Text Structures and Genres
Genre is a set of expectations. Readers use those expectations to predict how a text will work; writers use them to guide and sometimes surprise an audience.
Three broad purposes
| Purpose | Typical structure | Language features |
|---|---|---|
| Narrative | Orientation, complication, rising action, climax, resolution. | Character, setting, dialogue, description, tense, voice. |
| Informative | Introduction, sequenced points or categories, conclusion. | Headings, definitions, examples, precise nouns, formal tone. |
| Persuasive | Position, reasons and evidence, counterargument, call to action. | Modality, rhetorical questions, repetition, evaluative language. |
Hybrid texts
Many texts mix purposes. A documentary may narrate a case, explain a process and persuade the audience to act. A picture book may tell a story while arguing about belonging. A social media post may combine personal narrative, information and advertising. Recognising hybridity helps students read the seams between purposes.
Cohesion
Cohesion is what makes a text feel like one thing rather than a pile of sentences. It comes from:
- Referencing: pronouns and repeated terms that point back to earlier ideas.
- Connecting: words that show time, cause, contrast or addition.
- Paragraphing: one idea per paragraph, with a clear opening and closing.
- Parallel structure: repeated grammatical patterns that guide the reader.
- Topic sentences: a sentence that announces the paragraph's work.
Analysing structure
Ask students to draw the shape of a text. Where does it begin? Where does it turn? What is held back? What is repeated? A timeline works for narrative; a flowchart works for process; a claim-and-support map works for argument. The visual makes structure visible.
Experimenting with structure
Give students a short text and ask them to rearrange it. What happens if the conclusion comes first? If the complication is delayed? If the counterargument opens the piece? Rearranging is a quick way to show that structure is a choice with effects, not a container that content simply fills.
Genre is a contract, not a cage. Readers expect certain moves; writers can satisfy, delay or break them. The effect depends on what the audience expects.