making. As Nunan stated that writing involves both physical and mental act.
4
Writing is seen as physical and mental act because it requires the physical act of committing words or ideas into form of a medium, as well as mental act of
finding ideas, thinking of how to express them, and organizing them into distinctly statements and paragraphs. Based on the explanation above, writing can
be defined as a way of communicating or expressing ideas or imagination into the form of structured pattern so that the audience may understand what the writers
mean. In addition writing is a complex activity that requires students‟
comprehensive abilities such as mastering grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation. As Hedge stated that writing involves a number of things, they are a high degree
of organization in the development of ideas and information; a high degree of accuracy so that there is no ambiguity of meaning; the use of complex
grammatical devices for focus and emphasizes; a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and structure sentence to create a style which is appropriate
to the subject matter and the eventual readers.
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Furthermore, w riting is a skill. Believing that writing is a “natural gift”
rather than a learned skill will make people not learn how to write effectively. As Langan stated that idea that writing is a skill must be built as realistic attitude.
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It is a skill like swimming, driving, and like any skill it can be learned. Since writing
is a skill, it makes sense that the more someone practice writing, the better he or she will write.
2. Purpose of writing
Writing seems to have taken on different definitions for different group of people in order to suit their different needs and purposes for writing. In principle,
the aim of writing is the expression of ideas, conveying messages to the audience.
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Determining the purpose of writing is very important because it will
4
Caroline T. Linse, op.cit., p. 99
5
Tricia Hedge, Writing: Resource Books for Teachers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 5
6
John Langan, Eglish Skills – 8
th
Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006, p. 13
7
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 163
give the readers about the ideas or information clearly and effectively from what the writers have written. Some considerations of why determining the purpose of
writing is necessary are it helps to clarify the subject of his or her writing, it helps the writer to classify the audiences according to the needs and interests, and it also
helps the writer organizing the writing. Writers commonly have two main purposes when they write. Firstly, the
intention or desire to express the idea they have in minds, or in the other words, the written text is written to communicate a particular message. Secondly, the text
is written to communicate ideas to the readers. Hart and Reinking divided the purpose of writing into two, they are:
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a. General purpose of writing To inform and to persuade are the most general purposes of why people
write. To inform means a person writes a certain subject or topic with some informations available. And to persuade means the aim of the
writing is to convince the reader to adopt a particular position, to do a particular action, or to do both.
b. Special purpose of writing Besides the general purpose of writing, there is a special purpose which
is more specific. They can be comparing of two video cassette recorders, classifying the chemical contaminants in a lake or steam, giving
directions for taking photographs with a certain type of camera, or define the term “Certified Public Accountant.”
Meanwhile, Clouse identified several different purpose of writing is to share experience, to inform, to entertain:
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a. To share experience, perhaps to express your feelings about the experience of reflection upon it. For example, the writing might tell how
upset you are about the discovery of the mice.
8
Andrew W. Hart and James A. Reinking, Writing for Career – Education Students,New
York: St. Martin‟s Press, Inc., 1986 pp. 3 – 4
9
Barbara Fine Clouse, The Student Writer, New York: McGraw Hill, 2006, p. 252
b. To inform, perhaps to increase the reader‟s knowledge, establish a
record, or provide help. For instance, the writing might explain what happen when a dwelling has mice in it.
c. To entertain. Short stories, romance novels, and humorous newspaper columns are written to entertain. For example, the writing might be a
funny story about what it is like living with mice. Additionally, based on Cox, the purposes of writing are to inform, to amuse,
to satirisize, and persuade. Firstly, to inform means the writer informs the audience about the knowledge she or he has. Secondly, to amuse means to
entertain audience with certain jokes or humours. Thirdly, to satirize means to present a serious matter using humour. Lastly, to persuade means the writer aims
to influence his or her reader‟s thoughts or action.
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In conclusion, writing serves many different purposes for different writer. Through writing, ones can share their ideas, knowledge about something, or their
opinion about particular things. Realizing about the purpose of writing is very important before a student start to write, so he or she can express their purpose of
writing clearly to audience.
3. The Process of Writing
