The Writing Learning Process

beside text book, collect data from informants through questionnaire, interview, and modifyadddevelop. 4 Associating mengasosiasi Associating means processing information that has been gathered, analyzing data in the form of creating category, associating or linking phenomenarelevant information in order to find a pattern and conclude them. 5 Communicating mengkomunikasikan It is a process of presenting a report in the form of charts, diagrams, or graphics; prepare written reports, and presenting a report covering the process, results, and conclusions orally Besides learning process, there is also writing process. Planning, drafting, revising, and editing are the four basics stages of writing process stated by Richards and Renandya 2002: 316. In every stage, it is suggested that it provides various learning activities that can support the learning of specific writing skills. The planned writing experiences for the students can be described as follows: 1 Planning Planning or pre-writing is an activity of writing that aimed to encourage and stimulate the students to write. Planning also brings the students away to have many ideas to write. Since its function is to stimulate students’ ideas to write, the writing activities must be prepared to provide them learning experiences of writing, such as clustering, brainstorming and etc. 2 Drafting At this stage, the students will focus on the fluency of writing and write without having much attention to the accuracy of their works. They must also focus on the content and the meaning of the writing. Besides, the students may be encouraged to deliver their messages to different audience, such as peers, other classmates and etc. 3 Revising The students review and reexamine the text to see how effectively they have communicated their ideas to the reader. Revising is not a simply activity of checking language errors but it is done to improve global content and organization of the ideas so the writer’s intention is clearer for the reader. 4 Editing At this stage, the students are focused on tidying up their works as they prepare the final draft to be evaluated by the teacher. The main activity done by the students at this stage is editing their mistakes on grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentences, diction, sentence structure, and accuracy of supportive textual material. The students are not always expected to know where and how to correct every error, but editing of the best of their ability should be done as a matter of course. In the teaching and learning activity, the teacher must be aware how to conduct an effective learning process. Some criteria are very useful to measure how far they have implemented the effective learning process along teaching and learning activity especially writing learning process. Referring to some experts, the effective writing learning process must have some criteria as follows: 1 Combining the activity with new technology Hyland, 2003:144. 2 Increasing the students’ motivation in writing Harmer, 2001:51. 3 Providing vary materials Christison in Nunan, 2003:273. 4 Providing vary activities Christison in Nunan, 2003:273. 5 Providing many opportunities for students to write Sokolik in Nunan, 2003:92. 6 Getting meaningful feedback Hyland, 2003:177.

2. Teaching Writing

a. Principles for Teaching Writing

A teacher should concern some principles for teaching writing to achieve the goals of teaching and learning process. In the teaching of writing, the teacher is expected to give many opportunities for the students to practice and produce the texts. It means that the teacher should create the situations where the students can practice and produce the text with high motivation and interest. The teacher also should organize the teaching and learning process in order to help the students understand how to write well. So, the teaching of writing is not a simple matter but teacher can create a lot of activities which can raise students’ motivation in writing. By applying the right strategy in writing class, it is believed that students will have high enthusiasm in joining the lesson. Sokolik in Nunan 2003:92 states that there are some principles for teaching writing. They are explained as follows: 1 U nderstand students’ reasons for writing It is important to understand the students’ goal when they are writing. It is a big problem when the teacher’s goals do not match the students’ or when the teacher’s goals do not match those of the school or institution in which the student works. 2 Provide many opportunities for students to write To improve writing skills, the students must always practice. The teacher must give many chances for them to develop their writing skills by providing them some different types of writing. Narrative, recount, report, procedure, and descriptive texts are the examples of writing types that can be provided by the teacher. 3 Make feedback helpful and meaningful The students crave feedback on their writing. The teacher must always provide a feedback for students. In providing a direct feedback, make sure the students understand the vocabulary or symbols that the teacher used. 4 The teacher must clarify himself, and for his students, how their writing will be evaluated. Teacher must evaluate the students’ writing objectively. A rubric is the answer that can elaborate the elements of writing that are to be evaluated.

b. The Reasons for Teaching Writing

There are many reasons why the teacher must teach writing to students of English as a foreign language. According to Harmer 1998:79, reinforcement, language development, learning style and writing as a skill are the reasons why the teacher must teach writing. 1 Reinforcement: To see how the students acquire language is not only by an oral way, but also from the language writing down. The visual demonstration of language construction is needed for students to be an aid to commute new language to memory. It is also useful for students to write sentences using new language shortly after they have studied it. 2 Language Development: The mental activity in writing helps the students to learn by ongoing learning experience. 3 Learning Style: Each student has a different learning style. Writing is suitable for learners who produce language in slower way. 4 Writing as a skill: Writing is included to basic language skills. Besides speaking, the students need to know how to write advertisement, letter, etc.

c. Approaches to Teaching Writing