Report Text; Definition, Generic Structures, Purposes, Language Features – BRITISH Course (2023)

Hallo everybody
If my friends are still confused about what is report text and how to create the text, maybe you should read this article. Maybe this explanation of report text can help you to understand this type of text that can make us a little dizzy.

In general, report text is one type of text that is categorized as “factual texts.” This kind of text is often said as “twin brother” of descriptive text. So that many students are “confused” how to distinguish the these texts.

But actually it is not too difficult to distinguish between Descriptive Text and Report Text. Descriptive text gives a specific description; on the other side the report text gives description in general about an object. In other words descriptive text describes a specific object while the report text describes common object. Descriptive text is written based on opinions of what the author sees and feels. Then, the report text is written scientifically based on the results of deep research.

Definition of Report Text

The term report text is often also known as informational report. The Report, in Concise Oxford Dictionary 10th Edition, is defined as 1) an account given of a matter after investigation or consideration. 2) a piece of information about an event or situation. It can be concluded, in term of language, the report text is a text that function to provide information about an event or situation, after holding investigation and through various considerations.

The definition of report text is also almost similar to what is often mentioned in some English books at high school level, “Reports text is a text which is the result of systematic observation and analyzes.”

Thus, actually Report Text and Descriptive Text have a fairly clear distinction, although it appears that the both text are said to be “twin siblings”.

In conclusion, in report text it usually contains facts that can be proven scientifically, Okay ..

Generic Structure of Report Text

As descriptive text, Report text also has only two generic structures:
# General Classification ; Stating classification of general aspect of thing; animal, public place, plant, etc which will be discussed in general
# Description : tells what the phenomenon under discussion ; in terms of parts, qualities, habits or behaviors.

The other says that the generic structure of Report Text are :
* General information
* Bundles of Specific Information

General information is the part that mentions general information from the written objects discussed. Then, the Bundles of specific information, is the descriptions of objects in detail.

I myself am more likely to agree with the second generic structure; because this can make students have better understanding how to write Report Text.

Purpose of Report Text

Every text must have the purpose why it was written. So do this. Some experts mention that the purpose of the report text is:

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.

It can be concluded, the purpose of report text is to convey information of observation through systematic analysis. The information described in the report text is usually general, whether natural or artificial like mammals, planets, rocks, plants, states, culture, transportation, and so forth.

In high school level books, it is mentioned that the purpose of report text are :
– To describe something in general.
– To presenting information about (something), as it is.
– To describe the way things are.

Language Feature of Report Text

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

Example of Report Text

Example of Report Text – Cats

Cats

Do you ever touch a cat?
Do you have a cat at home?

A cat is one of the mammal animal which is liked a lion. It is called small lion. Although they have a similarity but they are different much. A cat is categorized as a tame animal, is a carnivore which consumes meat, flesh or fish. We can see it everywhere such as at home, at road, at the cat conservation and other.

This mammal, has four legs for making it easy to run so don’t be shocked if you see the fast cat takes your meal in the dining table. It can run as fast as a dog. It has paws to protect itself from the enemy, climbing the tree and danger. It has sharp teeth which is useful to cut the meal, eat something and bring something. The beautiful and smooth feather is for protecting form the unpredicted situation and keeps the important body part. Every cat has different feather color, such as cream, black, white, or black-white and other.

It is a tame pet so everybody take care of it at home, to protect from the mouse too. But we have to be careful when we are with it. There are many diseases from the cat, guys.. for example influenza, cough, respiratory error who can be caused by the cat feather. If you have a cat at home and you love it so much, please wash your hand before touching your meal and face, sweep the floor after it sleeps and also takes a bath it once a day.

Example of Report Text – Jellyfish

Jellyfish

Have you ever heard about jellyfish? Does it have same meaning with “jelly” and “fish”?? According from the main word, “jelly is one of the food which is made from the jelly grass; or we can describe that jelly is one of the form of something. And fish is one of the animal which lives in the water which can swim, has tail, gills and vertebrate animal. And the jellyfish is not a fish exactly, it is an invertebrate animal which does not have back bone on it. Although it does not have bones but it can act and swim as fast as the wave.

