Since the writer read some researchers who had already done the technique of mind mapping in teaching descriptive produced varieties of results
either showing improvement toward students‟ achievement in reading test or even not yet successfully. Therefore, in this study the writer is interested in mind
mapping in teaching descriptive text. Compared with the explanatory method, hopefully mind mapping will obtain good result in teaching descriptive text
B. The Formulation of Problem
Based on the background of the problem of this research can be formulated as below, “was there any effect of using mind mapping technique
toward comprehension of descriptive text of seventh grade students of SMP Pelita YNH Sukabumi
?”. C.
The Objective of Study
In accordance with the formulation of the problem above, the objective of this study was to know whether or not any effect of using mind mapping
technique show better achievement than through non-mind mapping technique.
D. The Significance of Study
The significances of the study were expected to be beneficial both theoretically and practically go to teachers, the finding of this study is useful to
enrich their teaching strategy to be applied in teaching descriptive text. For the students, it enables them to improve their reading comprehension of descriptive
text and to increase their participation in reading class activities. This study is also expected to be a reference for other researchers who have the same problem and
interest in conducting the similar studies.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter covers some theories related to the study. The discussion focuses on the reading, the descriptive text, and the mind mapping. In addition,
the chapter also reviews some previous studies done other researchers, which share some similar ideas to the current study.
A. Descriptive Text
1. The General Concept of Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is one of genres in reading selection that is learned by students either at junior high school or senior high school. There are some
definitions regarding the descriptive text. According to Anderson and Anderson that state a factual description describes a particular person, place or thing.
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In this sense, the function is to describe a particular person, place, or thing, for instance,
description of a particular building, specific animal, particular place, and specific person.
Descriptive is basically embedded in the word description are two words: scribe
, meaning “to write” and de, meaning “down” or “about”. There is a hint in the etymology of the word description
that something is being traced or drawn, that in describing you will follow the outline of an object visually and then write it down or
“draw” it in words. The word “draws” is not an accidental association. Many writers have likened the process of describing to
that of painting.
8
Based on that, description text tends to be as a mental process, a way of perceiving objects in space and time. As it pertains to composition, description is
a way of picturing images verbally in speech or writing and of arranging.
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Those images in some kinds of logical or associational pattern.
7
Mark Anderson and Anderson Kathy, Text Types in English 3, Sidney: MacMillan, 1998, p. 26.
8
Frank J. D‟Angelo, Process and Thought in Composition, Cambridge: Massachusetts, Winthrop Publishers, inc, 1997, p.123.
9
Ibid. p.135.
Moreover, description is concerned mostly with people, places, and things. The student papers reprinted below give you a variety of models to follow, based
on these topics. You might wish to describe a roommate, a close friend, a parent, a child, a niece or nephew, a teacher, a landlord, a rock star, or a celebrity.
Hence, description must be in living color, like narrative, description has a predictable pattern. You may start on the left and work to the right, or from the
center outward, or from front to rear, but in any case you owe it to your reader to keep his or her position clear. Description must follow some kind of spatial
pattern; usually its point of view and perspective are clear. Furthermore, according to Charlotte Miller, he said that in descriptive text
there consists of some words, standing alone, may seem neutral neither good nor bad, but in context with other words, or in a sentence, take on a connotative
meaning.
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Here, the writer may illustrate that for example, the word drugs to an elderly person suffering the pains of age related disease is positive, but, to parents
with a son hooked on heroin, drugs is negative. Denotative language, on the other hand, means words that don‟t carry any emotional overtones or value judgments.
Examples: Thin lean slender scrawny slim skinny which of the above words do you
consider positive, negative, or neutral? You may find that because of difference in values, your classmates differ
with you.
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Description is the pattern used to convey what you have sensed, what you have seen, heard, smelled, felt, tasted. Description is more than a visual account,
and certainly it must not be limited to black and white. Therefore, the purpose of description is to present the reader with a picture of person, subject, or setting.
Although description is sometimes used alone, it more often appears in connection with one of the other types of writing
– exposition, narration, or persuasion. In sum up, the purpose of descriptive is to tell about the subject by
describing its features without including personal opinion. The aim of description
10
Charlotte Miller. Gwen brewer, with Andrea White, Lila Fink, Phyllis Levy. Choices, A Text for Writing and Reading, Northridge: Little, Brown and Company Boston Toronto, 1993 , pp. 41
—42 .
11
Ibid. p. 41.
is to enable the reader what something looks like. It attempts to paint a picture with words. In this sense, the description also attempts to put the reader directly in
touch with the physical world within the readers‟ senses. Description helps the readers visualize a scene or a person and understand the related sensation or an
emotion.
2. The Characteristics of Descriptive Text
As we have already discussed, a descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. So, in descriptive paragraph, we must make very
clear the location of the objects being described. It must be exist the attributes of a thing to present the topic and the forms which are used.
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According to Harry H. Crosby, to understand the descriptive text, we need to know the characteristics as following:
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a. Communicative Purpose: to describe a particular person, place, or thing
b. Generic Structures
- Identification, to identify the phenomenon will describe
- Description; to describe the items, the qualities, subject features, whole
attitude, and adjectives. c.
Linguistic Features focus on specific participant, for example my house, my cat, the museum, etc.
When you set out to describe a person, an object, or a scene, you have got to decide at the outset how you are going to arrange the details. Sometimes the
natural contours of the objects; themselves suggest a way of proceeding. Description is also a powerful strategy, one that allows the writer to exercise a
great deal of control over the reader‟s perceptions. In addition, it is a strategy we use in our daily interaction. In our daily interaction, we may describe different
kind of things, place, and person.
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12
Regina L. Smalley, Mary K. Ruetten, Refining Composition SkillsRhetoric and Grammar Fourth Edition, San Francisco: Heinle Heinle Publishers an Internasional Thompson Publishing Company
ITP, 1997, p.73.
13
Harry H. Crosby - Duncan A. Carter, The Commited Writer Mastering Nonfiction Genres, Boston: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1996 p. 7.
14
Donald Pharr Santi Buscemi, Writing today, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005 p. 136.
