German C2 · Genre-Specific Styles
Übung: Textsorten im Vergleich – C2 German Grammar
Practice: comparing text types – summary
Essay (personal), report (factual-chronological) and review (evaluative) each require a different style and tone. Text-type competence means adapting your style deliberately to purpose and reader.
Comparison
| essay | report | review | |
|---|---|---|---|
| aim | stimulate thought | inform | evaluate, recommend |
| perspective | first person, subjective | impersonal, neutral | subjective but reasoned |
| tense | present | simple past | present (content) |
| structure | free, associative | chronological | intro – content – analysis – verdict |
| language | figurative, rhetorical | factual, precise, passive | evaluative, vivid |
| typical devices | rhetorical questions, metaphors | nominal style, Konj. I | evaluative adjectives, comparisons |
The same event – three text types
Topic: a new art museum opens.
Report: Am Samstag wurde in der Altstadt das neue Kunstmuseum eröffnet. Rund 3.000 Besucher kamen am ersten Tag. Die Baukosten beliefen sich auf 45 Millionen Euro. (On Saturday the new art museum in the old town was opened. Around 3,000 visitors came on the first day. Construction costs amounted to 45 million euros.)
Review: Das neue Museum besticht durch seine lichtdurchflutete Architektur. Die Eröffnungsausstellung ist allerdings etwas überladen. Dennoch: Ein Besuch lohnt sich! (The new museum impresses with its light-flooded architecture. The opening exhibition is somewhat overloaded, though. Nevertheless: well worth a visit!)
Essay: Brauchen wir in Zeiten digitaler Bilderfluten überhaupt noch Museen? Ich meine: mehr denn je. Denn ein Museum ist ein Ort der Stille – und Stille ist das kostbarste Gut unserer Zeit. (In an age of floods of digital images, do we still need museums at all? I say: more than ever. For a museum is a place of silence – and silence is the most precious commodity of our time.)
Other text types at C2 level
- commentary: opinion on a current issue (newspaper)
- gloss (Glosse): short, pointed, ironic
- letter to the editor: reaction to an article
- minutes: course or results of a meeting
- summary: core information of a text, factual, in the present tense
Examples:
- Ist Fortschritt immer ein Gewinn? (Is progress always a gain? – essay opening)
- Gegen 22 Uhr wurde der Brand gelöscht. (The fire was extinguished at around 10 p.m. – report)
- Die Hauptdarstellerin spielt mit beeindruckender Intensität. (The lead actress plays with impressive intensity. – review)