The Nature of Writing

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Description of Related Literature.

1. Writing

a. The Nature of Writing

Many definitions of writing are proposed by many language education practitioners. Byrne 1997: 1 states that writing is the acts of forming symbols, letter or combination of letters, which relate to the sound when we speak, making marks on a flat surface of some kind, arrange according to certain conventions to form words and word arranged to form sentences. Daniels in Ager 2008: 1 defines that writing is used to represent or express the ideas or feelings in such a way that it can be recovered more completely of a system of more or less permanent symbols. Bell and Burnbay in Nunan 1998: 36 point out that writing is a complex cognitive activity in which the writer is demanded to demonstrate control of a number of variables simultaneously at the sentence level-include control of content, spelling, and letter formation- and beyond the sentence structure and integrate information into cohesive and coherent paragraph and text. According to Malay 1988: 5, writing requires a number of things: a high degree of organization in the development of ideas and commit to user 12 information; a high degree of accuracy so that there is no ambiguity of meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis; and a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures to create a style which is appropriate to the subject matter and the eventual readers. Madson 1983: 10 says that there are great numbers of factors in testing writing that can be evaluated: mechanics, including spelling and punctuation, vocabulary, grammar, appropriate content, diction or word selection, rhetorical matters of various kinds organization, cohesion, unity; appropriateness to the audience, topic, and occasion. According to Harris 1969: 56 there are five components which can be used to evaluate writing. They are: contents, grammar, word choice, organization, and mechanics. Raimes 1983: 4 states that writing is a means of communication between reader and writer. There are many components which have to be considered first when people start to write. Those components are: 1 The aim of writing 2 The idea which will be expressed 3 The understanding about a reader 4 Writing process 5 Grammar commit to user 13 6 Syntax 7 Word choice 8 Technique of writing 9 Organization Brown 2001: 348 states that prewriting, drafting, and revising take place throughout the process of writing. Prewriting includes generating ideas, focusing, and structuring. The writing activity starts from drafting. It is concerned with how ideas can be led to a conclusion with a sense of completion. Evaluation deals with the cultivation of a sense of responsibility for being critical to the writing. Lastly, reviewing aims at developing critical capacities and enriching the repertoire of linguistic resources for writing. Silvia 1990: 15 says that teacher’s role is to help students develop viable strategies for getting started finding topics, generating ideas and information, focusing, and planning structure and procedure, for drafting encouraging multiple drafts, for revising adding, deleting, modifying, and rearranging ideas and for editing attending to vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar and mechanics. According to Arthur Brookes and Peter Grundy 1991: 7 – 8, there are many processes that are involved in writing, those are: commit to user 14 a. Deciding what to say, thinking about starting, thinking who we are writing for, thinking about our aim in writing this particular piece, thinking about the way it should be set out on the page. b. Deciding on the order in which we put our ideas, deciding on paragraphing and sub – headings, giving it the title. c. Making sure we have the script right the right font if word – processing. d. Deciding where to put capitals, underlining, italics, quotation marks and other punctuation. e. Using correct spelling, choosing words to convey meaning, finding the best word, most suited to the context. f. Writing a grammatical sentence, writing a fluent sentence that reads well. g. Reading what we have written to see if it reads well, reading with another reader in mind. h. Deleting, adding, or changing the text to suit the reader, proof – reading for small mechanical mistakes e.g. spelling. i. Making sufficient interesting points, illustrating our points to add interest and help understanding j. Referring to the ideas of others.

b. Writing Skills