Report Text

Report Text is a text describing things (living or non living things) as a whole based on scientific observation or research. When we deal with a report text about cat, for example, it means that we deal with a text talking about a cat in general, not the specific one. This makes us easy to differentiate report text from descriptive text. In other words, report text talks about things in general (e.g. cat) whereas descriptive text talks about things specifically (e.g. my cat).

Social Function (Purpose); to describe the way things are. For example, when a report text dominantly talks about respiratory system of human being, we could say that the purpose of the text is to describe the human respiratory system.

Generic Structure

1. General Statement; introduce the thing (topic) which is going to be discussed.
2. Description; describe the thing which is introduced in general statement i.e. facts, habit, quality, quantity, characteristics, etc.

Dominant Language Feature; Mostly, report texts are constructed using simple present tense.

Example of Report Text

Coconut is common name for fruit of tree of the palm family. It is classified as Cocos nucifera. People usually  call the tree coconut palm. Coconut palm trees grow well in tropical countries. They grow especially on sandy soils.

The trees can grow up to 30 m high. They have a single cylindrical trunk. At the top of the trunk, there is the crown of leaves. The leaves are long, about 3 to 4.5 m long.

The fruit grows in clusters. In one cluster there are about 5 - 10 coconuts. The fruit is oval and about 30 cm long. It has a thick husk and a hard shell. Inside the shell there is white oily flesh. Inside the shell there is also a sweet fluid.

Coconut is high in sugar. It also contains a lot of fat, protein and vitamin. The young coconut water can be very refreshing drink which contains a lot of minerals.

Coconut palms are very useful plants. People can use every single inch of the tree. They dry the coconut meat into copra. After that, they can get oil from it and use it for daily cooking or make it into soaps or candles , people also use the trunks to build houses. For the roof, they dry the leaves. People can also make rope and doormats from the coconut’s husk.

Coconuts are usually propagated by seeds, but experts have been trying to clone coconuts or propagated them by tissue culture.

Now, please answer the following questions based on the text!

1.    What does the text talk about?

2.    What is the purpose of the text?

3.    What are the leaves like?

4.    Where do coconuts usually grow?

5.    How tall can a coconut palm grow?

6.    What is the main idea of the fifth paragraph?

7.    Why are coconut palms very useful?

8.    What is copra?

9.     "After that, they can get oil from it..." (Paragraph 5) What does the underlined word refer to?

10. "It has a thick husk and a hard shell" (Paragraph 2). The underlined word is opposite in meaning to ........