Informative text: definition, types and characteristics

A very common type of text in our daily life to communicate all kinds of contents.

Informative texts are intended to convey information about a specific fact or topic.

This type of text aims to be objective, since its intention is to inform. In addition, they must facilitate the understanding of the subject explained and give enough details so that the reader can understand what is being explained.

In these lines we are going to see which are the characteristics of the informative text and its main types.

Characteristics of the informative text

This type of text describes real events and topics. Its purpose is to transmit information about reality, touching on different topics.. Therefore, it is a type of text in which the data described are not fiction or, at least, are based on a real fact.

It avoids repeating something that has already been previously explained and the information is intended to be given as clearly as possible. Its structure generally consists of an introduction, a development and a conclusion.

The language used may be specialized, varying according to the subject matter explained. In addition, this language must be coherent, direct, and direct, this language should be coherent, direct, objective and should avoid the use of linguistic resources such as metaphors or popular jargon, since this may make the reader feel that he/she is being misled.The language used should be coherent, direct, objective and should avoid using linguistic resources such as metaphors or popular jargon, since they may cause the reader to interpret the information explained in a different way from that intended by the sender.

To make it easier for the reader to find and understand the information, the informative text can incorporate several resources: index, bold or highlighted text, glossary with specialized words, graphs, legends, tables, as well as references to further expand the knowledge.

For an informative text to be adequate it is necessary that the content presented is precise and explained in an impersonal way.. The purpose of this type of text is always to explain to a reader a certain subject, and that at the end of reading it he/she has acquired new knowledge.

The ideas presented in the text must be correctly ordered.. For this reason, examples, bibliographical sources and clarifications are usually used to ensure that the receiver fully understands the subject being explained. One aspect that might seem obvious is the importance of knowing how to use punctuation marks correctly: period, comma, question marks, etc.

Types

There are basically 4 main types of informative text. They are described here, with all their distinctive features.

1. News

This is a description of a recent event that the sender wishes to make public.. It is the informative text of reference, since in the news the sender tries to explain the event as faithfully as possible to the truth.

The news writer must relate the facts as objectively as possible, offering as much information as possible, looking for witnesses who lived through the event and interviewing them. What should never be done is to falsify information with the intention of offering one's own vision of the event and, thus, manipulate public opinion.

Every news story tries to answer six questions:

• What happened?
• When did it happen?
• Where did it happen?
• Who was involved?
• How did it happen?
• Why did it happen?

As regards its structure, the news item has the following parts:

Epigraph: It is a single line that conveys the central idea of the news item and invites the reader to read it.

• HeadlineIt is the name of the news item and must be related to the subject explained.
• BajadaIt expands the information presented in the headline.
• LeadIt is the first paragraph of the news, where the main part is summarized.
• BodyBody: It goes deeper into what happened. The information presented goes from the most fundamental to what is less important.

2. Formal letter

Their main purpose is to convey to the recipient information that concerns him/her, which should be treated seriously.

Formal letters are usually written are written to people who are not personally known or with whom you do not have a relationship of friendship and camaraderie. of friendship and camaraderie. This type of informative text can also be written to an authority or a company, to give some examples.

Formal letters can express opinions, feelings, justify an action or simply describe a set of events to another person.

In this type of text it is very important to show a respectful tone and take care with the language used.

They follow the following structure:

• Date and place where it was written.
• Header: The name of the person to whom it is addressed is written.
• Polite and formal greeting.
• Introduction: it is the first paragraph of the letter and contains the information that allows to understand the rest of what will be exposed.
• Body: All the information about the event or subject is explained.
• Farewell: the main idea of the letter is summarized and a polite farewell is given.
• Signature

3. Memorandum or memorandum

It is basically a letter, but much shorter. It is widely used in companies and other types of organizations, since it allows to communicate quickly and It allows to communicate quickly and synthetically..

In this type of informative text the language is formal, but it does not require all the protocol aspects of a letter.

It consists of the following parts:

• Title: usually "memo" or "memorandum".
• Heading: who is sending it, to whom and the reference to the subject of the memorandum.
• Greeting
• Body: the information to be transmitted.
• Farewell
• Signature
• Date

4. Report

It is an informative text whose purpose is to disclose the following information. It is for this reason that it is a type of text widely used in scientific disciplines, research or to describe the situation of a company.

Since it is an informative text, it should be noted that its purpose is not to persuade the reader. However, in this type of text recommendations can be included to guide the reader to a specific objective..

Although it presents all the characteristics of informative texts, it does not have a defined structure. However, the following elements can be found in most of them:

• Date
• Title
• Body: since it is an informative text, it is very important to include as much information as possible and as objectively as possible.
• Signature

Bibliographical references:

• Alfonso, I. (1997): El texto informativo. Caracas, Contexto Editores.
• Díaz, A. (1987) Aproximación al texto escrito. Medellín, Colombia, Editorial Universidad de Antioquia.