ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores the defining characteristics of the genre-theory analytically for isiXhosa. The five chosen genre texts in isiXhosa, extracted from five Bona magazine, deal with social problems. Firstly the study investigates the theory of genre-based approach. The genre-based approach forms the framework for the analysis of the isiXhosa texts. The ethnography of writing posited in the theory of text construction of Grabe and Kaplan (1996) is explored. This theory is accepted as an underlying framework for teaching writing in isiXhosa in Curriculum 2005. The ethnography of writing entails addressing the following questions: who writes, what, to whom, for what purpose, why and how. Secondly, the write parameter, which is extensively examined, deals with the six learning outcomes such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, thinking and reasoning, language structure, in relation to the assessment standards, as a realisation of communicative purpose. The text-linguistic characteristics of the genre approach involving Grabe and Kaplan's model of writing are explored in the five isiXhosa magazine texts.