Kind of text

NARRATIVE TEXT

Narrative text is a text which contains about story (fiction/non fiction/tales/folktales/fables/myths/epic) and its plot consists of climax of the story (complication) then followed by the resolution.A narrative text is a text amuse, entertain and deal with actual or vicarious experience in different ways. Narrative deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turn finds a resolution.
The narrative text short story is telling of a story or an account of a sequence of events. One of the four traditional forms of composition (along with description, exposition, and persuasion). Narration differs from exposition, which can also relate a sequence of events, in that narration need not be factual and may be written from the perspective of a character in the text.
The generic sctucture of a narrative text:
1. Orientation: Sets the scene and introduces the participants.
2. Complication: A crisis arises
3. Resolution: The crisis is resolved, for the better or for worse.
4. Re-orientation: Optinal
5. Evaluation: A stepping back to evaluate the plight
Example :

Rabbit and Bear

 

Once upon a time, there lived as neighbours, a bear and a rabbit. The rabbit is a good shot. In contrary, the bear is always clumsy ad could not use the arrow to good advantage.One day, the bear called over the rabbit and asked the rabbit to take his bow and arrows and came with bear to the other side of the hill. The rabbit was fearing to arouse the bear's anger so he could not refuse it. He consented and went with the bear and shot enough buffalo to satisfy the hungry family. Indeed he shot and killed so many that there was lots of meat left after the bear and his family had loaded themselves and packed all they could carry home.The bear was very gluttonous and did not want the rabbit to get any of the meat. Th e rabbit could not even taste the blood from the butchering as the bear would throw earth on the blood and dry it up. The poor rabbit would have to go home hungry after his hard day's work.

The bear was the father of five children. The youngest child was very kind to the rabbit. He was very hearty eater. The mother bear always gave him an extra large piece of meat but the youngest child did not eat it. He would take it outside with him and pretended to play ball with the meat. He kicked toward the rabbit's house and when he got close to the door he would give the meat with such a great kick. The meat would fly into the rabbit's house. In this way, the poor rabbit would get his meal unknown to the papa bear.

          GOLDEN EGGS

Long time ago a remote village, in central China was inhabited mainly with farmers and hunters. One day, a poor farmer lost his entire livestock to flood. He prayed hard to God for help or his family would die of starvation.Few days later, an old man with long grey beard, passed by his house took pity on him. He gave him a goose and said “ I don’t have any expensive thing to give you and hope this goose will help you to ease your hardship.”
            A week later to almost surprise the farmer found and egg in his yard. This was no ordinary egg. It was a golden egg. He was suddenly overcome with joy.Thereafter, his livelihood had rapidly improved but the farmer had forgotten his earlier hardship. He became lazy, arrogant and spendthrift.Strangely, the goose only laid one golden egg every six months. The greedy farmer lost his patient and slaughtered his goose thinking there were plenty of golden eggs inside its stomach.Though he very much regretted for his foolishness, it’s already too late.

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

Dalam artian luas, Description, seperti dijelaskan oleh Kane (2000: 352), diartikan seperti pada kalimat di bawah ini :

Description is about sensory experience—how something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but description also deals with other kinds of perception.

Jadi, jika disimpulkan dari penjelasan Kane di atas, tulisan deskriptif bermakna teks yang menjelaskan tentang pengalaman yang berhubungan dengan pancaindera, seperti apa bentuknya, suaranya, rasanya. Kebanyakan teks deskriptif memang tentang pengalaman visual, tapi nyatanya pengalaman selain dari indera penglihatanpun bisa digunakan dalam descriptive text.

Namun secara khusus, descriptive text adalah, "...... is a text which says what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing.”[teks yg mnjelaskan gambaran seseorang atau benda.tujuannya adalah untuk menggambarkan atau mengungkapkan orang,tempat,atau benda tertentu]”

Jadi, bisa dikatakan bahwa descriptive text ini adalah teks yang menjelaskan tentang seperti apakah orang atau suatu benda dideskripsikan, baik bentuknya, sifat-sifatnya, jumlahnya dan lain-lain. Tujuan (purpose) dari descriptive text pun jelas, yaitu untuk menjelaskan, MENGGAMBARKAN atau mengungkapkan seseorang atau suatu benda.

