Explanation Text

Definition and purposes of Explanation

Explanation is a text which tells processes relating to forming of natural, social, scientific
and cultural phenomena. Explanation text is to say 'why' and 'how' of the forming of the
phenomena. It is often found in science, geography and history text books.

Generic structure of Explanation

 General Statement: stating the phenomenon issues which are to be explained.
 Sequenced explanation: stating a series of steps which explain the phenomena.

Language Feature
 Featuring generic participant; sun, rain, etc.
 Using chronological connection; to begin with, next, etc.
 Using passive voice pattern.
 Using simple present tense.

Example of Explanation Text

Tsunami
The term of “tsunami” comes from the Japanese which means harbour ("tsu") and wave
("nami"). A tsunami is a series of waves generated when water in a lake or a sea is rapidly
displaced on a massive scale. GS

A tsunami can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces
the overlying water. Such large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate
boundaries.

Subduction of earthquakes is particularly effective in generating tsunami, and occurs

where denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates.
E
As the displaced water mass moves under the influence of gravity to regain its
equilibrium, it radiates across the ocean like ripples on a pond.

Tsunami always brings great damage. Most of the damage is caused by the huge mass of
water behind the initial wave front, as the height of the sea keeps rising fast and floods
powerfully into the coastal area.

List of Difficult Words:

 deform: melengkung
  displace: memindahkan
 ripples: gelombang
 slip: menyelinap
 denser: lebih tebal

Question
1. How does the tsunami happen?
2. Where does the tsunami take place?
3. What are the effects of tsunami?
4. When does the tsunami happen?
5. Why does Tsunami bring great damage?

Language Feature
 Featuring generic participant Tsunami, wave.
 Using chronological connection: to begin with, next, etc.
 Using passive voice pattern: A tsunami is a series of waves generated when water in a
lake or a sea is rapidly displaced on a massive scale; Most of the damage is caused by the
huge mass of water behind the initial wave front; A tsunami can be generated.
 Using simple present tense: The term of “tsunami” comes from the Japanese which
means harbour ("tsu") and wave ("nami"); Subduction of earthquakes is particularly
effective in generating tsunami, and occurs where denser oceanic plates slip under
continental plates.

Read the following Texts

Text 1

Text Structure CANCER

What is cancer? It is actually a group of more than one
hundred separate diseases. Most of us are fear from cancer. It
is reasonable because next to heart disease, cancer is the
second leading cause of death.
 Cancer cells come from normal cells because of mutations of
DNA. Those mutations can occur spontaneously. The
mutations may be also induced by other factors such as:
nuclear and electromagnetic radiation, viruses, bacteria and
fungi, parasites, heat, chemicals in the air, water and food,
mechanical cell-level injury, free radicals, evolution and
ageing of DNA, etc. All such factors can produce mutations
that may start cancer. Cancer cells are formed continuously in
the organism. It is estimated that there are about 10,000
cancer cells at any given time in a healthy person. Why do
some result in macroscopic-level cancers and some do not?
First, not all damaged cells can multiply and many of them
die quickly. Second, those which potentially divide and form
cancer are effectively destroyed by the mechanisms available
to the immune system. Therefore cancer develops if the
immune system is not working properly or the amount of
cells produced is too great for the immune system to
eliminate.
(Simplified from:
www.digitalrecordings.com/publ/cancer.html)

 Writing
Write the main sequenced explanations (you may use your own
words) dealing with the text about the cancer leading to the
cause of death.

Text 2
WHERE DOES RAIN COME FROM?

Rain always comes from clouds. But where do clouds come from? How does all that water get
into the sky?

Think about your bathroom. There is hot water in your bath. Steam goes up from the hot water.
The steam makes small clouds in the bathroom. These warm clouds meet the cold walls and
windows, and then we see small drops of water on the walls and windows.

The world is like your bathroom. The water in the oceans is warm when the sun shines on it.
Some of this water goes up into the sky and makes clouds. The wind carries the clouds for
hundreds of kilometers. Then the clouds meet cold air in the sky, and we see drops of water.
The drops of water are rain.

The rain falls and runs into rivers. Rivers run into oceans. And the water from oceans makes
clouds and more rain. So water is always moving from oceans to clouds to rain to rivers to
oceans. So the rain on your head was on other heads before! The water in your garden was in
other gardens in other countries.
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Social function :

Generic structure :

Language Feature :

Answer the following questions:

1. What is the rain?

2. When the water in the ocean is warm?
3. What happen when the cloud meet cold water?
4. What is the circulation of rain?
5. When the water steam and goes up?