Report

Reports are used for many purposes. They are to provide information about natural and non-natural phenomena, to document, to organize and store factual information on a topic, to classify and describe the phenomena about a whole class of things –living and non living, to describe the way things are. Reports can be used in textbooks, encyclopedias, scientific magazines, historical texts, factual reading books, reference books, classroom lesson, environment program, TV documentaries, magazines etc. a report text has its own generic structure. It has two components namely (1) general classification, (2) description.

Reports are principally not the same as descriptions although they can be used interchangeable.

A.Generic Structure of Report:

1.General Classification : tells what the phenomenon under discussion is
2. Descriptions : tells what the phenomenon under discussion is like in terms of: Parts (and their function), Qualities and Habits or behaviour

Notes:

1. Difference between reports and descriptions: Repots classify and describe a whole class of things e.g. “Houses”. By contrast, descriptive texts talk about on specific person, place or thing e.g. “My houses”. In short, reports deal with general classification and description of a thing while descriptions describe a particular thing.

2. The description can cover the facts about various aspects of the object (colour, shape, habits, behaviour etc), giving examples, comparing and contrasting, describing components and their functions.

B. Generic Features of Report

1. Report texts usually used Simple Present Tense, and seldom use past tenses (if the thing is extinct)
2. The language is neutral or should be objective: no expression of opinions, no reference to the reader (not using “I”, “we” or “you”).
3. Frequent use of “Passive Sentence”.
4. Use of “be”: is, am, are, was, were for the classification.
5. Use of verb “have”: have, has, had, in order to give detail description.
6. Use of action verbs related to the topic, especially when describing behaviours.
7. Use of adjectives in describing especially the qualities.
8. Often accompanied by photos, diagrams, maps and illustrations.


Now read this text!

What is Apiculture?

General Classification

Apiculture is also called a bee-farming, the cultivation of bees on a commercial scale for the production of honey. Royal jelly and bee pollen are the other products of it. There are many species of bee. Some of them are Apis Cerana, Apis Dorsata, Apis florae and Apis Malifera. Among those species, Apis Malifera is the most productive and the easiest to be cultivated.

Description

A bee colony consists of one queen, a lot of worker bees and some drones, stingless male bees in a colony of social bees (especially honeybees) whose sole function is to mate with the queen. Each group has its specific duty. The queen, for example, only lays eggs, the drones have duty to copulate the queen, and the workers have to take care of the queen, drones and larvae. They are also responsible for seeking flowers and nectar.


Description

To obtain good production, the farmers have to be able to provide the most productive flowers nearby the cultivation or they have to travel through forests, bushes, and plantations to find them. The best flowers can produce ample material for bee products. Many people like to consume honey because it is believed to give benefit for health, The Holy Koran says that the bee stomach produces some liquid that is very beneficial for human health.


Read this report text!

Volcanoes

General Classification

A volcano is a mountain which is formed by the eruption of material from the earth’s interior through a central opening or groups of openings. Volcanoes are scattered over the world. Volcanoes can be divided into three categories based on volcano forms and type of volcanic activities. They are Shield, Composite and Explosion volcanoes

Description

A shield volcano is formed chiefly of layers of basalt (a dark, heavy lava). A few shield volcanoes are composed of andesite ( a related, less dense type of lava).

Description

A composite volcano has more frequent and violent explosive eruptions than shield volcanoes do. Lava may be extruded from either central crater or fissures on a volcano’s sides.

Description

Explosion volcanoes are composed of inclined layers of pyroclastic debris and contain no lava. During the eruption, debris is ejected from the crater. Most explosion volcanoes are formed during one period of eruption


To make it clear, please remember the concept of Report text below!

REPORT

Social Function:

To describe the way things are, with reference to a range of natural, man-made and social phenomena in our environment.

Schematic Structure:

General statement/ classification: introduces the topic of the reports
Description : provide details of topic such as physical appearance, behaviour, landform and uses (typically organized in paragraph)


Notes:
1. Simple Present Tense is mostly used in the report text either in active sentences or in passive sentences.
2.The use of Relational process, such as: is, consist of, function as, derive from, to be classified into, to be identified as etc.
3.The use of special nouns that denotes the characteristics of the thing such as: features, forms, functions, species etc.
4.The use of special technical terms such as: the parts of the body (e.g: brain, vein, vascular), the parts of the tree (e.g: stem, root, leaf, branch), the parts of machine (e.g: gear, screw, bolt etc).
5.No temporal sequences are used. If there is (e.g: first, second, third, the last etc). it only indicates numbering not an event.

