What are the Types and Examples of Text to Text Connections?

Types of text connections are essential in learning to decode the real meaning of a text and connect it with the real world. More comprehension makes a person a better and more aware reader. Understanding a piece of the text includes synthesizing, making text to text connections, determining importance, visualizing, predicting, and inferring. A person must make personal connections with the text. This means making a list of text-to-self connection that may remind them of their past, connecting parts of a text with other pieces of literature, or making connections with the real-world happenings. In this article, you will get to know all these points in detail.

1. What is a Text Connection in Writing?

Good readers make connections by using what they already know to connect a text to their life experiences, another text, or the world or the society around them. Perhaps they might click a text with others in terms of the same writer, story plot, characters, etc.

For example, one may quickly notice the similarities between And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, both novels by Agatha Christie. It is because of similar language and narrative techniques deployed by Christie. There are three types of text connections:

• Text to self,
• Text to text, and
• Text to World. (See What is Intricate Text in Grammarly?)

2. Why is it important to make Connections?

Making text connections is important because of several reasons:

• Better reading satisfaction: Connections make us comprehend the text better and thus provide us with reading satisfaction.
• Boosts creativity: Making text connections is a way to check your concentration. You can make a connection only when you’re reading a text with full concentration. This activity also improves your creativity.
• Connects great minds: Critics and theorists over the ages have connected and compared one text to the other. Great minds have authored self-help books and there have been many more successful people who imbibed the values taught in those books. For example, Born to Win by Shiv Khera, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus by Louis Althusser, etc. Also, check out What Object Best Describes Me?

3. What are the Three Types of text connections: Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, and Text-to-World?

There are three types of connections one can make through reading a text:

• Text to Text: Text to text connections happen when a person relates content to another piece of literature in terms of the same author, similar genre, etc. For example, there is a discernible similarity in the genres of The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Dinakaran and Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Queen by Kavita Kane.
• Text to Self: Text to self-connections happen when a person relates to a text with themselves. This can be in terms of their past experiences or present situations. When one connects a text to one’s experience, a text might remind you of that incident. For example, the poem My Heart Leaps Up by William Wordsworth may remind you of your carefree childhood.
• Text to World: Text to World connections happen when a person relates a piece of writing with the surroundings they inhabit. This can be in the political or cultural realm. For example, the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche or Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybridity. (See Examples of Famous Acrostic Poems)

4. Text-to-Self Connection examples

Here are some examples of Text-to-Self connection:

• In Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, the protagonist, Lara, seems to be a relatable character as she struggles with finances. It is pretty normal to struggle with adulting.
• In The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Ashima finds herself clueless in the beginning when she had to adapt herself to completely new surroundings in an unknown place. Nowadays people tend to move to completely new places in search of work. Such people might find themselves lost in such places. Ashima represents them.
• Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen represents young women who are unafraid to assert their will in face of adversity. (See What is an Example of Expository Text?)

5. Text-to-World Connection examples

There are a few Text to World connection examples:

• Great philosophers from all around the world have written theories around the globe about society. For example, the Ideological State Apparatus theory is about society and that ideologies change.
• Born to Win by Shiv Khera is a guidebook for people to change their outlook on the world. (See What is the Opposite of Natural?)

6. What is a Text to Text Connection? 

Text to text connection happens when the reader connects one text with the other. This can be in terms of the authors, similar characters, themes, genres, etc, where you can visualize the scene and connect the same. For example, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn has the same themes. (See Eating the Elephant Meaning)

7. What happens When you make a Text to Text connection?

Text to text connections happens when someone relates a text to something they’ve read before. When you make a text to text connection, you understand the text or the gist better. It gives you an insight into the text and helps you know the socio-political situation of that era better. For example, when one reads Pride and Prejudice, one may consider reading Jane Eyre to know the Victorian era better. (See What are Filler Words in Writing?)

8. Guide to Making Text to Text Connections between written works

To make text to text connections, one must read critics’ reviews regarding a text. Then they may move on to read novels of a similar genre as suggested in the reviews. This way, one will get significant knowledge about a text. (See What are the Words that are both Nouns and Verbs?)

Hope you got your answers regarding text to text connections, types of text connections, and text-to-self connection. If so, you can share this article and help someone to learn the same. (Also read What are some good Songs to make a Texting Lyric Prank?)