Generic Structure dalam Descriptive Text

Ketika menulis descriptive text, ada beberapa susunan umum / generic structure (sebenarnya tidak wajib) agar tulisan kita dianggap benar.Susunan tersebut adalah:

1. Identification : berisi tentang identifikasi hal / seorang yang akan dideskripsikan.
2. Description : berisi tentang penjelasan / penggambaran tentang hal / seseorang dengan menyebutkan beberapa sifatnya.

Ketika kita menulis descriptive text, hal yang wajib kita ketahui adalah cara kita menyampaikan deskripsi tulisan kita tersebut. Oleh karena itu pemahaman tentang adjective (kata sifat bahasa Inggris) wajib kita kuasai.

Selain adjective, beberapa struktur bahasa Inggris yang berfungsi sebagai adjective pun harus kita pahami agar penulisan descriptive text kita terlihat tidak kaku.

Example Descriptive Text about orange

                                                 
  Orange,the popular fruit which is easy to find and relatively cheap, in fact contain much nutrition,which is good for our health.The fruit has widely been known as not only vitamin and mineral-rich fruit but also containing essential substances,which cannot be produced by human body.As a matter of fact, those substances are necessary since they are used in the process of the growth and development of human body.
  The non-nutrition compounds in orange can minimize the risk of some dreadful diseases, such as cardiovascular, cancer, and eyes problems. Unfortunately, for many years people see the fruit only as the source of vitamin C while actually it also produces carbohydrate, potassium, calcium, thiamin, niacin, vitamin B, phosphor, magnesium, riboflavin, another natural chemical compounds.Consuming orange is also suggested for those who have diet programme since there are only 60-80 calories in one fruit. Therefore, by having this fruit in daily menu, someone can reduce his or her weight.

                                 Spoof Text

Definition and Social Function of Spoof
Spoof is a text which tells factual story, happened in the past time with unpredictable and funny ending. Its social function is to entertain and share the story.

Generic Structure of Spoof
1. Orientation
2. Events
3. Twist

Language Feature of Spoof
1. Focusing on people, animals or certain things
2. Using action verb; ate, ran, etc
3. Using adverb of time and place
4. Told in chronological order

Example :

An 80-year-old man goes to a doctor for a checkup. The doctor is amazed at his shape. “To what do you attribute your remarkably good health?”
“I am a turkey hunter and that’s why I’m in good shape. Get up before daylight, chase turkeys up and down the mountains.”The doctor says, “Well, I’m sure it helps, but there have to be genetic factors. How old was your dad when he died?”
“Who says my dad’s dead?”

“You’re 80 years old and your dad’s alive? How old is he?”
“Dad’s 100. In fact, he turkey hunted with me this morning.”
“What about your dad’s dad – how old was he when he died?”
“Who says my granddad’s dead?”
“You’re 80 years old and your grandfather’s still living? How old is he?”
“118.”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me he went turkey hunting this morning?”
“No. He got married.”
The doctor looks at the man in amazement. “Got married? Why would a 118-year-old guy want to get married?”
The old-timer answers, “Who says he wanted to?”

Report Text

Definition of Report
Report is a text which presents information about something, as it is. It is as a result of systematic observation and analysis

Generic Structure of Report
1. General classification: Stating classification of general aspect of thing; animal, public place, plant, etc which will be discussed in general
2. Description: Describing the thing which will be discussed in detail; part per part , customs or deed for living creature and usage for materials

Language Feature of Report
• Introducing group or general aspect
• Using conditional logical connection; when, so, etc
• Using simple present tense

Example:

Tyrannosaurus Rex
Tyrannosaurus rex, sometimes just called T-rex, is believed to be the largest and most fearsome predator on Earth's land ever to have existed.

This dinosaur once lived in the Creataceous period approximately 68 to 65 million years ago. The T-rex lived in a humid, semi-tropical environment, in open forests with nearby rivers and in coastal forested swamps. The seasons were mild.

Tyrannosaurus rex was up to 40 feet (12.4 m) long, about 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6 m) tall. The arms were only about 3 feet (1 m) long. Tyrannosaurus rex was roughly 5 to 7 tons in weight.

