needs combination of good grammatical structures, vocabularies, punctuation and spelling knowledge. Due to its complexity, it should be learned and mastered
through continuous practice.
2. Genres of Writing
Each type of writing has features that separate them from another. As students are asked to produce many different types of text, it is important for students to
know that writing has many genres. According to Brown, there are some most common genres that students might produce; academic writing, job-related
writing, and personal writing.
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Academic writing is kind of writing used in high school and college classes.
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In other words, academic writing is any writing done to fulfill a requirement for high school or college classes. Academic writing includes paragraphs, usually
introductory paragraph, paragraphs that develop a thesis, and concluding paragraph. Academic writing has some characteristics. First, formal tone. In
academic writing, the author is expected to investigate a research problem from authoritative point of view. Therefore, to make it strong, the argument must be
presented in accurate and appropriate language to avoid loaded and biased language.
Second, the consideration of the use of third-person rather that first-person perspective. The use of third person rather that first person perspective is
considered because the focus in academic writing usually not to who is doing the action, but who is receiving or experiencing the result of the action. To make the
readers focus on the person, thing, or place affected by the action, sentences in the form of passive voice can be used. The other thing that should be considered
while writing an academic writing is references. An academic writer must be responsible to any claims made. Therefore, a list of references as either footnotes
or endnotes is a very important aspect of academic writing. Besides, citing sources
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H. Douglas Brown, Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices, New York: Pearson Education, 2003, p. 219.
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Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Introduction to Academic Writing Third Edition, New York: Pearson Education, 2007, p. 3.
is also important as it makes reader easier to identify the source that is being used. Many kind of texts are classified as academic writing. Some of them are papers
and general subject reports, essays, academically focused journals, short-answer test responses, technical reports for example like laboratory reports, theses, and
dissertations. The next genre, job-related writing, is writing which is written for the
necessity of a job. Phone messages, letters, emails, memos, and manuals are some examples of job-related writing. And the last one, personal writing, is writing that
shows feeling, reactions, and experience that one has ever had. Unlike, academic writings, points that writer’s has in personal writing does not need to be proven.
Some examples of personal writing are letters, greeting cards, invitations, notes, and personal journals.
3.
Type of Structures in Writing
Crème and Lea divide ways of organizing writing into some kind of structures which is commonly used in university writing:
a. Chronology Writing This structure follows time with a sense of the sequence of events, one
following another. This structure makes the writer write a text based on events that happens. The events are related in chronological order or time sequence
which the events took place. b. Description Writing
This structure usually needs to be followed by or linked to explanation. The purpose of this kind of structure is to make sensory details vividly present to
the reader. In writing descriptive, the writer must be able to choose suitable words so details of smell, taste, texture, and sound of an object described can
be shown.
c. Cause-Effect Writing This structure relates events to each other. Unlike the chronology writing,
cause and effect writing relates each other by explaining problem’s cause and the effects that result.
d. CompareContrast Writing This structure shows similarities and differences between two things. In other
words this type of structure explains that two things are similar in some ways but different in others. When similarities and differences are reflected, a
deeper understanding of the items, like their relationship to each other and what is most important about them, is gained.
e. Summary Writing This structure presents briefly about someone says. This is necessary because
a lot of university writing is specifically about discussing what the authors have said about a topic. In other words this type of structure needs a large
reading. Summary writing does not mean rewriting the original one, instead it aims to present basic ideas of the original reading.
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There are many kinds of structure in producing a text as mentioned above. In summary, the way writers choose the structure depends on the purpose and
writers’ point of view of the topic itself. In choosing the structure, writers have to choose the appropriate one so the reader can see clearly what the writers try to
present.
4. The Process of Writing
