Working with text is what you need to learn, gradually accumulating experience and the ability to quickly and correctly navigate other people's thoughts set forth on paper. Before you start working with text, you need to find out what the text is, what the topic of the text is, the idea of how to highlight microthemes in it and divide it into meanings.
Text: Key Features and Criteria
To this day, linguistics has not developed a single and accurate definition of the concept of "text." Attempts to determine it were undertaken by M.V. Lomonosov.
Such well-known linguists and literary scholars as I. R. Halperin, M. M. Bakhtin, in their work, tried to identify the basic laws of text construction. Researchers argue over some of its symptoms. The simplest concept is the following: a text is a series of sentences interconnected by meaning and united by a common idea. Also, the text is defined as a kind of structural and thematic integrity. Special controversy is caused by the form of the text. Some scholars point out that formally a text can consist of one sentence. Others disprove this idea. One way or another, a number of signs are distinguished by which we can determine this phenomenon.
Text Attributes
The first and most basic is a single theme and thought of the text. This is what it says. A thought can be identified with an idea. An idea is what the work is created for, what the author wants to say. A vivid example is fables or poems. For example, I. Krylov's fable "Monkey and glasses." This fable about how the monkey could not find the use of glasses because of his ignorance. However, the idea of the text is deeper: people sometimes do not value what they have, because they simply do not know something or do not want to know. The idea of a fable is always expressed in morality (what is written at the very end of the work). In poetic and prose works, most often the general is shown through the particular. For example, when telling about the fate of an individual hero, writers mean the misfortune or guilt of the whole society. Do not confuse the topic and idea. For example, if the theme of the text may be the life of a writer, actor or politician, then the idea will necessarily be a demonstration of its positive or negative qualities, or the call will become like him. There is always a purpose in an idea.
Knowing what a text topic is is not enough. It must be remembered that the second sign of the text is connectedness. All sentences and paragraphs are linked logically or chronologically. Therefore, when creating your own composition, do not forget about the sequence and logic of presentation. Any text consists of an introduction, the main part and conclusion. As a rule, these parts are formally separated (that is, arranged in separate paragraphs). However, this rule is not law.
The third sign is semantic unity and completeness. Any text should be complete, even if it is a small passage. In it, the topic and thought should be fully revealed.
Types of text topics
In the text, you can highlight the main topic and microthemes (subtopics). So what is the main theme of the text? It should combine the entire text. As a rule, it is indicated in the title or can be formulated at the beginning of the work. Subtopics, as a rule, correspond with paragraphs. How many paragraphs - so many microthemes.
How to work with text?
To correctly understand the text, you must carefully read it. Try to immediately determine what the main theme of the text is: whether a person, nature, work, study, knowledge, war, love, etc. Next, highlight keywords and key motives. Only then can you understand the opinion of the author. If the author created the text, it means that he wanted to express his point of view on this or that phenomenon. Pay particular attention to specific examples, quotes, direct speech of the characters of the text (if any). Be sure to divide the text into microthemes. Make a plan by numbering all subtopics.
Why do we need to highlight topics and microthemes?
If you are analyzing a text or writing an exposition on it, you must strictly observe the sequence and train of thought of the author. That is why it is necessary to find all subtopics and skillfully combine them into a single whole. This is especially important when writing concise statements. At the same time, try to pay special attention to the connectives between paragraphs so that the finished exposition is coherent and logically structured. Having lost at least one microtheme, you can completely miss the idea of the text and not convey what the author wanted to say.
Basic options for text topics
So what is a text theme? This is what the author talks about. Most often, the authors touch on the so-called eternal themes - for example, the theme of war and peace. The ideas that the authors want to realize can be different: the need to pay back a debt to the Motherland, the patriotism of people as the basis of character, the unnaturalness and horror of war, etc.
Another common theme is love. What ideas can be implemented in texts with such a theme? For example, love knows no social boundaries, love is always disappointment (as in the poems of M. Yu. Lermontov, for example, "The Pauper"), love is the brightest feeling in human life, etc.
Among the frequently encountered topics are the following: fathers and children, friendship, the search for the meaning of life, nature, the movement of time, human feelings, betrayal, duty, and many others. Similar topics are covered in reasoning texts. But in narrative genres, the topics are more specific: a specific case, incident, the fate of an individual.
You can understand what a text topic is only after several attempts of independent analysis. A competent text analysis requires thoughtful reading and painstaking analysis.