requests and questions, the simple past tense is often used instead of the simple present to express a more deferential”
35
In giving an offer or a request by using the past form, it is more polite than using the present form because by using the
present form, it g ives the impolite statement or offer. For example: “Did you
want to come in?” is more polite that “Do you want to come in?”
3. Writing
a. The Definition of Writing
Writing is a skill that not easy to be done. The learner has to think about the ideas and t
he details to connect them correctly. John Langan said that “writing is a process of discovery that involves a series of steps, and those steps are very
often a zigzag journey.”
36
On the other hand, writing is a long process. There are many steps in the writing process that should be mastered by the writer. Because
writing is a skill, someone should practice it for a better writing. The four basic principles that must learn to write effectively, they are: 1
start with a clearly started point, 2 provide logical, detailed support for your point, 3 organize and edit connect your supporting material, and 4 revise and
edit so that your sentences are effective and error-free.
37
From the four basic principles above show that writing is a chronological process. The first principle is we have to know what we are going to write, and
then search the detail to support our idea, organize it, and the last is edit our
writing to make it perfect.
b. The Writing Process
According to John Langan in his book, Basic Principles of Effective Writing, there are four steps in writing processes; prewriting, writing first draft,
35
Ibid.
36
John Langan, English Skills, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001, p.12.
37
Ibid., p.4
revising and the last is editing
38
. The first step is prewriting. With this step, writer is hoped to think about the topic and what is the writer going to write. After
thinking about the idea of the writing, the writer can start to write the first draft, revising, and editing the writing, so the errors can be deleted in this last step.
1. Prewriting
Many people have trouble getting started writing, so in this first step “they are five techniques that will help to think about and develop a
topic and get words on paper: freewriting, questioning, making a list, clustering, and preparing a scratch outline.”
39
These techniques help to do the writing process and make writing easier.
In freewriting, the writer only writes what are the ideas come to the writer‟s mind. The writer only keeps writing without stopping. The second
is questioning. In this technique, the writer can make the questions about the subject that the writer wants to write. The third is making a list. In
making a list, the writer only has to write the list about the aspects that relate to the topic. The next is clustering. This technique can be done by
stating the subject or the topic in the center of a paper. Then, the details or the ideas can be put in the boxes or circles around the subject, and draw
lines to connect them each other. The last is preparing scratch outline. The details that are not needed or not connected with the subject can be crossed
by the writer with this technique.
2. Writing a First Draft
After the writer does the prewriting, the next step is writing a first draft. Writing a first draft must be hard to do without prewriting before
because in this step, the writer writes the ideas or the arguments into a text. “While writing your first draft, focus on getting your meaning down on
paper; do not be overly concerned with grammatical correctness at this
38
Ibid., p. 17.
39
Ibid., p.18.
stage.”
40
In writing a first draft, the writer should more focus on the meaning of hisher writing than the grammatical of the writing.
3. Revising
After writing a first draft has been done, the real work of the writing begins because revising spends more time than writing a first draft
or doing prewriting. As a writer, revising is an important process in writing. In this process, the writer needs to reread and correct all of the
ideas, connect with the topic or not. “Rewriting means that you rewrite a paper, building upon what has already been done, in order to make it
s tronger.”
41
The writer has to rewrite what have already been written in writing a first draft to a new paper to make it stronger than the first one.
4. Editing
In this last process, the writer should correct all of the errors and mistakes that have been ignored in the previous process. Because it is the
last process, the writer should be very careful to check the whole of the writing. The writer should make sure that every sentence is correct in
grammatical or mechanical aspect.
4. The Recount Text
A. The Definition of Recount Text
Recount text is used to retell the story that had happened in the past time. According to Anderson “recount is a piece of writing that retells past events
usually in order in which they happened and the purpose of a recount is to give the audience a description of what occurred and when it occurred”
42
. In other source tells that “the purpose of a recount is to tell the readers what happened in the past
40
Regina L. Smalley Mark K. Ruetten, Refining Composition Skills Rhetoric and Grammar, Boston: Heinle Heinle Publisher,1995, p. 12.
41
Langan, op.cit., p.26.
42
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 3South Yarra: MacMillan, 1997 , p.24.
through a sequence of events.”
