CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
C. Descriptive text
Beside narrative text, argumentative text, exposition text, and explanatory text, descriptive text also is one of the kind of writing products which will be improve in this reseacrh. Anonim (2007) purposes three principles in writing descriptive text:
1. A descriptive text has one clear dominan expression, the dominan impression guides the author‟s selection of detail and is there by made clear to the reader in the thesis sentence.
2. A descriptive text can be objective or subjective, giving the author a wide choise of tone, diction and attitude.
3. The purpose of a purely descriptive essay is to involve the reader enough so he or she can actually visualize the thing being described. Therefore it is important to use spesific and concrete details.
The elements of descriptive text
Descriptive text has some elements, as Lila Fink, Phyllis Levy and Gwen brewer (1983) said that there are some of elements of descriptive text, they are;
a. Concrete details
A concrete detail is a specific description that support, reflect, or expand a writer‟s attitude or purpose. For example; the modern math students using calculator instead for a slide rule, makes speedy and accurate calculations.
b. Images
An image is a concrete, literal (real, actual) description of person, physical objects or sensory experience that can be known through one of the five sense ( sight, sound, taste, touch and smell). For example ;
Lightening crackled and sizzled across the darkened sky. (sound and sight) The orange calico kitten’s bristled tongue scratched its way across my cheek. (sight and touch)
c. Similes
A simile is a comparison, using like or as between two objects. The comparison is between two things essentially different yet similar in one aspect. For example;
Anger heated up in me like water about to boil
The lecturer was as exciting and informative as state beer
Anonim (2007) defines characterisitc of good descriptive writing as follow : 1. Good descriptive text including many vivid sensory those paint a picture
and appeals to all of the readers of senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste when appropriate. Descriptive writing may also paint picture of the feelings the person; place or the thing invokes the writer.
2. Good descritive writing often make use of figurative language such analogies, similes and metaphor to help paint the picture in the readers of mind.
3. Good descriptive writing uses preceive language. General adjective, nouns, and passive verbs do not have a place in good descriptive. Use spesific
adjectives and nouns and strong action verbs to give life to the pictures you are painting in readers‟ of mind.
4. Good descriptive text is organized. Some ways to organize descriptive text include: chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of importance.
When describing a person, you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that person think, feel and taste.
Descriptive text is one kind of writing product. Kane (2000:352) explains generally that descriptive text is about sensory experience how something looks, sounds, and tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but description also deals with other kinds of perception. But in specific definition explained that descriptive text is a text which says what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing. Based on these explanations, it can be concluded that descriptive text appeals to the senses, so it tell how something looks, feels, smells, tastes, and/or sounds.
A good descriptive text is like a word picture; the reader can imagine the object, place, or person in his or her mind. A writer of a good description is like an artist who paints a picture that can be seen clearly in the mind of the reader.
Just as an artist plans where to place each object in the painting, a writer plan where to put each object in words painting.
In a descriptive text, writers often plan spatial order to organize their ideas.
Spatial order is the arrangement of items in order by space. For example, when someone describing her favorite room at home, she could first describe things in the left side of the door way and then clockwise around to the right side. She
could also start on the right and move counter clockwise around to the left. If a writer jumped back and forth, it would be very difficult for the reader to try to see the room in his or her mind.
When someone describe a person, he or she could begin with an overall impression and then focus on the person‟s head, then the face, and then on one part of the face such as the eyes. It does not usually matter whether the spatial organization is left to right, right to left, near to far, far to near, outside to inside, inside to outside, top to bottom, or bottom to top. It is only helpful to use some kind of spatial order when she or he writes a description.
In organizing a descriptive text, as have explained before, a writer should start with general sentence to describe the object. To make the sentences organize orderly, use spatial order expression and try to paint a picture in words. In writing descriptive text, the simple present tense and present continuous tense are frequently used to tell about a habitual action or general truth (M.J. Lado:2007) and the activities that are happening in the scene the writer describing. Such as have explained by Oshima (1997: 50) that descriptive writing to the senses, so it tells how something looks, feels smells, tastes, and/or sounds. A good description is like a “word picture”, the reader can imagine the object, place, or person in his or her mind. A writer of a good description is like an artist who paints a picture that can be “seen” clearly in the mind of the reader. In a description, writers often use spatial order to organize their ideas. Spatial order is the arrangement of items in order by space. An outline of description would like this: introduction, body, and conclusion.
The other rule in writinng descriptive text is how to convey the writing. If above, explained that a good description text is like “word picture”, so the writer have to know the generic structure of description text. Generally it consists of two identification and description. Hammond: 1992 explain both of these generic structures as follow:
1. Identification
Identification is a part of description text which:
Identifies fenomenan, thing, animal, or human to be described.
Statement that describe the object will describe generally.
The statement must be interesting, so it lets the reader to read completely.
Commonly, it using the adjective or degree comparison.
When the writer identifies a thing, person or place, she or he has to know how to desctibe them. Below, there are some way to identify:
a. Identifiy a person
Personal name such as Muhammad, Joko Widodo, Riah and the other name do not need to define. All people know that they are personal name, so that it is not necessary to defined. In identification person, the writer just need to introduce the nationality, job, address, or the relationship with the others. The main purpose is to identify which person the writer meant. For example:
Joko Widodo is a great figure in Jakarta. He is a guvernor of Jakarta in period 2012-2016.
b. Identify an animal.
In describing animal, the identification part must tell about the sense impression of its unique. For instance:
A rabbit is a small mammal with a short tail and pointed ears.
c. Identify a places
Identification in describing a place needs to introduce the place. The writer has to tell everything about the place such as name of the place, location, how to get there, the unique parts of the place,ect. Here, the example: one of the favorite place in South Sulawesi is Bira Beach. Its located in Bulukumba. The visitor may go there by their own motorcycle or car or by public transportation.
2. Description
Description is the second element of generic structure in descriptive text. It tells about what the phenomenan, introduced in the identification, looks like. It is to say that identification is the opening part of descriptive text, while description is the body of it. To describe of a thing, the writer should:
Giving description about the object that will describe.
Describing the phenomenan in parts, qualities or characters.
Using grammatical pattern (tense), verb, adjective for describing the condition of the object.
Hammond also explained the language feature of description text even though it has explained generally above. Here, the writer arranges the feature point per point as follows:
1. Descriptive text often uses simple present tense, however, sometimes it uses simple past if the thing to be described does not exist anymore.
2. Descriptive text uses adjective for describing, numbering, and classifying.
3. Descriptive text uses Noun Phrase to give information about the subject.
4. Descriptive text uses adverbials to give additional information about behavior.
5. Descriptive text uses action verbs „Material Processes‟.
6. Descriptive text, sometime uses figurative language.