Formal Administrative Documents and Traditional Lyric Poetry

Formal Administrative Texts and Conventions

Formal texts are administrative documents that follow rigid formal conventions. They only hold value if they remain faithful to a specific model. These formal texts respond to a predetermined structure, which allows them to be written and interpreted easily. The most important group is formed by formal administrative texts. Forms are used to establish formal written communications between the administration, citizens, and enterprises.

Main Administrative Documents

• Minutes: A written document recording what happened, or what was treated and agreed upon, during a meeting or assembly.
• Certificate: A formal written confirmation of specific data.
• Circular: Internal communication intended for the members of an organized community.
• Contract: A document outlining the working conditions agreed upon by the employer and employee.
• Curriculum Vitae: An exhibition of a person's personal, academic, and professional data.
• Report: An orderly and detailed exposition of any matter relevant to the functioning of a company or agency.
• Instance: An argued petition or application.
• Office: A letter by which the administration communicates an administrative decision to a citizen.
• Affidavit and Publication.

Traditional Lyric Poetry

Traditional lyric poetry consists of short compositions or songs that people sang to accompany domestic work and other daily life activities. The main theme is love, but there are also songs regarding harvests, weddings, pilgrimages, or the month of May. These works were anonymous and transmitted orally, which is why many of them have been preserved. The versions we know today were written down years later by cultured authors in songbooks (Cancioneros). Due to the diversity of cultures, traditional lyrics appear under different forms:

• In Andalusia, we find jarchas, which are the earliest known manifestations of lyric poetry.
• Galician-Portuguese Lyric appeared in the twelfth century with the ballads of friends (cantigas de amigo), whose theme is usually the lament of a girl regarding the absence of her lover.
• In the center of the peninsula, the most used metrical forms are the traditional Christmas carol (villancico) or the zéjel.