The Clear Difference Between Report and Descriptive Text
Do you know what the difference between report and descriptive text is? I have an article posted discussing the differences between them. However some comments are still proposed to ask what a report text is actually, what a descriptive text is, and how they differ from each other.
I believe the article is good enough to build a better understanding about the variety of text types which this blog has been concerning since it published it first posts. The comments which are given in responses for some example of particular text types really attract me, especially who make note whether some texts given as the example belong to report or descriptive.
As stated in previous posts, descriptive and report text are written to present the caught picture of the object to readers. Both descriptive and report text functionally describe things, explain what and how they are.
To get clearer definition, I have browsed to find more vivid definition what descriptive and report texts are. Bellow are the sources which give more understanding of report and descriptive text and what the easy way to differ them.
Accoording to many experts, lessonplanspage.com explains that Information Report is classifying and describing general classes of phenomena. While Factual Description is describing a particular living, non-living or natural phenomenon.
For more complex explanation, descriptive reports give information about something; they describe what something is or does. They characteristically use technical terms and present tense, and they build technicality through noun groups. The structure of a descriptive report is General statement followed by Description.
To finalize this explanation on the difference between report and descriptive is that If the thing which is mentioned in the text is clear about its name. We can make it sure as descriptive text. But if the thing which is described in the text just the representative of the whole group of the thing mentioned, we can consider it as report Text.
So what is the easy way to differ report form descriptive text? Well there is not easiest way to see the difference between report and descriptive text since a text is possibly built from several types of text. Frequently, a text is combined from several genres. However taking a look at the participant of the text is very helpful to define whether the text belongs to report or descriptive. The particularity of the participant is a key to see the difference between report and descriptive.
The purpose of the two texts are to give the live-description of the object/participant. Both the report and descriptive text try to show rather than tell the reader about the factual condition of the object. Readers by themselves will catch the impressive point of the object through that showing writing style. What make different, between report and descriptive text, is the scope of the written object. If we talk about, eg: bicycle, it belongs to report text. It will talk about bicycle in general; its parts, physical strength, function for certain people or other general characters of bike. In the other hand, descriptive text will convey more focus, for example “my bicycle” with its specific characters; colour, length, wheel style, etc.
In short, report text describes the way of certain things and frequently refer to phenomenon of nature, animal and scientific object. Mostly, report is written after getting careful observation. This scientific and technical sense make clearer difference from descriptive text. The way of descriptive text in showing thing is based on the objective fact of the thing. It describe the specific thing simply as the thing is.