Different Types of Text

1.What is text?

Text is any piece of writing.
This could be a letter, an email, a novel, a poem, a recipe, a note, instructions for D.I.Y, an article in a newspaper or magazine, writing on a webpage or an advert.
All of these examples can be called texts

When you are reading or writing any text think about the purpose of the text or why it has been written.

2. What might the purpose of a text be?

An advert might be trying to persuade you to buy something.
A letter from school might be to inform you about something.
A novel might describe somewhere or someone to you.
A car manual might instruct you how to do something to your car.

Depending on the purpose of the text, different methods will be used to get the message across to the reader.

For more specific information on some of the different types of text see the Persuasive texts, Informative texts, Instructive texts and Descriptive texts factsheets.


Persuasive texts
A persuasive text is a text that really wants you to do something

An advert might want you to buy something.
You might write a letter to persuade a friend to go on holiday with you, or to try and get off a parking ticket.
Persuasive texts might use:
• repeated words
• text in capital letters
• exclamation marks
• rhetorical questions (questions where no answer is needed)
• an emotional one-sided argument
• humour
Examples:
SPECIAL OFFER! Buy today! Would you want to miss this SPECIAL offer? Phone NOW...

"I really think that you need this holiday. You have been working very hard lately and are so worn out. Just think of how nice it will be to lie on the beach in the sunshine."

Informative texts
An informative text is a text that wants to advise or tell you about something.

A newspaper article might give you information about a health issue like giving up smoking.
A website might give you information about a movie, band or something that you are interested in.
A handout from school might be advising you about what your child will be doing during the next term.
Informative texts usually:
• avoid repetition
• contain facts
• give information in a clear way - introducing the subject and then developing it
Examples:
Make a plan to help you try and give up smoking. Plan the date you'll give up, how you'll try to deal with temptations and a list of the reasons why you are giving up to keep motivated.

Autumn term: Your child will be covering simple fractions during weeks 1-6.

Instructive texts
An instructive text is a text that instructs or tells you how to do something

A recipe wants to instruct you how to cook something.
A leaflet with a piece of furniture wants to tell you how to put it together or take care of it.
Instructive texts:
• are written as though the reader is being spoken to -
(although the word 'you' is not usually used)
• language is direct and unnecessary words are left out
• often use 'must' and 'must not'
• sometimes use diagrams or pictures to help understanding
Examples:
Put all ingredients into bowl together. Whisk until fully mixed.

Go to the end of the road and turn left past the pub on the corner. Keep walking until you come to a park and then turn right into Hawker Street.


To learn more about writing instructions, look at the Skillswise Instructions module.

Descriptive texts
A descriptive text is a text that wants you to picture what they are describing.

A novel might want you to imagine the characters and see them in your mind.
A travel book will want you to see the country it is describing.
Descriptive texts usually:
• make use of adjectives and adverbs
• use comparisons to help picture it - something is like something
• employ your five senses - how it feels, smells, looks, sounds and tastes
Examples:
The morning air was crisp and sharp as Sean walked down the road.
The pavement was slippery and cold beneath his feet like a slimy wet fish.


To learn more about words to help you describe people, places and things look at the Skillswise Describing words (adjectives) module.

QUICK PLACEMENT TEST

Pada tanggal 22 Februari 2009 Perguruan Tinggi Widya Dharma menyelenggarakan placement test bagi sejumlah dosen di lingkungan perguruan tinggi ini. Test yang dimulai tepat pada pukul sepuluh pagi itu diikuti oleh dosen-dosen ABA WIDYA DHARMA, STMIK WIDYA DHARMA, STIE WIDYA DHARMA dan ASM WIDYA DHARMA, serta sejumlah guru dari SD PLUS GEMBALA BAIK. Test ini difasilitasi oleh perwakilan langsung Cambridge di Indonesia
Dari 34 peserta yang diharapkan mengikuti tes ini, ada 2 dosen yang berhalangan untuk hadir. Sebagian besar peserta mengatakan bahwa mereka mengalami kesulitan karena waktu yang sangat terbatas dalam menyelesaikan soal-soal yang diberikan. Para peserta hanya diberikan waktu 20 menit untuk menyelesaikan 40 soal bahasa Inggris yang dibuat langsung oleh CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY ini. Soal soal tersebut mengetes kemampuan bahasa Inggris peserta dari aspek Reading dan Grammar. 40 soal tersebut merupakan tahap pertama dari 2 tahap yang diteskan. 7 peserta berhasil lulus untuk tahap pertama ini dan berhak melanjutkan tes tahap kedua untuk menjawab 20 soal selama 10 menit. Ketujuh peserta yang lolos ini adalah Pak Bambang Wijaya, Bu Royani, Bu Lenny, Erwi Eka Asmara, Jimmy Welles, Bu Aminah, dan Bu Lina. Para peserta yang lulus ke tahap kedua ini diperkirakan memiliki Advanced atau Very Advanced Level of English Mastery. Selamat untuk para peserta yang lulus!

