2. Stages of Writing
According Harmer, the stages of writing include the following steps that are summarized into Figure 2.1 below:
Figure 2.1 The Stages of Writing
16
a. Planning in the planning phase, there are some things should be considered by writers.
These comprise the purpose, audience, and content structure or the sequence of the facts, ideas, or arguments included of their writing;
b. Drafting the drafting phase refers to the writers’ first version draft in which writers
have manifested what they have planned into a text, yet it may still require some revisions;
c. Editing the editing phase covers the activity of reflecting and revising of what writers
have written. It may be done by the writers themselves who read or reflect their appropriateness of their writing in terms of the ideas, information,
grammatical structures provided in their writing; or this reflecting and editing phases may also be done by other readers who are sometimes called by editors
to help give some suggestions, comments, and corrections of their writing; d. Final version draft
the final version is the last product of the writing that have followed some processes starting from planning to editing. Also, it is the draft that is ready to
be sent to the intended audience.
17
Harmer also asserts that the stages of the writing above may be done repeatedly by writers until they may find their final draft has been contented. In
16
Jeremy Harmer, op. cit., p. 5.
17
Ibid., pp. 4—5.
Planning Drafting
Editing Final Draft
this case, the writers may re-plan, re-draft, and re-edit recursively to arrive at the final version.
18
Similarly, Brown and Hood asserts that although the stages of writing in theory covers respectively the activity of preparing to write, drafting, and revising,
but in practice the processes frequently go flexibly as well as relate between one stage to other stages like Figure 2.2 below
Figure 2.2 The Process of Writing in practice
19
Based on Figure 2.2 above, the process of writing forms some cycles which indicates that among one stage to other stages may relate one another, for
instance the stage of drafting may be preceded and followed by the stages of preparing and revising, and so other stages; these may occur because writing is the
activity which may not only stop in a process starting from preparing to revising, yet to make a good writing, it may require the writers to do some recursive
processes of preparing, drafting, and revising until they may find their writing meets the purpose, reader, content, and situation of the writing.
18
Ibid., pp. 5—6.
19
Kristine Brown and Susan Hood, Writing Matters: Writing Skills and Strategies for Students of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 6.
preparing drafting
revising revising
drafting preparing
3. Purposes of Writing
According to Grenville, writing has some purposes as follows: a. Writing to entertain
writing to entertain is a writing that may engage the readers’ feeling through its plot or the emotion provided in the writing. Some examples of the writing
of which purpose is to entertain are novels, stories, poems, song lyrics, plays, and screenplays;
b. Writing to inform writing to inform is intended to tell readers about something. For example,
newspaper, articles, scientific or business reports, instructions or procedures, and essay for school and university;
c. Writing to persuade writing to persuade means the writing is aimed to convince the readers of
something through providing evidence, for example advertisements, articles, newspaper, magazine.
20
Additionally, Browne mentions other uses or purposes of writing beside what have been mentioned by Grenville above. These comprise writing to express
feeling, to request, to instruct, to record, and to express opinions and ideas.
21
In conclusion, each purpose of writing will tell the readers about the reason why the writers write the text or composition and show it to them; besides,
each purpose will lead to different product or form of the writing.
4. Features of Good Writing
Hairston divides features of good writing into six characteristics as follows:
a. Significant a writing may be considered significant if the writing may make the readers
enjoy it, they may learn something from it as well, and it may fill their needs as they read it;
20
Kate Grenville, Writing From Start to Finish: A-Six Steps Guide, Crows Nest: Allen Unwin, 2001, pp. 1—2.
21
Ann Browne, op. cit., pp. 81—82.
Kategori