As a carnivorous dinosaur, this giant predator most likely ambushed their prey, and devoured them with jaws full of white sharp teeth. With it's fast ability to run at an astonishing speed of 32 mph (50 kmh), a perfect slim and stiff tail that gave it an excellent balance and allowed it to make quick turns, equipped this gigantic predator and made it even more deadly, like a killing machine.

Hortatory Exposition

PENGERTIAN HORTATORY EXPOSITION TEXT

Disebutkan dalam Concise Oxford Dictionary, Hortatory termasuk kata sifat (adjective) bermakna "tending or aiming to exhort" ("cenderung atau bertujuan mendorong / mendesak orang lain untuk melakukan sesuatu"). Sedangkan Exposition  bermakna "a comprehensive description and explanation of a theory" ("Penjelasan dan penjabaran sebuah teori secara komprehensif").

Jadi secara bahasa, jika disimpulkan, hortatory exposition adalah teks yang menjelaskan sebuah teori/masalah secara komprehensif dengan tujuan mendorong orang lain melakukan / tidak melakukan sesuatu.

Generic Structure

1.  Thesis / General Statement

Thesis / general statement berisi pernyataan pembuka mengenai topik pembahasan. Sebagai contoh kita akan membahas mengenai bahaya rokok, thesis statement yang bisa kita gunakan misalnya :

“Rokok dapat menyebabkan kanker, serangan jantung, dan impotensi”.

2.  Arguments

Arguments, ”Pendapat” berisi berbagai pembahasan lanjutan dari thesis statement secara detail. Akan lebih baik jika argument ini tidak hanya berisi pendapat pribadi penulis saja tapi juga bisa berisi pendapat para pakar. Mengacu pada contoh thesis statement tentang rokok di atas, kita bisa membuat arguments pendukung dengan lebih detail, misalnya :

Argument 1 : Saya mengira serangan jantung yang dialami direktur PT. LaptopButut, Pak “XXX”, disebabkan karena intensitas merokok lebih banyak dari pada minum air putih.(Terus kembangkan paragraf ini lebih dalam)

Argument 2 : Telah banyak dibuktikan bahwa rokok hampir menjadi sebab utama penyakit kanker. (Terus kembangkan paragraf ini)

Argument 3 : Impotensi seorang bos “XXX” di kota “XXX” disebutkan karena kebiasaanya merokok sebelum tidur. (terus kembangkan lagi paragraf ini)

3.  Recommendation.

Recommendation / suggestion berisi saran penulis tentang topik pembahasan. Jika membahas tentang bahaya rokok, sobat pasti tahu dong apa yang harus disarankan?

CONTOH HORTATORY EXPOSITION

Contoh hortatory expostion ini diambil dari buku bahasa Inggris Interlanguage yang membahas tentang "Masyarakat Indonesia harus menghargai perbedaan budaya demi Kesatuan Bangsa." Mari kita simak...

Indonesian People Should Value All the Different Culture to Promote Unity of the Nation

Indonesia is a culturally-diverse country. Many different religions and cultures from many provinces are now seen living side by side in many places. One of the biggest questions facing Indonesian today is how todeal with a culturally diverse citizenry and then promote unity.

Therefore, Indonesians should appreciate differences among culture for the following reasons. Firstly, Indonesia is vulnerable to separation for its archipelago and culture diversity. Raising tolerance among people is the best way to maintain the unity among differences. Many ways or cultures of living are equally legal, even if they are not regarded as normal by some people. If a society claims to be tolerant of personal choice, then it must respect the personal choice to retain their heritage. Then, unity of the nation can be preserved.

Secondly, Indonesians must recognize that every culture has different customs and beliefs. Thus, people are forbidden to make judgments of comparative value, for it is measuring something unmeasured. A plurality of nations, especially in the modern era, can allow for cultural development and cultural exchange that benefits both parties. The cross-cultural understanding among cultures makes the world a better place and preserves the unity of the nation.

Lastly, raising nationalism is one way to preserve unity of the nation. It is a sense of fellow feeling between group members. This promotes cooperation and social cohesion within the group. The sense of social cooperation makes welfare, social security and medical programs much more likely and stronger.

Cultural differences are sometime a sensitive matter for people. Indonesian people must teach younger generation about the importance of the cultural identity and nationalism to promote unity of the nation.