here to provide the overview of the scheme of the critical thinking test used in this study.
B. The Concept of Writing Ability 1. Nature of Writing
Writing is one of the four major language skills. It is commonly considered as the active or productive language skill. Through writing, people can
convey their ideas to someone else. According to Browne, writing is a complex activity involving many skills
to determine ideas and to transfer the ideas onto a piece of a paper clearly and comprehensibly for the readers.
19
Meanwhile, Ploeger states that writing is an activity intended to observe the knowledge and feeling of a writer about something, which, then the result is
communicated to hisher audiencereaders.
20
On the other hand, Langan asserts that writing is a skill that can be learned and developed through practices.
21
Based on the explanations above, it may be concluded that writing is an activity that involves a series of steps to transfer thought or ideas to paper. When
the writers are writing, they try to convey the things in their mind to readers through the writing that they write. Also, writing is a skill that can be learned and
developed through practices which mean the more often the learners practice to write, the better they will be able to write.
2. Writing Process
To write well, there are a number of processes to consider by writers. Each writing process has its own significance and goal. Therefore, in order that writers
can create the effective composition, each writing process should be conducted carefully.
19
Ann Browne, Teaching and Learning Communication, Language and Literacy, London: Paul Chapman Publishing, 2007, p. 81.
20
Katherine Ploeger, Simplified Paragraph Skills, Illinois: NTCCotemporary Publishing Group, 2000, p. xiii.
21
John Langan, Exploring Writing: Paragraph and Essay, New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2008, p. 7.
Oshima and Hogue propose the four steps in the writing process comprising creating ideas, organizing ideas, writing a rough draft, and polishing
the rough draft by editing and making any revisions needed.
22
In line with Oshima and Hogue ’s view above, Ploeger reveals that the
writing skill covers five processes as follows: a. Planning
To think and contemplate about what to write by determining a topic, and gathering some information related to the purpose, audience, topic, and main
idea of the writing; b. Drafting
The process in which a writer pours hisher outline or idea into a text; c. Simmering
This is the incubation time on which the writer takes a break or keeps away from the writing activity for a few moments. In case there is any ideas come
into the writer’s mind, the ideas will be saved into a folder to be used later; d. Revising
To reconsider and focus on different aspects of the composition, for instance the organization of the ideas and the sentence structure;
e. Editing To have any correction of the shortcoming or errors of the writing found, such
as punctuation, spelling, and so on.
23
Moreover, Ruetten and Pavlik state that there are four steps of the writing process as follows:
a. Prewriting The step which is commonly conducted in the initial process of writing before
the writer writes hisher thought onto a piece of paper. It comprises the activity of considering audience or the readers, getting ideas, narrowing the
topic through brainstorming, deciding a controlling idea, choosing support of the idea, and organizing the idea logically;
22
Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Introduction to Academic Writing, New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007, 3rd Edition, p. 15.
23
Katherine M. Ploeger, op. cit., pp. 6 —10.
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