2. Writing Skill
Writing is one of productive skills in English. It is a skill of a writer to communicate information to a reader.
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This means that the writer can communicate through a written form. Writing skill is needed for people to get
complete communication besides reading, listening, and speaking skill. That is why writing skill important to be mastered.
In addition, writing skill is also related to the ability in apllying the rule of language to the written form.
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The rule of the language includes grammatical aspects, punctuations, the types of the information, and the rhetoric that the
writer conduct in a communicative event. The writer needs to concern this ability in writing.
Moreover, the writing skill is a complex skill which has to concern many aspects such us planning, organizing, spelling, punctuation, translating to the
readable text, word choice, etc. It also can be more difficult if the L2 learners’ proficiency is weak.
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Furthermore, writing sometimes becomes frustrating for
people because it is not easy to transfer thoughts and feelings from one’s head into words. Even writing is difficult, it can still be mastered by people with a
hardwork because writing is a skill like driving, cooking, etc. It is not an automatic process.
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From the explanations above, the writer infers that writing skill is one of the productive English skills which is difficult to master because the writer needs to
concern several things. They are planning, organizing, spelling, punctuation, translating, word choice, language rule, etc. Even so, writing can be mastered by
working hard or practice because it is a skill not an automatic process.
3. Genres of Writing
Each type of writing has features that make it different from another. It is important for students to know that writing has many genres. According to
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Sanggam Siahaan, The English Paragraph, Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu, 2008, p. 2.
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Ibid.
6
Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice
, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 303.
7
John Langan, op.cit, p. 13.