Report Text

 

                   Report text is a text which presents information about something, as it is. It is as a result of systematic observation and analysis.

GENERIC STRUCTURE

General Clasification: statements that describe the common subject of the report, description, and classification.
Description: Tells what the phenomenon under discussion; in terms of parts, qualities, habits or behaviors; This section gives an overview of commonly occurring phenomenon, either of its parts, its properties, habit, or behavior. The point is the elaboration of scientific classification presented.

PURPOSE OF REPORT TEXT

                Its social purpose is presenting information about something. They generally describe an entire class of things, whether natural or made: mammals, the planets, rocks, plants, countries of region, culture, transportation, and so on. 

GRAMMATICAL PATTERNS IN THE REPORT TEXT

• Use of general nouns, eg hunting dogs, rather than particular nouns, eg our dog;
• Use of relating verbs to describe features, eg Molecules are tiny particles;
• Some use of action verbs when describing behaviour, eg Emus cannot fly;
• Use of timeless present tense to indicate usualness, eg Tropical cyclones always begin over the sea;
• Use of technical terms, eg Isobars are lines drawn on a weather map;
• Use of paragraphs with topic sentences to organise bundles of information; repeated naming of the topic as the beginning focus of the clause.

 

EXAMPLE OF REPORT TEXT

 Venice

            Venice is a city in northern Italy. It is the capital of region Veneto. Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area. Venice has been known as the “Queen of the Adriatic”, “City of Water”, “City of Bridges”, and “The City of Light”. The city stretches across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy.

            Venice is world-famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected by about 400 bridges. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot.

            You can ride gondola there. It is the classical Venetian boat which nowadays is mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies. Now, most Venetians travel by motorised waterbuses (“vaporetti”) which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city’s islands. The city also has many private boats. The only gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges.

            You can see the amusing city’s landmarks such as Piazza San Marco, Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, Saint Mark’s Cathedral or villas of the Veneto. The villas of the Veneto, rural residences for nobles during the Republic, are one of the most interesting aspects of Venetian countryside.