2.2.5 Content It is important for the writers to consider the content of their writing in
order to make the readers understand the ideas and messages expressed in their writing. Hughey et al. 1983:140 define content as the ability to use knowledge
and understandable subject and information, development of thesis, interrelationship of many details relevance of material and topic. In line with that,
Heaton 1991:135 states that content deals with the writer’s ability to think creatively and develop thoughts, excluding all irrelevant information. It can be
inferred that the writers not only have to be able to express thoughts creatively based on knowledge and information they have, but also keep the writing relevant
to the topic discussed.
2.3 Descriptive text
School Based CurriculumKTSP 2006 for SMP and Mts states that there are six genres of text that junior high school should master. They are descriptive,
narrative, procedure, recount, anecdote, and report. This research focused on writing a descriptive text.
Descriptive is a way of visualizing objects, people, or places using descriptive details which enable the reader to paint his mental picture of it.
According to Wong 1993: 373, a descriptive text is used to describe a person, a place, or an object precisely so that the reader “sees” the items clearly in his or her
imagination. So, to make them as vivid and real as possible, the writer must observe and record specific details that appear to the readers’ sense sight,
hearing, taste, smell, and touch. The purpose of descriptive text is to share with the reader some objects,
places, scenes, or people that the writer experienced. Through description, the writer tries to give sense impression about what she has seen, heard, felt, smelled,
tested to a person, a place or things, etc. Stanley et al. 1992:152 say that the aim of description is to convey the readers what something looks like; it attempts to
paint a picture with words. In other words, when someone describes something, it
can be about objects, places, scenes or people through this description. The reader would have a picture of the whole entity or process.
A descriptive text covers identifying a person, place, or thing in details which includes the parts, the quality, or the characteristic being described. There
are two generic structures in a descriptive text. They are identification; a part which identifies the phenomenon to be described and description; a part which
describes parts of things Depdiknas: 2004. The example of a descriptive text:
Our school
Our school is in the north of the city near the airport and factories. It is very big.
There are 40 rooms and 700 students in the school. We have got a football field, three laboratories and a computer room. Our classroom is near the computer
room. Adopted from Bahasa Ingris SMP kelas 8
That paragraph tells about the location of their school, how many rooms in their school, and how many students in that school has.
2.4 Pictures as Media in Teaching English
