what is this?

How a kite flies is best at giving example of Explanation text. This kind of text is composed to intendedly make clear explanation on how something is processed and why the thing is formed. Explanation text is one of the text types which is similar to Procedure. What makes superficially different is the way how they are structured.
In one side, Explanation text is structure in the mode of description. It focuses on the thing which is explained. In the other side, Procedure text is constructed in the mode of instruction and commend. That is why Procedure is sometimes called instruction text. It focuses on the second person to explain how to form the thing.
In my previous example of explanation text on Roman Roads was given to show how the explanation text gives clear note on "Why something is formed" To get clearer understanding of explanation text, now let's see another example of "How something is precessed/formed" which belongs to explanation text's social function. The example bellow is re-composed from Jenny Eather's writing with fun. It really helps to make better understanding on explanation text.

How is a Kite Flying?
A kite is an object which is made from a light material stretched over a frame. Due to its light material a kite will lift off the ground and fly when it is tilted into the wind.
A kite is uses wind to make it fly because it is heavier than air. When wind travels over the surface of the kite, it is split into two streams of air. One stream of the air goes over the kite while the second stream goes under the kite.
The upper stream creates an area of low pressure above the kite. The lower stream hits the kite at a shallow angle and creates an area of high pressure.
The high pressure area has a pushing effect while the low pressure area has a pulling effect. The combination of push and pull can creates enough force to lift the kite into the air.
Kites have been known for thousand of years. They are used for military or scientific purposes. Todays kites are much used for leisure and competition.

From the above example of Explanation text, we can see that the text has the following generic structure:
General Statement; the introduction of the topic on with a brief definition on kites.
Sequenced Explanation; this is the main element of explanation text. It explain the important points of the kite. The explanation of how kites fly is given in order.

Text types is one of the major topics should be acquired by high school students in Indonesia. The purpose of designing such curriculum in English lesson hopefully leads the students to understand various kinds of text presented and written in English as applicable passages which are found in the student's daily life.
Of course many functional texts and passages found daily will not formed strictly in single type. It is often found that RECOUNT is mixed with NARRATIVE to communicate with the readers to get the maximum attention and interest. So far, some time Writer combine EXPLANATION and PROCEDURE to show how and why something is formed. Many of them even combine several type theory to build the construction text. Learning several types of text will of course increase the understanding to feature and character of each types of text. Then if it is caught, it will lead better knowledge in a whole texts
In many exam material, student should understand and analyze the certain text or passage which they have to determine which text type the passage belongs to. Of course understanding the meaning of the text is absolutely necessary before coming to text types feature. Learning text types will include the generic structure and language feature.
Lets got to school after long holiday season and lets learn text types again. This blog hopefully will be student's friend in learning English text types

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