Informative text and ways to improve it

The main, general purpose of creating a text (any) is the communication of information. Any text contains any information. The total amount of information contained in the text is its information richness.

However, the value has primarily new information that is useful, i.e. pragmatic, it is an indicator of the informativeness of the text. The information richness of the text is an absolute measure of the quality of the text, and the information content is relative, since the degree of information content of the message depends on the potential reader. “The informativeness of the text is the degree of its meaningful and substantial novelty for the reader, which is contained in the theme and the author's concept, the system of author's assessments of the subject of thought” [1].

The measure of the informative qualities of the text may decrease or increase. Thus, the information content (in terms of text pragmatics) decreases if the information repeats, and, conversely, it rises if the text carries the most up-to-date information.

Since the text consists of statements, when determining its content, it is important to establish the relationship between the statement and the situation reflected in it. It is known that there is no complete correspondence between them, i.e. the surface structure of the utterance (the number of linguistic signs present in it) and the deep structure (the amount of information contained in it) do not match. This is due to the asymmetry of the language mark. The essence of this phenomenon lies in the fact that at the level of signifiers (units of expression plan) there are usually significantly fewer units than at the level of signified (units of content plan), simply words are less than expressed meanings. This is the law of “normal” speech formation. The discrepancy between the signifier and the signifier can be greater or less, and this is precisely what raises the question of semantic economy or redundancy. Semantic economy is observed when there is no direct reference to any (or any) element of the deep structure in the surface structure of statements. On the other hand, semantic redundancy is seen if there are several elements in the surface structure that represent the same element of the deep structure [2]. Thus, with semantic economy, some elements of the meaning can be implicitly represented.

This quality of speech at the text level creates conditions for increasing its information richness with a minimum expenditure of speech means. Thus, speech economy arises (“omission of an element in the surface structure of a utterance, despite its presence in the deep structure” [3]).

With semantic redundancy, the situation may be exactly the opposite (there are more characters to convey the meaning). In some cases it is a lack of text that should be eliminated, in others it is a necessity realized by the author dictated by stylistic tasks. Thus, redundancy in terms of semantics turns out to be a necessity in terms of stylistics (for example, stylistically significant repetition, etc.).

In connection with the possibility of a different way of presenting information in the text - economical and redundant - the problem of author's intent and reader's perception of the message is significant, i.e. encoding and decoding text. Moreover, decoding, for various reasons, may be complete or incomplete. So different is the "depth of reading" of the text.

Authors of texts of fiction, newspaper, popular science are usually oriented towards the so-called average reader (conditionally - having acquired the secondary school program). But the very concept of the average reader may change. For example, the author of a scientific article focuses on a specialist in this branch of knowledge. And for this author, this will also be an “average reader.” Therefore, when determining the measure of usefulness of information in a text, it is better to focus on the correspondence / discrepancy of the reader’s level to the information qualities of the text and, consequently, to the author’s level.

From this point of view, readers form three groups:

1. corresponding to the author's orientation, i.e. average reader status;

2. not reached the level of knowledge of the average reader;

3. readers whose thesaurus exceeds the author's thesaurus.

It is clear that for readers of the third group the useful information contained in the text will approach zero, and information redundancy will approach 100%. The second group of readers will be in difficulty to perceive the text, it will not have enough background knowledge, and the usefulness of the perceived information will sharply decrease. For readers of the first group, the information will turn out to be moderately useful, although in part it may turn out to be redundant due to “packaging material” (L. Scherby's term). These are various introductory and introductory phrases, speech cliches, some repetitions, for example, the final repetition. The complete lack of redundant information always gives a negative result, since the “undiluted concentrate” is difficult to assimilate.

The concept of redundant information is usually applicable to scientific, technical, official business, educational texts. There is an opinion that it is almost impossible to isolate redundant information in an artistic text, since then the text loses its other important quality - artisticity (cf. comics). The method of curtailing artistic information can be found in film advertising, in a book review. In a scientific text (both technical and humanitarian) - this is summarization, writing annotations, abstracts. The information of the official business text, for example, the text of the law, is not subject to clotting.

