ending
9. Not initiated by the newspaper; staff simply react to the news
News Article
Conventions:
• The reporter begins with the most important
facts in the first or lead-up paragraph, which
“leads” the reader into the rest of the story.
The less important facts and background
follow.
• Inverted Pyramid—Lead, Important details,
other details
News Article
Types of leads:
• Summary
• Descriptive
• Quote
• Startling Statement
• Question Lead
• Developing a news story: Lead (opening
statement), topic, quotation, topic, quotation
News Article
News Narrative vs. News Interview
• News narratives tend to focus on themes i.e. political
strategy.
• News interviews are interactional. The focus tends not
to be as thematic as news narratives although themes
are present in the asking and answering of questions.
• A news interview is an interactional ‘game’ that moves
an interview in a particular direction, relying on some
questions to ‘move’ the interview along, while others
questions subject prior responses to challenge.
News Article- Interview
News Interview Questions
• Each question has an anticipated significance.
• Some questions are relatively open-ended and allow
the interviewee maximum leeway to respond.
• Other questions narrow the parameters of an
acceptable response and exert pressure on the
interviewee to answer in a particular way.
• In this way, the sense and the significance of an
interviewee’s response depends in part on how it deals
with the agenda or positioning established by the
question (i.e. dutifully answered, resistant, evasive).
News Article- Interview
Significance of the interview interaction
• The interview interaction ‘game’ is played
differently by different people in different
contexts.
• An interviewer’s role can shift between relative
polite or deferential questioning to aggressive
and adversarial across particular interviewers,
interviewees, news programs, broadcasting
media, national boundaries, or historical eras.
News Article- Interview
Adversarial vs Differential
• One way of expressing adversarialness is via
opinionated or assertive questions—such
questions display a preference for or expectation
for a certain type of response.
• Encodings for these types of questions might look
like the following:
• Didn’t you? Aren’t you? Isn’t it true that?
• These questioning strategies embody a strong
preference for an affirmative answer.
Songs of Protest
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The song clearly took a stance on a clearly defined social or political issue
(as perceived by the listeners of the era in which the song was released)
• The song had (or implied) a call to action or predicted outcome. The call to
action could have been direct, such as “fight!” … or it could have been a
prediction, like “punishment is probably coming my way because I choose
to oppose”
• The song was (or still is) controversial, probably exposed the artist to
criticism (from either or both sides of the argument). It’s not just popular
opinion …
• The song’s lyrics are not masked in too much poetry or metaphors, they
just say it … or they at least go to a “point of no return” in the lyrics that
can define their point of view (for example, Bob Dylan warns Senators and
Congressmen, and Peter Tosh tells the gangster robbers he won’t attend
their friend’s funeral)
• But most importantly, there’s a “feeling” captured in a true protest song,
you can feel it the second the song starts playing … it’s a feeling that
grows stronger with the lyrics to captivate the audience and inspires
them into action.
Speech
Purpose:
1. present particular information, or a way to influence and
motivate groups to action.
2. unify and consolidate smaller groups or individuals to a
common cause.
No matter what the purpose of the speech, the particular way
in which a speech is received and interpreted by the audience
is influenced by the type of speech and the language used.
The audience also determines how the speech is received due
to their own individual and group characteristics such as social
class, culture, religion and racial ties. Consider the context in
which the speech was delivered and received
Speech
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Types of speeches:
Topical—this speech splits the main topic into sub-topics. For example, a speech about changing catering
providers may involve discussion about different types of food and drink choices and their benefits.
Spatial—this type of speech follows a direction. For example, in a speech about planning a special event
such as a wedding, you could first discuss placement of the tables and chairs (including appropriate
seating for special guests at the front and less important guests at the rear) followed by discussion about
the entertainment and catering options.
Chronological—the topic is arranged by time. For example, in a speech about your rise to an important
position, you would begin with details about your humble roots and beginnings, followed by information
about your own personal growth over the years, then your current status. This could be followed by your
future aspirations.
Problem/solution—you present a problem that needs to be solved and then a solution to that problem.
This type of organization is effective if you are trying to motivate your audience to take some kind of
action. For example, a speech describing the effect of global climate change and pollution on people and
the environment fits this organizational pattern, provided it lists the sources of the problem and describes
what can be done to stop it.
Comparative—you compare and contrast different proposals or plans, usually to persuade the audience
that one plan or proposal is better. For example, in a presentation to a company’s executives, you could
compare and contrast two different advertising proposals concerning a new product to convince the
executives that one proposal is better than the other.
Causal (both informative and persuasive)—this type of speech shows cause/effect relationships. Often
the effect is discussed first, then the cause. A speech about natural disasters that describes how they
occur and their destructiveness fits this organizational pattern.
– One focus of persuasion is the question of fact. This refers to something that we can know to be
either true or false, but right now we can argue about it: “To persuade my audience that media
violence causes real-life violence.”
– Another focus of persuasion is the question of value. Here we argue something is right or wrong,
moral or immoral, or better or worse than another thing: “To persuade my audience that one
product is better than another.”
– Another focus of persuasion can be questions of policy: “To persuade my audience that the ban on
women in combat should be lifted.”
Blog
• A blog (or web log) is either a discussion or informational website
that consists of discrete entries (“posts”) typically displayed in
reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first).
• Usually blogs are the work of a single individual, and often cover a
single subject.
• Author presents some form of commentary (either in words or
pictures or both)
• The majority of blogs are interactive. They may be responding to a
different post and they allow users to leave comments and respond
to one another.
• Blogging is a valuable form of social networking. Both the author
and the people commenting have a form of mass communication
with which to present and debate ideas.
Open Letter
• An open letter is a letter addressed to either a
wide audience or a specific individual or group,
but is intended for public viewing. It is often
critical in nature, and follows the standard forms
of presenting and arguing an issue. Authors may
use humor or satire to drive home a point. Often
the writer addresses the audience before
presenting the argument, outlining the nature of
the complaint. Open letters originated as letters,
but have evolved to take the form of blogs,
videos, and other public forums.
Slam Poem
• a spoken word poem that is composed and practiced to be
performed in front of a live audience. The audience is often
encouraged to participate by cheering when they hear an idea they
agree with or see as profound.
• should be three minutes in length, memorized, and performed by
the author
• usually free verse (no set rhyme scheme) and can use any poetic or
prose devices to create an effect on the reader.
• can be done individually or in groups of two or four.
• The subject of a slam poem varies, but the key ingredient is the
speaker’s passion. The topics are often “touchy subjects” or
controversial. The slam poetry stage is a place where people are
able to speak their mind, even if others disagree.
• Slam poets choose words carefully, understanding the impact of
each word has the direct ability to make their audience feel.
Commercial
• A commercial is a short clip that is meant to
persuade or convince its audience.
• The creator is very perceptive of audience
• Commercials are tailored for who they are
intended for.
• They use
– visual devices (background, camera angle,
movements, words on screen)
– Auditory techniques (Music, tone of voice)
– Structural techniques (organization)
– Verbal techniques (word choice, Literary devices)