Text Features/Structure

Text Features are structures that authors use to organize information, to cue readers and to clarify content. Sometimes text features/structures are invisible to students unless instructors explicitly point them out or teach them.

Text features/structures fall into broad categories:

• Conventions of text (titles, headings, subheadings, legends, illustrations, etc.)
• Conventions of print (bold type, italics, white space, punctuation, etc.)
• Conventions of organization (cause & effect, compare & contrast, sequencing, etc.)
• Conventions of genre (textbooks, fiction, maps, manuals, medical charts, etc.).

When readers use these supporting structures effectively, they are better able to engage in the text. Understanding text features/structures is a key skill necessary in summarizing information.