Discussion text

Objectives

In this lesson, you will learn about how to understand the Definition, Generic structure, social function of discussion text.

Learn about it!

Do you ever discuss??? Huh, I’m sure my friends must be familiar with the discussion and often do it. We often discuss to find a solution to a problem faced. In the discussion, of course, there are pros and cons. Because the discussion is actually to get consensus or agreement from others. We do discussion not only in the world of education but we also often discuss for small things like asking for opinions. Well, actually one of the English genres of text that is Discussion Text brings the same discourse as when we discuss something.

When we discuss a matter, of course in our discussion there are various arguments/opinions. Likewise in Discussion Text, this text has two different opinions; one, agreeable opinion and, two, disagreeable opinions. Therefore we must have a broad view of a problem if we want to make a discussion text.

For more details, let’s one by one discuss what we should understand in studying Discussion Text.

Definition of Discussion Text

Discussion is a process of finding common ground between two different thoughts, views or opinions. And discussion text can be defined :

Discussion text is a text which presents a problematic discourse. This problem will be discussed from different viewpoints. Discussion is commonly found in philosophical, historic, and social text. In other word, Discussion is a kind of genre used to present (at least) two points of view about an issue.

General structure of Discussion Text

– Issue: stating the issue which is to discussed
– Argument pro: presenting the point in supporting the presented issue
– Argument cons: presenting other points which disagree to the supporting point
– Conclusion/recommendation: stating the writer’ recommendation of the discourse

Purpose of Discussion text

– To present two points of view about issues or problems.
– To present arguments from differing points of view about the issue or problem..

Language feature of Discussion text

– Introducing category or generic participant
– Using thinking verb; feel, hope, believe, etc
– Using contrastive conjunction; however, on the other hand, but, in other side, although, etc
– Using modalities; must, should, could, may, etc
– Using adverbial of manner; deliberately, hopefully, etc
– Simple present

Do you understand?

1.    Definition of Discussion

Discussion is a text which presents a problematic discourse. This problem will be discussed from different viewpoints. Discussion is commonly found in philosophical, historic, and social text.

2.    Generic Structure of Discussion

·         Statement of the issue; stating the issue which is to discussed

·         List of supporting points; presenting the point in supporting the presented issue

·         List of contrastive point; presenting other points which disagree to the supporting point

·         Recommendation; stating the writer' recommendation of the discourse

3.    Language Feature of Discussion

·         Introducing category or generic participant

·         Using thinking verb; feel, hope, believe, etc

·         Using additive, contrastive, and causal connection; similarly, on the hand, however, etc

·         Using modalities; must, should, could, may, etc

·         Using adverbial of manner; deliberately, hopefully, etc

4.    Examples and structures of the text

Homework
Issue	I have been wondering if homework is necessary.
Statement of issue and Preview	I think we should have homework because it helps us to learn and revise our work. Homework helps people who aren’t very smart to remember what they have learned. Homework is really good because of it helps with our education.
Statement of various viewpoints	But, many times, doing homework is not a great idea. I think we shouldn’t have homework because I like to go out after school at a restaurant or the movies. Sometimes homework is boring and not important. I think homework is bad because I like to play and discuss things with my family.

Example of Discussion Text

The Advantage and Disadvantage of Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is generated by using uranium which is a metal mined in various part of the world. The first large scale of the nuclear power station was opened at Calder Hall in Cumbria, England in 1956.

Some military ships and submarines have nuclear power plants for the engine. Nuclear power produces around 11% of the world's energy needed and produces huge amounts of energy. It causes no pollution as we would get when burning fossil fuels. The advantages of a nuclear plant are as follow:

• It costs about the same coal, so it is not expansive to make.
• It does not produce smoke or carbon dioxide, so it does not contribute to the greenhouse effect.
• It produces huge amounts of energy from small amount of uranium.
• It produces small amount of waste.
• It is reliable.

On the other hand, nuclear power is very, very dangerous. It must be sealed up and buried for many years to allow the radioactivity to die away. Furthermore, although it is reliable, a lot of money has to be spent on safety because if it does go wrong, a nuclear accident ca be a major accident.

People are increasingly concerned about this matter. In the 1990's nuclear power was the fastest growing source of power in many parts of the world.

Note on the Generic Structure of Discussion Text

Discussion is a process to find the meet point between two different ideas. It is important to to get the understanding between the two differences. In many social activities, discussion is the effective way to calm down any friction and difference in thought, perception and recommendation.

This example of discussion text present the two poles, between the advantage and disadvantage of using nuclear plant to fulfill the energy needed. It is a case which need to be talked and discussed from two points. They are represented in the generic structure which is used:

Stating the Issue: In the first paragraph, it is stated that using nuclear power can be the choice in fulfilling the needed energy.

