Generic Structure of Descriptive Text

When writing descriptive text, there are some generic structures (actually not mandatory) for
our writing to be true. The arrangement is:
Identification: (contains about the introduction of a person, place, animal or object will be
described.)
Description: contains a description of something such as animal, things, place or person by
describing its features, forms, colors, or anything related to what the writer describe.
Purpose of Descriptive text
– To describe person, thing or place in specific
– To describe a particular person, thing or place.
Language Feature of Descriptive Text
– Specific participant : has a certain object, is not common and unique (only one). for
example: Bandengan beach, my house, Borobudur temple, uncle Jim
– The use of the adjective (an adjective) to clarify the noun, for example: a beautiful beach, a
handsome man, the famous place in jepara, etc.
– The use of simple present tense: The sentence pattern used is simple present because it tells
the fact of the object described.
– Action verb: verbs that show an activity (for example, run, sleep, walk, cut etc….

Example:
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal or The Taj is a well known architectural object in India for its finest design
which combine elements from India, Persian and Islamic architectural style. This historical
buildings was built on the south bank of the Yamuna river in Agra. It represents the story of
Eternal Love of the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, to his dearest wife Mumtaz Mahal. In
1983 UNESCO place Taj Mahal into the list of World Heritage Site and consider it as “the
jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s
heritage”.
Taj Mahal is a very large tomb made of ivory-white marble. The building looks like a
mosque, a place for a moslem to pray. Once we see it, we will get the impression that Islamic
architectural style is very strong in the building, starting with the wall and the calligraphy
decorations on it, a huge dome on top of the building along with 4 minarets on every corner
of the base walls. The dome is also made of marble with size nearly 35 meters and the top of
it is decorated with a lotus design. The minarets is also decorated with a very detailed lotus
motif.
If we come from the main entrance, we will see a large pool in front of the building,
this pool is called the reflecting pool as it will reflect the image of The Taj to the sky. Once
we enter the building, we will find that there are more decorations on the inner wall. The
tomb as the central focus of the building is located at the lower level. The graves of Mumtaz
Mahal and Shah Jahan were positioned next to each other in a large room with Persian style
decorations.
Example 2.
Great Pyramid of Giza
The great pyramid of Giza is the name given to the oldest and largest of all pyramids
located in Giza, the third-largest city in Egypt. This pyramid also known as the Pyramid of
Khufu as it was built for the fourth dynasty Pharaoh of Egypt, Khufu. This historical building
of Egypt is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and remain in the list until now.
With its base size (230.4 metres) and its height (146.5 metres) this pyramidal
construction considered to be the tallest building in the world for more than 3.800 years. It
was estimated by the scientist that it took 20 years to build the pyramid. The whole building
was formed by using 2.300.000 stone blocks which arranged into 210 layers from the bottom
to the top. Each stone blocks has average size of 1 to 1.5m with the weight of 6.5 to 10 tons
for each large stone.
Egyptologists believe that the function of the pyramid is to be used as a tomb for the
Pharaoh. There are two entrance that we can use to enter the pyramid. Both of them is located
on the east side of the pyramid. Once we entered the building, we will find three chambers
inside the great pyramid. The lowest chamber is called the subterranean chamber, the highest
chamber is the King’s chamber, and the the one in the middle is the Queen’s chamber. You
will also find a passage called the grand gallery connecting the Queen’s chamber and the
King’s chamber.