It lives in the water especially in the sea which taste sour. Jellyfish has a stomach, a mouth but remember that it does not have a head. How can it adapt and defend itself from the enemy? The answer is,, it has a special nervous system for sensing the world around it. The body of it is almost entirely made of water so don’t be shocked if you see the jellyfish like water.

There are some kinds of jellyfish; they are a jellyfish which can live in the darkness and in the salt water. For the jellyfish in the darkness, it has a light by itself. The usage of it is for the defending in the sea. The enemy will feel scary after knowing it. It live in the deep ocean without the sunlight anymore. That is why it has own light on its body. Next about the jellyfish which lives in the salt water, it can be seen in the ocean and also almost in the sea of the world. It looks so beautiful and easy for looking by our eyes. But we have to remember when we swim in the sea, we have to be careful because there are some dangerous jellyfish around you. Talking about them between jellyfish in the darkness and jellyfish in the salt water , they have same body structure. The difference is for jellyfish in the darkness has own light so will glow in the dark but jellyfish in the salt water does not have it.

Example of Report Text – Goats

Goats

Do you have a goat in your home?
Have you ever seen a goat directly?
Where do you always see it?

Goats are the interesting mammal animal. They are vertebrates. They belong to mammal and they can be found over the world.

Goats breathe with their lung. They can walk and run but they can be in hurry, they use their four legs. There are many kinds of goats. All of them eat grass because that are herbivore. They live in all the world. Some of them have torn in their head. You can hear their voice “embeeeeeeeeeek”. Don’t you know that they have teeth to eat something?

Female goat can be pregnant and bear their baby goat. They always live together with others goat to find the food. We can consume them in satay, soup, barbeque and other meal.

Example of Report Text – Worm

Worm

Worms refer to legless animals with a typical long and cylindrical body. They can be divided into several phyla: annelida, arthropoda, chaetognatha, gnathostomulid, hemichordata, nematoda, nematomorpha, nemertea, onychophora, phoronida, platyhelminthes, priapulida and sipuncula. Some of the most famous worms are: earthworms, flatworms and pinworms.

All of them have their own characteristic and it is different from one to the other. For example: some of them are microscopic while the other may grow up to 58 m long. A lot of worms consider to be parasite and live inside the body of other animals. There are also some worms who live freely in the ocean, freshwater and underground burrows. Most of them have a soft and flexible body, and it can be cylindrical or it can also be flat. Their color can be yellow, green, red or brown.

The word “helminths” is used to address the group of parasitic worms. Some of them are roundworms, tapeworms and lungworms who live inside human or animal’s body and infected their lung and intestine. Earthworms and bristle worms are not consider to be parasite and they live in the underground burrows and the ocean.

Terjemahan

Cacing

Cacing merujuk pada hewan tak berkaki dengan tubuh khas yang panjang dan berbentuk silinder. Mereka bisa dibagi menjadi beberapa phylum: annelida, arthropoda, chaetognatha, gnathostomulid, hemichordata, nematoda, nematomorpha, nemertea, onychophora, phoronida, platyhelminthes, priapulida dan sipuncula. Beberapa dari cacing yang paling terkenal misalnya: cacing tanah, cacing pipih dan cacing gelang (kremi).

Mereka semua memiliki ciri khas masing-masing dan itu berbeda antara satu dengan yang lainnya. Sebagai contoh: sebagian dari mereka berukuran sangat kecil sementara yang lainnya bisa tumbuh hingga panjang 58 m. Banyak cacing yang dianggap sebagai parasit dan hidup di dalam tubuh hewan lain. Ada juga beberapa cacing yang hidup secara bebas di lautan, air tawar dan liang bawah tanah. Sebagian besar dari mereka memiliki tubuh yang lembut dan lentur, dan bentuknya bisa silinder atau bisa juga datar. Warna mereka ada yang kuning, hijau, merah atau coklat.