Ten tips on being a good Master of Ceremony

Are you going to be a master of a ceremony at a conference, award's night, seminar series, concert or similar event? What a wonderful honour, but a daunting one! Here are some tips to help you be brilliant.

Know your role. The role of a master of ceremonies is to keep an event flowing, to keep the energy of the audience up, to ensure that everything runs smoothly, to help the audience feel welcomed, to help speakers feel appreciated ... and so the list continues. It is not simply to watch the clock or to give information.

Identify the core groups in your audience. Welcome individuals and groups, not just by title but with specific information. For example, "To those of you who have travelled all the way from Newcastle, a big welcome."

Mention the audience's needs. Show you know where the audience is at. For example, if you are the master of ceremonies at a breakfast seminar you might say, "I know some of you are hanging out for your first coffee of the day, so we are going to start with breakfast."

Mention the viewpoint of the audience. The audience may be listening to a speaker at a function and have cynical views or objections in their minds about what may be presented. Sometimes if you, as the master of ceremonies can bring that objection out into the open, they can let go of it. You might say something like "You might be sitting there thinking that this is all very well but it will take too much time. You'll enjoy our next speaker then, as Ian has some fascinating statistics on how quickly the task can be done".

Keep to time – be confident. Some master of ceremonies I have worked with have found it very difficult to stop speakers going over time. In advance decide how, as the MC, you will let people know when their time is up. Then do it! Don't be scared – it's your job and speakers expect you to do it. At one event I spoke at, the mistress of ceremony was adamant, in advance, that I didn't need to worry about time as she would tell me when I only had 5 minutes to go. But she never told me about 5 minutes or when my time was up and I was left wondering how long I'd spoken for. It was a 15 minute speech and after (I discovered later) 22 minutes, I finally gave up waiting for her and stopped. It was very uncomfortable and I will always time myself in future. You are there, as the master of ceremony, to keep the time.

Keep your audience's energy up. If your audience has had to listen to a dull or boring speaker, you need to bring their energy back up. It is your job to warm them up and get them enthusiastic for the next speaker or event on the program. Using humour by telling funny stories or getting the audience involved in an activity can help here.

Thank the speakers specifically. Thank the speakers by picking up on what they've said and feeding it back to them. Don't just say "thank you" or "thank you for your time" or "what a wonderful speech". Instead be specific. For example, "Jane, those stories you told about how Michelle's exercise program saved her life have helped me understand just how important it is that I exercise more. In fact, I'm going to make sure I go for a walk when we've finished here today. Thank you for being so inspiring".

Help motivate the audience to want to hear a speaker. Your job as the master of ceremonies is to explain to an audience the benefits they are going to gain from listening to a speaker, so that the audience is motivated to pay attention. This is good for the audience and good for the speaker. For example, you might say, "Some of you have come especially today to find out what the mediation program is about. Sun-Lee, who will be talking next, will explain all the steps so that you can use them to sort out any problems you may be having at work." Making it amusing can also help here.

Talk personally to the audience. Avoid overuse of the third person, and instead talk personally to the audience. For example, instead of saying "People are killed everyday on the roads because of driver fatigue", you might say, "As a driver, you may be killed not because you have made a mistake but because the person in the car next to you was tired and dropped off. Would you rather live? Is there any danger that you might be too tired to drive safely?"

Sound welcoming. Some masters of ceremonies read a sheet of paper to announce and formally welcome guests. Please do it from your heart and with a sincere and genuine sense of welcoming. Smile, name people personally, say why it's good they are here, look people in the eye and have warmth in your voice. Welcome people rather than announce them, and do it without reading it word for word. Connect with your audience. being a master of ceremony is a hard job but done well can make an enormous difference to a function. Do it well and enjoy the success.

