Expository and Argumentative Texts: Structures and Examples
UNIT 9: Expository and Argumentative Texts
Expository Text
Expository or explanatory text presents an issue following a structured scheme. The exhibition themes are diverse, ranging from personal experiences to more general or abstract questions.
Structure
The structure of expository text, based on a screenplay exhibition, usually consists of three parts:
- Introduction: Announces the topic, outlines aspects like the reasons for developing the theme, and indicates the expository approach.
- Development: Presents information following the script proposed in the introduction. This is the most extensive and dense part. It can be arranged:
- Chronologically or historically
- From general data to specific individuals, or vice versa
- Thematically, sorting ideas into sections
- Conclusion: Summarizes relevant information, extracts the essential idea, and may reinterpret it or place it in a broader context.
Language
The language of an expository text must be clear and precise. Additional resources can be used to enhance the exposition:
- Use verbs that indicate status, process, or relationships between concepts (be, have).
- Use subordinate clauses to express logical relationships between ideas.
- Use connectors for various functions: introducing sentences and examples, making transitions between sections, etc.
- Develop specific lexical fields depending on the topic, including technical terms.
- Predominantly use the declarative sentence mode.
Classification of Expository Texts
According to the field of communication:
- Everyday Texts: e.g., explaining a patient’s initial visit to a doctor.
- Academic Texts: e.g., a teacher’s explanation in the classroom.
- Media Texts: e.g., documentaries, science or social programs, abstract reports on issues.
According to the intended recipient:
- Informative Texts: Lectures, articles, magazines, books, and websites aimed at a broad audience, using understandable language to introduce a specific topic.
- Specialized Texts: Books, specialized publications, conference presentations, treaties, and major works aimed at subject specialists, using specialized language for in-depth knowledge on a topic.
Today, the use of slideshows with computer programs is common. Expository text may be accompanied by sounds and images.
Argumentative Text
An argumentative text presents the issuer’s ideas on a subject with a persuasive intent. This intention may be explicit, directly addressing and involving the recipient, or implicit, leaving the initiative to the receiver.
Structure
Argumentative texts can address everyday situations or more abstract questions. The issuer adopts a position or thesis on the subject. If the thesis is expressed early in the text as a starting point, it’s a deductive structure. If reasons accumulate and lead to the thesis, it’s an inductive structure.
Arguments are the author’s reasons and are usually ordered according to specific criteria. The conclusion explicitly states the thesis after the reasoning.
Language
Argumentative texts use these grammatical resources:
- Verbs that introduce viewpoints.
- Sentences expressing logical relationships between ideas.
- Connectors for various functions: introducing arguments and sentences, making transitions between blocks, etc.
- Formulas involving the recipient, such as the second person, specific forms of address, or the imperative.
Classification of Argumentative Texts
According to the communication field:
- Everyday Texts: e.g., negotiations between parents and children about family activities.
- Academic Texts: e.g., reasoned answers and essays expressing personal opinions.
- Media Texts: e.g., calls for participation on television or radio.
Based on how they persuade:
- Implicit Argumentative Texts: Seemingly objective, presenting data organized to induce the reader to a specific conclusion.
- Explicit Argumentative Texts: Do not hide the argument and the issuer’s position.
- Persuasive Argumentative Texts: Rely on resources like promises rather than strong arguments.