DESCRIPTIVE MODULE 1

INTRODUCTION

Look at the picture above! What do you think about the place? What can you say about it? Is it
beautiful? Is it dull? Is it an old or new building? Is the architecture modern or old? Is it a small or
vast building? Is it a grand or simple building? Is it well taken care of? What about the yard? Is the
yard narrow or wide? Is it grass-planted or brick-covered? What can you see in the yard? Can you
describe each thing that you see in the yard?
Have you ever visited an interesting or unique place like this? If you don’t have the picture, can
you tell how the place is by describing it?
Yes, we can always describe something, someone or someplace by words. Some people even
describe it better by using words than pictures. Read the text below.

They had stepped directly into a tiny sitting room, which had the feeling of a dark
padded cell. The walls were completely covered in books, most of them bound in old
black or brown leather; a threadbare sofa, an old armchair and a rickety table stood
grouped together in a pool of dim light cast by a candle-filled lamp hung from the
ceiling. The place had an air of neglect, as though it were not usually inhabited.

J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

What do you see in the room? What do you smell? How do you feel in there? Yes, the room is
described perfectly. While we are reading this passage, we instantly have the detailed vision of the
room, together with the smell and the feeling. Due to the usage, this kind of passage is called
descriptive.

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WHAT IS DESCRIPTIVE TEXT?
Descriptive text is a text which says what a person or a thing or a place is like. We can also say
that it is a text which lists the characteristic of something or someone. It is a text which gives you a
picture of what it describes through words.

WHAT IS ITS COMMUNICATIVE PURPOSE?

The communicative purpose of descriptive texts is to describe a particular person, thing or place.

WHAT IS ITS GENERIC STURCTURE?

1. Identification.
Identifying the phenomenon to be described.
2. Description.
Describing the phenomenon in parts, qualities, or/and characteristics.

WHAT ARE ITS LANGUAGE FEATURES?

1. Focusing on specific participants.
2. Use of attributive and identifying processes.
3. Frequent use of epithets (adjectives used to describe somebody) and classifiers in nominal
groups.
4. Use of simple present tense.

So, in short, a descriptive text is a text which gives its readers a picture through the descriptions it
gives. Now, read the text in the box below.

A young woman was standing in the doorway, a woman of such breathtaking beauty that
the room seemed to have become strangely airless. She was tall and willowy with long blonde
hair and appeared to emanate a faint, silvery glow. To complete this vision of perfection, she
was carrying a heavily laden breakfast tray.

J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Well, what picture do you have in your mind after you read the above text? What kind of woman do
you see? How does the woman look like? Now look at the pictures below. Which picture resembles
the woman in the text the best?

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Well, of course, the picture formed in the mind of each reader may greatly vary. However, when we
read the text above we agree on some points. We read that the woman has long blonde hair. We
learn that she is tall and slim. What about the rest descriptions? What do you think ‘willowy’ means?
Or, what do you think ‘to emanate faint, silvery glow’ means?

So, you see here that the use of specific adjectives is very important when we talk about
describing something or someone or someplace. Descriptive text gives sense impressions – the feel,
sound, taste, smell and look of things. Emotions may be described too – feelings such as happiness,
fear, loneliness, gloom, and joy. Description helps the reader, through his/her imagination, to
visualize a scene or a person, or to understand a sensation or an emotion.
Good description requires careful observation and organization. The importance of careful
observation and attention to detail can be seen in the following incident which takes place at a
bank.

A robber has just taken money from three clerks in a bank. A police officer has
arrived and is questioning the clerks. “What did the robber look like?” the police officer
asks. One clerk says that he had a nervous manner and a sinister face. Another clerk
says that the robber had an evil appearance and was dressed shabbily. A third clerk says
that the robber was very tall, walked with a limp, had a high-pitched voice, and was
wearing old, faded blue jeans and a dark blue pullover sweater with a patch on the left
elbow. The last clerk also adds that the robber was bald, that he needed a shave, and
that he had brown eyes, a scar on his left cheek, a moustache, and cigarette-stained
teeth.

Which description was most helpful to the police officer? The first two clerks gave dominant
impressions. They told how they felt about the robber, or the atmosphere he seemed to create. The
robber had impressed them as being nervous and sinister. But it was the third clerk who supplied the
specific information to make the dominant impression meaningful.
Good descriptive text usually has three important qualities. It has a dominant impression
supported by specific details, a clearly recognizable mood, and logical development.
1. DOMINANT IMPRESSION
The first sentence or even the first words of a descriptive text may establish the dominant
impression. Succeeding sentences will then reinforce and expand it by supplying further
information and filling in details. In other words, the sentence which establishes the dominant
impressions usually serves as the topic sentence of the paragraph.

The bank clerk had a look of trustworthiness about him. He had clear,
intelligent eyes surrounded by plain, old-fashioned eyeglasses. One could trust those
eyes. The few hairs left on his balding head were neatly and carefully brushed into
place. He seemed to have counted each hair as carefully as he probably counted his
money. His shoulders were rounded from years of leaning over his desk, as if he
and the desk were one and the same. His suit was plain and sensible. It was obvious
that this same suit had served him for several years, just the sort of good, long-term
investment the bank no doubt believed in. In short, everything about him seemed
as solid, sensible, and reliable as the institution he worked for.

