The use of simple past tense is used in conditional tense that is used unreal past after if and tough so forth.
28
Meanwhile, Marcela Frank also gives the similar statements about the use of the past tense. The past tense may refer to:
29
1. One event completed in the past:
I saw him last night.
They left two hours ago. The word ago requires the use of the past tense, even if the time indicated
comes almost up to the present. 2. Repeated events completed in the past and no longer happening:
When I was young, I went swimming every day.
3. Duration of an event completed in the past:
He lived in New York for thirty years and then he decided to return to
France. In addition, Nasrun Mahmud said that “the simple past tense refers to a
complete action, activity or state that happened or that was true at certain point or at a certain period of time in the past.”
30
Based on the above discussions, the writer concludes that the usages of simple past tense are for stating the activities or events that have started and
finished in the past. So, there is a particular time when someone or people doing the activities. Usually, there is the specific time signals such as, last, …ago,
yesterday, and so on. Sometimes, the students get confused when the time they have to use the simple past tense.
28
Thomson and Martinet, loc. Cit.
29
Marcela Frank, Modern EnglishA Practical Reference Guide, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1972, p. 73.
30
Nasrun Mahmud, English for Muslim University Students, Jakarta: SiwibaktiDarma, 2005, p.69
C. Writing 1. Definition of Writing
According to Barnet and Stubbs “Writing as a physical act, it requires material and energy. And like most physical act, to be performed fully, to bring
pleasure, to both performer and audience, it requires practice”.
31
In writing, writers are asked to present their works powerfully; they have to make the readers
satisfy with their writing. It is important for writers doing practice to improve their writing skill, not only that they also have to expand their knowledge to
develop their skill in writing because more knowledge is for better writing.
Based on Rise B. Axelrodand Charles R. Chooper, Writing makes a
special contribution to the way people think. When we write, we compose meanings, we put together facts and ideas and make something new....
32
It means that writing can make people reconstruct their thought, and then they will make
new thoughts through facts and ideas that have occurred; they try to combine and compare both of them until they are getting new conclusion as a new thought.
In addition, James C. Raymond said that “Writing is more than a medium of communication. It is a way of remembering and a way of thinking as well.
Writing is a way of finding out what we know and what we need to learn. Spoken words disappear as soon as they are spoken; but writing freezes our thought,
makes them visible and permanent so we can examine and test their quality. Writing is also a way of learning. None of us can write much of interest without
thinking, probing, observing, asking questions, experimenting, and reading.
33
To sum up, writing can be said as a media for students to develop their language skill because from writing they can use their knowledge of the target
language that they have been learnt. Writing is the most difficult skill because it
31
Barnet and Stubbs’s, Practical Guide to Writing, Canada: Brown company, 4
th
edition 1983, p. 3.
32
Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Chooper, The ST. Marlines Guide to Writing, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986, p. 1.
33
James C. Raymond, Writing is an Unnatural Act, Harper Row Publisher, New York, 1980, p. 2.
combines receptive skills and productive skills. Writing is also the way to make spoken language permanently.
2. Kinds of writing
Generally, there are three kinds of writing; those are Free Writing, Controlled Writing, and Guided Writing as explained by experts below:
a. Free Writing
According to John Lagan, “Free Writing is just sitting down and writing whatever comes to your mind about a topic”.
34
This opinion also almost the same as Peter and Pat said “Free Writing means writing privately and writing without
stopping. Just write whatever words come to your mind or whatever you want to explore at this moment”.
35
It means that in free writing, the students just write anything what they want to write, without worrying about spelling or grammar, and do not stop until
they run out of something to say in their writing.
b. Controlled Writing
Based on Ann Raimeswho stated that “Controlled writing is all the writing your students do for which a great deal of the content and or form supplied”.
36
She also explained that in controlled writing, the students are focused on getting words
down on paper and in concentrating on one or two problems at a time; and the technique which is considered by her is the students are given a task to work such
as an outline to complete, a paragraph to manipulate, a model to follow, or a passage to continue.