The concepts of redundant information and collapsed information are usually considered at the level of the whole text. However, these qualities of redundancy and contraction are applicable to individual statements, as already mentioned, and to fragments of the text in which these statements are included, i.e. at the level of minimum units. As a rule, the most natural thing when creating a text is the desire to reduce the verbal representation of semantic components. Therefore, the compression of two or three messages in one simple sentence while preserving the volume of information, for example, a complex sentence, is a natural phenomenon, especially characteristic of an artistic text. In this case, at the level of the signified there will be a logically expanded structure, and at the level of the signifier, it will be collapsed. This creates a basis for implication and explicitness in the methods of information transfer. Consequently, the same information can be given in redundant verbal form, expanded, and more concisely, in a logically minimized version. This is the dualism (asymmetry) of the language mark.

When constructing a text with regard to its informational and pragmatic attitudes, these qualities of language units are taken into account. Verbally redundant phrases are grammatically and logically unfolded structures claiming the utmost accuracy of the meaning conveyed. Such phrases are preferable in official, scientific, educational texts. Folded structures can lead to ambiguity, uncertainty, vagueness in the expression of thoughts, to logical shifts. If necessary, folded structures are more used in artistic, allegorical, aphoristic texts. The text, in accordance with its programmed qualities, is guided by these features of the linguistic sign and establishes a certain measure in this relationship between the sign and the meaning.

Consequently, the information richness of the text can be considered not only from the point of view of the usefulness / incompleteness of information for this category of reader, but also from the point of view of the structure of speech units making up the text. Explicit and implicit forms of expression of thought (content) lead to the appearance of such text qualities as tension and tensionlessness.

Optimal semantic fullness informs the presentation of the structural tension (you need to perceive the meaning, not expressed in words); low condensation of information - evidence of the presentation of unstressed.

The convergence of the volumes of the signified and the meaning removes tension. Excessive stress leads to difficulty perception.

The tension of the text can be increased or reduced, based on the purpose of the text itself. The very degree of tension / non-tension of the presentation can be a style-forming factor. For example, in scientific texts, especially scientific and educational, it is desirable to verbally fill in the semantic lacunae, since too intense a text can lead to ambiguity of perception. Non-stressed text is a logically expanded text, without omitting semantic links, without jumps in subject-rhematic sequences. However, there is always a desire to reduce the presentation within reasonable limits without losing meaning, i.e. the desire to increase in one way or another the tension of the text (regardless of the type of text).

Take an example: I entered the room. Through a large window, the corner of the opposite house was visible. In this context, the theme-rhematic sequence is violated. Restore this missing link, i.e. Let's introduce the “window” theme in the second sentence: I entered the room. It had a large window. Through him was the angle of the opposite house. It is unlikely that this option will suit anyone, since he is redundant in terms of information. But this is a household text, and if you take a scientific, educational text, where informationally important parts of the message contain terms? Such omissions may lead to a shift in concepts and, therefore, in information terms, the text will be incomplete. Information content is not necessarily associated with the omission of terms and concepts; Difficulties may arise even with insufficient logical unfolding of statements. For example, in the text:

The artist, according to Cary, has his own vision of the world, "preaching, because he is completely convinced of the truth he sees and writes in order to communicate this truth." The form that the writer chooses should be clear and understandable. In this piece, one logical and semantic link is missing, which needs to be restored, taking into account the stylistic qualities of this text - consistency, rigid consistency in the presentation: at the junction of sentences, there is no connection between the preceding sentence’s rhythm and the next one. Let us restore this link: According to Cary, the artist has his own vision of the world, “he preaches, because he is completely convinced of the truth he sees and writes in order to communicate this truth.” The truth that is communicated ... is in direct relation to the form of expression. The form that the writer chooses should be clear ...

The inclusion of new information in the topic, bypassing one of the steps in the growth of information, contributes to the “thickening” of meaning: the missing links of content are implicitly presented.

Here is an example of the expediency of a jump in the theme-rhematic sequence: I left the tent. Buran still continued, although with less force. It was so dark that even the eye pushed out (A. Pushkin. Captain's daughter). Here a new phenomenon has been introduced without preliminary presentation ( buran ), i.e. New information is immediately included in the topic of this statement.

As you can see, the artistic text is more susceptible to similar abbreviations. It is this that tells him the structural tension, the utmost saturation with meaning, and at the same time such tension does not interfere with perception, because the background knowledge that the reader is supposed to have is rather elementary. You can outline some ways to create a structurally stressful text, i.e. more dense presentation of information in the text, based on the capabilities of the language itself, using compact structures with zero representation of some semantic links.

1. Increase the structural tension of the text, as already noted, jumps in the theme-rhematic sequences. Compression occurs due to the inclusion of new information in the subject of the message, as a result of which the information chain is interrupted: I live in a small house on the dunes. All Riga seaside in the snow. He flies all the time from high pines with long locks and crumbles into dust (K. Paustovsky. Golden Rose). The topic “Riga beach” was not presented here .

