How to write Descriptive text

 Hello, students👋

This post is about the descriptive text.

What is Descriptive Text?

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.

In a broad sense, description, as explained by Kane (2000: 352), is defined in the following sentence:
The description is about the sensory experience—how something looks, sounds, and tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but the description also deals with other kinds of perception.

Thus, if we conclude from Kane’s explanation above, descriptive text is meaningful text that describes the experience related to the senses, such as shape, sound, and taste. Most descriptive text is about visual experience, but in fact the experience other than the sense of sight, we can also use to make descriptive text.

But in particular, the descriptive text is, “…… 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.”

So, it can be said that descriptive text is a text that explains what a person or an object is like, its form, its properties, its amount, and others. The purpose of the descriptive text is clear, that is to describe, represent or reveal a person or an object, either abstract or concrete.

Generic Structure of Descriptive Text

When writing descriptive text, there are some generic structures (actually not mandatory) for our writing to be true. The arrangement is:

• Identification: (contains the introduction of a person, place, animal, or object that will be described.)
• Description: contains a description of something such as an animal, thing, place, or person by describing its features, forms, colors, or anything related to what the writer describes.

Purposes of Descriptive Text

• To describe a person, thing, or place in a specific.
• To describe a particular person, thing, or place.

Language Features of Descriptive Text

• Specific participant: has a certain object, is not common and unique (only one). for example Bandengan beach, my house, Borobudur temple, Uncle Jim
• The use of the adjective (an adjective) to clarify the noun, for example, a beautiful beach, a handsome man, a famous place in Jepara, etc.
• The use of simple present tense: The sentence pattern used is simple present because it tells the fact of the object described.
• Action verb: verbs that show an activity (for example, run, sleep, walk, cut, etc.)

Examples of Descriptive Text

Sphynx Cats

My Sphynx cat is the only pet I have. He has a little hair but is not totally hairless as he has peach fuzz over much of his body. His coat is often a warm chamois. My Sphynx has a normal cat proportion.
I like his tail although my mom says that it is like a rat's tail. I love his usual color varieties including, tortoiseshell, chocolate, black, blue, lilac, chocolate, etc. He is really an amazing cat. Believe it or not, he is a very intelligent cat. He can respond to my voice commands.

He is really funny as well as my friends get a joke. I love him so much as I love my mother.

Borobudur Temple

Borobudur is a Buddhist temple. It was built in the ninth century under the Sailendra dynasty of ancient Mataram kingdom. Borobudur is located in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia.

Borobudur is well-known all over the world. Its construction is influenced by the Gupta architecture of India. The temple is constructed on a hill 46 meters high and consists of eight steps like a stone terrace. The first five terraces are square and surrounded by walls adorned with Buddhist sculpture in bas-relief. The upper three are circular. Each of them is with a circle of bell shape-stupa. The entire upper structure is crowned by a large stupa at the center of the top circle. The way to the summit extends through some 4.8 km of passage and stairways.

The design of Borobudur symbolizes the conception of the universe in Buddhist cosmology. It is believed that the universe is divided into three spiritual spheres, kamadhatu, rupadhatu, and Arundhati. The first sphere, kamadhatu, represents respectively the sphere of desires where we are bound to our desires; the second sphere, rupadhatu, represents forms where we abandon our desires but are still bound to name and form; and the last sphere, arupadhatu, represents formlessness where there is no longer either name or form. Borobudur temple which is rededicated as an Indonesian monument in 1983 is a valuable treasure for the Indonesian people. With its magnificent size and architecture, no wonder that Borobudur Temple includes 7 wonders of the world.

Kungfu Panda

Have you ever watched the cartoon movie “Kung Fu Panda”? The panda in the movie is described as a fat animal, love-noodle eater, and Kung Fu master. But the Panda that will be described below is not the Panda that can do Kung Fu like in that movie. Here is the description of Panda.

Pandas are bear-like animals that originally live in the center and western part of China. Pandas have distinguishing features that make them different from other species of bear. Pandas have white thick fur which covers all of their body with black eye patches, ears, nose, legs, shoulders, and arms. Those black marks make Pandas unique and different.

Like other species of bear, pandas have a big head, a short tail, rounded ears, and a long muzzle with a big nose. However, pandas’ diet is totally different from other species of bear; in that, they prefer bamboo to others. 90% of pandas’ diet consists of bamboo. That is why pandas have adapted their body to help them in eating bamboo. Pandas have big jaws with tough muscles and strong molars to crush bamboo so they can extract the nutrients they need.

Johnny Depp 

He was born on June 9, 1963, in Owensboro, Kentucky, U.S. He started his career in movies in 1984. His first movie is A Nightmare on Elm Street. Before he became a famous actor, Depp was a musician. The first genre he played was rock music. He is good at playing guitar and writing songs. For a long his life, he wrote so many songs for bands, solo vocalists, and Sweeney Todd movies (description).

The Orangutan

The Orangutan is a species of ape; it has long arms and hands, with very long fingers. It is much larger than the ape, and some have been found about six feet high when standing erect.

It is capable of walking nearly erect, but the usual gait on the ground is like a cripple who supports himself on his hands and draws his body forward.

Its home, like the monkey family, seems to be on the trees. The hair is of a brownish-red color and covers his back, arms, legs, and the outside of his hands and feet.

The face has no hair except whiskers on its side. He inhabits Malacca, Cochin China, and particularly the island of Borneo.

Sources from: http://britishcourse.com/descriptive-text-definition-generic-structures-purposes-language-features.php