DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

"My Understanding of Descriptive Text"

Hi everyone! back again with me, Gabriel. Now I will provide a written explanation of my understanding of the description text. The writing I wrote was based on lessons learned at my school, websites, and class XI SPLASH school textbooks.

A. What is Descriptive Text?

Descriptive text is text where the main idea is conveyed by describing certain objects, places and events in detail. Descriptive text also has the aim of describing something related to experience based on observations from all five senses : feeling, hearing, touching, smelling and seeing. From there, the writer can create the reader's imagination so that they can directly experience what is discussed in the text.

 

B. Descriptive Text Stucture

Here the two structures of a descriptive text :

•       Identification (introduction/classification), introduce the topic, person, idea, or thing that is being described or explained and how the topic being described or explained.

Example : Education is an important foundation in the life of every individual. Education is the process of preparing someone to develop the knowledge, skills and character needed in life. In education, individuals learn, interact, and grow as quality individuals.

•    Description (characteristic features), describe the features or characteristics that are important to remember or understand about the topic being described.

Example : In the school context, education brings students into a structured environment where they gain knowledge in a variety of subjects. Through this learning process, students are given the opportunity to understand concepts, apply skills, and hone critical thinking.

In addition, education also involves the development of social and emotional skills. At school, students learn to interact, appreciate diversity and manage emotions. All of this aims to help students grow into adaptive, caring and resilient individuals. However, education is not just about acquiring knowledge and skills. Education also includes the formation of good character and values.

C. Language Features in Descriptive Text

In addition, there are some language features of a descriptive text.

1. Specific participant it can be something that is not common and usually unique because it is the only one in the world.

2. The use adjectives, they can be adjectives, adjective phrases, or/and adjective clauses.

Adjectives are words that describe or modify a person, thing, place and concept (ie a noun or a noun phrase) in a sentence. Adjectives are placed before the noun or noun phrase that they modify. They may be attributive, appearing before the noun or predicative appearing after a linking verb. Not all adjectives can be used in both positions. 

An attributive adjective is used before the noun it describes.

Example : Anis is driving an expensive yellow car. (the adjective phrase "an expensive yellow acts as a modifier which modifies the noun car.)

Meanwhile, a predicative adjective usually comes after the noun. It follows verbs such as be, become, grow, look, or seem. Predicative adjectives do not occur immediately after the noun. Instead, they follow a verb.

Example : The printer is progressively useful. (the adjective phrase "progressively useful follows the verb be.)

3. The use of simple present tense

The simple present tense is used in sentences that express an activity or fact that occurs in the present. It uses only one verb. Look at the examples :

(a) The Hubble Space Telescope is a large telescope in the spaces below.

(b) Hubble travels about 5 miles per second.

Sentence (a) is a sentence in the form of simple present tense that uses "is" as its verb. Sentence (b) is a sentence in the form of simple present tense with travels as the verb.

4. The use of action verbs

Describes the action that the subject of the sentence performs. Example : My grandfather walks with a stick. ("walk" is the action verb.)

5. Contains figurative language.

It contains figurative language in the form of a simile or metaphor. Example: birds singing on tree branches.

D. Identifying Adjective Order

Adjectives have a function to explaining or describing nouns. However, when we want to explain a noun as an adjective attribute (in front of the adjective) there is a possibility that we will use more than one adjective or adjective. It turns out that these adjectives have their own rules, which are called adjective order.

Adejctive order needs to be adhered to when writing or mentioning adjectives, namely OSACOMP, which has meaning and examples like in those below :

1.    O = Opinion  (amazing, easy, good, nice, cool)

2.    S = Size  (small, big, large, huge, long, short)

3.    A = Age (old, young, ancient, antique)

4.    S = Shape (flat, hexagonal, circle, square)

5.    C = Color (green, blue, navy, pink, white, black)

6.    O = Origin (American, Greek, Asian)

7.     M = Material (wooden, gold, glass, cloth)

8.     P = Purpose (reading, learning, eating, studying)

Example  :

This is an emphty, large, and old classroom.

·       This is an [01. Opinion] emphty , [02. Size]  large, and [03. Age]  old [Noun] classroom.

E. Sentence Structure

Sentence structure is the order of all the parts in a sentence : subject, predicate, objects, phrases, punctuation, etc. It deals a lot with independent and dependent clauses and how they combine (explained below), the placement of words and phrases next to what they modify, as well as the use of proper grammar.

For descriptive text we use S-V-O-Adverb (Manner, Place, Time) for the sentence structure.

•        S – Subject

Subject complements are nouns, pronouns, adjectives, or other constructions (acting as nouns or adjectives) that follow verbs of being or linking verbs and function to explain or refer to the subject of the sentence. Subject complements can be divided into predicative adjectives (subjects connected to adjectives), and predicate nominatives (subjects connected to nouns or pronouns).

Example : Mr. Mamat was a great headmaster. (Headmaster (predicate noun) explains the subject "Mr. Mamat".)

•        V – Verb

A verb is a word that functions to show the action of the subject, shows an event or situation.

Example : I love swimming. (Swimming is verb.)

•                 O – Object

The object is about who or for what the subject carries out an activity. In addition, the object is usually placed after the predicate.

Example : I named my cat Kitty. (Kitty is the object here)

•                 A – Adverb (Manner, Place, Time)

Adverb is a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time,  manner.

 S-V-O-Adverb example sentence :

F. Identifying Adverb of Manner, Place, and Time

• Manner

Adverbs of manner describe how something happens. 

Example : Some elderly people drive slowly.

The words used to describe driving at different speeds (quickly or slowly) are excellent examples of adverbs of manner.

• Place

Adverbs of place tell us where something happens. Some examples of adverbs of place : here, everywhere, outside, away and around.

Example : John looked around but he couldn't see the monkey. ("Around" is an example of adverbs of place.)

• Time

Adverbs of time tell us when an action happened, but also for how long and how often.

Example : 

(a) I will be going to my cousin’s place tomorrow.

(b) Yesterday, Teena met Anu at the supermarket.

The words "tomorrow" and "yesterday" in the sentence are examples of adverbs of time.

G. Identifying Verb

     • Transitive Verbs

Transitive verbs are verbs that require an object so that the sentence composed is complete and has complete meaning.

     • Intransitive Verbs

Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not need an object to make the sentence that is put together complete and have complete meaning.

H. Conjunction

Conjunction is a connecting word. Conjunctions, also called Linking Words, are used to connect words in a sentence.

Examples of conjunctions used in the following sentences:

• · Claudia likes apples and oranges.
• · I went home because I had to study.

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And here is an Example of Descriptive Text  :

Education is Important

Education is an important foundation in the life of every individual. Education is the process of preparing someone to develop the knowledge, skills and character needed in life. In education, individuals learn, interact and grow as quality individuals. In the school context, education brings students into a structured environment where they gain knowledge in a variety of subjects. Through this learning process, students are given the opportunity to understand concepts, apply skills, and hone critical thinking.

In addition, education also involves the development of social and emotional skills. At school, students learn to interact, appreciate diversity, and manage emotions. All of this aims to help students grow into adaptive, caring and resilient individuals. However, education is not just about acquiring knowledge and skills. Education also includes the formation of good character and values.

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That's all the explanation regarding descriptive text. I hope it's helpful and useful. See you in the next blog!