Free Writing Stages Process in Writing

11 Skateboarding in the suburbs Anybody over the age of six knows that there is nowhere safe for skateboarders to skate. This prevents young people from enjoying an active, energetic and adventurous pastime. Just watch a local street for a short while and note the steady stream of skaters speeding up and down the footpaths. Toddlers can be trampled on and little old ladies can be knocked down as they struggle home carrying their cat food from Coles. Thunderous rattles are heard on our main roads each night as skaters travel without lights and without warning in the paths of oncoming cars. Skateboarding is a serious sport that improves young people’s health. It increases fitness, improves balance and strengthens the joints in knees and ankles. Although it appears to be a solo sport, when groups practice together and compete to perform stunts or runs they form firm friendships. Young people should be prevented from becoming over weight couch potatoes. If they are actively involved in skating, they are not smoking, taking drugs or breaking other laws for fun. Kids will always seek thrills and excitement. They need to practice their 180s, 360s and Ollies free from restrictions. We must build skate parks in the suburbs so that streets are safe for small children and senior citizens and so that skaters have spaces where they can race, chase, speed, and soar towards the sun. 24

4. Purpose of Writing

There seem to be many different kinds of writing: novels, poems, short stories, script, letters, essays, reports, reviews, instructions all quite different. But they’re all writing. They all have the basic aim of getting ideas from one brain into another. There are three common purposes in writing: 24 Printed from the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Guide http:www.ltag.education.tas.gov.au www.illawarrasouthcoast.sreg.education.nsw.gov.au... ... on February 25, 2012. 12

a. Writing to entertain

Entertain does not necessarily make the reader laugh but it at least engages their feelings in some way. People who read imaginative writing can be entertained emotionally gripped by something very serious, even sad, as well as by something funny. An exciting plot can involve the emotions. Writing that involves emotions can also be reflective or contemplative. The examples are novels, stories, poems etc.

b. Writing to inform

Inform tells the reader about something. It can also be entertaining but that is just a bonus is not the main purpose. The examples are newspaper articles, scientific or report business etc.

c. Writing to persuade

Persuade tries to convince the reader of something. It includes the opinions but as part of logical case backed up with the evidence. The examples are advertisement, some newspaper and magazine articles etc. 25

B. Descriptive Writing 1. Definition of Descriptive

Description is about sensory experience-how something looks, sounds, tastes. 26 There are so many things in life that can be described, objects exist by the trillion; people by billion; views are infinitely available. So the obvious place to begin is with us. Besides, description gives sense impression. The feel, sound, taste, smell and look of things. Emotion maybe described too, feelings such as happiness, fear, loneliness, gloom and joy. Description helps the reader, through hisher imagination, to visualize a scene or a person, or to understand a sensation or an emotion. 27 25 Kate Grenville, Writing from Start to finish a six step guide, Australia: ALLENUNWIN, 2001, pp. 1 – 2. 26 Thomas S. Kane, The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing, New York: The Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 351. 27 George E. Wishon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English. New York: Litton Educational Publishing, 1980, p. 128. 13

2. Organization of Descriptive

Descriptive writing appeals to the senses, so it tells how something sight, sound, smell, touch, andor taste. Most descriptive writing depends on visual details-what what the writer has seen and wants to the readers to visualize in their minds. The following list contents descriptive words for each of the five senses. Note that some of the words are more specific than others from the table below. 28 Table 2.2 List of Descriptive Words. Sight Sound Smell Touch Taste Light Noise Musty Soft Salty Glare Bang Fresh Velvety Sweet Moonlight Tinkle Rain Washed Sharp Sour Based on the table above, it can convey the essence of the subject by using sensory details to appeal to our reader’s imagination. As much as possible, we should try to evoke all five senses. Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Chooper also give the similar sense in using sensory to describe, there are: 29 a. The sense of sight. When people describe what they see, they identify the objects in their field vision. b. The sense of hearing. In reporting auditory impressions, writers seldom name the objects from which the sounds come without also naming the sensation: the murmur of a voice, the rustle of the wind, the squeak of a hinge, the sputter of an engine. Onomatopoeia is the term for names of sounds that echo the sounds themselves: squeak, murmur, hiss, boom, tinkle, twang, jangle, rasp. Sometimes writers make 28 George Braine, Writing From Sources, USA: May field Publishing Company, 1996, p. 98. 29 Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Chooper, Op. Cit., pp. 373—379.