Being a Master of Ceremonies at a wedding: Ten tips on how to be a good Master of Ceremonies

You've been invited to be the master of ceremonies at a wedding. What an honour. It is an important job. You know the master of ceremonies can make or break the wedding reception, and you need to be good. Here are ten tips, out of the many available, to help you be a brilliant Wedding Master of Ceremony.

Keep everything flowing smoothly.It is often your job to mastermind the entire wedding reception. You need to know exactly what is to happen when, where and with whom. However, things are always in danger of going haywire at a wedding reception. When events don’t go to plan you have to provide a way for everything to continue to run smoothly. This may be by your filling the gaps in the programme or by getting someone else to do it. But whatever happens make sure the wedding reception flows smoothly. You are to smooth everything over.

Keep everything and everyone to time.How easy it is for a wedding reception to drag on. People speak far longer then they should, the bride and groom are late arriving, the knife for the cake cutting goes missing, the bride's mother faints ... there are any number of possible events that can stop the ceremony going to time. As the Master of Ceremony at the wedding your job is to make sure everything runs to time. If this means you go to the kitchen 15 minutes before the cake is due to be cut to ensure the knife is available and the cake ready, then you go to the kitchen. If you need to talk to everyone in advance about the length of their speeches and how to help them stick to time, then you talk to all speakers in advance. You do whatever you need to keep to time.

Get the introductions and protocol correct.The Wedding Master of Ceremony is often responsible for announcing who people are and introducing them before they give a speech or a toast. Make sure you have sufficient information on all the relevant people, and that you know what they are doing and when. Ensure you get the titles and protocol correct for all the duties including the introductions. For example, the Master of Ceremonies announcements may include introducing a toast to the bride and groom, calling upon the groom and bride to respond, inviting the parents of the groom to speak, inviting the bride and groom to the dance floor for the bridal waltz, and so on. Work out carefully, in advance, exactly what is expected of you. Your Master of Ceremonies duties can vary from one wedding to another. No two weddings are identical and not everyone wants a traditional wedding. (Also, it is important if you are not also the Best Man that you know which duties the Best Man will take responsibility for and which ones you, as the Master or Mistress of Ceremonies, will do. )

Leave everyone feeling proud of the "happy couple". Emotions are a very important part of your job. As the Master of Ceremonies at a wedding it is very important that everything you do is geared to two emotions: pride and happiness. You need to ensure everyone at the wedding, particularly the parents and siblings of the bride and groom, glow with radiant pride throughout the wedding ceremony and wedding reception. There are many ways to do this, e.g. telling positive stories about them, finding others to tell relevant stories about them, praising the bride and groom, commenting on good features that are happening... do what you can to leave everyone feeling proud of the couple and proud to have been at the wedding.

Build up happiness. Help the bride and groom to leave feeling very happy. As their Master of Ceremonies the bride and groom will want you to help them take away a wonderful set of memories that will last them a lifetime. People cherish their wedding photos for years and years; they still talk about their wedding 10, 20 or 30 years later, and they want everything to go well so they can savour each moment. The happy memories matter. The Master of Ceremony needs to have the couple’s happiness as a major focus.

Encourage laughter. Relax the wedding guests. Relax the bridal party. Relax everyone there by using humour so people laugh. You may for instance tell funny stories, or encourage others to do so, about the couple. This can keep a wedding light and enjoyable. Don’t make the stories too embarrassing though, the Master of Ceremonies is not there to humiliate anyone, even if the groom is your best mate!

Help the guests feel comfortable and connected. One of the difficulties with wedding ceremonies and receptions is that the guests don’t know each other. One of your tasks as the Master or Mistress of Ceremonies is to help the guests feel comfortable and connected. Very often guests can feel awkward and alone: bring everyone together. Help everyone get to know each other. This is even more important if it is a cross cultural or cross religious wedding.
Make sure everyone knows what is happening.So often I’ve been to weddings, as a guest, and had no idea what is happening next, or where I am to go or what I am to do. As the Wedding Master of Ceremony don’t let this happen to your guests. Don’t leave your guests standing around not knowing what to do next. Tell them what is happening each step of the way.

