DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

What is descriptive text?

The Definition and Purpose of Descriptive Text

Descriptive text is a text which say what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing.

A.    General Description

Descriptive writing or text is usually also used to help 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.

1.      Purpose of the text :

Social function (purpose) : to describe a particular person, placeor thing.As a feature, description is a style of writing which can be usefulfor other variety of purposes as:

a)      To engage a reader’s attention.

b)      To create characters.

c)      To set a mood or create an atmosphere.

d)     To being writing to life.

My house is on Jalan Kartini. It is big and nice. It has two floos. It has a living room, a small kitchen and a bathroom on thefirst floor. On the second floor there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. My parent’s bedroom is big. My mother’s room next to my room. My room I small but

I like it. It has light green wall.There is a desk with computer on it. I do homework there. There is also a nice garden in front of my house and I often play at there. We love our house.

The function of the text above is to describe the writer’s house.

2.      Generic Stucture:

Descriptive text has structure as below:

a)Identification :

Identifies the phenomenon to be describe.

b)  Description :

Describe parts, qualities and characterictic of things, person or place.

Generic Stucture :

a)    Identification :

My house is on Jalan Kartini. It is big and nice.

b)      Description :

It has light green wall. There is a desk with computer on  it. I do homework there. There is also a nice garden in front of my house and I often play at there. We love our house.

c)      Description

It has two floors. It has a living room, a small kitchen and a bathroom on the first floor. On the second floor there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. My parent’s bedroom is big. My mother’s room next tomy room. My room is small but I like it.

3.      Characteristic:

a)      Use simple present tense

b)      Use attribute verb, like be (am, is are)

(1)   Identification :

My house is on Jalan Kartini. It is big and nice.

(2)   Description :

It has light green wall.There is a desk withcomputer on it. I do homework there. There is also a nice garden in front of my house and I often play at there. We love our house.

(3)   Description

It has two floors. It has a living room, a small kitchen and a bathroom on the first floor. On the second floor there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. My parent’s bedroom is big. My mother’s room next tomy room. My room is small but I like it.

Lexico In Detail

1.      Simple Present Tense :

Pattern :

a) (+) S + Be (is, am, are) + Object

S + Verb1 + object

Example : - I am lazy.

- You bring my book.

b) (-) S + do/does + not + verb1 + Object

S + be + not + Object

Example : - I am not lazy.

- You do not bring my book.

c) (?) Be + S + Object +?

Do/does + S + Verb 1 + object +?

Example : - Am I lazy?

- Do you bring my book?

We use the simple present tense when:

(1)   The action is general.

(2)   The action happens all the time, or habitually, in the past, presentand future.

(3)   The action is not only happening now.

There are three important exceptions :

(1)   For positive sentences, we do not normally use the auxiliary.

(2)   For the 3rd person singular (he, she, it), we add s to the main verbor es

to the auxiliary.

(3)   For the verb to be, we do not use an auxiliary, even for questionsand negatives.the statement is always true.

2.      Action Verbs

In Picture 1, a boy is playing with a ball, while in Picture 2,a girl is eating an ice cream. The words playing and eating tell us what the boy and girl are doing. Words that tell whatpeople or things do are called Action Verbs.

Examples : - The ship sailed an hour ago.

- The swimmer dived into the water.

3.      Passive Voicea)

a)      Use of Passive

Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It isnot important or not known, however, who or what isperforming the action.

Example : My bike was stolen. In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who did it. Some times a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, asthe following example shows:

Example : A mistake was made.In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made,but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have made a mistake).

b)      Form of Passive

Pattern :

Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular verbs)

Example : A letter was written.

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

(1)   The object of the active sentence becomes the subjectof the passive sentence.

(2)   The finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle).

(3)   The subject of the active sentence becomes the objectof the passive sentence (or is dropped).

c)      Example of Passive

Active : Rita is writing a letter.

Passive : A letter is being written by Rita.

4.      Noun Phrase

A noun phrase is either a single noun or pronoun or a group of wordscontaining a noun or a pronoun that function together as a noun or pronoun, as the subject or object of a verb.

a)      Example of Noun Phrases

Example 1 : John was late.('John' is the noun phrase functioning as the subject of the verb.)

Example 2 : The people that I saw coming in the building at nine o'clock have just left.('The people ... nine o'clock' is a lengthy noun phrase, but it functions asthe subject of the main verb 'have just left'.)

5.      Adverbial Phrase

An adverbial phrase is a group of related words which play the role of anadverb. Like all phrases, an adverbial phrase does not include a subject anda verb.

Example :

a)      Tony decided to move to Reading yesterday. (normal adverb)

b)      Tony decided to move to Slough in June last year. (adverbialphrase)

6.      General/Common Noun

A common noun is a noun that refers to a person, thing andplace.

Examples : dog, house, picture, computer

a)      Common nouns are represented in the singular andplural form.

b)      Common nouns are represented by lower case letters.

Examples of the usage of common nouns:

a)      The red book is on the table.

b)      The black dog is in my yard.

c)      The computers are new.

7.      Abstract Noun

An abstract noun refers to states, events, concepts,feelings, qualities, etc., that have no physical existence.

Example : Freedom, happiness, idea, music

An abstract noun can be either a countable noun oruncountable noun. Abstract nouns that refer to events are almost usually countable: a noise; a meeting.