Mengenal Descriptive Text & Contohnya

Sering kali kita menemukan descriptive text disamakan dengan report text karena kegunaannya yang sama-sama menginformasikan sesuatu. Perbedaannya terletak pada apa yang diinformasikan dan bagaimana informasi tersebut disampaikan pada pembaca.

Dalam descriptive text, penulis tidak memberi tahu pembaca apa yang ia lihat, ia rasakan, atau ia dengar. Alih-alih mendeskripsikannya secara langsung dan harafiah, penulis mendeskripsikan apa yang ia alami dan melalui kata-katanya ia membuat kalimatnya tampak nyata. Dengan kata lain, descriptive text merupakan suatu tulisan yang nyata, berwarna, dan mendetil.

Descriptive text menciptakan kesan di benak pembaca akan suatu peristiwa, tempat, seseorang, atau suatu hal. Teksnya biasanya mendeskripsikan sesuatu dengan begitu rinci dan dapat membuat pembaca merasa familiar jika melihatnya secara langsung. Dengan demikian descriptive text akan membuat sebuah tulisan menjadi lebih menarik.

The differences between descriptive and report text

Generic structure of descriptive text

Ketika menulis descriptive text, ada beberapa structure yang umum dipakai, meski tidak selalu wajib ada. Susunannya adalah:

1. Identification

Memuat pengenalan seseorang, sebuah tempat, seekor hewan, atau sebuah objek yang akan dideskripsikan.

2. Description

Memuat deskripsi atas sesuatu yang telah dikenalkan sebelumnya dengan mendeskripsikan ciri khasnya, bentuknya, warnanya, atau apapun yang terkait.

Purpose of descriptive text

Tujuan dari descriptive text ini adalah untuk:

• Mendeskripsikan seseorang, suatu hal, atau suatu tempat secara spesifik
• Mendeskripsikan tempat, hal, atau orang tertentu

Language feature of descriptive text

Descriptive text memiliki ciri-ciri sebagai berikut:

• Partisipan yang spesifik. Terdapat objek tertentu yang unik dan tidak dikategorikan secara umum (hanya satu). Misalnya, Bandengan beach (bukan beach secara umum), my own house (bukan house secara umum), Uncle Jim, dan lain sebagainya.
• Menggunakan adjective. Penggunaan adjective banyak ditemukan di jenis teks ini untuk mengklarifikasi kata benda. Misalnya, a beautiful beach, a handsome man, the famous place in jepara, dan lain-lain.
• Menggunakan simple present tense. Pola kalimat ini digunakan karena fungsinya untuk memberi tahu fakta dari objek yang dideskripsikan.
• Action verb, atau verb atau kata kerja yang menunjukkan suatu aktivitas. Misalnya, run, sleep, walk, dan lain-lain.

Examples of descriptive text

1. Descriptive text about Person

My Best Friend, Ernesto

My best friend is Ernesto and he is my classmate. We go to school together.

Ernesto comes from an educated family. His father is a school principal and his mother is also a teacher.

He is punctual, well-educated, and has good manners. He is really hard working. He always does his homework. He is also well-dressed and well-behaved. All teachers have a high opinion of him.

Ernesto has a well-built body. He is gentle but fearless. He takes part in all sports, scout, trekking and mountaineering activities. He has a good heart. He is truthful, honest and obedient.

He also plays the guitar, and he makes his parents very proud of him. He secures good marks and is usually top of his class in examinations. He inspires me to work harder. He keeps me away from bad company. I am happy to have such a friend.

2. Short descriptive texts

• • The sunset filled the entire sky with the deep color of rubies, setting the clouds ablaze.
  • The waves crashed and danced along the shore, moving up and down in a graceful and gentle rhythm like they were dancing.
  • The painting was a field of flowers, with deep and rich blues and yellows atop vibrant green stems that seemed to beckon you to reach right in and pick them.
  • The old man was stooped and bent, his back making the shape of a C and his head bent so far forward that his beard would nearly have touched his knobby knees had he been just a bit taller.
  • His deep and soulful blue eyes were like the color of the ocean on the clearest day you can ever imagine.
  • The soft fur of the dog felt like silk against my skin and her black coloring glistened as it absorbed the sunlight, reflecting it back as a perfect, deep, dark mirror.

3. Descriptive text about place

City of Rome

Italy has some famous cities. One of them is Rome. It is a very historical city. If you visit Rome, you will have plenty of chances to see all sorts of great sights.

