Name : Indira Maharani

Class : XII IPS 2

Report Text

A. Definition
A report text is a type of document written by someone or group of people to announce
the result of an investigation or announce something to the proper authorities. The
information given in a report text is very general information.

B. Social Function
The purpose of a report text is to present information about something generally. It
generally describes the way things are with reference to arrange of natural, manmade and
social phenomenon in our environment, such as: mammals, the planets, rocks, plants,
countries of region, cultures, transportations, and so on.

C. The General Characteristics

The characteristics of a report text can be seen from its generic structures and linguistic
features. Those characteristics will be explained below.

1. Generic structures

 Title
A title of a report text indicates the topic of the text and it is a very general thing.

 General Classification
A general classification is a part that state classification of general aspect of things, such
as: animals, public places, plants, etc. It will be discussed in general.

 Description

This part gives describing of the things which will be discussed in detail, in terms of:
parts (and their function), qualities, habits and behavior.

2. Linguistic features

 Focus on generic participant.

 A report text always introduces group or general aspect and focus on general nouns, such
as: ‘Platypus’, ‘Bees’, etc.

 A report text uses relating verb and action verb, for example:

Relating verb: Reptiles are scaly animal, etc.

Action verb: Birds fly in the sky, etc.

 A report text uses simple present tense, for example: Platypus lives in
streams, male platypus does not need any burrow, etc.

 The language used in a report text is a scientific language, for example: water
contains oxygen and hydrogen, etc.

 A report text uses conditionals and logical connectives, such as: but, in other
hand, etc.

D. Example Text

Venice is a city in northern Italy. It is the capital of region Veneto. Together with Padua,
the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area. Venice has been known as the
“Queen of the Adriatic”, “City of Water”, “City of Bridges”, and “The City of Light”. The city
stretches across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in
northeast Italy.
        Venice is world-famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by
about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected by
about 400 bridges. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of
transport is on water or on foot.
You can ride gondola there. It is the classical Venetian boat which nowadays is mostly used for
tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies. Now, most Venetians travel by
motorized waterbuses (“vaporetti”) which ply regular routes along the major canals and between
the city’s islands. The city also has many private boats. The only gondolas still in common use
by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points
without bridges.
          You can see the amusing city’s landmarks such as Piazza San Marco, Palazzo Contarini
del Bovolo, Saint Mark’s Cathedral or villas of the Veneto. The villas of the Veneto, rural
residences for nobles during the Republic, are one of the most interesting aspects of Venetian
countryside. They are surrounded by elegant gardens, suitable for fashionable parties of high
society. The city is also well known for its beautiful and romantic view, especially at night.

Classification of Text

Text to describe something in detail:

1. Descriptive Text
2. Report Text

Similar characteristic in Descriptive Text and Report Text

A report and a descriptive text have the similarities in the social function and generic
structure. The purposes of the two texts are to give the live description of the
object/participant. Both of a report and a descriptive text try to show rather than tell the
reader about the factual condition of the object. Readers by themselves will catch the
impressive point of the object through that showing writing style.

Differences between Descriptive Text and Report Text

What makes report and descriptive text different, is the scope of the written object. If
we talk about, e.g.: bicycle, it belongs to a report text. It will talk about bicycle in general in
terms of its parts, physical strength, and function for certain people or other general characters of
bike. In the other hand, descriptive text will convey more focus, for example "my bicycle" with
its specific characters, such as: color, length, wheel style, etc.
In short, a report text describes the way of certain things and frequently refer to
phenomenon of nature, animal and scientific object. Mostly, a report is written after getting
careful observation. This scientific and technical sense makes clearer difference from descriptive
text. The way of descriptive text in showing thing is based on the objective fact of the thing.
It describes the specific thing simply as the thing is.