Understanding Expository Texts: Structure & Language
Expository Texts: A Deep Dive
An expository text objectively explains a topic, aiming to impart new knowledge. Its purpose is purely informative, prioritizing the referential function.
Classification by Receptor
Expository texts can be used in both spoken language (spontaneous or planned) and written language. The specific form varies depending on the sender’s intention and the receiver’s level of expertise.
- Informative Expository: Aims to inform a broad audience clearly and simply about a topic of interest. Examples include magazines, brochures, and guides on customs.
- Specialized Expository: Aims to deepen the investigation of a subject. Written by experts, these texts use complex language, including jargon, and are intended for a specialized audience. Examples include scientific treatises.
Classification by Structure
Information in an expository text should be ordered consistently and follow a clear structure. Typically, it begins with a central theme, develops it through definitions, examples, and specifics, and concludes with a final assessment.
The most common structures in expository texts are:
- Deductive: Starts with a general idea, then provides specific points, often using illustrations.
- Inductive: Presents specific data to draw a general conclusion.
- Cause and Effect: Describes a fact and then its effects.
- Timeline: Events follow a temporal order.
- Exemplification: Examples are used to facilitate understanding.
Language in Expository Texts
Lexical Features
- Monosemic and Denotative Use of Words: Words should have a single meaning to avoid different interpretations.
- Use of Jargon: Specialized texts often use vocabulary specific to each discipline.
- Formation of New Words: Acronyms, neologisms, and borrowings from foreign languages are frequently used. Cultisms and Latin expressions often appear.
Morphological and Syntactic Features
- Prevalence of Extended Sentence Structures: Developing ideas and concepts requires structures with a higher logical connection.
- Specific Syntactic Structures: Certain structures, like adverbial subordinate and explanatory coordinated clauses, are associated with exposition.
- Verbal Mode: The present tense with an eternal value and impersonal formulas dominate. The third person or first person plural is commonly used to indicate universal truth.
Textual Features
- Discourse Markers: These elements are crucial for identifying text parts and organizing logical reasoning. Examples include: ordering (below, ending), summative (and even), oppositional (but, nonetheless), consecutive (so, therefore), causative (because, as), conditional (as long as), and final (so that, for that).
- Objective Description: Abundant in specialized expository discourse.
- Exemplification: This ensures the understanding of the information.