Text Features in Non-Fiction Informational Texts

Text Features in Non-Fiction Informational Texts Important tools to help students to understand and access information in informational texts are the text features. Text features are both ways in which the authors and editors make the information easier to understand and access, as well as explicit means of supporting the content of the text through illustrations, photographs, charts, and graphs. Using text features is an important element of developmental reading, which teaches students to use these parts to understand and comprehend the content of the text Text features are also part of most states high-stakes  tests. Students in fourth grade and above are usually expected to be able to identify the text features common to most non-fiction and informational texts. At the same time, they help struggling readers find and identify the information they are expected to know in content area classes, such as social studies, history, civics, and science. Text Features as Part of the Text Titles, subtitles, headings, and sub-headings are all part of the actual text, used to make the organization of the information in a text explicit. Most textbook publishers, as well as informational text publishers, use these features to make the content easier to understand. Titles The chapter titles in informational texts usually prepare the student to understand the text. Subtitles Subtitles usually immediately follow the title and organize the information into sections. Titles and subtitles often provide the structure for an outline. Headings Headings usually begin a subsection after a subtitle. There are multiple headings for each section. They usually lay out the major points made by the author in each section. Subheading Subheadings also help us understand the organization of the thoughts contained in the section and the relationships of the parts. Title, subtitle, heading, and subheadings could be used to create guided notes, as they are pivotal parts of the authors organization of the text. Text Features That Support Understanding and Navigating the Text Table of Contents Works of fiction seldom have tables of content, whereas works of nonfiction almost always do. At the beginning of the book, they include the titles of chapters as well as subtitles and page numbers. Glossary Found at the back of the book, the glossary provides definitions of special words within the text. Publishers often place words to be found in the back in boldface. Sometimes the definitions are found adjacent to the text, but always in the glossary. Index Also in the back of the book, the index identifies where topics can be found, in alphabetical order. Features That Support the Content of the Text The internet has given us a rich and easily accessible source of images, but they are still incredibly important in understanding the content of information non-fiction texts. While not actually text it would be foolish to assume that our students understand the relationship between the content and the picture on the same page. Illustrations Illustrations are the product of an illustrator or artist and create an image that helps us better understand the content of the text. Photographs A hundred years ago, photographs were difficult to produce in print. Now, digital media make it easy to create and recreate photographs in print. Now they are common in informational texts. Captions Captions are printed below the illustrations and photographs and explain what we are seeing. Charts and Diagrams Unlike illustrations, Charts and Diagrams are created to represent amount, distance, or other information shared in the text. Often they are in the form of graphs, including bar, line, and plot and whisker graphs, as well as pie charts and maps.