CANCER; Example of Explanation Text

What is cancer? It is actually a group of more than one hundred separate diseases. Most of us are fear from cancer It is reasonable because next to heart disease, cancer is the second leading cause of death.

Cancer cells come from normal cells because of mutations of DNA. Those mutations can occur spontaneously. The mutations may be also induced by other factors such as: nuclear and electromagnetic radiation, viruses, bacteria and fungi, parasites, heat, chemicals in the air, water and food, mechanical cell-level injury, free radicals, evolution and ageing of DNA, etc. All such factors can produce mutations that may start cancer.

Cancer cells are formed continuously in the organism. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 cancer cells at any given time in a healthy person. Why do some result in macroscopic-level cancers and some do not? First, not all damaged cells can multiply and many of them die quickly. Second, those which potentially divide and form cancer are effectively destroyed by the mechanisms available to the immune system. Therefore cancer develops if the immune system is not working properly or the amount of cells produced is too great for the immune system to eliminate.

Explanation

Explanation texts explain how or why things happen eg how acid soil affects farm productivity.
Explanation begins by identifying the phenomenon (thing) that will be explained. (Phenomenon identification.)

Then there is an explanation sequence which explains how things work.
Example of an explanation: shows the structure and language features.

Writing explanations

When writing explanations use:
• general nouns eg nutrients.
• technical terms (often used) eg pH, acid
• present tense eg provide
• words that show cause and effect eg if.

Use the sample explanation text to answer these questions.

1. List some general nouns that are used in the text.

2. There are other technical terms used in the text. List some of these.

3. List some of the words (or phrases) that have been used to show cause and effect.

Example of Explanation Text

Tsunami

The term of “tsunami” comes from the Japanese which means harbour ("tsu") and wave ("nami"). A tsunami is a series of waves generated when water in a lake or a sea is rapidly displaced on a massive scale.

A tsunami can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Such large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries.

Subduction of earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunami, and occur where denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates.

As the displaced water mass moves under the influence of gravity to regain its equilibrium, it radiates across the ocean like ripples on a pond.

Tsunami always bring great damage. Most of the damage is caused by the huge mass of water behind the initial wave front, as the height of the sea keeps rising fast and floods powerfully into the coastal area.

CANCER; Example of Explanation Text

What is cancer?

It is actually a group of more than one hundred separate diseases. Most of us are fear from cancer It is reasonable because next to heart disease, cancer is the second leading cause of death.

Cancer cells come from normal cells because of mutations of DNA. Those mutations can occur spontaneously. The mutations may be also induced by other factors such as: nuclear and electromagnetic radiation, viruses, bacteria and fungi, parasites, heat, chemicals in the air, water and food, mechanical cell-level injury, free radicals, evolution and ageing of DNA, etc. All such factors can produce mutations that may start cancer.

Cancer cells are formed continuously in the organism. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 cancer cells at any given time in a healthy person. Why do some result in macroscopic-level cancers and some do not? First, not all damaged cells can multiply and many of them die quickly. Second, those which potentially divide and form cancer are effectively destroyed by the mechanisms available to the immune system. Therefore cancer develops if the immune system is not working properly or the amount of cells produced is too great for the immune system to eliminate.

(Simplified from:www.digital-recordings.com/publ/cancer.html)

Do You Know Why Eiffel Tower Was Built?; Explanation Sample

Why Eiffel Tower was Built
If we talk about the Wonders of the World buildings, then we will see Eiffel Tower as one of them. However many of us do not know the tower’s past history on why it was build. Everything has the reasonable background, especially for the tower which is to be one of the most recognized buildings in the world.

Primarily, the Eiffel Tower was built for the World Exhibition. It was called Paris Exposition in 1889. The exhibition was organized to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. The purpose of building Eiffel Tower in such structure was to show to the world France’s advancement of technology and beauty. The Eiffel Tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel. It seemed that then the name of the tower was derived from the designer’s last name, “Eiffel”

Another reason on why the tower was built was for scientific progress. Although few realized it, the Eiffel Tower would become the prominent structure in terms of science and technology. Many experiment with temperature, pressure and pendulums were performed atop the unique famous building. Additionally the Eiffel Tower was used for radio transmission tower. Many experiments were conducted atop the Eiffel Tower for radio transmission advancement. Once the Eiffel Tower was proposed to be demolished but it was spared because the tower had the promising future as a radio tower.

