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Text and Context


You will study a variety of texts in this course.  Text is a general word for any type of communication:  oral, print, visual, and multimedia.  When you see the word text in the course content, it could refer to a book, a video, a piece of art, a cartoon, or even a blog entry.

The person who created the text is referred to as the text creator.  These text creators could also be called artists, speakers, authors, poets, songwriters, screenwriters, performers, or journalists.

In addition to studying many types of texts, you will also examine a variety of contexts within each text.  Context is any factor that influences the way we interpret a text or create text.  

Context prompts us to consider. . . 

  • who created the text
  • what type of text it is
  • where the text is set and where text creator is located
  • when the text was set and when it was created

Then pull all this information together and determine. . .

  • why this text was created.

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