Argumentative and Instructional Texts: A Comprehensive Guide
1. Argumentative Texts
a) Purpose, Function, and Types
The argumentative essay aims to refute or express opinions and persuade a recipient. The argument tries to prove, convince, or change an idea (thesis). The goal is to sway the receiver’s position for or against a particular idea and potentially incite action. This requires a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter and persuasion techniques (strategies to change the receiver’s ideas).
The referential function dominates the part that explains the basic idea, but there is also an appellate function in developing arguments. Argumentative texts appear in many forms and cover various themes that lend themselves to discussion or can be seen from different viewpoints. Examples include scientific and journalistic texts.
Types of Argumentative Texts:
- Essays
- Political and legal oratory
- Some advertising resources
- Opinion pieces and editorials
- Letters to the editor
- Cultural criticism articles (theater, sports, etc.)
In oral language, argumentation appears frequently in daily conversation. It is also the dominant type in discussions, symposia, and roundtables. The pure argumentative essay is seldom found and may be accompanied by a more objective exposition.
b) Types of Registers
Varieties of language are associated with each communication situation (varieties of style or registers). Each register results from four factors: the issue in question (specialized or general), the relationship between sender and receiver (level of formality), the communication channel (oral or written), and the speaker’s purpose or intention (objective or subjective).
Classifying registers can be challenging, but thanks to the differences between linguistic forms, we can distinguish between formal and informal registers.
Formal Registers:
Formal registers prioritize selecting available linguistic resources. They can include:
- Standard Register: The common standard of cultivated or technical/scientific literature.
- Formal Register: Uses careful language planning and is mainly found in literary texts and scientific or technical writing. Technical-scientific language seeks maximum precision in the lexicon and avoids ambiguity and polysemy. Literary language uses connotative language.
Informal Registers:
Informal registers typically occur in direct interpersonal communication, often spontaneous and including humor, irony, or familial language. Features include:
- Spontaneity: Lack of planning, subjective purpose, preference for simple structures, gestures, etc.
- Expressiveness: Use of interjections and exclamations, augmentatives and diminutives, vocatives, etc.
- Economy of Language: Unfinished phrases (ellipsis, deictic expressions, repetitions, etc.).
2. Instructional Texts
a) Linguistic Forms
The instructional text aims to regulate the receiver’s future conduct, so the appellate function dominates. This manifests through:
- Frequent use of appellate or conative verb forms (future tense, imperative, infinitive) and the second person (as the text addresses a receiver). These forms can alternate with softer or more objective equivalents like the future, present, conditional, or impersonal constructions with “se.”
- The lexicon is usually denotative and accurate, with abundant techniques from the relevant field (legal, technical, computer, culinary, etc.).
- The syntax is typically simple, with ordered and concise sentences.
- Use of typographic resources (headings, subheadings, indentations, underlining, etc.).
- Frequent use of iconic code (graphics or illustrations).
6. The Image in Advertising
a) Role and Impact
The image plays a key role in media as a universal, efficient, and seemingly straightforward language. Beyond the defined plane or information in its representation of reality, images possess connotative values that suggest or evoke implicit content widely used in advertising. Some are easily interpretable (palm trees, beach, vacation). When associated values are not universal, the visual context or text helps interpret the image’s meaning.
The image’s visual impact is produced by the expressive manipulation of its components: light and color treatment (dark – mysterious), distortion of volume or dimensions, or integration planning (general plan, foreground), angle (a chopped angle may connote inferiority), targeting, etc.
To highlight the message and make it memorable, the image also utilizes rhetorical devices (repetition, ellipsis, contrast, metaphors, hyperbole, etc.). For example, the exaggeration of whiteness contrasts with dirt (detergents).
7. Filmmaking Terminology
a) Definitions
The Plan (Shot): The basic unit of film, defined by framing, angle, and camera movement. It encompasses the frames recorded from when the camera starts rolling until it stops.
Panning: A type of camera movement where the camera rotates on its axis (vertically or horizontally) without moving its position. It’s a descriptive movement that connects things and people.
Kinetic Code: Filmmaking is a universal language composed of different codes, including the Kinetic code (movement).
The Sequence: A narrative unit consisting of one or more scenes focused on the same action. These units interact and acquire meaning during the editing process.