Communicating Through Text

The word “text” reminds me of a textbook. In other words, a textbook is facts based on a specific subjects and it is used by people for educational purposes to study. In the article, “Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice,” Douglas Eyman discusses any object, collection of objects, or contexts can be ‘read’ by tracing and retracing the slipping, contradictory network of connections, disconnections, presences, absences, and assemblages that occupy problematic spaces” (Johnson-Eilola 2010, 33). A text has many meanings. Communicating through text shares information, ideas, or stories with the audience.

In this paragraph, I am going to discuss how we define “text” in today’s digital age. Text is sending a text message to a friend, the words printed on a page, letter, or book. Firstly, text conveys a message through the written words. Texts allow you to communicate messages between two people or a group of people. Secondly, texts can be full of feelings and emotions by using emojis and gifs to share an inside joke or make the conversation more fun. Thirdly, text is part of our daily lives and how we communicate through life.

Defining “Text”

Text is information that can convince the audience and share facts about the specific subject. Text conveys ideas and perspectives. In the digital age, written words and the languages that we use on social media platforms can convince people. Text impacts how we think and how we can make connections with the audience. The way we share the text defines us and how we want others to understand our thoughts and recognize us.

Why Is Text Important

Text is important because you use it in your life everyday to communicate and understand each other. Text is an important tool that collects and protects important information between two people or a group of people which helps create an understanding and build a connection with an audience.

The best way to understand text is explained by Robert de Beaugrande and Wolfgang Dressler’s (1981) approach to “text” as a “communicative event” (1) that meets seven specific criteria of textuality: cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informality, situationality, and intertextuality.

The seven ways to measure text is through:

Cohesion– text is structured, the linguistic parts follow the grammar rules and dependencies

Coherence ( or textual semantics)– the meaning behind the text. Text connects us to the knowledge around the world and the different forms of text.

Intentionality– the purpose of the the person who develops the text. For example, talking in your sleep doesn’t count as a text but a telephone directory does.

Acceptability– it mirrors intentionality. Text can be understood by the audience based on the information being shared.

Informativity– the amount of new and expected information in text subjects that represents that the text relates to the appropriate context information

Intertextuality– the text relates to the previous or simultaneous occuring communication

Forms of Communication

For example, the different ways to communicate using texts in daily life are:

Written texts-documents, books, and manuscripts

Social media– Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Sna

Writing an email

In conclusion, text allows you to tell a message with a purpose to the audience.