Descriptive Text

1. Explanation of 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 like in the following sentence: Description is about sensory experience—how
something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but description also deals with
other kinds of perception.

2. Generic Structure (Bagaimana Teks disusun) of Descriptive Text

When writing descriptive text, there are some generic structures (actually not mandatory) for
our writing to be true.
The arrangement is:
1. Identification: (contains about the introduction of a person, place, animal or object will be
described.)
2. Description: contains a description of something such as animal, things, place or person by
decribing its features, forms, colors, or anything related to what the writer describe.

3. Purpose of Descriptive text:

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

4. Language Feature of Descriptive Text

1. Specific participant : has a certain object, is not common and unique (only one). for example:
Bandengan beach, my house, Borobudur temple, uncle Jim.

2. The use of the adjective (an adjective) to clarify the noun, for example: a beautiful beach, a
handsome man, the famous place in jepara, etc.

3. The use of simple present tense: The sentence pattern used is simple present because it tells the
fact of the object described.
4. Action verb: verbs that show an activity (for example, run, sleep, walk, cut etc….

5. The following process should help guide students to write descriptive text

1. Choose an interesting topic

2. Reflect on what you think about this topic
3. Consider the reasons for your point of view
4. Compose a statement that encapsulates this viewpoint.
Example of descriptive text:

Borobudur Temple

Borobudur is one of historical buildings in Indonesia. It is considered to be the world’s largest

Buddhist temple for its size (15129 m2) and height (34.5m). It is located in Magelang, Central
Java. Not only it became a well known tourism destination to a lot of travelers around the world,
Borobudur Temple is also included in UNESCO list of world heritage site.
Borobudur temple consists of six square floors and three circular floors which arranged
accordingly and make it to be stair-like layers that you have to climb one by one to reach the top
of the temple. In the middle of the floor, you will find small stairwell with couples of stairs
connecting each floor that you can use as a passage to go to the top. On each level of the floor,
there are a lot of relief panels and Buddha statues spread around it. Based on the data, there are
2.672 panels and 504 statues in total. There is a dome located on the top center of the temple and
is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa. It is said that, if you
place your hand into the stupa through one of its hole and you can touch the Buddha statue, you
will be able to make one of your dream come true.

Candi Borobudur

Borobudur adalah salah satu bangunan bersejarah di Indonesia. Bangunan ini dianggap sebagai
candi agama Buda terbesar di dunia karena ukurannya (15129 m2) dan tingginya (34.5m).
Bangunan ini terletak di Magelang, Jawa Tengah. Tidak hanya menjadi sebuah tujuan wisata
terkenal bagi banyak wisatawan di seluruh dunia, candi Borobudur juga termasuk kedalam daftar
situs warisan dunia UNESCO.
Candi Borobudur terdiri dari enam lantai persegi dan tiga lantai bundar yang disusun secara
berurutan dan membuatnya menjadi lapisan yang terlihat seperti tangga yang harus kamu naiki
satu persatu untuk mencapai bagian paling atas dari candi itu. Pada bagian tengah setiap lantai,
kamu akan menemukan celah kecil dengan beberapa anak tangga yang menghubungkan satiap
lantai yang bisa kamu gunakan sebagai jalan untuk menuju ke atas. Pada setiap tingkatan lantai,
terdapat banyak panel relief dan patung Buda tersebar disekitar nya. Berdasarkan data, ada 2.672
panel dan 504 patung secara keseluruhan. Ada sebuah kubah yang terletak di bagian atas tengah
dari candi itu dan dikelilingi oleh 72 patung Buda, yang masing masingnya duduk di dalam
sebuah stupa yang penuh lubang. Dikatakan bahwa, jika kamu meletakkan tanganmu kedalam
stupa melalui salah satu lubangnya dan kamu bisa menyentuh patung Buda yang ada di
dalamnya, kamu akan bisa membuat salah satu mimpimu menjadi kenyataan.
I. In this exercise, you have to put in a / an or the.

Example:

There were a man and a woman in the room. The man was Indonesian, but the woman looked
foreign. She was wearing a fur coat and had blue eyes.

1. This morning I bought ……………. newspaper and ………………… magazine.

………………….. newspaper is in my bag, but I do not know where ………………….
magazine is.
2. My parents have ……………… cat and ………………… dog. …………………….. dog
never bites ………………….. cat but …………….. cat often scratches ………………….. dog.
3. I saw ……………………. accident this morning. …………………….. car crashed into
………………. wall. ………………….. driver of ………………… car was not hurt but
……………………… car was quite badly damaged.
4. When you turn into Livana Road, you will see three houses: ………………… cream one,
……………… grey one, and ……………….. brown one. I live in ……………….. cream one.
5. We live in …………………. old house in ……………….. middle of the village. There is
……………. beautiful garden behind ………………… the house. …………………. roof of
………………….. house is in very bad condition.

II. Here again you need to put in a / an or the.

Examples:

I am looking for a job.

Did Anna get the job she applied for?

1. Would you like ……………… apple?

2. Could you close ……………….. door, please?
3. We live in ………………… small flat near …………………… centre of the city.
4. Have you finished with ………………. book I lent you last week?
5. We went out for ……………… meal last night. …………………. restaurant we went to was
excellent.
6. Did ……………… police find …………………. person who stole your bicycle?
7. This is a nice house. Has it got ………………… garden?
8. It was warm, bright, and sunny, so my family decided to sit in ……………………. garden.
9. This morning I had ………………. boiled egg and toast for breakfast.
10. …………………. President of the United States is elected every four years.
11. As I walking along the street, I saw ……………… $ 10 note on …………………….
pavement.
12. I went into the shop and asked to speak to ………………….. manager.
13. ‘Have you got ………………….. car?’ ‘No, I have never had ……………….. car in my
life.’
14. There is no need to buy any milk. …………………… milkman brings it every morning.
15. When we were on holiday, we stayed at ……………….. hotel. In the evenings, sometimes
we had dinner at ………………. hotel and sometimes in …………………… restaurant.
III. This time you have to complete these sentences using the + noun.

Example:

It was getting dark in the kitchen, so my mother turned on the light.

1. There were no chairs so we all had to sit on …………………………. .

2. As soon as I saw the fire, I called ……………………….. .
3. We did not have any stamps, so we had to go to …………………………… .
4. I had a toothache, so I made an appointment with ……………………….. .
5. Jenna had to catch a train, so I took her to ………………………… .
6. When they found that someone had broken into their house, they called ………………… .
7. Brian was not feeling well, so he went to …………………………… .
8. We did not have any money, so we had to go withdraw the money at …………………… .
9. The plane was delayed, so we had to wait at ………………………… .
10. I wanted to send a letter to my brother in London, so I went to …………………………….. .