Explanatory texts provide information on specific facts and concepts. Its main objective is to disseminate content that is understandable to the recipient. For example: the definition of a concept in a dictionary, the content of study manuals or a science article published in a magazine.
To fulfill their function, these texts, which are also called expository, use resources such as exemplification, description, opposition of concepts, comparison and reformulation.
Characteristics of the explanatory texts
- They are written in the third person.
- They use a formal registry.
- They do not include subjective statements or opinions.
- The content is presented as real and verified.
- They may or may not use technical terminology. It will depend on the audience to which the content is directed and the needs of the issuer.
Resources and structure
- They are organized into three main parts: introduction (the main idea is presented), development (the main topic is explained) and conclusion (detailed information is synthesized in the development).
- They propose one or more questions that an attempt is made to answer by means of verifiable data and information.
- Describes, presents and organizes the facts and events in a hierarchical way. Also, the information becomes more complex as the text progresses.
Examples of excerpts from explanatory texts
- Photosynthesis: It is a chemical process through which inorganic matter is transformed into organic matter, from the energy of light. In this process, glucose molecules are generated from carbon dioxide and water, on the one hand, and oxygen is released as a by-product, on the other.
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez: He was a Colombian journalist, editor, screenwriter, novelist and short story writer. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. He was born in Aracataca, Colombia, on March 6, 1927 and died on April 17, 2014. He is one of the greatest exponents of the Hispanic American Literature Boom. Among his works are 100 years of solitude, The litter, The colonel has no one to write to him, Chronicle of a foretold death, Story of a castaway Y News of a kidnapping.
- Staff: From the Greek: penta, five and grama, to write. It is where the musical notes and signs are written. It consists of five horizontal lines, equidistant and straight, and four spaces, which are numbered from bottom to top.
- Quorum: It is the minimum and necessary requirement of the number of members present that are needed in a plural organization to begin to debate or make decisions.
- Poetry: Literary genre that expresses feelings, stories and ideas in a beautiful and aesthetic way. Its sentences are called verses and the groups of verses are known as stanzas.
- Natural satellite: It is a celestial body that orbits around a planet. Satellites are usually smaller than the planet they accompany in their orbit around their parent star.
- Jazz: It is a musical genre that has its origins towards the end of the 19th century, in the United States. To a large extent, his songs are instrumental. Its distinct feature is that it is based on free interpretation and improvisation.
- Giraffe: It is a species of mammal from Africa. It is the highest terrestrial species. It can reach almost six meters in height and up to 1.6 tons. It inhabits open forests, grasslands, and savannas. It feeds mainly on tree branches, as well as herbs, fruits and shrubs. Per day, it eats about 35 kilos of foliage.
- Be quiet: It is the absence of sound. In the context of human communication it implies abstention from speech.
- Impressionism: It is an artistic movement that is limited to the field of painting. It emerged in the middle of the 19th century. It is characterized by the search to capture the light and the moment. Its artists, among whom Monet, Renoir and Manet stand out, painted the visual impression, so that in their works the elements are not defined and the elements become a unitary whole. The colors, which together with the light are the protagonists of the works, are pure (they do not mix). The brushstrokes are not hidden and the shapes are diluted imprecisely, according to the light that illuminates them.
- Ford Motor Company: It is a multinational company specialized in the automotive industry. It was founded in 1903, with an initial capital of US $ 28,000 contributed by 11 partners, among whom was Henry Ford. The factory was located in Detroit, Michigan, United States. In 1913, the firm created the world’s first registered mobile production line. This reduced the chassis assembly time from a dozen hours to 100 minutes.
- Aldous Huxley: British writer, philosopher and poet from a family of biologists and intellectuals. He was born in England in 1894. During his youth, he suffered from visual problems that delayed his education at the University of Oxford. After completing his studies, he dedicated himself to traveling through Europe and it was at that stage that he wrote stories, poetry, and the first of his novels. It was in 1932 that he wrote his most recognized work, A happy world.
- Cinematography: It is about the technique and art of creating and projecting footage. Its origins lie in France, when in 1895 the Lumière brothers planned for the first time the departure of workers from a factory in Lyon, the arrival of a train, a ship leaving a port and the demolition of a wall.
- Parliament: It is the political body whose main function is the development, reform and enactment of laws. It can be made up of one or two chambers and its members are elected by vote.
- Vertebrate: It is an animal that has a skeleton, skull and vertebral column. Also, your central nervous system is made up of your brain and spinal cord. These animals are opposed to invertebrates, which are those that do not have bones.