34
John Lagan, Sentence Skills: work Book for Writers, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003, p. 17.
35
Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff, A Community of Writers; A Workshop Course in Writing, 3
rd
Ed, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000, p. 6.
36
Ann Raimes, Technique in Teaching Writing, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 95.
c. Guided Writing
Ann Raimes stated also that “Guided writing is an extension of controlled writing.”
37
She explained that guided writing is less control than controlled writing. In this kind of writing the students are given a first sentence, a last
sentence, an outline to fill out, a series of question to respond to, or information to include in their writing.
3. Types of Writing
According to James A. W. Heffernan and John E. Lincoln in their book “Writing A College Handbook”, there are three types in writing development:
a. Description
Description is writing about the way persons, animals, or things appear. It normally takes one of three forms. Description is divided into three parts:
1 Informative description An informative description simply enables the readers to identify an
object. 2 Analytical or Technical Description
An analytical or technical description enables the reader to understand the structure of an object.
3 Evocative Description Evocative description re-creates the impression made by an object. It can
appeal not just to the eye but to all the other senses.
37
Ibid, p. 103.
b. Narration
Narration or story telling is writing about a succession of events. The simplest kind of narration follows chronological order: the order in which the
narrated events actually occurred or could have occurred. The writer can use events out of the chronological. It means that the writer uses the flash back story.
c. Exposition
Exposition is writing with a referential aim. It seeks to explain someone or something in the world outside the writer. The exposition gives the reader
information or explains something.
38
D. Narrative Writing 1. Definition of Narrative Writing
Betty MattixDietsch says “narration is used not only in fiction writing but also to relay news of a neighborhood or news of a nation, to share research data,
to write reports and other documents. Histories, biographies, journals, college papers, magazines, and even advertisements include narrative. Narration is a
powerful tool that can captivate an audience – stirring the imagination, eliciting empathy, and lending weight to opinion”.
39
James A. W. Heffernan wrote in his book Writing A College Handbook, “narration or storytelling is writing about a succession of events. The simplest
kind of narration follows chronological order: the order in which the narrated events actually occurred or could have occurred”.
40
In addition, James Burl Hogins stated “narration tells story, the story of a sequence of events. Something happens over period of time”.
41
Meanwhile,
38
James A. W. Heffernan John E. Lincoln, Writing a College Handbook, W. W. Norton Company, 1982, pp. 422—424.
39
Betty MattixDietsch, Reasoning Writing English Well, New York: Mc Graw- Hill,2003, p. 123.
40
James A. W. Heffernan , op. cit., p. 86.
41
James Burl Hogins,Contemporary Exposition, J. B. Lippincott Company,1978, p. 66.
Axelrod and Cooper gave their opinion about narration, “narration is a basic writing strategy for presenting action. Writers use narration for a variety of
purposes: they illustrate and support their ideas with anecdotes, entertain readers with suspenseful stories, predict what will happen with scenarios, and explain how
something should happen with process narrative”.
42
Based on discussions above, the writer concludes that narrative writing is a writing which tells about the story of events in a period of time. Narrative writing
is not only about fiction writings, but also about scientific writing can be written in a narration. It presents action with variety of purposes.
2. The Purpose of Narration
Every kind of writing has a purpose, narration also has a purpose. According to Barbara Fine Clouse, “obviously, a narration can entertain because a
good story can amuse readers and help them forget about themselves for a time.”
43
This statement is supported by Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, they said that “the purpose of narrative that is to present a view of the world that entertains
or informs the reader or listener”.
44
In addition, Barbara gave three purposes of narration:
a To express your feeling, you could narrate an account of your final visit with your grandfather for example.
b To inform your readers, you could narrate an account of a typical day for your grandfather, pointing out the advantages he enjoyed because he lived
at the retirement home for example.
42
Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Cooper, Guide to Writing, New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., 1985, p. 386.
43
Barbara Fine Clouse, Patterns for a Purpose: A Rhetorical Reader,New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003, p. 160.
44
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 3, South Yarra; Macmillan, 1977, p. 3.