The winter day in the forests is very short; and now twilight is turning blue outside the windows, and little by little the unreasonable, vague real Russian melancholy crawls into the heart . - The topic “Petersburg” is not presented .

2. The same purpose serves to compress several messages into one sentence, i.e. use of informatively compact sentences (usually grammatically simple instead of complex). For example: This book is not a theoretical study, much less a guide. These are just notes about my understanding of writing and my experience (K. Paustovsky. Golden Rose). The second sentence here is double-decree: These are just notes on how I understand writing ...

3. More compact than complex ones are sentences with secondary predicates: Hermann found Lisa in tears (A. Pushkin. The Queen of Spades). Wed: Hermann came and saw that Lisa was crying (she was in tears).

4. Implicit rather than implicit connections also make it possible to transmit the semantic and logical interrelationships of the components of interphrase unities without the aid of signals from this connection. The connections are adversary, cause-and-effect, conditional-time are not transmitted through appropriate alliances and allied words, but by positional juxtaposition of the components of interphrase unity: One cannot lose the sense of vocation. It cannot be changed either by sober calculation or by literary experience (K. Paustovsky. Golden Rose) - the meaning of the cause; Of course, he was not a fighter. His heroism consisted in the fanatical belief in the wonderful future of working people - plowmen and workers, poets and scientists (K. Paustovsky. Golden Rose) - the meaning of comparison; Most of all I wrote poems about the sea. At that time I hardly knew him (K. Paustovsky. Golden Rose) - the meaning of the assignment.

5. The compactness of the presentation is also created by the zero representation of the subject of the action, state, and also the zero representation of the action or state itself (lack of visual, auditory perception verbs, verbs of thought, feeling: heard, saw, thought, felt , etc.): I looked around. Behind us on the warships flashed an illumination. We looked at her from the city. Golden bees densely clung to warships. Masts, tackles, pipes and contours of a fantastic squadron flamed in the roads and shimmered in the water of autumn bays (K. Paustovsky. Black Sea); I glanced at Garth. The hat lay on his lap. He leaned back in his chair and, holding his head high, looked intently at the scene (K. Paustovsky. The Black Sea).

6. The lack of re-nomination also contributes to a greater concentration of the message. For example, in the last sentence of the passage:

One day, an old sailor came to the editor in a greasy vest under his jacket. Red stubble protruded with islands on his cheeks. One eye was twitching (K. Paustovsky. Black Sea).

Naturally, not all ways of reducing the verbal presentation of information are listed here, based on the possibilities of speech units of text. The structures of incomplete grammatical composition, ellipses, etc. also serve the same. All these methods are applicable in different types of text, since they are connected with the properties of the language itself, in particular with the dualism of the linguistic sign, i.e. we are talking about the processes of linguistic compression of information (this is a means of saving speech resources).

However, there are other ways that are not directly related to the language. For example, in a scientific text, especially in a scientific and technical text, tensions are created using diagrams, formulas, numeric and alphabetic characters, and using terms that carry ample scientific information. In writings of this type, the verbal text serves only as packaging material, a binding means that does not carry scientific information itself. For example: solve the equation ...; further consider ...; we introduce the notation ... etc.

In addition, as already shown, the information content of the text increases due to taking into account when creating the background knowledge.

Thus, the text, as a rule, is a discrepancy between the amount of information embedded in it and the amount of information expressed by verbal means. As a result of this gap, the amount of information perceived by the reader may be inadequate. The reasons for this discrepancy may be objective, since they are connected with the laws of the construction of the text, with the asymmetry of the linguistic sign, and subjective, related to the degree of readiness of the reader, with the amount of background knowledge, in particular.

Moreover, it is noted that the full or incomplete perception of the text is not always associated with the breadth of the reader’s knowledge and the degree of his education.The depth of the reading of the text “does not necessarily correlate with the logical analysis of the surface system of values, but depends more on the emotional subtlety of a person than on his formal intelligence. We can meet people who, with more complete and clear understanding of the logical structure of the external text and analyzing its meaning, almost do not perceive the meaning behind these values, do not understand the subtext and motive, remaining only within the external logical values ​​”[4 ]. Of course, this is especially characteristic when reading a literary text.

