4 Step 4: Polishing: Revising and Editing
In this step, the writer polishes what heshe has written. This step is also called revising and editing. Polishing is most successful if heshe can do it in two
steps. First, heshe attacks the big issues of content and organization revising. Then heshe works on the smaller issues of grammar, punctuation,
and mechanics editing.
5
After revising and editing the draft, the last is publishingsharing the final copy.
The steps of writing process above are very important and must be done to make a good composition. It can also be described as follows:
Figure 2.1 Writing Process
2. Narrative Text
a. Overview of Narrative Text
Narrative text is like a storytelling. Woodson points out that narrative is arranging events in a story in chronological order, is also a way of thinking about
5
Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Introduction to Academic Writing: Third Edition, New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007, p. 15.
Prewriting
Organizing
Writing Polishing:
Revising and Editing
Publishing Sharing
those events.
6
Ruetten added that in narrative writing, the writer focuses on a particular incident to support the main point. The incident consists of events that
are linked in time. All the events should support the controlling idea. The writer also includes words and details that support the controlling idea.
7
For more details, it can be seen in the table below
8
:
Table 2.1 Particular Incidents in Narration
Events Details
A scholarship was offered. I applied for the scholarship.
My family didn’t have a lot of money. I didn’t win the scholarship.
Students would study in Italy for the summer.
It covered all expenses, including food.
My father was a factory worker. My mother was a hairdresser.
I was so disappointed that I almost cried.
My mother bought tickets for the opera. I met the man who ran the opera
company. He invited me to apply for a summer
internship. I won a scholarship to music school.
I travelled to Italy. Her client arranged for us to go
backstage. I told him I wanted to be an opera
singer. I auditioned and got the internship.
The school was prestigious. I sang in the opera in Italy.
Based on the table above, it can be seen that narrative uses past tense, because telling about something was occurred or flashback the story.
Moreover, there are some time signals used in writing the story, such as suddenly, then, before, after, at first, finally, now, by noon, earlier, later, next,
soon, the next day, often, at night, previously, and so forth. It is needed to connect the words in narration, either prepositions of time or subordinators in adverbial
clauses of time. The examples are elaborated in the table as follows
9
:
6
Linda Wooson, From Cases to Composition, San Antonio: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1982, p. 145.
7
Mary K. Ruetten and Cheryl Pavlik, Developing Composition Skills: Academic Writing and Grammar, Boston: Heinle Cengange Learning, 2012, p. 35.
8
Ibid., p. 35.
9
Ibid., p. 39.
