REPORT

SOCIAL FUNCTION :
To describe the way things are, with
reference to a range of natural, man-made
and social phenomena in our environment
 SUB-TYPES OF REPORT TEXT

1. DESCRIPTIVE REPORT
2. TAXONOMIC REPORT
3. CONTRAST / COMPARE REPORT
4. HISTORICAL REPORT
 GENERIC STRUCTURE
► General
Classification : tells what the
phenomenon under discussion is.

► Description: parts, qualities, habits or

behaviors, if living; uses, if non-natural.
SIGNIFICANT
LEXICOGRAMMATICAL
FEATURES

 Focus on generic participants

 Use of Relational Processes to state
what is and that which it is.
 Use of simple present tense (unless
extinct).
 No temporal sequence.
 REPORT TEXT
ELEPHANTS

Elephants are the largest land animals in the

world. Elephants are mammals. They have several
distinctive features aside from their large side. Their
long trunk is used for breathing, smelling, touching,
feeding, drinking, lifting heavy objects, and
trumpeting. No other animal has a nose with so
many uses.
Elephants are equally remarkable for their
tusks. They are enormously long teeth that continue
to grow throughout the elephant’s life. They are
made of bony material called ivory. Elephants have
always been hunted for their tusks. The ivory is
carved or shaped into sculptures, ornaments, and
decoration.
 Adult elephants have little hair on their thick,
wrinkled skin, but their tails are tipped with wiry hair,
and their eyelashes can be over 12 cm long.
Elephants need a great deal of food. A big male may
eat up to 225 kg of plant material, such as leaves, bark,
fruit, and grasses, a day, and drink between 75 – 150 l of
water.
Most elephants live in herds of 10 to 50 animals.
The female carries her unborn young for 20 to 22
months before birth, the longest period for any
mammal. Several females usually help the mother with
the baby during and after birth. The baby needs nursing
for two or more years. An elephant can live 60 or 70
years.
Elephants have been tamed and used to serve the
needs of people for at least 5,000 years. Their size and
strength have been used to lift heavy objects, carry
heavy loads, and even lead armies into battle. Killing
elephants for their tusks is now forbidden, but illegal
hunting still takes place. Also, human settlement leaves
elephants with less space to roam.
 SNAKES
Snakes are long, slender reptiles without legs.
They do not have movable eyelids, which gives them
a glassy, unblinking stare. Most of them live in the
warmer parts of the world, although some, such as the
rattlesnake, are found as far north as the Artic Circle.
Snakes have two main methods of killing their prey
– constriction and poisoning. Constrictors coil around
their prey and suffocate it. Venomous snakes produce
venom in special glands and inject it into the victim
through a grooved or hollow fang.
Many people think that snakes have slimy skins.
However, a snake, like most reptiles, is dry to touch. A
snake’s skin does not grow with the animal and has to
be shed at regular intervals.
Snakes are often hunted for their attractively patterned
skins, which are made into purses, shoes, and belts.
They are also captured for the pet and zoo trade.