Based on
Grabe and Stoller 2002:17, reading for general
comprehension is the ability to understand information in a text and interpret it appropriately. There are also some processes involved in fluent reading
comprehension, i.e. a rapid, an efficient, an interactive, a strategic, a flexible, an evaluating, a purposeful, a comprehending, learning, and a linguistic process.
Nuttal as quoted by Fitriani 2008 claims that there are two main reading
processes, encoding and decoding 1982: 4. Encoding is the process done by the writer. He or she puts his or her ideas, facts, feelings and arguments to some one
else. Meanwhile, decoding is a process done by the reader. The reader will determine what the writer’s ideas or arguments are.
2.2.3 Definition of Writing
Reading has many definitions, so does writing. Some experts give their definitions
about writing. Boardman and Frydenberg 2002:11 stated that writing is a
continuous process of thinking and organizing, rethinking and reorganizing. This means that in writing process, the writer should think of the idea he or she wants
to be written first, then realize the idea into sentences, and arrange those sentences into a good paragraph or text. These processes are done continuously till he or she
succeeds in creating a meaningful paragraph or text. Another expert defines writing as a skill which has been developed in
civilized society to pass on knowledge or messages beyond the constraints of here
and now Nagaraj, 1996: 134.
Writing is the act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, or other material, for the purpose of recording the ideas which characters
and words express, or of communicating them to others by visible signs http:www.brainyquote.comwordswrwriting240703.html.
In teaching writing, especially for junior high school students, a teacher is required to express the various meanings interpersonal, ideational, and textual
in many forms of interactional text and monologue, especially those in the form of descriptive, narrative, spoofrecount, procedure, report, and anecdote
Competency Based Curriculum 2004, 2004: 5. Writing, then, can be said as a means of communication where written
form is used to express the writer’s purpose based on his experience. A writer expresses his ideas, experiences, thoughts, and feelings through writing for a
specific purpose. And he can write what he wants to say only if he has acquired some past experiences. By experiences here means the facts, opinions or the ideas
that the writer gets from another person through direct perception, hearing or
reading Yulianto, 1991: 43.
According to
Boardman and Frydenberg 2002:12 – 30, good writers
go through six basic steps, but for junior high students there is a step which should be omitted, because it is not suitable to the level of their ability. Each step can be
repeated as many times as necessary. Those steps are:
1 Generating Ideas
The purpose of this step is to think about a certain topic and generate as many ideas as possible. There are many ways to do this, two of
the most effective are 1 brainstorming; this can be done individually or in groups. The purpose of brainstorming is to think about and write down a
lot of ideas without worrying about what they are, how they are ordered, or even whether you will use them; and 2 free writing; this is similar to
brainstorming, the most important aspect of free writing is not to allow ourselves to stop, just let our ideas and imagination flow.
2 Organizing Ideas
This step helps the writer to get some ideas for creating a paragraph. There are also two methods in organizing ideas, they are topic
outline and tree diagram.
3 Writing the First Draft
This step should make sure that the writers read their writing carefully in order to make changes and corrections before they consider it
finished.
4 Rewriting
Rewriting is a critical part of the writing process and consists of two separate processes, i.e. revising and editing.
5 Writing the Final Draft
However, from all of those steps, the most important aspect in writing is the selection and organization of experiences in carrying out a certain purpose.
Therefore, writing is not simply drawing a range of orthographic symbols but actually it involves a complex process where students have to use certain
grammatical rules in organizing the facts.
All writing aims at clear and efficient communication. Those steps above
lead to these aims. As stated by Anne Raimes 1983 as quoted by Nagaraj
1996: 134 that a clear and efficient communication in writing can be represented diagrammatically as follows:
Producing a piece of writing
SYNTAX CONTENTS
Sentence structure, Relevance,
clarity, sentence boundaries
originality, logic, etc stylistic choices, etc
GRAMMAR THE
WRITING PROCESS
Rules for
verb Getting
ideas, agreement,
getting started,
articles, pronouns, etc writing drafts, revising
AUDIENCE The readers
Clear, fluent, and effective
communication of ideas
MECHANICS PURPOSE
Handwriting, The
reason for
writing spelling,
punctuation, etc ORGANIZATION WORD
CHOICE Paragraphs, topic
Vocabulary, idiom, tone and support,
cohesion and unity
Nagaraj 1996: 134
The diagram above clearly illustrates the complex of sub-skills that go to
make a piece of writing coherent, effective and communicative Nagaraj, 1996: 134. It can also lead us to conclude that when writing, student does not only have
to keep his purpose of the writing in his mind, since there are many factors which support a clear and effective communication of ideas according to the diagram,
but he also has to think about the facts, opinions or idea which are relevant to his
purpose and think about how to organize them in his composition Yulianto, 1991: 43.
Just as writing is a process, the teaching of writing is a process too. We have to start writing from the simplest stages to the most complex ones.
2.2.4 Objective of reading