Supporting Point: In the second paragraph, it is presented the advantages of nuclear power plant to be used as the source of the world's energy needed

Contrastive Point: The third paragraph shows the balance. It gives the contradictory idea in using nuclear power plant as the resource of energy.

Recommendation: This text is ended with a similar recommendation on how people should concern in the matter of nuclear energy.

A.   Hunting Fox

Foxhunting is a subject that provokes very strong feelings. Many people believe that it is cruel to hunt a fox with dogs and totally agree with its ban.

Many farmer and even conservationists, however, have always argue that the fox is a pest which attacks livestock and must be controlled.

 (Taken from: www.bbc.co.uk)

Generic Structure Analysis

Stating the issue; hunting fox.

Supporting point; farmers and conservationists agree to hunt fox because they attack livestok.

Contrastive point; many people disagree hunting fox with dog because it is cruel.

Recommendation; Do not be cruel in hunting fox just control it in safe way.

Language Feature Analysis

Introducing category participant; farmer, conservationists.

Using thinking verb; believe.

Using connectives;

Using modalities; must, always

 

Exploring Movie Reviews

Objectives

Understanding the meaning (function), form, and use of the adjective based on its context.

Learn about it!

In this lesson, you will learn about how to understand the Definition, Generic structure, social function, meaning, form, and use of adjectives, especially for a movie review.

1. What is a review text?

1.    Definition

The review is one of the text genres. This classification of text types is commonly based on the structure used by the writer to compose his text. Each text type will have a different form of generic structure. As I said in my previous post, review text usually has a generic structure as:

2.    Generic Structure

Introduction: it is the highlight of the general description of what will be reviewed. It can be the product, services that want to be sold, or just a site which wants to be known publicly. Then it will drive more traffic into the site.

Evaluation: the second phase is coming inside into the product in detail. It states the parts, uniqueness, quality of the product which will be known publicly. However, too much detail description will “teach” the will-buyer and it does not sound good. Evaluating as far as necessary for the targeted buyer is more genuine. The term evaluation will not be far from simple words of good or bad. In this phase reviewer will apply much evaluative word, valuable, useful, worthy, etc.

Interpretation: after writing about the objective thing of the product, it is the time for the reviewer to write about what he thinks or impresses on the product. Of course, this phase can be done after getting enough evaluation of the product. It is a personal idea about the product. Frequently to support and strengthen his idea or impression, a reviewer describes a comparison to other similar products. He states in which side the product has added value or honestly admitted that the product lacks value in a certain side.

Summary: this phase is recommending the conclusion for the reader of the product. After a clear explanation, a reviewer will make a final comment on whether the product is valuable or not for the targeted buyer. This phase is the worth of the review for the reader.

3.    Dominant Language features:

1. Focus on specific participants

2. Using adjectives

3. Using long and complex clauses

4. Using metaphor

4.    Examples and structures of the text

Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix
Pengenalan / Orientasi	I absolutely love the Harry Potter series, and all of the books will always hold a special place in my heart.
Evaluasi 1	I have to say that of all of the books, however, this was not my favorite.
Evaluasi 2	When the series began it was as much of a "feel good" experience as a huge mug of hot cocoa. The stories were bright, fast-paced, intriguing, and ultimately satisfying.
Tafsiran (Interpretative recount)	Order of the Phoenix is a different kind of book. In some instances this works...you feel a whole new level of intensity and excitement by the time you get to the end. I was truly moved by the last page. Other times the book just has a slightly dreary, depressing feel. The galloping pace of the other books has slowed to a trot here, and parts of it do seem long, as if we're reading all about Harry "just hanging out" instead of having his usual adventures. Reading in detail about Harry cleaning up an old house, for example - housekeeping is still housekeeping, magical or no, and I'm not very interested in doing it or reading about other people doing it.  A few other changes in this book - the "real" world comes much more in to play rather than the fantasy universe of the previous books, and Harry has apparently been taken off his meds. I know that he had a lot to be grumpy in this book, especially with being a teenager and all, but the sudden change in his character seemed too drastic. He goes from being a warm-hearted, considerate person to someone who will bite his best friend's heads off over nothing. It just seemed like it didn't fit with his character, like he turned into a walking cliché of the "angry teen" overnight.
Rangkuman	The "real" story seemed to happen in the last 1/3 of the book, and this part I loved. I actually liked the ending (and yes, I cried!) as sad as it was. It packed a punch and it made me care about the story even more. Still a really good book, with some editing it would have been great.

