1 For prepositional verbs like make a mess of, make allowance for, take care of, pay attention to, take advantage of
, the passive forms, in which the prepositional object becomes the subject, are less acceptable.
For example: 1. A terrible mess has been made of the house.
2. The house has been made a terrible mess of.
2 For prepositional verbs like catch sight of, keep pace with, give way to, lose touch with, cross swords with, keep tabs on, give rise to
, only the prepositional object which could be the subject of the passive form. Nevertheless, it is still considered to be
peculiar. For example:
The lifeboat was suddenly caught sight of.
6. Academic Essay Writing
Writing is a language skill which demands accuracy. The accuracy of writing could be evidently proved because writers need to pay attention to meaning and form.
Besides, they have more time to plan, monitor, and modify it until the final writing is done Thornbury, 2006: 92.
a. The Nature of Writing
Based on The Cambridge of Encyclopedia of Language Crystal, 1987: 179, the natures of writing that differentiates it from speaking are:
1 Writing is permanent. Therefore, it could be read and analyzed repeatedly. Harmer 2005: 7 added that written language could be more noticed and read for many times,
while spoken language tends to be ignored and easily forgotten. 2 The participants could not see each other so that it is not feasible for any
clarification or confirmation. 3 Writing demands punctuation, capitalization, spatial organization, color, and other
graphic effects. 4 Lexical and grammatical differences are under significant consideration.
5 Language in written form is more formal than that in spoken.
b. The Significance of Writing
“Writing encourages students to focus on accurate language use and, because they think as they write, it may well provoke language development as they resolve
problems which the writing puts into their minds” Harmer, 2007: 31. Therefore, giving writing class to learners, especially ELESP students, is necessary.
The purpose of the class is to facilitate the best piece of writing possible, given such exigencies as the linguistic and conceptual sophistication of the students,
their knowledge of the subject, and their ability to produce a piece of discourse which conforms to the ‘norms of communication. White and McGovern,
1994: 6
c. Academic Writing
According to Oshima and Hogue 1991: 2, a type of writing which college or university students are required to compose is academic writing. It differs from other
kinds of writing in the audience, tone, and purpose. The audience on academic writing is primarily the lecturer of the class. The tone is formal with impersonal tone.
It also demands more passive forms and technical vocabulary. Then, the purpose of it is specific and mostly is giving explanation.
d. Essay
An essay, according to Muhyidin 1988: 153-154, is a formal composition which consists of introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs which develop one
central idea. The introductory contains the background of the essay and also attracts the readers’ interest to read the essay, whereas the concluding contains the summary
of information presented in previous paragraphs John and Yates, 1982: 202. Additionally, Heaton 1975: 127 stated that an essay includes not only the
production of grammatically correct sentences within paragraphs, but also originality and creativity of the writer to inform and entertain the readers.
John and Yates 1982: 202-203 mentioned that the organization of essay could be in several ways, as follows:
1 Chronological Order
It is the most common way in writing essays that is usually applied in reporting events, explaining process, or explaining cause and effect and is presented in
narrative way.
2 Spatial Order
It is applied in describing places and objects in detail.
3 Logical Order
It emphasizes logical connection among parts of an essay. It could be in deductive order, from general to specific, or inductive, from specific to general. Logical order is
appropriate in constructing generalization.
e. Academic Essay Writing
