Writing Ability REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents some theories underpinned the topic of the research. The discussions are divided into some subheadings; namely writing ability, writing achievement, the aspects of writing, writing for EFL learners, Recount text, and types of recount text. The points are described respectively in the following section.

2.1 Writing Ability

Experts have posed many definitions or ideas related to writing. Furthermore, Wingersky et al 1999:4 say that writing is a process through which the writer discovers, organizes and communicates his or her thoughts to the readers. Writing is an activity to create a sequence of sentences organized in a specific instruction and related together in certain ways. It means that the writer communicates with other persons and transfers the messages through writing. It shows that in writing a writer expresses his or her thoughts and ideas to the readers. In other words, writing is a process of communicating to others in which the writer sends his ideas and thoughts in written form to the readers. Writing is one of the media that leads us to transfer the ideas in writing form between the writer and the reader, so that we can communicate well with other people. It is supported by Fairbairn and Winch 1996:32 writing is about to conveying meanings by selecting words and putting them together in a written and printed form. Further, Davies 1996:120 states that in everyday life, we are more likely to use writing not only to remember things but also to organize our ideas. Reflect our experiences, communicate with others, clarify ideas, report events, share opinions, entertain, inform, and persuade. Based on the definitions above, writing is a process to communicate through written ideas or thought which should be done in a proper way to get the message across. Another expert, Richards 1990:100- 101, states that “learning to write well is a difficult and lengthy process, one that induces anxiety and frustration in many learners, even for the natives”. Writing is used as indication of successful learning and as a mean of learning. Because writing provides feedback to the teacher and learner on what has been understood. It needs more competency, skill and curiosity to be a good writer because that is not easy to master in writing. There are some steps to write; find the ideas, make a topic, make sentences, and create a paragraph and so on. Furthermore, McWhorter 2001:4 says that “writing takes practice”. The more practice in writing, the more successful you will be as a writer. The writer needs to practice three basic buildings to communicate the ideas that are the sentence, the paragraph and the essay. It means that practicing in writing English can develop the writing skill. More practice more success because writing English means practice frequently because writing is a complex skill. The students should have the ability in writing sentences to express their purposes and opinions for the interaction and good communication with the reader. Through writing, students can communicate to one another by giving information, persuading, amusing, entertaining, and instructing. In the process of writing, the students should have knowledge of a topic and select relevant information to be included in their writing. The processes of selecting information require the students to understand the information well.

2.2 Writing Achievement