What's the difference between the 3 text structure types?

Question

I know they are called "informational", "persuasive", and "to entertain", but what makes them different, and why are they taught separately?

Answer 1

The text has a purpose. To inform is to explain a fact. To entertain the writer brings pleasure. To argue and debate, the writer takes a stand and takes a side.

Answer 2

This is a great question. We call a text informational when we want to explain the facts with no bias. The writers of persuasive texts want to convince you to share their idea or opinion. The title can help you determine what kind of story or essay you're going to read. For example, an essay titled Global Warming: How We Can Make a Greener Planet is likely going to convince you that global warming is an issue and one you should get involved in. Texts like Harry Potter are meant to be fun and aren't trying to persuade you to love wizards. They teach them separately because each requires separate criteria, though some texts can both inform and persuade. 

Answer 3

Many students are confused and overwhelmed with all the terms, types, and details of texts and text structures. Instead, I teach a methodical, structured approach to understanding the fundamentals of reading.  

Whether the text is Informational, persuasive, or written ‘to entertain’ (novels, plays, narratives), all texts have a structure, or as I like to call it a "recipe". The first time you cooked a meal, you didn’t just throw a bunch of random things in a pan, did you? I doubt it, as that could have been really gross. No, you read and followed the recipe. Texts are no different. Don’t just throw a bunch of words into a paragraph; follow the recipe. In all text structures, the author has the same overall objective; to give information to the reader. The only difference between them is what the author expects from the reader in return. 

Let’s start with informational texts like compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, process/sequence. Informational texts include facts and details that are important to know about a topic. The information given is clear, the word choices are clear, and authors use words that don’t have multiple meanings, the structure/recipe is simple, and the author expects only that the reader can understand the information given and accept that the topic is important. Like a doctor giving a patient their test results, the only expectation is that the information is understood. Same with informational texts; what really matters is that the information is understood. 

 

In persuasive texts, the author adds a little 'spice' to the recipe. The ‘spice’ is added to get a reaction, add intensity, inflame some passion, and possibly even get the reader heated. Confrontation is a common element in persuasive texts. The author may choose expressions that cause the reader to question their morals, values, or beliefs, and/or force the reader to decide whether or not their current stand on a given issue is truly in line with their belief system, or if a change is warranted. The overall recipe/structure is quite similar to informational texts, a main idea with supporting points or details. However, instead of being mainly facts and details about a topic, the main idea of a persuasive text is an opinion, belief, or creed held by the author, who hopes to convince you as well. Additional differences between informational and persuasive texts are the supporting details. Whereas informational texts’ supporting details are just additional facts that further describe/detail the topic, persuasive texts’ supporting details are researched and cited evidence. These citations are true and factual information but are also highly biased in favor of the author’s stated opinion. Additionally, there are differences in the language used, whereas informational texts use clear, literal diction, persuasive authors use highly emotional, judgmental, and confrontational language. This is an attempt to cause emotional distress, a way to question or doubt one’s own beliefs, make a reader feel like an outsider, and convince and/or sway a reader to change their mind. Another, but opposing strategy authors can use sometimes is to make a reader feel identified with, related to, or included as a means to get them to agree. Informational texts conclude only with the hope that their readers will understand the information and find the topic interesting. At the end of a persuasive text, however, the author has a very different and very specific goal in mind for their readers; agree with the stated opinion, belief, or creed. 

 

The last text type we discuss in academia is texts written “to entertain”. These include literature, plays, poetry, and the like. These text structures definitely have a more complex "recipe". Instead of a main idea, supporting ideas, reasons, and evidence, literature has a combination of elements called 'components of literature' that an author uses to give a reader a series of experiences that will also ‘give them information’, but that information isn’t a fact or an opinion; it’s a life lesson, called a theme. Every choice an author makes about each component should be strategic, critical and helpful to the development of the storyline. Each element should be so well written, that the reader sees, hears, tastes, smells, and feels the experiences of the characters, thereby experiencing for themselves the characters' struggle in the conflict/choice, the joy or pain in the consequences of their choices/actions, and ultimately the lesson they learn, which the reader hopefully learns along with them. In texts to entertain, the lesson, or theme is the information the author hopes the reader will learn from this type of text. Purposeful characterization, conflict(s) with difficult choices, clear symbolism, language that is figurative, not literal, and descriptions that are so vivid, the reader feels they are in the story with the characters are all critical components of literature to ensure the reader shares the characters' experiences and ultimately, learns the lessons with them. This structure is so different because the author’s goal isn’t to support, detail, or prove a point; the goal is to make the reader feel as though they have lived the story, they have suffered the conflicts and struggles, they have made the hard choices, they have faced the consequences (good or bad) of their choices, and they have learned their lesson(s) from those consequences. Authors hope that their readers can learn life’s hard lessons from someone else’s mistakes, so they don’t have to make the mistakes themselves.