84 to support the thesis. The teacher considered that a good
essay in student‟s writing needed facts or evidences to convince the reader.
It showed that the teacher asked the student to think about the need for others. It influenced the readers‟ opinion to be persuaded or not. Other needs in
the essay were very important because it helped the reader to understand and to support the essay. The other examples were the teacher said
“Add more sentences.” and “Is it the conclusion? Start with: In conclusion...”. The teacher
knew student‟s need to add more sentences in the paragraph in order to support the content of the essay. Besides, the teacher also gave feedback in making
conclusion that the student had to begin the conclusion on the paragraph using “In
concl usion...”. The teacher had to be aware about the students‟ need in writing
class.
3. Description over Prescription
The next teacher‟s belief was description over prescription. Gebhard and Oprandy 1999, pp. 6-8 state that description over prescription is more than a
belief of guidelines in teaching. The teachers used this belief to know the best method in order to teach their students. The frequency of description over
prescription was recognized 11 times on the teachers‟ comments. A detailed description of teaching in writing class was very useful because the teacher
illustrated the students‟ written feedback clearly. It influenced the teachers‟ method in giving feedback to write the feedback in detail. Thus, the students
obtained deeper knowledge to improve their writing
85 The teachers in Critical Reading and Writing II Class used the belief of
description over prescription in order to give clear and specific comments for the students‟ writing. The teachers also used the descriptions to decide the most
appropriate method in teaching because every class has different characteristic. Therefore, the use of description over prescription avoided misunderstanding
between the teacher and the student. The detailed description in teachers‟ written feedback such as
“You haven‟t indicated the context where the learning take place.”, “I love how you integrate the sources too.”, “Persuasive= not just
explanation.”, and “Second argument, shortened.”
Table 4.16 The Examples of Teacher’s Belief 3
No. Beliefs
Teachers’ Comments
3. Description over prescription.
- You haven‟t indicated the context where the
learning take place. -
I love how you integrate the sources too. -
Persuasive= not just explanation. -
Second argument, shortened.
From that, the researcher found that the teacher had already known the content of student‟s essay. However, the teacher asked the student to elaborate the
context of the essay clearly. In the second comment, the teacher found that the student could integrate the sources to the student‟s writing well. It showed that the
teacher allowed the students to integrate the sources related to the context of essay. In giving written feedback, the teacher also had a freedom to deliver the
knowledge in order to improve the student‟s essay. The teacher said that a good essay have to be persuasive for the reader. Therefore, the essay did not only give
the explanation but also strong opinions supported by evidences. The last
86 comment showed that the teacher asked the student to write their argument
effectively.
4. A Nonjudgmental Stance