43
In other words, recount text is writing text type which retells the past event chronologically. The purpose of recount text is to
describe what happened in the past time through sequence of the events to the reader.
B. The Schematic Structure of Recount
Every text has a schematic structure. And according to Anderson, recount has three schematic structures. They are, “orientation, events, and re-
orientation.”
44
The orientation is the opening of the recount text. It is consists of background information about recount text. Events tell about what happened in a
chronological order. Re-orientation is the conclusion of the recount text.
1 Orientation
In this part, the writer tries to introduce the recount writing to the readers, so the readers know about the details of setting or background
informa tion about the events. “The orientation is consists of background
information about who were involved in the story, what, when, and where the events takes a place. It is in the first paragraph.”
45
This orientation is in the first paragraph as an opening of the recount text.
2 Events
The orientation is followed by the events of the recount text. The function of the event is to “tell what happened in a chronological order.”
46
Event is the main important part of recount text because those events are the core of the story. This is followed by a series of paragraph that tell
about all of the past events that happened in the story.
43
Th.M. Sudarwati Eudia Grace, Look Ahead An English Course for Senior High School Students Year X, Jakarta:Erlangga, 2006, p.30.
44
Anderson, loc.cit.
45
Ibid.
46
Sudarwati, op.cit., p.30.
3 Re-orientation optional
In this part, the writer can choose to give the conclusion for the readers or not. Re-orientation is about the conclusion of the experience. It
is optional because some recounts are only consists of orientation, and the series of events. The conclusion and comment of the story can be given in
this last part.
C. The Language Features of Recount Text
Anderson divides the language features of recount text into four, they are: 1 proper nouns to identify those involves in the text, 2 descriptive words to
give details about who, what, when, where and how, 3 the use of the past tense to retell the events, and 4 words that show the order of events
47
In the other words, those language features above help to write the recount text. The first is proper nouns to identify those involves in the text. It is useful to
show who, where and when the story took place, for example; Rina, at home, South Africa, etc. The second is descriptive words. It is used to give details about
who what, when, where, and how the events happen. The next is the use of the past tense. Because recount is retelling a story that happens in the past time, so the
using of the past tense is needed to make sure the readers that the events is happen in the past time. The last is words that show the order of events, for example, first,
next, then, etc.
D. The Types of Recount Text
According to Anderson and Anderson there are many types of recount text, they are: 1 eyewitness accounts, 2 letters, 3 conversations, 4
newspaper Reports, 5 television, 6 interviews, and 7 s
peech.
48
47
Anderson, op.cit., p.24.
48
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 1, South Yarra: MacMillan, 1997 , pp. 56-75.
Firstly is the eyewitness account. The purpose of the eyewitness accounts is to provide details about the past event chronologically, such as the accidents,
the explosion a flight, etc. The audience can be a reader of newspaper or can be a police officer. Secondly, is letters. Letters is written for some reasons, one of them
is to tell the events that have happened in the past, for example writing about the activities in last holiday to a friend. Thirdly, is conversations. The conversation is
spoken by two or more people to tell the listener about something. In this case, the conversation tells about past event, for example, telling about what happen this
morning or last night. The next type is newspaper reports. In newspaper the reader can read about some events that have happened in the order in which they occur,
for example how a robber stole some money in the bank last night, etc. The next type is television interview. In television interview, there are reporter who asking
the questions and interviewee person who being interviewed. The reporter asks to
recount part of the interviewee life. The last type is speech. ” Speech is a spoken text that can have a variety of purposes. A recount speech would be one
where the speaker tells the audience about a past happening. The speaker would recount the events in
the order in which they took place.”
49
On the other hand, a speech has many purposes, but in recount speech, the speaker in speech is
someone who tells to the audience about a past event.
5. The Previous Studies
There are three previous studies that the writer takes about error analysis. They are Nita Sugiarti and Dede Rosdiana.
An Analysis on Students’ Grammatical Errors in Writing Recount Text, and
An Analysis Of Students’ Errors In Writing Narrative Text.
The first previous study is about an analysis o n students‟ grammatical
errors in writing recount text, case study in the first year student of SMAN 3 TangSel. The study focused on what the most grammatical error and causes of
error that made by the students in writing recount text. The result of the research
49
Ibid., p. 74.
