According to Siahaan, there are three kinds of paragraph. They are narrative paragraph, descriptive paragraph and expository paragraph.
a Narrative Paragraph is the written language like the spoken one. An organized
this paragraph can be statement, interrogative, offer or immperactive. b
Descriptive Paragraph is paragraph which a writer tries to picture out an object to his reader. Giving information about something or someone. It can
be concrete object such as person, or an animal, or car etc. It can be an abstract object such as an opinion, or idea, or love, or hate, or belief, etc.
c Expository Paragraph is paragraph which a writer tries to reveal out a new
truth of fact of certain object to his reader. The object can be a concrete object such as an opinion, idea, love, hate, or belief,etc
40
.
Based on the definitions and explanations about the kinds of paragraph above, the writer focused only on descriptive paragraph. Descriptive paragraph is giving
information about something or someone to the reader. Descriptive paragraph can be easier to practically, if the students understand about the object.
3.3 Concept of Descriptive Paragraph
Siahaan and Shinoda state that description is a written English text in which the writer describes an object. In this text, the object can be a concrete or abstrack object.
It can be a person, or an animal, or a tree, or a house, or camping. It can be about any
40
Sanggam Siahaan, Op.Cit., pp109-125
topic
41
. Description is about sensory experience, how something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but description also deals with other kinds of
perfection. The following passage, for example, use sounds to describe the beginning of an act revolutionary violence in China
42
. However, good descriptive writing can simulate the readers‟ imagination form sensory responses.
Descriptive paragraph is giving information about something or someone. It can be concrete object such as person, or an animal, or car etc. It can also be an abstract
object such as an opinion, or idea, or love, or hate, or belief, etc
43
. It means that the writer tries to picture out an object to hisher readers. Furthermore, Emilia says in this
case as a product of writing, the text functions to reflect what is being described to the readers
44
. 1
Text function To describe a particular person, place or thing.
2 Text Structure
1. Identification
: identifies phenomenon to be described. 2.
Description : describes parts, qualities, characteristics.
3 Dominant Grammatical Aspects
41
Sanggam Siahaan and Kusno Shinoda, Generic Text Structure, Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu,2008, p.89
42
Thomas S. Kane. The Oxford, Essential Guide to Writing. New York: Berkley Books, 2000, p.27
43
Sanggam Siahaan, The English Paragraph,Op.Cit., p.119
44
Emi Emilia, Pendekatan Genre-Based Dalam Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris, Bandung: Risqi Press, 2001, p.82
1. Focus on specific participants
2. Use of attribute and identifying processes
3. Frequent use of epithets and classifiers in nominal groups
4. Use of simple present tense
45
Example of descriptive paragraph
Describing a place
My room is very small but comfortable. It is a small rectangular room with a white ceiling and yellow and white walls. As you enter the rooms, straight a head you will
see two largewindows . My bed, which is covered with a white bed spread, is in front of the windows. On your left, against the wall, there is a large a bookcase filled with
books. And there is television in near the bookcase.There are several posters on this wall. The one that is over the bookcase shows and interesting scene from our country.
The one that is over the desk is of my favorite singer.
46
Describing a person
45
Sanggam Siahaan and Kisno Shinoda, Loc.Cit.,
46
Ida Safrida dan Dian Faturrahman. English Worksheet for Junior High School Grade VIII. Jakarta: Ganeca Exact, 2007, p.18
