text types (genres)

Categories of text, classified according to the particular purposes they are designed to achieve, which influence the features the texts employ. For example, texts may be imaginative, informative or persuasive; or can belong to more than one category. Text types vary significantly in terms of structure and language features across different languages and cultural contexts. For example, a business letter in French will be more elaborate than a similar text in English; a request or an offer of hospitality will be expressed differently in Japanese or in German.