organization, accuracy, the use of complex grammatical devices, vocabulary selection, grammatical patterns and sentence structures.
6
The other writing definition says that it is as human act. It means that writing as a way to communicate and the writer will speak through written form in their
own words by reading other resources before.
7
Writing is a way of remembering and a way of thinking as well because it makes ideas permanent, and thus expands
the collective memory of human being than remember idea orally.
8
In writing, idea is put on a medium so that it can be permanent, while in speaking there is no
medium. Therefore, writing is used either as evidence of successful learning in schools or as a means of learning.
9
From those definitions above, the difference between writing and speaking can be seen from the medium. Writing needs medium to put the ideas on it, such
as paper, book, laptop, etc., while speaking the speaker only speak directly although they can use medium such as telephone, video call, etc. but it is just a
connector between one speaker and the other, not a medium to put the ideas. Writing, like speaking, is productive a skill as a way of communication but it has
special demands in communication as a complex process that consists of four stages – prewriting, organizing, writing and revising.
10
The four stages help people arrange their writing well-organized because some people are confused to
start writing and what ideas they will write.
2. Stages of Writing
There are some books which explain stages of writing. Here are stages of writing based on Composition and Grammar II by Laidlaw Brothers and Writing
in Process by Binder and Lopez-Nerney.
6
Tricia Hedge, Writing, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 5.
7
Robert Scholes and Nancy R. Comley, The Practice of Writing: Second Edition, New York, St. Martin’s Press Inc, 1985, pp. 2—3.
8
James C. Raymond, Writing Is an Unnatural Act, New York: Harper Row Publishers, 1980, p. 2.
9
Jack C. Richards, The Language Teaching Matrix, USA: Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 100.
10
Laidlaw Brothers, Op. cit., p. 13.
Stages of writing stated by Laidlaw Brothers
11
:
a. Prewriting
First of all, in order to make writing easier and organized, someone needs to take this stage, which is prewriting, also known as idea-generating stage. In
morphology the prefix pre- means ‘before’, therefore prewriting is an activity we should do before take writing. It is a process in collecting idea that may include
experience or something someone has ever been as bases or sources of their writing. It is free flowing and spontaneous.
12
Writers may take a note or a journal about idea and everything they want to write.
In prewriting stage, one thing might be added to make their writing is recording impressions. It means that sources of writing come from people
including the writer itself, places, objects, events, situations and ideas. The writer can use their journal to discover, capture and preserve for later use.
13
b. Organizing
After writer has done with the first stage, the next is organizing. It means that writer generates ideas which one will be included or discovered for their writing.
14
In this step, writer should be aware of the purpose for writing. Bring it for writing into sharp focus and identifying the audience.
c. Writing
In the next step of writing, which is writing itself, writer gathers all pieces of the ideas and information then creates meaningful and satisfying writing.
15
This process is “the real writing” because writer should gather all of the ideas heshe
gets then creates the important and meaningful point for their writing.
d. Revising
The last step, revising, writer should be the reader position. The writer should evaluate hisher writing – it is better and easier waiting for the next day after
writing, from the reader’s point of view. It is to find out how what the writer has
11
Ibid., p. 17.
12
Ibid., p. 17.
13
Ibid., p. 19.
14
Ibid., p. 25.
15
Ibid., p. 30.
