INITIATION 4

REPORT TEXT ; DEFINITION, GENERIC STRUCTURES,

PURPOSES, LANGUAGE FEATURES
Hallo everybody.

If my friend is still confused about how and how to create a report text, maybe you should learn this article.
Maybe the this explanation of report text can help to understand this type of text that can make us a little
dizzy.

In general, report text is one type of text that is categorized as “factual texts.” This kind of text is often said
as “twin brother” of descriptive text. So that many students are “confused” how to distinguish the these
texts.

But actually to distinguish between Descriptive Text and Report Text is easy. Descriptive text gives a
specific description; on the other side the report text gives description about objects in general. In other
words descriptive text describes a specific object while the report text describes common object.
Descriptive text is written based on opinions of what the author sees and feels. Then, the report text is
written scientifically based on the results of deep research.

Definition of Report text

The term report text is often also known as informational report. The Report, in Concise Oxford Dictionary
10th Edition, is defined as 1) an account given of a matter after investigation or consideration. 2) a piece of
information about an event or situation. It can be concluded, in term of language, the report text is a text
that function to provide information about an event or situation, after the holding of the investigation and
through various considerations.

The definition of this report text is also almost similar to what is often mentioned in some English books at
high school level, “Reports a text which is the result of systematic observation and analyzes.”

Thus, actually Report Text and Descriptive Text have a fairly clear distinction, although it appears that the
both text are said to be “twin siblings”.

In conclusion, in the report text it usually contains facts that can be proven scientifically, Okay ..

Generic Structure of Report text

As descriptive text, Report text also has only two generic structures:
 General Classification ; Stating classification of general aspect of thing; animal, public place, plant,
etc which will be discussed in general
 Description : tells what the phenomenon under discussion ; in terms of parts, qualities, habits or
behaviors.
The other says that the generic structure of Report Text are :
 General information
 Bundles of Specific Information
General information is the part that mentions general information from the written objects discussed. Then,
the Bundles of specific information, is the descriptions of objects in detail.

I myself am more likely to agree with the second generic structure; because this can make students have
better understanding how to write Report Text.

Purpose of Report text

Every text must have the purpose why it was written. So do this. Some experts mention that the purpose of
the report text is:

Its social purpose is presenting information about something. They generally describe an entire class of
things, whether natural or made: mammals, the planets, rocks, plants, countries of region, culture,
transportation, and so on.

It can be concluded, the purpose of report text is to convey information of observation through systematic
analysis. The information described in the report text is usually general, whether natural or artificial like
mammals, planets, rocks, plants, states, culture, transportation, and so forth.

In high school level books, it is mentioned that the purpose of report text are :
– To describe something in general.
– To presenting information about (something), as it is.
– To describe the way things are..

Language Feature of Report text:

– Use of general nouns, eg hunting dogs, rather than particular nouns, eg our dog;
– Use of relating verbs to describe features, eg Molecules are tiny particles;
– Some use of action verbs when describing behavior, eg Emus cannot fly;
– Use of timeless present tense to indicate usualness, eg Tropical cyclones always begin over the sea;
– Use of technical terms, eg Isobars are lines drawn on a weather map;
– Use of paragraphs with topic sentences to organize bundles of information; repeated naming of the topic
as the beginning focus of the clause.

Example of Report Text

Cats
Do you ever touch a cat?
Do you have a cat at home?
A cat is one of the mammal animal which is liked a lion. It is called small lion. Although they have a
similarity but they are different much. A cat is categorized as a tame animal, is a carnivore which consumes
meat, flesh or fish. We can see it everywhere such as at home, at road, at the cat conservation and other.
This mammal, has four legs for making it easy to run so don’t be shocked if you see the fast cat takes your
meal in the dining table. It can run as fast as a dog. It has paws to protect itself from the enemy, climbing
the tree and danger. It has sharp teeth which is useful to cut the meal, eat something and bring something.
The beautiful and smooth feather is for protecting form the unpredicted situation and keeps the important
body part. Every cat has different feather color, such as cream, black, white, or black-white and other.
It is a tame pet so everybody to take care of it at home, to protect from the mouse too. But we have to be
careful when we are with it. There are many disease from the cat, guys.. for example influenza, cough,
respiratory error who can be caused by the cat feather. If you have a cat at home and you love it so much,
please wash your hand before touching your meal and face, sweep the floor after it sleeps and also takes a
bath it once a day.

Jellyfish
Have you ever heard about jellyfish? Does it have same meaning with “jelly” and “fish”?? According from
the main word, “jelly is one of the food which is made from the jelly grass; or we can describe that jelly is
one of the form of something. And fish is one of the animal which lives in the water which can swim, has
tail, gills and vertebrate animal. And the jellyfish is not a fish exactly, it is an invertebrate animal which does
not have back bone on it. Although it does not have bones but it can act and swim as fast as the wave.
It lives in the water especially in the sea which taste sour. Jellyfish has a stomach, a mouth but remember
that it does not have a head. How can it adapt and defend itself from the enemy? The answer is,, it has a
special nervous system for sensing the world around it. The body of it is almost entirely made of water so
don’t be shocked if you see the jellyfish like water.
There are some kinds of jellyfish; they are a jellyfish which can live in the darkness and in the salt water.
For the jellyfish in the darkness, it has a light by itself. The usage of is for the defending in the sea. The
enemy will feel scary after knowing it. It live in the deep ocean without the sunlight anymore. That is why it
has own light on its body. Next about the jellyfish which lives in the salt water, it can be seen in the ocean
and also almost in the sea of the world. It looks so beautiful and easy for looking by our eyes. But we have
to remember when we swim in the sea, we have to be careful because there are some dangerous jellyfish
around you. Talking about them between jellyfish in the darkness and jellyfish in the salt water , they have
same body structure but the difference is for jellyfish in the darkness has own light so will glow in the dark
but jellyfish in the salt water does not have it.

Goats
Do you have a goat in your home?
Have you ever seen a goat directly?
Where do you always see it?
Goats are the interesting mammal animal. They are vertebrates. They belong to mammal and they can be
found over the world.
Goats breathe with their lung. They can walk and run but they can be in hurry, they use their four legs.
There are many kinds of goats. All of them eat grass because that are herbivore. They live in all the world.
Some of them have torn in their head. You can hear their voice “embeeeeeeeeeek”. Don’t you know that
they have teeth to eat something?
Female goat can be pregnant and bear their baby goat. They always live together with others goat to find
the food. We can consume them in satay, soup, barbeque and other meal.
Oke. That’s all my explanation about Report Text. I hope it will be useful for us

Reference:

http://britishcourse.com/report-text-definition-generic-structures-purposes-language-features.php