The Reasons of Teaching Writing
22 1
Unity Bram 1995, p. 20 explains unity as “oneness”. The whole sentences in a
paragraph should focus in one unity. This will be achieved if a paragraph has a clear topic sentence. The clear topic sentence in a paragraph will help the readers
understand the information from the writing. He also suggests the writers to put a clear topic sentence in the very beginning of the paragraph. The topic sentence
must be explained by supporting sentences. The writers ‟ job is to explain and
clarify “the problem” found in the topic sentence to the whole paragraph. The writing should be understandable and interesting to read by the readers so that the
readers do not need to solve the message of the writing by themselves. In
line with Bram 1995, Kammer 1949, p. 175 argues that “unity guides the writer in putting those things together that belong together and keeping
those things apart that should be kept apart.” From this statement, the writer has the right to decide which sentences should be kept together or kept apart in order
to see the unity of the paragraph. 2
Coherence According to McCrimmon 1984, p. 209, a paragraph can be considered
as coherent when the reader can move easily from one sentence to another and read the whole paragraph than in each separate sentence. In this case, coherence
has related to the connection in each sentence the writer makes. The paragraph that does mot connected between each sentence will be confusing to read.
Bram 1995, p. 21 states that coherence plays a crucial role in making paragraph well-constructed. To achieve coherence, the writer needs some
23 connectors between each paragraph to be connected each other. Those connectors
are however, although, finally, and nevertheless. Another expert, Kammer 1949, p. 186 explains that coherence means
“sticking together”. This coherence can be found in a paragraph in which one idea follows another idea in a good order. Those ideas help the reader understand the
meaning of that paragraph. 3
Mechanics Mechanics are the important things that the writer tends to forget in
writing. The content of the writing will not be good if the writer has really bad mechanics of writing. Due to its importance, this part provides the explanation of
mechanics aspect of writing. According to Cali n.d., the mechanics aspects of the middle school
students are spelling, punctuation and paragraphing. The spelling focuses on acquiring the specialized content-area of vocabulary. It is taught by using new
strategy so that the students can identify the potentially misspelled words found in writing. In order to help them, Cali states that they can use the dictionary or spell-
checker. The students must pay attention to other mechanics aspect such capitalization as it is mentioned by Cali.
Meanwhile, Bram 1995, p. 92 explains punctuation as indispensable to careful writing. The writer has to pay attention to the correct use of punctuation in
a sentence in order not to make different meaning. Because of its importance, the punctuation should be put in a good order.