The linear (surface) structure of the deployment of the text and the deep structure of the message are inadequate, and therefore this correspondence / non-conformity must be adjustable. Such a regulator is an expedient measure of pragmatic information, which is determined by the nature of the text, its purpose and intended recipient.

Orientation to a certain measure of pragmatic (new, useful) information helps to more expediently increase the information content of the text. There are two ways to do this: intense and extensive. Within these two ways there are different ways to increase the informativeness of the text, it is unlikely that all of them can be taken into account, especially since different texts have different needs for this. What is considered redundant in one text may be necessary - in another. To establish the necessary measure and get the desired, you need to take into account the target message assignment.

Both ways of increasing the informativeness of the text are carried out taking into account such textual categories as explicitness and implicitness in conveying meaning; tension and weakness of the structure; speech redundancy and failure. This takes into account the fact that a decrease in the number of characters for transmitting information does not necessarily mean an increase in the information itself, although most often this happens as the semantic capacity of characters increases.

Intensive way to increase the information content of the text is associated with the process of folding information by reducing the amount of text space while maintaining the amount of information itself. Coagulation of information allows the same idea to convey more economical speech tools. As already shown, this is achieved by increasing the structural tension of the text.

Extensive method increases the information content by increasing the amount of information itself. Its application leads to the maximum detailing of the presentation, which allows to penetrate deeper into the essence of the phenomenon, reveal the connections and relations of the object under study with the outside world. The extensive method of increasing the information content of the text is associated with the introduction of additional information, which specifies, explains, and expands knowledge about the subject of the message. This path by virtue of its purpose (the English. Extensive - expanding, increasing) implies an increase in the number of speech units. The most typical implementations of the extensive method are definitions in encyclopedias and dictionary entries that reveal the essence of a phenomenon or object.

Словарные статьи могут быть более детализированными по содержанию или менее детализированными, т.е. разными по объему информации в соответствии с разными установками текста. Ср.: Формат (от лат. formo – придаю форму) (полиграф.), линейные размеры (длина и ширина или высота) печатной формы, листа бумаги, книжного блока и т.п., выраженные в метрич. или типометрич. (см. типометрия) единицах (СЭС. 1979).

Формат, – а, м. Размер печатного издания, тетради, листа. Альбом большого формата. Ф. наборной полосы, //прил. форматный, -ая, -ое (С.И. Ожегов, Н.Ю. Шведова. Толковый словарь русского языка. 1995).

Таким образом, одна и та же информация передается разным количеством языковых знаков, с упоминанием разного количества имеющихся признаков.

Additional (extensive) information appears in various forms in the form of definitions, explanations, explanations, clarifications, accessions. The more signs that characterize a given item are indicated, the more complete the idea of ​​it is. Such explanatory information should be considered as new, useful, and not redundant in popular science literature, educational. At the same time, it may turn out to be redundant in a text designed for a specialist, and therefore will lose its value qualities. Therefore, it is important to recognize the problem of the adequacy of the author’s intention and the reader’s perception of the message.

An important role in improving the informational and informative qualities of the text is played by various kinds of footnotes, links, systems of pointers and fields, italics, discharge, etc. In essence, they are also additional information, since they are associated with the introduction of additional characters, but their role is not to clarify what was said earlier, but to provide a targeted search for the necessary information.

The extensive method is actively used both in scientific and technical, and in fiction and educational literature. Intensive method is used when creating abstracts, reviews, theses.

Relation to redundant information is usually selective. With the strengthening of didactic qualities (for example, in the textbook) it is necessary. Here even repeated information is expedient. In other cases, it may be perceived as defective presentation. Similarly, information overload reduces the positive qualities of the text as it becomes difficult to access. The limit of information saturation of the text is determined by its typological features. In any case, the text should have the quality of content sufficiency. For some texts, the so-called information minimum is established, which underlies the textual norm. This minimum differs in texts designed for a short form of information submission and an extended form (cf. the text of the thesis and the abstract on it).Compliance with the textual norm is especially important when creating texts of business and reference books.

The information minimum is a communicative presupposition of the text, it is predicted with a high degree of probability. Thus, a preliminary knowledge of the level of the readership makes it trivial to explain a number of facts and situations. In another situation, it may expand, for example, for didactic purposes during training.

All these concepts - informational saturation, informational minimum, informational rate - are very important for texts created by a special task, often by a previously prepared program. Naturally, their role drops sharply when addressing artistic texts, although there may be, though not very hard, limitations related to the genre specificity of the text material (it is clear that, for example, the information fund of the story does not coincide with the information fund of the novel) .