Descriptive text is a kind of writing that consists of description, characteristics, the definition of something, object or something. Descriptive writing also involves putting across feelings, describing the place, things, and objects. In this case, the researcher is going to describe the students‟ skills in writing a descriptive text based on their writing test result. There are some definitions about description. The first is from Schacter. According to Schacter (2007: 15), he said, that descriptive writing describes a person, place or thing in a way that enables the reader to capture the description. Then, Irvine (2000: 34), the other definition is presenting details an object to the readers as clearly as possible.
Next, Kane (1987:7) states that the description is also about sensory experience-how something looks, sounds and tastes based on the reader's opinion. Similarities with previous expert, Antonio
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(2008: 122), descriptive text is a part of factual genres. Its social function is todescribe a particular person, place or thing. Then, Zemach (2000:25) stated that a descriptive paragraph can be a description of people, places, and processes. It means that how something or someone feels or looks and how something‟s done could be explained in a descriptive paragraph.More often, the description is a part of another piece of writing and is used toinform an audience about how something or someone looked or topersuade an audience to see something from the writer‟s point of view.
In addition, Ahmad (2009:1) states that a descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. Take an example, the following is one of the text belongs to the descriptive text.
Descriptive text is usually also used to help a writer develop an aspect of their work, e.g. to create a particular mood, atmosphere or describe a place so that the reader can create vivid pictures of characters, places, objects, etc.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that descriptive text is a text that describing something or person or place based on their feels or looks . And the effort of the writer to explain a certain person, place, or thing to the readers as clearly as possible based on the writer‟s perspective.
b. Purposes of Descriptive Text
As social beings, we want to share our experience, so we write to others to describe things such as vacations, childhood homes, and people we encounter. According to Utami (2014:30),We even use description to persuade others to think or act in particular ways: advertisers describe products to persuade us to buy them; travel agents describe locales to entice us to visit them, and real estate agents describe properties to stimulate a desire to see them. As the examples in the following chart show,
description enables us to entertain, express feelings, relate experience, inform, and persuade.
Then, Clouse (2004: 143) states that the purpose of descriptive text is:
1) To entertain.
It is an amusing description of a teenager‟s bedroom 2) To express feelings.
It is a description of yourfavorite outdoor retreat so your reader understand why you enjoy it so much.
3) To relate experience.
Its about a description of your childhood home to covey a sense of the poverty you grew up in
4) To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with the subject).
It means that a description of a newborn calf for a reader who has never seen one.
5) To inform (to create a fresh appreciation for the familiar).
It is a description of an apple to help the reader rediscover the joys of this simple fruit.
6) To persuade (to convince the reader that some music videos degrade woman)
It is a description of a degrading music video.
Although it can serve a variety of purposes, the description is most often expressive, so it most often helps writers share their perceptions. As human beings, we have a compelling desire to connect with other people by sharing our experiences with them.
In summarized, the purpose of descriptive text is to entertain, express a feeling, to inform and to persuade the reader about people, place or things. And make the reader understand what is the messages of the writing.
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c. Generic Structure of Descriptive Text
In writing a descriptive text there has generic structure, according to Artono (2008: 122) describes that the generic structures of a description. They are Identification and description.
The identification has identified the phenomenon to be described.
The description of features is describedfeatures in order of importance of parts/things (physical appearance), qualities (degree of beauty, excellence, or worth/value), and other characteristics (prominent aspects that are unique).
Next, Djuharie (2007:24) states that descriptive text has generic structures: identification, to introduce subject or object that will be described. Description, to give more information about the feature of subject e.g. psychology, behavior, physical appearance, a specific feature, and quality. Then, Gerot and Peter (1994:208) mention that “there are two components in the descriptive text, (1) identification; identifies phenomenon to be described, and (2) description; describes parts, qualities, and characteristics.” In the identification component, the student has to identify the phenomenon to be described. It means that, in the description component, the student has to describe parts, qualities, and characteristics of the objects. After analyzing the components of the organizing idea, it was found that there are so many students faced difficulties organized the text well. First, they were able to identify the place. They were able to mention the object, place, the name, and the location. However, they could not mention the location only; they have to give the related information about the object. Second, after identifying the place the student has to organize it by describing parts, qualities and the complete features from the object itself in order to inform the reader. Unfortunately, they were unable to describe the place well.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that descriptive text has two generic structures. They are identification
and description. In identification is to introduce what will be described and in description talk about what will be described later.
d. Language Features of Descriptive Text
In descriptive text not only has generic structures but also has language feature. According to Anderson (1998:26) that the language features of description are:
1) The verb in the present tense. It supported by Raymon Murphy (2003:4), he said, we use the present simple to talk about things in general. He uses it to say that something happens all the time or repeatedly, or that something is true in general. While Betty (2002:2) said in general, the simple present expresses events or situations that exist always, usually, habitually; they exist now, have existed in the future.
Simple Present Tense : S + V + E/ES + O
Example: Rini always reads grammar book in the library 2) Adjective to describe the features of the subject. It supported
by Knapp (2005) Adjective is one of word class which explains noun. The adjective has some functions in the description. Adjectives are used to add more information to nouns and technical, every day or literary, depending on the text type;
3) Topic sentences to begin paragraphs and organize the various aspects of the description.
4) Using Proper Noun. In addition to filling our descriptive writing with concretedetails and figures of speech, we might also want to include anumber of proper nouns, which, as we know, are the names ofparticular persons, places, and things.
5) Using Effective Verb. We know how important verbs are to