ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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We all know that writing is made up of text, aka words.

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Take a bunch of words, put them together in an order that makes sense, and voila! [Dino discussing texts]

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You've got writing.

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Easy, huh?

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But it’s not that simple. [Man on a scooter with his feet up]

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We know, we know, how complicated can text get?

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Well, depending on the various text features, like heading, capital letters, italics, indented

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paragraphs, et cetera, et cetera…writing can take on many different forms.

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And with different forms comes different meanings.

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So let's look at three different types of writing that use different text features. [Coop teaching about the different types of writing]

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First - poetry.

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This one's a good place to start, because at first glance, it's pretty easy to identify

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a poem. [Woman pointing to man with a poem t-shirt in a line-up]

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Just take one look at the old Mother Goose story Humpty Dumpty and right away you can

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tell it's a poem.

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But how?

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Are we all just born able to identify poems? [Poem Identifier Man wearing a red cape]

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Well, as cool as that would be, it’s actually because of the poem's specific text features.

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One example of a text feature common in poetry is a line break.

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Sometimes, the author will suddenly stop a line in the middle of the sentence because

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they want us to stop reading it at that moment, which can be used for emphasis.

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Another text feature of poetry is rhyme or rhythm, which poets use to make their poems [Coop talking about text features in poetry]

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sound more musical.

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Here at Shmoop we think that's cool, We wouldn't lie, and we only eat gruel!

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…We'll work on a better poem. [Person approaches shmoop cafeteria desk for a bowl of gruel]

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Another type of writing that has its own unique text features is a play.

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A play is meant to be performed by actors on a stage, and this means that the author

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has to include specific text features that tell the actors what to do. [Actors acting in a theater play on stage]

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One text feature of a play is the “Cast of Characters” - a list of everyone in the play.

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Another text feature are the lines of dialogue which appear after the name of the character

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who speaks that line.

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This one is pretty crucial because otherwise, it would be less a play and more… some kind [Old man approaches table with mime heads]

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of weird, silent performance art.

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A third text feature specific to plays are stage directions.

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Stage directions are sort of like dialogue lines, but instead of telling actors what [Stage directions highlighted]

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to say, it tells them what to do – where to stand, where to move, and how to behave.

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And they should definitely not be read aloud.

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We know that from firsthand experience.

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It's best not to yell, "Romeo dies tragically!" as you're falling down dying…. [Romeo falls down dead]

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Our last type of writing is one that you're probably most familiar with, and that's prose.

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Open up a magazine, novel, or webpage, and you're most likely reading prose.

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See a bunch of block paragraphs, one after another, that seem to just blab on forever? [Paragraphs of blab, blab, blee, blee]

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That's prose.

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But even blabbering prose has its own specific text features.

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For instance, most prose uses indented paragraphs to tell us when the author is starting a new idea.

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And when an even bigger new idea is started, a chapter heading appears to indicate the

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beginning of a new aardvark. [An aardvark appears]

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…just checking to make sure you’re listening.

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A chapter heading indicates the beginning of a new chapter.

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As you can see, not only do different forms of writing feel and sound different, but their [Forms of writing sitting in a class room]

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text features make them look different, too.

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By understanding those features, you can better identify exactly what it is your teacher is

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trying to make you read!

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And then you can grumble on Twitter about how unfair it is that you have to read prose. [Students grumbling about class]

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But, hey, at least you identified it as prose!

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