Sources:
Cahyono, Kristiawan Dwi and Eka Purnama.2006. Communicative Competence 2B: A course in Acquiring English Communicative Competence, For Senior High School Level, Grade XI Semester 2. Jombang: CV Karunia Agung

Sudarwati and Eudia Grace.2007. Look Ahead: An English Course for Senior High School Students Year XI, Science and Social Study Program. Jakarta: Erlangga

Narrative

A narrative is a type of spoken or written text that tells a story of one character or more who face certain situations. There are various kinds of narratives such as fairy stories, mysteries, science fictions, romance, horror, etc. This type of text can be found in short story books, magazines, novels, movies etc. Narrative is popular because they present a plot which consists of complications and resolutions. They make people feel curious and anxious with the ends of the stories. The generic structure of narrative usually has four components (but the one is optional): (1) Orientation, (2) Complication (3) Resolution and (4) Re-orientation (it is optional).

A.Generic Structure of Narrative

1. Orientation : sets the scene and introduces the participants (characters) of the
story, the time and place the story happened (Who, what, when
and where)
2. Complication : a crisis arises. A series of events in which the main character
Attempts to solve the problem
3. Resolution : the crisis is resolved, for better or worse
4. Re-orientation: it is optional. The ending of story. It sometimes contains the –
solution

B. Generic Features
1.A narrative focuses on specific participants.
2.There are many action verbs, verbal and mental processes
3.Direct and indirect speeches are often used
4.It usually uses Past Tense
5.Linking words are used, related with time
6.There are sometimes some dialog and the tense can change
7.Descriptive language is used to create listener’s or reader’s imagination
8.Temporal conjunctions are also used.

Now read this text of narrative!

When Love is Blind

Orientation:

There was once a beautiful girl living in a city. She was known as Shinta, a nice and friendly girl. She studied at a popular senior high school in the city. She always followed the trend of young people life style. She got dressed as how the trend was at the time. In her idea, western modern life was the ideal model for all people. She thought that everybody should be free to do anything he or she liked.

She had a handsome boyfriend, Deo. Having a boy or girl friend was like a must for the young people in the city. Parent’s advice to get away from western culture was considered as old-fashioned.

Shinta loved his boyfriend very much. On Saturday evening they made a date, going to a theatre, café or party. Shinta’s parents were worried about her. They have warned her but she ignored them.

She thought, “Though my parents don’t agree with me, the show must go on. I love him very much. Whatever happens to me, I will face it”. Yes love was blind. She got blind. Since then, she often quarreled with her father and mother. She became uncontrolled. She more often went out at night with the boyfriend. But, her parents could do nothing but only wait, see and pray.

Complication:

Days went by. One morning, Shinta got a serious stomachache and wanted to throw up. She got dizzy; she went to the bathroom and threw up some contents of her stomach. Shinta was very worried. “Am I getting pregnant?” she asked herself. Her worries grew stronger until she decided to buy a pregnancy tester in a shop. She tested her urine. And … what a shock! The tester showed a positive pregnancy. Shinta got fainted in her room for some minutes. She was very afraid that her mother knew what happened.

Shinta tried to hide her pregnancy. Her face got pale every day and looked unhealthy. She tried to contact Deo. Knowing her girlfriend got pregnant; he was also frustrated and didn’t want to admit that he was the father of the baby. He tried to avoid meeting Shinta. He was not responsible for the consequence. He asked her to abort the baby, but she refused.

The stomach became bigger and bigger, but she was successful to hide it from other’s sight. She was very depressed, and more and more. Four months later, in one evening, when she could no longer be able to keep the burden, she decided to do abortion. In her bedroom, she took a chair and jumped from it to the floor. When her feet touched the floor, a bloody clod of a red fetus covered with placenta was dropped, cried and move several seconds, then stopped moving. The blood was running out of her skirt, making the floor wet. Shinta could see what happened in front of her eyes, didn’t know what to do. She tried to stand up. But then she got unconscious.

The next day, in the morning when she didn’t get out of the room, Shinta’s mother called her name several times. No answer made the mother open the room door and looked inside. She saw blood everywhere in the floor and walls. The horror was shocking her when she found her daughter lying near the dead small fetus. She was upset but could control herself.


Resolution:

Shinta’s mother quickly took her to the hospital. But, it’s too late. On the way Shinta died before she got a help. On the same day, the news about Shinta spread throughout the city.
Written by Cahyono




To make it clear, please remember the concept of narrative below:

Purpose:
To amuse or entertain
To deal with actual or imaginative experiences in different ways

Text Organization
Orientation
Complication
Resolution

Language Features

• Focus on specific and individualized participants
• The use of material process (action verbs)
• The use of some behavioral and verbal processes
• The use of relational and mental processes
• The use of past tenses
• The use of temporal conjunctions and circumstances

Sources:
Cahyono, Kristiawan Dwi and Eka Purnama.2006. Communicative Competence 2B: A course in Acquiring English Communicative Competence, For Senior High School Level, Grade XI Semester 2. Jombang: CV Karunia Agung

Sudarwati and Eudia Grace.2007. Look Ahead: An English Course for Senior High School Students Year XI, Science and Social Study Program. Jakarta: Erlangga