What is REPORT TEXT?
A. Definition of a Report Text
A report text is a type of document written by someone or group of people to announce the result of an investigation or announce something to the proper authorities. The information given in a report text is very general information.
B. Social Function of a Report Text
The purpose of a report text is to present information about something generally. It generally describes the way things are with reference to arrange of natural, manmade and social phenomenon in our environment, such as: mammals, the planets, rocks, plants, countries of region, cultures, transportations, and so on.
D. The General Characteristics of a Report Text
The characteristics of a report text can be seen from its generic structures and linguistic features. Those characteristics will be explained below.
1. Generic Structure
a. Title
A title of a report text indicates the topic of the text and it is a very general thing.
b. General Classification
A general classification is a part that state classification of general aspect of things, such as: animals, public places, plants, etc. It will be discussed in general.
c. Description
This part gives describing of the things which will be discussed in detail, in terms of: parts (and their function), qualities, habits and behavior.
2. Linguistic features
- Focus on generic participant.
A report text always introduces group or general aspect and focus on general nouns, such as: ‘Platypus’, ‘Bees’, etc.
- A report text uses relating verb and action verb, for example:
Relating verb: Reptiles are scaly animal, etc.
Action verb: Birds fly in the sky, etc.
- A report text uses of simple present tense, for example: Platypus lives in streams, male platypus does not need any burrow, etc.
- The language used in a report text is a scientific language, for example: water contains oxygen and hydrogen, etc.
- A report text uses Conditionals and logical connectives, such as: but, in other hand, etc.
E. Differences between Report Text and Descriptive Text
Some text types are quite difficult to differ. Such a report and a descriptive text have the similarities in the social function and generic structure. However, if they are analyzed carefully, the slight difference between the two text types will reveal.
The purposes of the two texts are to give the live description of the object/participant. Both of a report and a descriptive text try to show rather than tell the reader about the factual condition of the object. Readers by themselves will catch the impressive point of the object through that showing writing style. What makes different, between report and descriptive text is the scope of the written object. If we talk about, e.g.: bicycle, it belongs to a report text. It will talk about bicycle in general in terms of its parts, physical strength, and function for certain people or other general characters of bike. In the other hand, descriptive text will convey more focus, for example "my bicycle" with its specific characters, such as: color, length, wheel style, etc.
In short, a report text describes the way of certain things and frequently refer to phenomenon of nature, animal and scientific object. Mostly, a report is written after getting careful observation. This scientific and technical sense makes clearer difference from descriptive text. The way of descriptive text in showing thing is based on the objective fact of the thing. It describes the specific thing simply as the thing is.
D. Example of Report Text
Cats
Cats also called the domestic cat or house cat (with its scientific name: Felis silvestris catus or Felis catus) is a type of carnivorous mammal of the family Felidae. The word "cat" generally refers to a "cat" that has been tamed, but can also refer to the "big cats" such as lions and tigers.
Cats are considered as "perfect carnivore" with teeth and particular digestive tract. The first premolar and molar teeth form a pair of fangs on each side of the mouth that works effectively as a pair of scissors to tear the meat. Although these features also exist in the Canidae or dog, but these traits are better developed in cats. Unlike other carnivores, cats eat almost non vegetable substance. Bears and dogs sometimes eat berries, roots, or honey as a supplement, while cats only eat meat, usually freshly killed prey. In captivity, cats can not adapt to a vegetarian diet because they can not synthesize all the amino acids they need from plant material; it is in contrast with domesticated dogs, which commonly are fed a mixture of meat and vegetables and sometimes it can adapt to a completely vegetarian meal.
Cats have mingled with human life since at least 6000 BC, from the skeleton of the cat found on the island of Cyprus. The ancient Egyptians of 3500 BC have used cats to keep away the rats or other rodents from the barn where the crops were saved.Currently, the cat is one of the most popular pet in the world. Cats that his lines are recorded officially as a cat breeds or pure breed are Persian, Siamese, Manx, and the sphinx. These kinds of cat are usually bred in official captivity animal. The number of purebred cat is only 1% of all cats in the world; the rest is a cat with mixed ancestry such as wild cats or domestic cats.
Sources:
http://englishadmin.com/2012/07/what-is-report-text.html
http://elimarseliana.blogspot.com/2015/07/text-report-text-definition-of-report.html
https://freeenglishcourse.info/what-is-report/