Rome can be traced through its mythology when it was founded on. It was said that  twins of Romulus and Remus has founded the city in 753 BC, on the date of April 21st. This  corresponds fairly closely to archeological evidence, which shows farming communities in the area. As the Catholic Church grew, Rome became more and more important in both religion and politics.

Rome was one of the central leading cities in the Renaissance. It is seen when visitors walk through the streets and see the various buildings. The style was profoundly affected by the work of the artists of the time. Visitors can see evidence of all sorts of artistic influences, such as the Baroque palaces, the huge squares and obelisks, and other structures throughout the city.

Rome is well known for its architecture. The colosseum is one sample of famous Roman structures. It was once a grand, ground-breaking amphitheatre, and was at the forefront of architectural advancements in 70 AD. Since then it has fallen apart slightly, but it still an astounding and imposing structure.

Modern Rome is a very busy place to go. It is considered a cultural center for the region, and offers all the arts in various forms. It has a thriving music scene, with several major concert halls. Rome puts out a lot of movies every year, more so than any other region of Italy. It is home to Cinecittà studios, the biggest facility in Europe.

4. Descriptive text about a person

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey is a great talk show host from America. Her well-known talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show was the highest-rated television program from 1986 to 2011. Because of this phenomenal talk show, she dubbed as the “Queen of All Media”. She has also been ranked the richest African-American and greatest black philanthropist in American history.

Oprah was born on January 29, 1954 in Mississippi, United States. By 2019, her age is 64 years old.  She has 169 centimeters tall while her weight is 77 kilograms. During her career, she successfully lost her weight. But then, she gained much weight again. She has brown eyes & black hair.

Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi. She was molested by her cousin, uncle, as well as a family friend when she was nine years old. At 14, she became pregnant but her son was born prematurely and died shortly after birth. Then, she moved to her father’s house and landed a job in radio. Her consistent efforts led her into the successful African-American.

5. Descriptive text about a thing

My Favorite Jacket

I love simplicity, this is the reason why I always wear the same style of clothes everyday. Wherever I go, I wear t-shirt, black jeans trousers and a jacket, most of the time. Recently, I realize that I have a favorite jacket and I really like to wear it. This jacket was a birthday present from my sister. She gave it to me a year ago. There is something I really like about this jacket, and now I am going to tell you what it is.

My favorite jacket is a hoodie with a zipper in the center of it. It is made of cotton. The color of the sleeves is black. There are two gray stripes encircling the arm muscle. The color of the hood is also black. But the color of the front and the back part are gray. There are two pockets on the front side, located right on my stomach. Something very special of this jacket is a wise word printed on it. The wise word is “Never Give Up”, I like it so much because it always reminds me to keep going with my job as a writer, even if a lot of people doubt this idea. The text is printed on the chest of the jacket and the color is red.

6. Descriptive text about a place

Haunted House

One day I went to a haunted house at the one of tourism place at my city. Of course it was not a real haunted house, but only a creation of a room with horror atmosphere.

That haunted house always made me curious to go inside and see because many people was screaming when entering it.

I decided to buy the ticket and see inside. I wanted to feel the horror.

The room was dark, only using a few thematic lighting focused in specific spots which the ghost properties were displayed. The room was also divided into 4 parts with different theme of horror.

Every visitor would be entering all parts to find the exit and no one can be out of that room except by passing through the exit door.

At the first-third part of that room I only saw any kinds of scary display using the theme of ghost, there were some fake ghost made form dolls, fake cemeteries and some old furniture which made us imagine about the ghost.

At the last part of that room there were a lot of actors who wore any kinds of ghost costume and make up. They were moving around and shocked the visitor. This part was the best one that impressed people about the fear of the haunted house.

7. Descriptive text about a thing

The Book I Bought

I have a book which I bought last year. The book is a novel which titled The Story of An Idiot. I  love that book because when I read it I get not only knowledge but also entertainment.

Unfortunately I lost this book. I guess I lost it at Tugu Station during my trip in Yogyakarta. It was difficult to get that book because I never found it at the book store. I got it at the street book seller in London.

The colour of the book’s cover is dominated in red. The picture of that cover is a young man in a black jacket walking through the bridge.

At the first page of that book, I wrote my name and my email address. I also draw a simple rat at the corner of the first page. I always do the same thing to all my books because I hope if I loss my book, someone who found it would give it back to me.

The book is written in English. The author of that book is Joseph J Joseph. It is a strange name but cool enough for the name of a novel author.

The total pages of that book are 125 pages which are divided into 6 parts. At the back of the cover is actually the short summary of that book, but I changed it by sticking the picture of a monkey on it.