Kata “helminths” digunakan untuk menyebut kelompok cacing yang bersifat parasit. Beberapa dari mereka adalah: cacing gilig, cacing pita dan cacing paru-paru yang tinggal di dalam tubuh manusia atau hewan dan menjangkiti paru-paru dan usus mereka. Cacing tanah dan bristle worms tidak dianggap sebagai parasit dan mereka hidup di liang bawah tanah dan lautan.

Example of Report Text – Mosquito

Mosquito

Mosquitoes are flying insects of the family Culicidae and order Diptera. There are around 2.700 species of mosquitoes in the world. It is believed that they have a cosmopolitan distribution, which means that they can be found anywhere in this world. Some species who live in a tropical regions are active for the entire year and those who live in cold regions will go through a hibernation process. They suck blood from various kinds of hosts such as vertebrates, mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians and also humans.

Mosquitoes have a small and slender body with the size of 3 mm to 6 mm. The average weight of a mosquito is 5 mg. As an insect, they also have three segments on their body. They have two large eyes, antenna, mouth and a proboscis. This tube-like proboscis is used to pierce the host’s skin and suck their blood. The antenna on their head is used to detect the odor of the host and also the breeding sites. They have six legs and two wings attached on their thorax. Their abdomen is the place where they store the blood and their eggs.

Mosquitoes actually feed on nectar and plant juices. Some species of mosquitoes suck blood because they need its nutrients to produce eggs. In fact, some species does not suck blood at all. Only female mosquitoes suck blood, the male does not need it at all. Female mosquitoes can live for 42 to 56 days while male mosquitoes only live for 10 days. During this time, a female mosquito is able to produce 100 to 200 eggs.

Terjemahan

Nyamuk

Nyamuk adalah serangga terbang dari famili Culicidae dan ordo Diptera. Terdapat sekitar 2.700 spesies nyamuk di dunia. Mereka diyakini memiliki penyebaran yang bersifat cosmopolitan, yang artinya mereka bisa ditemukan dimanapun di dunia ini. Beberapa spesies yang hidup di daerah tropis selalu aktif sepanjang tahun dan mereka yang hidup di daerah dingin akan mengalami proses hibernasi. Mereka menyedot darah dari berbagai macam inang seperti vertebrata, mamalia, reptilia, burung, ikan, hewan amphibi dan juga manusia.

Nyamuk memiliki tubuh yang kecil dan ramping dengan ukuran 3 mm hingga 6 mm. Rata rata berat seekor nyamuk adalah 5 mg. Sebagai seekor serangga, mereka juga memiliki tiga bagian pada tubuhnya. Mereka memiliki dua mata yang besar, antena, mulut dan sebuah belalai. Belalai yang seperti pipa ini digunakan untuk menembus kulit inang dan menyedot darah mereka. Antena di kepala mereka digunakan untuk mendeteksi aroma dari inang dan juga lokasi bertelur mereka. Mereka memiliki enam kaki dan dua sayap melekat di bagian dada mereka. Bagian perut mereka adalah tempat dimana mereka menyimpan darah dan telur mereka.

Nyamuk sebenarnya memakan nektar dan sari tanaman. Beberapa spesies nyamuk menyedot darah karena mereka membutuhkan nutrisi di dalamnya untuk memproduksi telur. Pada kenyataannya, beberapa spesies bahkan tidak mengisap darah sama sekali. Hanya nyamuk betina yang menyedot darah, nyamuk jantan tidak membutuhkannya sama sekali. Nyamuk betina bisa hidup hingga 42 sampai 56 hari sementara nyamuk jantan hanya hidup selama 10 hari. Selama masa ini, seekor nyamuk betina mampu menghasilkan 100 hingga 200 telur.

Related Articles : Descriptive Text ; Definition, Generic Structures, Purposes, Language Features

Oke. That’s all my explanation about Report Text. I hope it will be useful for us. Thanks for your visiting this site.

Reference :
Rudi Hartono, Genre of Texts, (Semarang: English Department Faculty of Language and Art Semarang State University, 2005).
https://www.englishindo.com/2012/03/report-text-penjelasan-contoh.html
Mark Andersons and Kathy Andersons, Text Type in English 1-2, Australia: MacMillanEducation, 2003.