Within a type of communication, the writer, speaker, or designer chooses a form based on the purpose of the piece. Common written forms include narratives; journals; procedural, expository, and explanatory documents; news articles; e-mails; blogs; advertisements; poetry; novels; and letters.

refers to the consideration of format choices including layout, sequencing, spacing, topography, and colour

refers to the way the author organizes text (e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast, order of importance, chronological sequence, problem/solution, circular or cyclical)

elements of the text that are not considered the main body, including:

• navigational aids (e.g., table of contents, index, glossary, bibliography, hyperlinks, titles, headings and subheadings, prologue and epilogue, preface or foreword, captions, footnotes and endnotes)
• illustrations (e.g., inlays, sidebars, photographs, graphs, charts, timelines, maps)

Strategies used will depend on purpose and context. These may include making predictions, asking questions, paraphrasing, forming images, making inferences, determining importance, identifying themes, and drawing conclusions.

texts that combine two or more systems, such as linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial, and that can be delivered via a variety of media or technologies (e.g., music video, graphic novel, postmodern picture book, close-captioned film)