Materials/Texts

Reading requires something for the reader to read. In an assessment, that something—a text—must be coherent within itself. That is, the text must be able to stand alone without requiring additional printed material. While it is obvious that there are many different kinds of texts and that any assessment should include a broad range of them, it is not so obvious that there is an ideal categorization of text types. There are any number of proposals as to the appropriate categories, many of them created for practical rather than theoretical purposes. All of them share the fact that no particular physical text seems to fit easily into only one category. For example, a chapter in a textbook might include some definitions (often identified as a text type), some instructions on how to solve particular problems (yet another text type), a brief historical narrative of the discovery of the solution (still another text type), and descriptions of some typical objects involved in the solution (a fourth text type).

It might be thought that a definition, for example, could be extracted and treated as a single text for assessment purposes. But this would remove the definition from the context, create an artificial text type (definitions almost never occur alone, except in dictionaries), and not allow item writers to create tasks that deal with reading activities that require integrating information from a definition with information from instructions.

A more important classification of texts, and one at the heart of this assessment, is the distinction between continuous and noncontinuous texts. Continuous texts are typically composed of sentences that are, in turn, organized into paragraphs. These may be fit into even larger structures such as sections, chapters, and books. Noncontinuous texts are most frequently organized in matrix format, based on combinations of lists.

Continuous texts

Conventionally, continuous texts are formed of sentences organized into paragraphs. In these texts, organization occurs by paragraph setting, indentation, and the breakdown of text into a hierarchy signaled by headings that help the reader recognize the organization of the text. Text types are standard ways of organizing the contents of and author's purpose for continuous texts.¹

1. Description is the type of text where the information refers to properties of objects in space. Descriptive texts typically provide an answer to what questions.
2. Narration is the type of text where the information refers to properties of objects in time. Narration texts typically provide answers to when, or in what sequence, questions.
3. Exposition is the type of text in which the information is presented as composite concepts or mental constructs, or those elements into which concepts or mental constructs can be analyzed. The text provides an explanation of how the component elements interrelate in a meaningful whole and often answers how questions.
4. Argumentation is the type of text that presents propositions as to the relationship among concepts or other propositions. Argument texts often answer why questions. Another important subclassification of argument texts are persuasive texts.
5. Instruction (sometimes called injunction) is the type of text that provides directions on what to do.
6. Document or record is a text that is designed to standardize and conserve information. It can be characterized by highly formalized textual and formatting features.
7. Hypertext is a set of text slots linked together in such a way that the units can be read in different sequences, allowing readers to follow various routes to the information.