Types of Texts
As you read in your second language, you may encounter many more types of texts (written or spoken communication with a purpose / printed or recorded material / visual or auditory input) than just academic reading. There are a number of different ways to discuss or sort these texts. Often texts can be classified by their purpose: Persuasive, Informative, and Entertaining; you may also see texts grouped into Factual (informative) and Literary (descriptive, narrative, expository, and argumentative). In this class, we will look at the purpose of the text. A variety of common texts and some possible ways to classify them are shown in the Venn diagram below. Do you agree with the way the authors have sorted these texts?