Environment : Identifyng Descriptive Text

1.     

     Descriptive Text is a text which says what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing. In a broad sense, description, as explained by Kane (2000: 352), is defined like in the following sentence: Description is about sensory experience—how something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but description also deals with other kinds of perception. But in particular, the descriptive text is, “…… is a text which says what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing.” So, it can be said that this descriptive text is a text that explains about whether a person or an object is like, whether its form, its properties, its amount and others.

The purpose of the descriptive text is clear, that is to describe, represent or reveal a person or an object, either abstract or concrete.

Generic Structure (Bagaimana Teks disusun) of Descriptive Text When writing descriptive text, there are some generic structures (actually not mandatory) for our writing to be true.

The arrangement is:

1.    Identification: (contains about the introduction of a person, place, animal or object will be described.)

2.    Description: contains a description of something such as animal, things, place or person by decribing its features, forms, colors, or anything related to what the writer describe.

Purpose of Descriptive text

1. To describe person, thing or place in specific

2. To describe a particular person, thing or place.

 

Language Feature of Descriptive Text.

1.    Specific participant: has a certain object, is not common and unique (only one). for example: Bandengan beach, my house, Borobudur temple, uncle Jim

 

2.    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.

 

3.    The use of simple present tense: The sentence pattern used is simple present because it tells the fact of the object described.

 

4.    Action verb: verbs that show an activity (for example, run, sleep, walk, cut etc….)

 

 

Text 1.

 Marine Debris

Our ocean is filled with items that do not belong there. Huge amounts of plastics, metals, rubber, paper, textiles, lost fishing gear, abandoned boats, and other items enter the marine environment every day. All of these are marine debris, which is anything human-made and solid that is lost or littered in the ocean or Great Lakes. Our trash has been found in every corner of our ocean, from the most remote shorelines, to ice in the Arctic, and even the deepest parts of the sea floor.

Marine debris comes from littering, poor waste management practices, stormwater discharge, and extreme natural events like tsunamis and hurricanes. Whether it is properly thrown away or dumped on purpose, debris from land can find its way into our ocean and Great Lakes. This could happen at the beach, while boating on the water, or even many miles inland where trash can be blown and swept into waterways.

Marine debris is a global problem. It is very difficult to say how much debris enters the ocean and Great Lakes. Once marine debris is in the ocean, it is challenging to understand where it came from, where it goes, or how much is there.

A study in 2016 estimated that as much as 23 million metric tons of plastic waste entered the ocean and waterways around the world. That is the equivalent of more than 150,000 blue whales in a single year! This number may feel huge, but it’s not the whole picture. It doesn’t include marine debris items not made of plastic or ocean-based marine debris, such as lost fishing gear and vessels.

Marine debris can also come from ocean-based sources, like trash, fishing gear, and other items lost off of boats or platforms at sea.

Some of the most common and harmful types of marine debris are made of plastic, such as cigarette butts, plastic bags, food wrappers, and lost fishing gear. Marine debris can range from tiny plastic pieces that can be too small to be seen with the human eye, to huge abandoned boats, construction materials, and household appliances. Although some of these items may eventually break down, plastics may remain in the environment forever.

 

Exercise

1.    What things belong to marine debris?

2.    What is the difference between marine debris and marine pollution?