This article presents part of the theoretical framework of the research work entitled “Writing, Knowledge, and Technoculture”, carried out in 2003 – 2004. The purpose of the aforementioned research was to diagnose the capacity of first year undergraduate students at Universidad del Valle vis-à-vis reading, writing, and the use of communications and information technological devices. Part of the methodology was to devise a survey, and a reading and writing test. The results were then analyzed independently after collating these with some of the survey’s variables. This article presents a typology of the discourses, from a social communications point of view, in which the methodological proposal is supported as part of a conceptual basis when designing and analyzing the implemented tests.