{"id":31,"date":"2020-02-25T23:14:59","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T04:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/chapter\/what-is-a-text\/"},"modified":"2021-08-05T16:45:33","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T20:45:33","slug":"what-is-a-text","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/chapter\/what-is-a-text\/","title":{"raw":"What is a Text?","rendered":"What is a Text?"},"content":{"raw":"<img class=\"alignright wp-image-30 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/working-text-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>As a student, much of your time will be spent interacting with texts of all types, shapes, sizes, and delivery methods.\r\n\r\nIn academic terms, a [pb_glossary id=\"258\"]text[\/pb_glossary] is anything that conveys a set of meanings to the person who examines it. You might have thought that texts were limited to written materials, such as books, magazines, newspapers, and 'zines (an informal term for magazine that refers especially to fanzines and webzines). Those items are indeed texts\u2014but so are movies, paintings, television shows, songs, political cartoons, online materials, advertisements, maps, works of art, and even rooms full of people. If we can look at something, explore it, find layers of meaning in it, and draw information and conclusions from it, we\u2019re looking at a text.\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Exercise<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\nWhich of these would be a kind of text?\r\n<ol type=\"a\">\r\n \t<li>A graphic novel<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A television commercial<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A photograph<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A poem<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A song<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nMost of the texts you\u2019re exposed to in your academic career will be print (on paper\/hard copy) or online written texts like books, articles, and essays\u2014these are still the most common types of learning material.\r\n<h3>Text Attributions<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>This chapter was adapted from \"<a class=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/openoregon.pressbooks.pub\/wrd\/chapter\/what-is-a-text\/\">What is a Text<\/a>\" in <em>The Word on College Reading and Writing <\/em>by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a <a class=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence<\/a>. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h3>Media Attributions<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><a class=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/images\/id-272399\/\" rel=\"cc:attributionURL\">Highlighter Text<\/a> by Hans is licensed under the <a class=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/service\/license\/\" rel=\"dc:creator\">Pixabay Licence<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-30 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/working-text-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/working-text-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/working-text-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/working-text-65x43.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/working-text-225x150.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/working-text-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/931\/2020\/02\/working-text.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>As a student, much of your time will be spent interacting with texts of all types, shapes, sizes, and delivery methods.<\/p>\n<p>In academic terms, a <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_31_258\">text<\/a> is anything that conveys a set of meanings to the person who examines it. You might have thought that texts were limited to written materials, such as books, magazines, newspapers, and &#8216;zines (an informal term for magazine that refers especially to fanzines and webzines). Those items are indeed texts\u2014but so are movies, paintings, television shows, songs, political cartoons, online materials, advertisements, maps, works of art, and even rooms full of people. If we can look at something, explore it, find layers of meaning in it, and draw information and conclusions from it, we\u2019re looking at a text.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Exercise<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>Which of these would be a kind of text?<\/p>\n<ol type=\"a\">\n<li>A graphic novel<\/li>\n<li>A television commercial<\/li>\n<li>A photograph<\/li>\n<li>A poem<\/li>\n<li>A song<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Most of the texts you\u2019re exposed to in your academic career will be print (on paper\/hard copy) or online written texts like books, articles, and essays\u2014these are still the most common types of learning material.<\/p>\n<h3>Text Attributions<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>This chapter was adapted from &#8220;<a class=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/openoregon.pressbooks.pub\/wrd\/chapter\/what-is-a-text\/\">What is a Text<\/a>&#8221; in <em>The Word on College Reading and Writing <\/em>by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a <a class=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence<\/a>. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Media Attributions<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a class=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/images\/id-272399\/\" rel=\"cc:attributionURL\">Highlighter Text<\/a> by Hans is licensed under the <a class=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/service\/license\/\" rel=\"dc:creator\">Pixabay Licence<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_31_258\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_31_258\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Any material from which an observer can gain meaning.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":701,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-31","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":29,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/31\/revisions\/852"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/29"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/31\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}