(Simplified from http://ezinearticles.com/)

Generic Structure of Explanation Text
The best discourse on how and what is explanation text is answering the question word “how” and “why”. Such question words need detail explanation on it relates. However, explanation text is written in narrative style and not instructional. If it is written for the purpose of instruction, then the text genre will be labeled as PROCEDURE.

From the above example of explanation text, we see that it has the generic structure as follow:

• General Statement; the introduction of the passage on why the Eiffel Tower was built.
• Sequenced Explanation; this is the main element of explanation text. This explanation is explored to answer the “why” or “how” question introduced in the general statement. From the example above, the text was written to explain why, not how, the Eiffel Tower was built. Then it elaborates the reasons. First is for the show case and the second is for scientific and technological purposes.

Explanation Text Sample about Roman Road

How Roman Roads were Built
The system of roads for mobility has been begun early decades. It was started since the Roman Empire conquered the world. The roads in Roman era were known as the best construction.

The Romans built roads are for the purpose of mobility, especially for the army. Having the best road, the army could march from one place to another. They built the roads as straight as possible, so that the army could take the shortest route.

It is interesting to know how the roads were built, which some of them are still in use today. First, the Romans builders would clear the ground of rocks and trees. Then they dug a trench where the road was to go and filled it with big stones. Next, they put in big stones, pebbles, cement and sand which they packed down to make a firm base. After that, they added another layer of cement mixed with broken tiles. On top of that rough construction, then they put paving stones to make the flat surface. These stones were cut so that they fitted together tightly. As the finishing touch, kerb stones were put at each sides of the road to hold in the paving stones. It was also used to make a channel for the water to run away.

(Partly taken from: http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/)


Now we are going to see the generic structure of the explanation sample above.

Every explanation text will be started with General Statement of the text. It is purposely to introduce the topic of the text. From the example above, we point that the Roman road architect is the main discussion, just seeing from the first sentences.

After stating the introduction, text in explanation type will be followed with a Sequenced Explanation. It is the blueprint of the general statement which needs to be explained in detail on how or why something is formed. In the last paragraph, we clearly get the explanation on how formerly the Roman Empire Roads were built step by step.

How Chocolate is made, an Example of Explanation Text

Have we wondered how we get chocolate from? Well this time we will enter the amazing world of chocolate so we can understand exactly we are eating.

Chocolate starts a tree called cacao tree. This tree grows in equatorial regions, especially in place such as South America, Africa, and Indonesia. The cacao tree produces a fruit about the size of a small pine apple. In side the fruits are the tree's seeds. They are also known as coco beans.

Next, the beans are fermented for about a week, dried in the sun. After that they are shipped to the chocolate maker. The chocolate maker starts by roasting the beans to bring out the flavour. Different beans from different places have different qualities and flavour. So they are often shorted and blended to produce a distinctive mix.

The next process is winnowing. The roasted beans are winnowed to remove the meat nib of the cacao bean from its shell. Then the nibs are blended. The blended nibs are ground to make it a liquid. The liquid is called chocolate liquor. It tastes bitter.

All seeds contain some amount of fat and cacao beans are not different. However, cacao beans are half fat, which is why the ground nibs from liquid. It is pure bitter chocolate.

Note on the generic structure of this explanation sample.

Every text genre has its special purpose or social function. However if we see the generic structure point, we will get the understanding which both the explanation and procedure text have similar purposes. Both explain how to make or form something. However the procedure text will explain how to form or make something completely by instruction way. That is why most of procedure text is composed in command sentences. In the other hand, explanation text will show a knowledge about how thing is formed.

The above example of explanation text has the following generic structure:
General statement; it is a statement which says about chocolate and how it is formed
Sequenced explanation; it is a series of explanation on how chocolate is formed before we eat. First, the chocolate is coming from the cacao tree. Then it is fermented and ship to the chocolate producer. The cacao bean then are roasted and winnowed.

Between Explanation and Procedure Text

Seeing the social function, both procedure and explanation texts have the similarity in which both describe how to make or done something. They give the detail description on something, phenomena, goods, product case or problem.

To see the differences between explanation and procedure, we have to analyze the dominant language feature and how the texts are used.Procedure, this text type is commonly called as instruction text. It uses pattern of commend in building the structure. It use the “to infinitive verb” which is omitted the “to”. It is a kind of instruction text which uses full commend verb. Procedure is commonly used to describe how to make something which is close to our daily activity. For example how to make a cup of tea, how to make a good kite, etc is the best example of the procedure text. It is such word; first boil water, secondly prepare the cup, and so on.