2. MOOD
A mood is feeling that goes beyond measurable physical appearances. Feelings and emotions
such as joy, happiness, fear, and anxiety evoke or create moods. Mention of good or bad
qualities may contribute to establishing the general mood. What is the mood of the following
paragraph? What words have contributed to establishing the mood?
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 The darkness was somehow denser than normal darkness.
„Let us walk,‟ said Dumbledore quietly. „Be careful not to step into the water.
Stay close to me.‟
He set off around the edge of the lake and Harry followed close behind him.
Their footsteps made echoing, slapping sounds on the narrow rim of rock that
surrounded the water. On and on they walked, but the view did not vary; on one
side of them, the rough cavern wall; on the other, the boundless expanse of
smooth, glassy blackness, in the very middle of which was that mysterious greenish
glow. Harry found the place and the silence oppressive, unnerving.

J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

3. LOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
A good piece of descriptive text has some logical plan of development. The writer tries to give a
picture or impression of a person, place, or thing; but, unlike the photographer or the painter,
who has chemicals or pigments to work with, the writer has only words to use. Therefore, to be
effective, written descriptions should have an efficient, sensible, carefully thought-out, logical
plan. The writer must have a vantage point from which he/she views what is being described.
The writer proceeds from that vantage point step by step. The writer may begin with a dominant
impression and proceed to specific details. Or the writer may start with the specific details and
conclude with a dominant impression.
Below are some of the steps that may be followed in writing a descriptive text:
a. Establish the point of view. Make it clear to the reader where the writer is in relation to the
thing being described.
b. Give the general overall view or impression.
c. Give the details of the description in a logical sequence. One kind of logical sequence is
space sequence: - From near to far or from far to near.
- From left to right or from right to left.
- From high to low or from low to high.
Description can also be oriented from the general to the specific or from the specific to the
general.

What is the plan of development of the following paragraphs? Can you imagine the point from
which the scenes described in the first two paragraphs were viewed?

When I was a boy, John Hence‟s grocery stood on the south side of Town
Street, just east of Fourth, in the Central Market region of Columbus, Ohio. It was
an old store even then, fifty-two years ago, and its wide oak floor boards had been
worn pleasantly smooth by the shoe soles of three generations of customers. The
place smelled of coffee, peppermint, vinegar, and spices. Just inside the door on the
left, a counter with a rounded glass front held all the old-fashioned penny candies –
gumdrops, licorice whips, horehounds, and the rest – some of them a little pale
with age. On the rear wall, between a barrel of dill pickles and a keg of salt
mackerel in brine, there was an iron coffee grinder, whose handle I was sometimes
allowed to turn.

James Thurber: The Figgerin’ of Aunt Wilma.

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 In the valley of Rociada, the biggest river runs south from high hills, then turns
to the east. Where it turns is the village of Rociada. A few miles above that is
Upper Rociada. Each village has about twenty adobe houses, a church, a store, and
a dancehall, built around a center square. Since adobe is not painted, the villages
look like the earth around them, from which they are built.

Oliver La Farge: Behind the Mountains.

Well, have you found the answer for those two paragraphs above? Do you know the point from
which the scenes described in the two paragraphs were viewed? Yes, both paragraphs are told
by someone who knew the place very well. The writer was not an outsider; he was an insider of
the place he was describing. Hence, the writer was able to give not only detail descriptions, but
also hearty ones. Can you imagine what will the descriptions be like if they are given by an
outsider of the place? Will the mood be the same? Now, try with this one below.

Abraham Lincoln was a strong man, both physically and mentally. He was 1.90
meters tall. He was thin, but weighed 81 kilos. He was physically powerful, and he
could lift over 180 kilos easily. His mind and body worked steadily, and he never
seemed to tire mentally or physically. He was not handsome by any means, nor
was he ugly. He was very plain looking and plain acting. Although his physical
appearance and dress made him common looking, his actions and decisions were
anything but common.

Well, do you know the point from which the man described in the paragraph was viewed? Is the
paragraph written by someone close to the man? What did the writer intend to do? Did he
intend to show that the man was no ordinary man? Did he intend to show that the man was a
down-to-earth one? Or did he intend to show that the man was an out-of-reach one? It’s your
turn to find the answer!

So, now you see that owning rich vocabulary will positively help you once you start your own
descriptive text. That is why; you are going to learn a lot about them in this module. First, of course,
you are going to face some tasks which will help build your vocabulary. Then, you are going to learn
to order the adjectives when you need to use more than one adjective in one phrase. After that, you
are also going to learn to use comparison to give stronger and better impression. And the last, you
are going to learn to use simile and metaphor to enrich your composition.
Yes, the goal of this second module is for you to be able to produce your own descriptive text. Of
course, you are wished to produce a good descriptive text by taking the most advantage from what
you learn in this module.
So, have fun!

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise
wisdom and instruction.
KJV Proverbs 1:7