Exposition can be conveyed through a spoken or written language and can be found everywhere. Non-fiction books, magazines, or newspaper article
generally categorized as exposition that used to inform the reader about the topic. At school, students are required to submit school exams and research papers,
which are take form in an exposition, as a means for their teachers to grade their progress.
Moreover, people are required to produce business reports and memorandums to inform their superiors and co-workers about the occurrences
that take place at other levels of the company by using exposition. In addition, oral exposition is primarily observed in oral academic presentations, business
talks, and speeches that are delivered to a group of people. In short, it can be simply concluded that exposition is an exposing of
information or ideas. Exposition is one way writers and speakers can deliver their own thinking about certain topic explicitly to the readers or listeners so that the
readers or listeners can infer what issue is being delivered.
b. Concept of Text
Text is defined by Peter Knapp and Megan Watkins as language as a system of communication which is organized as cohesive units.
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As stated in Webster II New Riverside University Dictionary, text is the words or wording of
something written or printed. There are two main categories of text, literary text and factual text.
Different types of text have distinctive characteristics, depending on what they are made to do. A piece of poetry, for instance, is immediately and characteristically
different from a scientific description because each is doing a vastly different thing with language.
Literary text is a text that used to entertain or elicit an emotional response by using language to create mental images. Literary texts often use language to
create images in readers’ minds; the language enables readers to engage with the
13
Peter Knapp, and Megan Watkins, Genre, Text, Grammar: Technologies for Teaching and Assessing Writing, Kensington: UNSW Press, 2005, p. 29.
text and incorporate their own meanings and understandings with those of the writer.
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Literary text includes stories, movie script, poem, fairy tales, novels, song lyrics, soap opera, and so on. Literary texts are constructed to appeal our
emotion and imagination. Mainly, there are three types of literary text, which are narrative, poetry, and dramatic.
On the other hand, factual text is a text that used to instruct or persuade readers by giving facts and information. Factual texts deal with the exchange of
knowledge in all of the learning areas.
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Factual text included advertisement, announcement, debates, recipes, instructions, and so forth. The main text types in
the factual text category are factual descriptions, information reports, factual recounts, explanations, expositions, procedures, and discussion.
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c. Concept of Exposition Text
Exposition text is a factual type of written discourse that is used to explain, describe, give information or inform. As stated by McCormack and Pasquarelli,
an exposition text is a text that provides facts, gives true information, explains, informs, persuades, andor describes various topics and phenomena.
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The topic of exposition text can be most anything, from a particular event or person to a
scientific theory or political ideology. Moreover, an exposition is a well-structured argument or persuasion. The
point of view must be supported by facts and relevant information on that topic. An exposition needs to clearly state the point of view, use research to support that
view, address other points of view, and defend that point of view from others. Newspaper editorials, letters to the editor, political speeches, advertisements, and
debates are the examples of exposition text. The purpose of an exposition essay is to express and explain the reasons
for the writer opinion about certain case. It is in line with Anderson and Anderson
14
Ibid., p. 30.
15
ibid.
16
Gordon Winch, Primary Grammar Dictionary, Sydney: New Frontier Publishing, 2003, p. 17.
17
Rachel L. McCormack and Susan Lee Pasquarelli, Teaching Reading: Strategies and Resources for Grades K-6, New York: Guilford Press, 2010, p. 133.