Don’t crack irrelevant jokes. Master of Ceremonies who are new to the role, often make the mistake of thinking that they have to tell a whole series of jokes. They don’t. There are other ways to produce humour. If you do tell jokes make sure they do not offend anyone. Pick them very carefully indeed.

When alcohol is present be prepared for anything. Sadly, people who drink too much alcohol at wedding receptions can cause a nightmare for the Master or Mistress of Ceremony. However, the Master of Ceremonies (usually along with the Best Man) is responsible for managing crowd behaviour. You become the unofficial bouncer. My worst memory of a wedding reception was when a small number of guests, myself included, took to the dance floor. A man behind me was inebriated. He decided to come up close and starting shoving himself at me, as if he were dry humping. It was disgusting and revolting. Fortunately, with very little fuss he was taken aside and “encouraged” to go home early. It is your job as the Master of Ceremony to avoid such incidents from occurring and if they do to deal with them swiftly and discreetly so there is as little embarrassment for the bride and groom as possible.

Five easy Ways to Overcome Nervousness in Public Speaking

Nerves can ruin public speaking. They can stop you from giving presentations, and leave you afraid of speaking in public. We've all experienced nerves at some stage or other and they aren't always a bad thing – for instance, nerves can keep us alert to danger; they can remind us to check for potential errors before we hand in a report, or they can keep us charged up so we meet a deadline or a plane on time.
However, when we experience nervousness in public speaking, our presentations can be ruined. We may experience blushing, sweating, heart pounding, shaking, a dry mouth, stomach butterflies, trips to the toilet, or go blank, lose our place, drop our notes, mumble, become inaudible, sound squeaky or overall fail to give a good impression. If you get these problems prior to giving a speech or during a speech no wonder you have a fear of public speaking.
However, it is possible to overcome public speaking nerves and anxiety. Here are just five of the many steps that may help you. They have been selected from interviews with seven women on the CD set "Confidence for women in public speaking". They can apply to you too.

Adopt an audience focus. Many people who are nervous about public speaking are often, in my experience, self-conscious. They spend a lot of time worrying about themselves. They think the audience is going to be very critical, that the audience is out to destroy them or trip them up, that the audience is going to analyse them and find fault in everything they do. All of this self-focus increases anxiety and panic in public speaking so they freeze. Instead, focus on the audience. After all, the audience is actually most concerned about themselves. They sit there wondering how they’re going to cope with all the new e-mails that will arrive while they’re there, they wonder whether they’ll get back in time to pick up the kids, they’re anxious in case they can’t keep up or they have to do something humiliating or embarrassing. You can, therefore, forget yourself and focus on the audience. Forget the concept of audience attack! Instead make then feel welcomed, ensure they are comfortable, reassure them, have eye contact with them, interact with them, make the speech relevant to them, and so on. When you take the focus off yourself anxiety will lessen. Too much self-focus kills confidence and increases nervousness. When you focus on the audience everyone benefits.

Put yourself in the present moment. Anxiety and nervousness are often related to concerns about the future, about what will happen, about what may go wrong. Thoughts such as, "What happens if the audience asks me a question I can't answer?" or "What happens if the audience falls asleep?", or "What if I go blank?" all increase your anxiety and nerves, and take you away from what is happening right now. Instead of worrying about what may happen later become fully involved in what is happening in the present moment. Chelsea, aged 10, was the youngest person on the CDs and was a big star in her school play. When I asked her how she managed to pull off such a successful performance, she replied, “I didn’t really think of anything else, just what was going on in the moment.”

Let your errors build your skills and experience. We all make errors when public speaking. It is our reaction to such errors that matters not the errors themselves. Melissa, a 29 year old mother of two and small business owner, used to go over and over in her mind the one time she had “fluffed” a presentation. She presumed that she would therefore “fluff” all future presentations. There was no evidence for this. She had some good presentation skills. One flop does not mean permanent failure: it just means that you had one flop! No-one, however skilled and confident, can go on stage, speech after speech, and always have 100% success. Talk to successful presenters and they will all be able to tell you of the time that a speech hasn’t worked, or they lost their place, or someone fell asleep. Such experiences are normal. What matters is what you do with them. I remember giving a speech to a local council once. It was after lunch. I looked around and sure enough there was one of the older guys, not just asleep, but snoring! What I needed to learn was how to wake him up without embarrassing him, and so I invented an exercise where everyone had to turn to the people next to them and talk to them. In other words, the man next to him woke him up for me! If you learn from your errors then your experience will build your public speaking confidence and skills.

