Hi, everyone!
Now I will try to give a brief explanation of the descriptive text. Descriptive text is one of the English materials taught in junior and senior high school. Not only should junior high school and senior high school students learn this material, but college students should also learn the descriptive text. Because from learning descriptive text it can increase our English proficiency.
The Definition of Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is a text that explains what a person, thing, place, and animal is like. Based on Kane (2000: 352) states that description is defined like in the following sentence:
"Description is about a sensory experience such as how something looks, sounds, or tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but the description also deals with other kinds of perception.
Thus, from Kane's statement above, it can be concluded that descriptive text is a meaningful text that describes the experience related to the senses, such as what shape, sound, and taste is. Most descriptive text is about visual experience, but in fact the experience other than the sense of sight, we can also use it to make descriptive text.
In other words, descriptive text is a text that explains what a person or an object is like, whether its form, its properties, its amount, and others.
The Purpose of the Descriptive Text
The purpose of descriptive text is to express what a person or thing is like. In other words, the purpose of descriptive text is:
- To describe a person, thing, place, or animal in specific
- To describe a particular person, thing, place, or animal.
Generic Structure of Descriptive Text
When writing a descriptive text, the writer should pay attention to the generic structure of the descriptive text. There are two generic structures of descriptive text, they are:
- Identification: It contains the introduction of a person, place, thing, or animal that will be described.
- Description: It describes parts, qualities, and characteristics of the person, animal, thing, or place that will be described.
Language Features of Descriptive Text
There are some language features of descriptive text that we should to pay attention when writing the description text:
- Specific participant: has a particular object, is not common and unique. Examples: Lembah Arai Waterfall, My House, My Cutie Cat, Uncle Jo, etc.
- The use of adjectives to clarify the noun. Examples: a beautiful waterfall, a clever girl, a famous person in my village, etc.
- The use of simple present tense: The sentence patterns used are simple present tense because it tells the fact of the object described.
Here is the formula for simple present tense:
|
Pattern |
Examples |
Note |
|
(+)
S + V1 (s/es) + object/complement (-) S
+ do/does + not + V1 (?) Do/does
+ S + V1 |
-
My cat sleeps during the day -
My cat does not sleep during the
day -
Does my cat sleep during the day? |
Subjects:
they, we, I, you, and plural nouns use V1 without add s/es. Subjects:
he, she, it, and singular nouns use V1 + s/es. |
|
(+) S
+ to be (is/am/are) + complement (-) S
++ to be (is/am/are) + not + complement (?) To
be (is, am, are) + S + compliment |
-
I am a selebgram and pets lover -
I am not a selebgram and pets lover -
Am I a selebgram and pets lover? |
Subject:
I uses to be ‘am’ Subjects:
he, she, it, and singular nouns use to be ‘is’ Subjects:
they, we, you, and plural nouns use to be ‘are’ |
- The use of action verbs: verbs that show an activity (for example, run, sleep, walk, cut, etc.)
Example of a Simple Descriptive Text - My Friend: Keyla
The text above describes a particular person, including her physical appearance, personality, interest, and habits.
The rabbit sleeps in its cage at the night. The cage is made of wood with wire fences. It is spacious for the rabbit to stay comfortably.
