Reading and Writingg Skills

• Text is defined in linguistics as “a stretch of language which I perceived as a purposeful connected whole. A text may be spoken or written, produced by one person or more.
• A text is not a grammatical unit product of communication or piece of

  language whose shape is motivated by its semantic purpose and pragmatic roles (Collins & Hollo, 2000)
• discourse is defined in linguistics as "any stretch of language

  larger than a sentence, whether spoken or written, and having a logically consistent and unified structure (e.g. a book, a glossary entry, a lecture, or a speech)
• Discourse is classified under any of the four forms- exposition, description, narration, and argumentation,
• Exposition - A form of discourse that serves to explain or inform; it appeals to the intellect
• Description - A form of discourse that serves to describe or state the characteristics of something/someone; it appeals to the senses Visual-sight

  Tactile/Tactual - touch

  Auditory - hearing

  Olfactory - smell

  Gustatory - taste

  Kinesthetic/movement - Thermal heat
• Narration - A form of discourse that serves to narrate or tell a story; it appeals to the emotions
• Argumentation - A form of discourse that serves to argue (to site reasons for or against a proposition) or to persuade ( to let the audience change his mid (to convince) and/or take an action (to actuate
• Connected discourse is "a continuous sequence of sounds forming utterances or conversations in spoken language. .
• Analysis of connected speech shows sound changes affecting linguistic units traditionally described phrases, words, lexemes, morphemes, syllables, phonemes, or phones.
• Graphic organizers - may be drawn to help a writer organize his ideas. The choice of an appropriate graphic organizer is dependent on the pattern to be used in developing the paper.
• Pie/Circle/Sector Graph:

  • Used to present proportions and percentages
  • May be solid (consisting of sectors bound together and differentiated by color, shading, etc.) or exploded (consisting of sectors shown separately)
• Column/Bar Graph:

  • Used to compare quantities
  • May be vertical (consisting of standing columns) or horizontal (consisting of lying columns)
• Line Graph:

  • Used to show progress or development
  • May be single-line (consisting of only one line) or multiple-line (consisting of many lines differentiated by color, form, or thickness)
• Surface Graph:

  • Used to show proportions and quantities
  • May be single-surface (consisting of only one layer or stratum) or multiple-surface (consisting of several layers or strata; also called strata, belt, or band chart)
• Map Chart:

  • Shows geographical data and how things are put together
  • Can be a geographical map, an economic map, a road map, a political map, or another kind
• Figure Graph:

  • Presents quantities in the form of figures
• Photograph:

  • Shows how a thing looks like
• Organizational Chart:

  • Presents the lines of responsibility and accountability in an organization
• Table:

  • Presents a large body of numerical and other data
  • Can be formal (consisting of titles or headings, subheadings, legends, etc.; usually in grid form) or informal (lacking some items found in a formal table)
• Schematic Diagram:

  • Shows how a thing works or is organized
• Flow Chart:

  • Shows chronology of events in a narrative or stages in a process
  • Can be a strip chart (having strips of paper to cover the items presented) or a non-strip chart (having no strips of paper)
• Tree Chart/Tree Diagram:

  • Presents a classification or an analysis
• Drawing/Illustration:

  • Shows details not available in a photograph, e.g., parts of a machine