2. The function of adjectives in movie review

Have you ever written a movie review? Do you know what you should put into a movie review? In writing a movie review, you do not only need to pay attention to its generic structures, but also its language features such as using persuasive language, present tense, adjective, and complex sentences. However, in this lesson, you will only focus on how to use an adjective in writing a movie review. Using proper adjectives in a movie review is important to make a judgment. The adjectives describe the movie whether it is recommended or not.

3. The forms of Adjectives

An adjective is a word that modifies the noun or a pronoun. It is put after the linking verb (auxiliary). For example:

The movie is amazing.

• Noun: The movie
• Auxiliary: is
• Adjectives: amazing

I am amazed.

• Pronoun: I (the movie)
• Auxiliary: am
• Adjectives: amazed

The examples above show that the adjective “amazing” and "amazed" modify the noun and pronoun “the movie" and "I". The adjective is put after auxiliary “is” and"am". See another example below:

1. Her character as a writer was interesting.
2. I am interested in her character as a writer in that movie.

Have you identified the difference between the first and the second sentences above? Well, the sentences above have two meaning; an active meaning and a passive meaning. The word “interesting” and “interested” are from “interest”, but when you put participle –ing and –ed to make an adjective, the meaning changes.

• Her character as a writer was interesting. (It means that the character as a writer interests you)

When you put participle –ing, the adjective has an active meaning.

• I am interested in her character as a writer in that movie. (It means that you have an interest or feel interested in the character.)

But, when you put participle –ed, the adjective has a passive meaning.

Look at the table below to see another adjective with participle -ing and -ed.

To make an adjective has a stronger meaning you can use words such as very, really, absolutely, and extremely.
Those words are called as ***intensifier*. For examples:

• It must be a really great movie
• They were extremely excited in watching that movie
• I think this movie won’t disappoint you. It is absolutely touching, witty, deep, and refreshing.

4. The use of adjectives

Adjectives are commonly placed after to be (am, are, is, was, were). However, there are some other verbs that can be followed by adjectives.

To understand how to use the words above, read the following sentences:

The director is genius in making the high quality 3D movie.
The director seems genius in making the high quality 3D movie.

She is very amazed at the story in the movie.
She feels very amazed with the story in the movie.

They feel so sleepy while watching because the movie is boring.
They feel so sleepy while watching because the movie feels boring.

After reading the explanation about form and meaning of the adjective. Now, try to understand how to use the adjective in a movie review both orally and written. Here are the examples of using adjectives in a movie review.

Do you understand?

Example of conversation:
Keyla : Have you watched ‘Letters to Juliet’ movie?
Rizal : No. What kind of movie is it?
Keyla : It is an amazing drama movie.
Rizal : What is it about?
Keyla : It tells about an old lady looks for her past boyfriend then they meet after 50 years because of letter to Juliet.

Example of text:
‘Letters to Juliet’ is an amazing movie. I absolutely loved it. It is extremely amusing because providing a lot of beautiful places in Verona, Italy. The story is also romantic and touching. You won’t regret it.'

Objectives

Through this section, you will learn:

• How to get information from poster
• How to get an information diagram

Learn about it!

When you walk on the street, there are various advertisements and announcements you might see. One of them is in the form of a poster. Can you understand the message of those posters well?

You might also have read charts in your books. Can you comprehend the information easily? Well, both the poster and charts contain information. Through this lesson, we will learn how to understand the poster and charts easily. So, you can get and interpret the information properly.

Look at the following picture. In your opinion, what picture is it? What information can you get?

The picture above is the example of a poster. From the poster, we can get some information. The poster informs a seminar named The Mother Earth Seminar. The poster also informs the venue or place (The Aksana Hall), time (29 June 2015), and charge of the seminar (Free). To make it remarkable, a poster is usually supported by jargon and interesting design. To get a better understanding, see the following identification:

By seeing the poster above, we know that the function of a poster is to convey a message or information. The message can be in the form of an announcement or advertisement. Jargon and interesting design is usually involved in a poster to persuade the readers. Moreover, a poster is usually written in the present tense.

Now, look at the following chart. What type of chart is it? What information do you get from the chart?

There are various types of charts. The chart above belongs to a column chart type. The chart informs book preference of Class XII Science 3 the year 2015. The information can be seen in the chart title. From the chart, we can see that most of the students prefer Hunger Games book (12 students). Meanwhile, the Divergent book is less preferable for the students (8 students only).

There are four common types of charts. They are column chart, pie chart, bar chart, and line chart. All of the chart types have similar content –information. The title usually gives information of the topic. Meanwhile, the content of the chart usually gives specific information. Look at the following identification:

By seeing the poster above, we know that the function of a poster is to convey a message or information. The message can be in the form of an announcement or advertisement. Jargon and interesting design are usually involved in a poster to persuade the readers. Moreover, a poster is usually written in the present tense.