Explanation, it is commonly used the passive voice in building the text. Explanation is such a scientific written material. It describes how certain phenomenon or event happen. How a tornado form, how tsunami works are the best example of explanation text. It uses passive pattern in describing the topic.

Example of Explanation Text

Tsunami

The term of “tsunami” comes from the Japanese which means harbour ("tsu") and wave ("nami"). A tsunami is a series of waves generated when water in a lake or a sea is rapidly displaced on a massive scale.

A tsunami can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Such large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries.

Subduction of earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunami, and occur where denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates.

As the displaced water mass moves under the influence of gravity to regain its equilibrium, it radiates across the ocean like ripples on a pond.

Tsunami always bring great damage. Most of the damage is caused by the huge mass of water behind the initial wave front, as the height of the sea keeps rising fast and floods powerfully into the coastal area.

How Day and Night Happen: an explanation text

The sun seems to rise in the morning, crosses the sky during the day and sets at night. However the sun does not actually move around the earth. Earth's turning on its axis makes it look as if the sun is moves.The earth makes a complete turn on its axis for 24 hours. It is called as rotation. It causes day and night. The earth also moves around the sun. It takes 365 days or a year. This process is called revolution. The revolution process causes the changes of the season

Flying Kites as Example of Explanation

How a kite flies is best at giving example of Explanation text. This kind of text is composed to intendedly make clear explanation on how something is processed and why the thing is formed.

Explanation text is one of the text types which is similar to Procedure. What makes superficially different is the way how they are structured.

In one side, Explanation text is structure in the mode of description. It focuses on the thing which is explained. In the other side, Procedure text is constructed in the mode of instruction and commend. That is why Procedure is sometimes called instruction text. It focuses on the second person to explain how to form the thing.

In my previous example of explanation text on Roman Roads was given to show how the explanation text gives clear note on "Why something is formed" To get clearer understanding of explanation text, now let's see another example of "How something is precessed/formed" which belongs to explanation text's social function.

The example bellow is re-composed from Jenny Eather's writing with fun. It really helps to make better understanding on explanation text.


How is a Kite Flying?A kite is an object which is made from a light material stretched over a frame. Due to its light material a kite will lift off the ground and fly when it is tilted into the wind.A kite is uses wind to make it fly because it is heavier than air.

When wind travels over the surface of the kite, it is split into two streams of air. One stream of the air goes over the kite while the second stream goes under the kite.

The upper stream creates an area of low pressure above the kite. The lower stream hits the kite at a shallow angle and creates an area of high pressure.The high pressure area has a pushing effect while the low pressure area has a pulling effect. The combination of push and pull can creates enough force to lift the kite into the air.

Kites have been known for thousand of years. They are used for military or scientific purposes. Todays kites are much used for leisure and competition.


From the above example of Explanation text, we can see that the text has the following generic structure:
General Statement; the introduction of the topic on with a brief definition on kites.
Sequenced Explanation; this is the main element of explanation text. It explain the important points of the kite. The explanation of how kites fly is given in order.

Why Summer Daylight is Logger than Winter Daylight; an explanation text

In the summer, the amount of daylight that we get is more than we get in winter. This is not because as much people think we are closer to the sun but because of the tilt of the earth.

The earth is actually closer to the sun in winter than it is in summer but you would be forgiven for thinking that this can not be true after looking out of your window on a cold and frosty morning.

It seems strange that as the earth get closer to the sun during its orbit then the amount of daylight that we get decrease. But that is the case. It is the tilt of the earth that determine the amount of daylight that we get and so the length of time that for us the sun is above the horizon.(Taken from: www.ictteachers.co.uk)

Generic Structure Analysis

General statement; stating the phenomenon whic daylight in summer is longer than in winter.

Explanation; it is the tilt of the earth that determines the amount of daylight not the distance of the earth from the sun.

Language Feature Analysis

Focusing generic participant; daylight.

Using chronological connection; then, so, but.

Using pasive voice; you would be forgiven.

Using present tense; the earth is actually closer to the sun.

What is Explanation ?

Explanation Text

Definition and purposes of Explanation

Explanation is a text which tells processes relating to forming of natural, social, scientific and cultural phenomena. Explanation text is to say 'why' and 'how' of the forming of the phenomena. It is often found in science, geography and history text books.

Generic structure of Explanation

General statement; stating the phenomenon issues which are to be explained.

Sequenced explanation; stating a series of steps which explain the phenomena.

Language Feature

Featuring generic participant; sun, rain, etc

Using chronological connection; to begin with, next, etc

Using passive voice pattern

Using simple present tense