The Nature of Writing

14 result of their writing. As it is stated by MacArthur C.A, Graham S, Fitzgerald, “writing makes it possible to gather, preserve, and transmit information widely, with great detail and accuracy 2006. Writing is combined effectively into all aspects of our society. For instance, administration of social organization depends on memos and emails, job seekers must complete their written application, and scientists shared their findings and ideas in journal or on web MacArthur C.A, Graham S, Fitzgerald, 2006. The second benefit of writing according to Hyland 2003 is providing students with the experience of an independent performance. The students are accustomed to combine the knowledge of content, process, language, context, and genre. In addition, “Writing provides an important means for personal self- expression” MacArthur C.A, Graham S, Fitzgerald, 2006. People use writing to discover who they are, to fight loneliness, to report their experience, and to create different realities. In fact, according to MacArthur C.A, Graham S, Fitzgerald, “writing can also reduce depression, lower blood pressure, and boost immune system” 2006, p.1. The third benefit of writing is that it offers students the chance to develop and express ideas. Writing activity can be the good chance for EFL students to express their idea or thoughts and develop it into a good paragraph. Writing can make the EFL students accustomed to produce words and develop the topic sentence, so that their thoughts can be clearly communicated. 15

c. Problem of Writing

According to Elbow 1973, writing is not just putting ideas on a paper; it is also creating new ideas during the process. That what makes writing becomes difficult. The following paragraph will discuss the problems in writing according some experts. Gupta says that writing has long been claimed to be a very difficult skill to acquire and is dreaded by L2 student Gupta, 1998. It is difficult because L2 students are potentially different with L1 students. In Hyland ’s theory of writing problem, 2003 it is distinguished by their bilingual and bicultural backgrounds and particularly their previous experiences as writers and students. It means that their first language and cultural backgrounds are being the factors that should be understood as potential of explanation for writing difference. For instance, Indonesian students will face more difficulties in deciding words to be written or spoken because they learn English as Foreign Language not as their first language. It leads the L2 students to face more problems in writing than L1 students. Furthermore, problems in writing are also caused by the insufficient knowledge and inefficient study. As Musch and Broder claimed that it is a consequence of inefficient study habits or a low ability level Musch and Broder 1999 as cited in Daud, 2005. Students who are lack of grammatical knowledge mostly face problems in writing than students who have sufficient knowledge because they could not use the appropriate grammar for their writing.