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understand, and give a short overall comment for the students to let them know how far their successfulness in the task given.
The principles of writing help teachers to set the track for the teaching and learning activities. Since the reading is integrated in writing materials, which ends
at students’ abilities in writing, teachers need to pay attention much on students’ writing activities. Each student has different writing proficiency so that teachers
need to assist students in the process of writing even tho ugh they work in groups. Harmer 1991: 330 - 331 stated that,
“… will be to motivate students, creating the right condition for the generating of ideas, persuading them of the usefulness of the activity, and
encouraging them to make as much as efforts as possible for maximum benefits. … we should be ready to supply information and language where
necessary. Teachers should respond positively and encouragingly to the content of what the students have written.”
Therefore, teachers need to encourage students to express ideas without fears toward errors.
c. Purpose of Writing
According to Harmer 2006: 330, there are two purposes as follows; 1
Writing-for-learning, which means the kind of writing we do to help students learn language or to test them on that language.
2 Writing-for-writing, in which we build the students’ writing skills or
getting them to write for language practice and lead them to writing habit. The purpose of writing in this study falls between those two purposes because
writing- for- learning belongs to communicative competence measurement, while writing- for-writing is the students’ communicative competence in the target
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language. Writing- for-writing through the designed materials would lead students to creative writing.
Gaffield-Vile 1998: 31 as cited in Harmer 2006: 328, says that “Creative writing is a journey of self-discovery, and self-discovery promotes
effective learning. While students are writing a simple poem about someone they care about, or while they are trying to construct a narrative or tell stories, they are
tapping into their own experiences. This provides powerful motivation to find the right words to express such experience.”
d. Writing Processes
Writing is a recursive process that involves at least four distinct steps: pre- writing, drafting, revising, and editing. A recursive process means a cycle; when
conducting the revision, the writer has to move back to the pre- writing step to develop and expand the ideas. The recursive processes are described as follows:
1 Pre- writing
Pre- writing helps students learn to choose their own topics and to generate ideas and information to use in their writing. It includes thinking, taking
notes, talking to others, brainstorming, outlining, and gathering information interviewing people, conducting library research, assessing data, etc. This
step also involves any activities that generate ideas; clustering, free writing, putting down ideas as they occur, in whatever order, in whatever
grammatical order. Students are led to do the mind- mapping. A mind- map is tentative and exploratory. By making a mind- map, students do what it is
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called as the brainstorming; students do the exploration to decide what points to write, cluster it and then to outline those ideas into paragraphs in
the next stage. A mind- map also helps students to form logical order of reasons; 5W+ 1H What, Who, Where, When, Why, and How. Students
also discuss each other’s topics, whether those topics will be acceptable in its presentation.
2 Composing
Drafting is the stage where the writer puts the ideas into sentences and paragraphs. The writer concentrates on explaining and supporting the ideas
fully into paragraphs. In this stage, the students write without too much attention on the minimum requireme nts; grammar, spelling, punctuation,
etc. Students write based on the outlines made in the previous stage. The points to consider in this stage are the coherence, cohesion, and clarity for
each paragraph. 3
Revising Revision is the key to effective documents. The writer needs to think more
deeply about the readers needs and expectations. The writer needs to set out questions such as “Is the main point clear? Is the support adequate? Is the
development logically arranged? Is there any irrelevant material to be taken out?”
Students as the writers can do what it called as the proof- reading. Proofreading can be done between the group members, in turn.
The revision is done after the content is coherent and clear for readers. At this stage, the students also refine the prose, making each sentence as
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concise and accurate as possible. Make connections between ideas explicit and clear.
4 Editing
This stage is where students check the grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structures, and mechanical errors in order to fit the minimum
requirements. Students can go over every sentence, to make sure that each is complete. In this stage, teachers play the major role. After the submission of
the writing assignments, teachers have the task to re-check the pieces of students’ writings by giving marks on the mistakes and comment on it for
improvement, as described in
http:web.mit.eduwritingWriting_Processwritingprocess.html Tribble 1996: 122 described the process of writing in writing classroom
as the following chart which consists of five steps:
Figure 2.4 Writing Cycle Raimes, 1983: 139
Selection of topic
Preparation for writing
and prewriting
activities Writing
Rewriting, Editing,
Proofreading Teachers’
marking of paper
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Types of Writing
According to White 1986: 46 - 47, there were three kinds of writing. Those three types were:
1 The Expressive Essay: the author wishes to entertain other with an
interesting experience, real or imagined. Essays about real experiences are called narratives, personal- experience stories, or simply personal essays.
Such expressive writing is characterized by vivid descriptions and by a storytelling method of relating events.
Expressive writing emphasizes emotional responses, rather than intellectual responses. Expressive writing allows readers to experience
vicariously what the author experience firsthand. Examples of expressive writing are narration and description.
Description is “picture- language”: it allows readers to see objects, persons, and activities in the mind’s eye.
Good narratives will unfold along a rising curve of action; the story will increase in tension until it reaches a climactic moment, after which it will
resolve. 2
The Informative Essay: the author wishes to explain an idea, a phenomenon, or a procedure. To achieve this goal, he or she will use
various techniques to ensure clarity and comprehension. These techniques include definition, classification, comparison, and analysis.
3 The Persuasive Essays: the author wishes to argue a debatable issue and to
change the readers’ minds, or at least to help them understand the issue
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better. Among the persuasive techniques are: appealing to the audience’s perceived sense of values, demonstrating false or defective reasoning on
the part of the opposition, and providing reliable evidence.
f. Good Writing
