The Definition of Writing

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

As stated in the previous section, the aim of this research study is to improve students‟ writing skills. Therefore, the discussion in this chapter will focus on the theoretical review, review of the relevant studies, and the conceptual framework. In the theoretical review, the researcher presents the theories underlying the study. In the review of relevant studies, the researcher shows a number of related studies taken by other researchers. In the conceptual framework, the researcher relates the theories to the study.

A. Theoretical Review

The theoretical review presents the theories related to the study. It is divided into three parts. The first part discusses about the theory of writing. The second part discusses about the teaching writing. The third part discusses about the Thinking Maps.

1. Writing

This part covers three main topics; they are the definition of writing, the sub-skills of writing, and the process of writing.

a. The Definition of Writing

In the process of language learning, there are four language skills that must be learnt by the students. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Those are then divided into two major skills, receptive skills and productive skills. Receptive skills are the skills needed to understand the language. Meanwhile, productive skills are skills which enable students to produce language by themselves Harmer, 2007:265. Among those four language skills, writing is categorized as one of the productive skills along with speaking. As stated by Spratt et al. 2005:26, writing is a productive skill which communicates a message in the form of letters and symbols. In other words, writing is a way to express one‟s thoughts and ideas to other people which is presented in the written products. The other definitions of writing are also stated by some experts variously. Nunan 2003:88 stated that writing can be defined as a means of communication which is commonly used to express and impress. It means that the writers do not merely compose words but they have purposes when composing a writing. Their purposes are neither to communicate their feeling in minds nor to communicate their ideas to the readers. Another definition was stated by Brown 2001:335 who defined writing as a written product of thinking, drafting, and revising that require specialized skills. It involves skills on how to generate ideas, organize the ideas coherently, put the ideas cohesively into a written text, revise the text for clearer meaning, edit the text for appropriate grammar, and finally produce a final product. From the explanation above, it can be concluded that writing is a productive skill which is used as a means of communication and has a purpose to express one‟s thoughts and ideas to the readers in the form of written products. Moreover, writing is a complex activity that involves stages of steps such as thinking, drafting, and revising before producing a product of writing.

b. The Sub-skills of Writing