Understanding Scientific and Journalistic Texts: Key Features

Scientific and Journalistic Texts: A Comparison

Scientific Texts

Scientific texts encompass research reports, studies, and scientific expertise. The primary objectives are to present accurate, clear, and demonstrable statements of fact.

General Characteristics:

• Clear and logical management of information
• Objectivity
• True and verifiable conclusions
• Brief paragraphs
• Support from graphics and artificial languages

Linguistic Features:

• Denotative lexicon
• Monosemic words
• Use of jargon
• Concrete nouns
• Use of the present indicative tense
• Specified adjectives
• Reflexive passives
• Impersonal sentences
• Declarative sentences

Structure:

Scientific texts employ exposition and description. Exposition explains and clarifies concepts, while description presents the characteristics of objects, people, or animals.

Exposition:

• Deductive Structure (Analysand): Develops a thesis and then demonstrates it.
• Inductive Structure (Synthesizing): Starts with verified evidence, discusses it, and concludes with a thesis.

Description:

Utilizes definition (explaining an object with precision), classification (grouping beings or things according to their features), and comparison (indicating similarities or differences between two objects).

Journalistic Texts

Journalistic texts are informative publications issued at regular intervals. Understanding language codes is crucial:

Iconic Code:

A graphical code, such as photographs, with a specific intention.

Typographical Code:

Refers to color, font size, bolding, and the layout of the paper, including the most important pages (e.g., the cover) and the arrangement of stories (horizontal or vertical). Everything is designed with a specific intention. Newspapers are divided into sections.

The purpose of a newspaper article is to inform, educate, and entertain. Journalistic genres are classified as information, opinion, and mixed genres.

Information:

The objective is to disseminate current events of interest to the recipient.

The News:

The most characteristic genre of journalism. It reports on a recent event of interest. It consists of a headline and the body of the news. Headlines should be expressive, attract attention, and convey as much information as possible. They are often accompanied by an antetítulo (pre-headline) or subtitle. Intros highlight key points and summarize the body. News should be objective, but this depends on the newspaper's intention and ideology.

The Report:

Recounts events of current interest around a specific topic. It is a longer story that allows for a more personal style. It incorporates investigation and documentation of some aspect of the story.

The Interview:

A story focused on one or more persons in particular, helping us understand their views.