JUSTIFICATION

There are many type of essay that being regularly use and teach in school. One the
popular essay is the descriptive essay. Descriptive essay is a genre of essay where pupils will
have to describe many things such as objects, places, situation, emotion, person and many
more. According to Kane (2000: 352), Description is about sensory experience such as how
something looks, sounds, tastes. Mostly it is about visual experience, but description also deals
with other kinds of perception. The reason that most of the teachers use this type of essay is
because this genre of essay will encourages the ability of the pupils to write about their
experience freely and expressively.
Descriptive writing appeals to the senses, so it tells how something looks, feels, smells,
tastes, or sounds. The thing that separate good descriptive essay and bad descriptive essay is
the description in the essay should be a word picture. A good word picture makes the reader
can imagine the object, place, or person you want to tell in his or her mind clearly. For example,
in the essay entitled My Cat has the description that is a good word picture in the sentences it
has white spot. From this, we could imagine the cat with round white spot in the cat body.
Besides that, the other important thing that should have in ones descriptive writing is the
use of the figurative language. To make the readers see, hear, and even feel what it is the writer
are writing about, the writer must use figurative language to describe things in the essay. There
are several types of figurative language that can be easily accessed by the readers such as
simile, metaphor, personification and many more. For example, in the My Cat essay, there is
the use of onomatopoeia which is meow meow. From that, we can know the sound of cat and
can imagine it. So, based on the example, it is important to have figurative language in
descriptive essay so that the writers can help to paint the pictures in the readers mind.
Moreover, it is important to know that good descriptive essay must have precise
language. Using specific words and phrases will help the reader see what you are describing
and it help to make them understand what you are trying to tell them. To have the precise
language, the writer must use vivid nouns, adjectives, verbs, action verbs and adverbs. For
example, the writer in the essay My Father uses this to describe his father with he has two
large ears and long beard. The reader can see what the writers trying to tell and this help the

writer to deliver his story. So, it is important for writers to know that if a word or phrase
is specifically stated, it will be exact and precise.
Furthermore, another important characteristic in descriptive essay is that a good
descriptive writing should be organized. There are many way to organize descriptive writing and
some of it is by using chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of importance. For
example, an essay describing a historical event could be organized chronologically. A place can
be described using spatial organization. When writing about people, organizing by order of
importance makes sense. When describing a person, you might begin with a physical
description, followed by how that person thinks, feels and acts. From the essay entitled My
Father, the writers starts with he is a policeman and continue with he works in police station.
This shows that the essay is organized and can be a good descriptive essay.

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

can be a
word
picture

organized

CHARACTERIS
TICS OF
DESCRIPTIVE
ESSAY

have a
precise
language

use of
figurative
language