Now, look at the following chart. What type of chart is it? What information do you get from the chart?

There are various types of chart. Chart above belongs to a column chart type. The chart informs book preference of Class XII Science 3 year 2015. The information can be seen in the chart title. From the chart, we can see that most of the students prefer Hunger Games book (12 students). Meanwhile, Divergent book is less preferable for the students (8 students only).

There are four common types of chart. They are column chart, pie chart, bar chart, and line chart. All of the chart types have similar content –information. The title usually gives the information of the topic. Meanwhile, the content of the chart usually gives the specific information. Look at the following identification:

Let’s Practice in describing data

Column graph presents figures on the number of International students in australia studying intensive english (ELIcos) courses for the years 2002-2004. these students came from four asian countries (china, korea, taiwan, and hong kong) and one european country, the netherlands.

Here is the organization of describing data

Statement: Netherlands’ students in studying intensive course dropped slightly

Data: ‘Between 2002 and 2003’ ‘From 22 till 18

Comments: ‘a dropp by 18%’ ‘a slight dropp’

Between 2002 and 2003, netherlands’ students in studying intensive course dropped slightly, from 22 till 18. This was a minor decrease by 18%, quite a slight drop.

Here some words variety that you can use in describing data

developing essay relate describing data is frequently tested in some writing task, try to develop it to practice your skill.

Here is the example of Bodyparagraph 5

Netherlands’ students who join elicos in Australia from 2002 till 2004 were 22, 18 and 37. Between 2002 and 2003 Netherlands students dropped slightly from 22 till 18. this was a minor decrease by 18%. Whereas, in 2003 until 2004, they experienced a significant rise from 18 till 37. this was an explosion increase by 105%. So it was in line with the elicos expectation.

Do you understand?

Look at the pie chart below. Then, answer the following questions:

1. What does the chart tell about?
2. What specific information can you get?

                                       

Here is the answer:

1. The chart tells about students’ time preference for learning.
2. From the chart, we can get three specific information (1) 52% of students prefer to learn in the morning (2) 38% of students prefer to learn in the evening (3) 10% of the students prefer to learn in the afternoon. So, we can conclude that most of the students prefer to learn in the morning.

Keypoints

From this lesson, we have learned about the poster and charts. There are some points we need to remember about the poster and charts. The points are in the following table.

Advertisement

Objectives

1. Comprehending advertisement text by identifying its text structure.
2. Writing advertisement by completing the text with appropriate language use.

Learn about it!

We almost see advertisement anywhere, and anytime. However, only a few that sticks in our head. In this lesson, you will learn how to write interesting advertisement that attracts people to buy your products. To start the lesson, let's take a look at the following picture.

The picture above is Quipper School advertisement. The tagline of Quipper School is "Learn anytime, anywhere". The tagline usually describes what or how the product is. From the advertisement above, we can see that Quipper School lets you learn anytime, any where with an internet connection. Thus, we know that Quipper School is an online learning service.
To make an interesting advertisement, there are several things to consider.

1. Structure

In writing an advertisement, the essential information is how we describe the product to the public. Before writing an advertisement for a product, you need to pay attention to:

·         The purpose of the advertisement
Think about the reason why you create the advertisement; is it to sell a product? Is it to persuade people to do something? Or else. After deciding the purpose, it will be easier to create the advertisement.

·         The target of audience
Decide who your target are: kids, teenagers, or adults; men, women or anyone else.
Create an advertisement to appeal to the target audience.
For example, you want to create an advertisement for selling candies and sweets for children. Create a tagline that will attract children such as “Share your candies and make your friendship sweeter".

2. Language Use

The advertisement should be able to persuade people, most of them will use interesting language to show the positive aspects about the products.
To appeal to the readers, an advertisement uses persuasive language. How to make it persuasive? There are several aspects that could help your advertisement sounds more persuasive:

·         Use appealing adjectives.
For example the sweetest crunchiest cookies

·         Use humor or rhetorical question.
For example how can you stop chewing?

·         Play with words (be creative with words to create a memorable slogan)
For example Best quality. Best taste. For those who always want the best.

Do you understand?

Have you noticed how to make a good advertisement? Look at the following example to enhance your understanding.

The purpose of the advertisement above is to sell a product, in this case, coffee. It promotes Besta Coffee as the best coffee. The target of the audience is people of all ages who like to drink coffee. We can see that it uses persuasive language by saying that coffee is the best in everything. It highlights the good and positive things about the product to make the product interesting.

Keypoints

To make a good advertisement, you need to:

• decide the product or service to be presented.
• set the target audience.
• be creative to create your advertisement as good as possible.