a. Prewriting, as a starting point in writing activity to develop the topic that will be discussed by the writer in hisher writing. There are five techniques in
prewriting stage that can be applied by the writer such as freewriting, questioning, making a list, clustering and preparing a stratch outline.
b. Writing a first draft, the writer is just focused on what heshe wants to write about, keeps on the fluency of hisher writing and does not worry yet about
grammatical and writing mechanic. c. Revising, the writer rewrite hisher paper based on what has already been
written by himher. The goal is to make hisher writing be stronger. d. Editing, as the last stage in writing process. The writer will identify and correct
hisher writing for mistakes and errors in grammatical and mechanic of writing that covering punctuation and spelling.
In summary, all the experts’ explanation above have similar ideas dealing
with the process of writing. In producing a writing product, there are some steps that should be done by writer as explained above. The writer will go through those
steps until heshe finished hisher final draft.
3. The Purpose of Writing
There are many experts who explain about the purpose of writing, among them Penny Ur, Halliday, and Ann Raimes
. The first, Penny Ur said that “The purpose of writing, in principal, is the expression of ideas, the conveying of a
message to the reader; so the ideas themselves should arguably be seen as the most important aspect of writing”.
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The second, according to Halliday in Nunan, the written language is used for: action for example, public signs, product labels
and instructions, recipes, maps, television and radio guides, bills, menus, telephones directories, ballot papers,computer manuals, information for
example, news and current affairs magazines, hobby magazines, non fiction books, public notices, advertisement, political pamphlets, reports, entertainment
for example comic strips, fiction books, poetry and drama, newspaper features,
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Penny Ur., A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 163.
film subtitles, games.
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The third, Raimes mentioned the purpose of writing as belows:
Writing hepls our students to learn. How? First, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that we have been teaching
our students. Second, when our students write, they also have a chance to be the adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just
learned to say, to take risks. Third, when write they necessarily become very involved with the new language.
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In summary, the purposes of writing are to give a message, to express ideas, to get things done, to provide information and entertainment, and to give a chance
to our students for applying the language in written form.
B. Recount Text 1. The Definition of Recount Text
Anderson and Anderson stated that a recount is speaking or writing that tell about events that happened in the past.
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Linawati Setiadi et al. explained that: A recount is a piece of writing that tells events in a chronological
sequence. A recount is similar to a narrative text. The story may be an event or situation that took place on a particular day. The order of the
events is very important. A recount can entertain andor inform.
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It can be concluded that recount text represents the past events that experienced in daily life.
2. The Purpose of Recount Writing
According to Th. M. Sudarwati et al. the purpose of recount writing is to tell the readers about past events in series.
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Hyland also stated that the purpose of recount text is “To reconstruct past experiences by retelling events in original
7
David Nunan, Language Teaching Methodology: A Textbook for Teacher,London: Prentice Hall, 1998, p. 84.
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Ann Raimes, Teachnique in Teaching Writing, New York:Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 3.
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Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 1, South Yarra: MacMillan Education Australia PTY LTD, 1997, p. 48.
10
Linawati Setiadi et al, Seri Pendalaman Materi Bahasa Inggris SMAMA, Jakarta: Erlangga, 2008, p. 28.
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Th.M. Sudarwati et al, Look Ahead 1 An English Course for Senior High School Students Year
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, Jakarta: Erlangga, 2006, p. 30.