Invest your time in practising being confident. It is very easy to increase our panic and nervousness by what we do and what we imagine. It is equally possible, therefore, to increase our confidence and reduce our anxiety by what we do and imagine. For example, Melissa initially said she was terrified of speaking at a national conference, as she was sure the audience was going to pull her to pieces. No wonder she was scared if this is what she imagined would happen. In contrast, when she began visualising the audience sitting together as small groups of friends while she was sending them her love, her anxiety and palpitations eased and were replaced by a relaxed sense of calm; and the conviction, that yes! she could do this – she could speak successfully at the conference. Invest your time practising being confident.

Do your homework. We live in a society where we have been trained to expect instant results, instant confidence, instant happiness, and instant luxury. Yet life is not really like this, this is just a fairy tale dreamt up by advertisers who want you to buy their products and services. If you want to instantly cure your nervousness you may be disappointed and give up too easily. If you are willing to do your homework and practise the strategies to overcome your public speaking panic, then success is yours. I am a confident and successful speaker but I still do my homework and work to get myself in the best mind state for each speech. Do your homework and the rewards will be yours.

Say goodbye to nervousness in public speaking. Your confidence is already there waiting for you.

Eleven Things to Avoid in Public Speaking

1. Doing the same thing all the time: variety is more interesting.
2. Reading the notes word by word: it stops you looking at the audience and can contribute to your nervousness if you become scared of losing your place.
3. Having too much detail - select your key messages. Make it easy for the audience to learn your primary message.
4. Using too many technical terms: use everyday words that the people in your audience will relate to and use. Technical terms, bureaucratic phrases and jargon that you might speak on a daily basis may not be familiar to your audience. Do not let technical language form a barrier between you and the audience. As a very simple example, your audience may not say "This is an employer of choice", rather they might say "I want to work here."
5. Sounding dull, disengaged or tired: have energy. If you don't have the passion and enthusiasm for your topic - how can you expect your audience to? Inspire your audience with your own passion and enthusiasm.
6. Pacing up and down: stay still sometimes, move sometimes.
7. Sounding flat: put some light and shade in your voice.
8. Mumbling: make sure you're easy to hear. An audience gets very frustrated when they can't hear a speaker. Be clear. Be audible.
9. Relying too heavily on visual aids: you are important - make sure the audience sees you and not just your power-points.
10. Standing fixed to one spot. Don't let adrenalin freeze you to the spot. Move and move early.
11. Avoiding looking at the audience: have eye contact with your audience. Give the impression that you are looking at each person - do not skim over their heads nor fix on one or two people.

Ten Tips on Making Your Presentations Interesting

Vary what you do.

It is usually more interesting for an audience if they can't predict the next slide, activity or item of content. Vary what you do.

Vary your audio-visuals.

Use slides which are varied, e.g. a cartoon, followed by bullet points, then a photograph, then a quote, then a statistic, and so on!

Start with something unexpected. Starting a speech or presentation with "Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for having me," may not be interesting. Instead you might like to try by starting with something less predictable, e.g. a hands-up activity, a quote, a stunning statistic, etc.

Speak in an interesting voice. Avoid a monotone. Have light and shade in your voice. Sound interesting.

Involve the audience. A passive audience is more likely to become disinterested than one involved in the presentation.

Move. It's usually more interesting to watch a presenter who moves his/her body and has energy and spark, than one who is fixed solid. This doesn't mean fidgeting or pacing up and down so you become distracting. It does mean avoiding the temptation to fix rigidly to the spot or to hang on to the lectern.

End early. End a few minutes early rather than going overtime. Audiences generally get restless, no matter how good the presentation when it runs overtime.

Use props. Props can evoke curiosity in an audience. Being able to see a piece of working machinery, a model, or a funny costume, for example, may bring sparkle to even the most technical presentation.

Tell humorous stories. Humour can bring presentations alive. Make sure, though, that if you're going to tell jokes that they are relevant and not offensive to anyone. Personal stories can be safer than jokes but please! make sure they make a point relevant to your speech.

Ask questions. Engage your audience at an intellectual level. Pose questions for them to answer - whether out loud or in their heads. They may enjoy the challenge.