students. According to Pelita in her blog states, students in junior high school are hoped to understand five kinds of text; those are:
a. Narrative. It is kind of text that has function to entertain the reader or
listener from the factual or imaginative experience. b.
Recount. This text has function to retell the events or incidents or activity in order to entertain and to inform something.
c. Procedure. It is kind of text that gives some direction to do or not to do
something through sequence action. d.
Report. It is kind of texts that has function to extend the information about something, what is in, the result of systematic observation or
analysis as the effect of nature, environment, human being, or social phenomenon.
e. Descriptive. It is kind of texts that describe the characteristics of people,
particular things, or place.
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From five types of text that is mentioned above, the second grade students of junior high school are learnt three types of text such as description, narrative,
and recount. However, from three kinds of texts, the writer focuses on explaining a descriptive text.
C. Descriptive Text
1.
Definition of Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is one of the text types which may be familiar with students in several ways. Siahaan and Shinoda state that description is one of the written
English texts that the writer describes the objects such as person, animal, tree, house or etc, in abstract or concrete one; and it has two components; identification
and description, in which the identification is the step to identify the object that
33
Dian Pelita, Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris Berbasis Teks di SMP, 2013, http:dianpelita.wordpress.com20110221pembelajaran-bahasa-inggris-berbasis-teks-di-SMP,
accessed at 3
rd
, November 2013 on 05.42 p.m.
will be described and description is the next step to describe the parts of the object such as qualities and characteristic of the object.
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In addition, Zaida states that description is a text to describe particular person, place, or thing in detail. It consists of identification, description, and
conclusion. Identification is part of introducing the personthing described; description is part that describes the person or thing in details such as its qualities
or its characteristics; and the conclusion optional is part that concludes the topic.
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It is known, that descriptive text is to describe something such as people, place or other things. As Smith and Buscemi state that description has diversity. It
can be people, place and things that are described in details and it will be concrete, specific, and vivid.
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From that definition, it can be found some students may get many objects everyday in some characteristics or they may tell the object to their friends in
detail; unconsciously they know the concept of describing something.
2.
Purpose of Descriptive Text
Each kind of text has the purpose itself, includes descriptive text. To know the purposes of descriptive text are important for students. There are some
purposes of descriptive text: a.
Can entertain readers, it can be found in newspaper, magazine, novel, etc b.
Can convey feelings or express the emotions c.
Can relate experience and share everything they see or hear about place, people, etc
d. Can inform something because it is described in detail
34
Sanggam Siahaan and Kisno Shinoda, Generic Text Structure, Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu, 2008, p. 89.
35
Nur Zaida, Mandiri: Practice Your English Competence for SMPMTs Class VIII, Jakarta: Penerbit Erlangga, 2006, p. 9.
36
Santi V. Buscemi and Charlotte Smith, 75 Readings Plus: 8
th
Edition, New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2007, p. 37.
