Descriptive Text

Dalam artian luas, Description, seperti dijelaskan oleh Kane (2000: 352), diartikan seperti pada kalimat di bawah ini :

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.

Jadi, jika disimpulkan dari penjelasan Kane di atas, tulisan deskriptif bermakna teks yang menjelaskan tentang pengalaman yang berhubungan dengan pancaindera, seperti apa bentuknya, suaranya, rasanya. Kebanyakan teks deskriptif memang tentang pengalaman visual, tapi nyatanya pengalaman selain dari indera penglihatanpun bisa digunakan dalam descriptive text.

Namun secara khusus, descriptive text adalah, "...... 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." [teks yang menjelaskan gambaran seseorang atau benda. Tujuannya adalah mengambarkan atau mengungkapkan orang, tempat atau benda tertentu]

Jadi, bisa dikatakan bahwa descriptive text ini adalah teks yang menjelaskan tentang seperti apakah orang atau suatu benda dideskripsikan, baik bentuknya, sifat-sifatnya, jumlahnya dan lain-lain. Tujuan (purpose) dari descriptive text pun jelas, yaitu untuk menjelaskan, MENGGAMBARKAN atau mengungkapkan seseorang atau suatu benda.

Generic Structure Dalam Descriptive Text

Ketika menulis descriptive text, ada beberapa susunan umum / generic structure (sebenarnya tidak wajib) agar tulisan kita dianggap benar. Susunan tersebut adalah :

1.              Identification : berisi tentang identifikasi hal / seorang yang akan dideskripsikan.

2.              Description : berisi tentang penjelasan / penggambaran tentang hal / seseorang dengan menyebutkan beberapa sifatnya.

Ketika kita menulis descriptive text, hal yang wajib kita ketahui adalah cara kita menyampaikan deskripsi tulisan kita tersebut. Oleh karena itu pemahaman tentang adjective (kata sifat bahasa Inggris) wajib kita kuasai.

Selain adjective, beberapa struktur bahasa Inggris yang berfungsi sebagai adjective pun harus kita pahami agar penulisan descriptive text kita terlihat tidak kaku.

Contoh Descriptive Text

Banyak sekali contoh descriptive text yang tersebar di dunia maya. Cara mudah mendapatkan contoh descriptive text dalam sebuah situs yaitu dengan melihat about us sebuah situs. Mengapa demikian, karena suatu situs biasanya terdapat penjelasan atau gambaran tentang keberadaan mereka dalam dunia maya.

Oke, mari kita lihat contoh descriptive text yang belum pernah anda baca (mungkin) :

Contoh Descriptive Text tenang Ibu

My mother is a beautiful person. She is not tall but not short, and she has curly hair and brown. Her eyes color are like honey and her color skin color light brown, and she has a beautiful smile. Her weight likes 120 lbs.

She is a very kind person. She is very lovely, friendly, patient, and she loves to help people. I love my mom, because she is a good example to me. She loves being in the Church, and she loves sing and dance too. 

She is a very good child, wife and mother. She always takes care of her family. She likes her house to be clean and organized. She a very organized person, and all things in the house are in the right place. She doesn't like messes. 

She always has a smile on her face. She is so sweet and lovely. I like when I am going to sleep or went I wake up or when I am going to go to some places, she always give me a kiss, and when the family have a problem she always be with us to helps us and to give us all her love. 

Contoh Descriptive Text tentang Jeruk

Orange, the popular fruit which is easy to find and relatively cheap, in fact contain much nutrition, which is good for our health. The fruit has widely been known as not only vitamin and mineral-rich fruit but also containing essential substances, which cannot be produced by human body. As a matter of fact, those substances are necessary since they are used in the process of the growth and development of human body.

The non-nutrition compounds in orange can minimize the risk of some dreadful diseases, such as cardiovascular, cancer, and eyes problems. Unfortunately, for many years people see the fruit only as the source of vitamin C while actually it also produces carbohydrate, potassium, calcium, thiamin, niacin, vitamin B, phosphor, magnesium, riboflavin, another natural chemical compounds.

Consuming orange is also suggested for those who have diet programme since there are only 60-80 calories in one fruit. Therefore, by having this fruit in daily menu, someone can reduce his or her weight.