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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
A. Literature Review
1. Definitions of Writing
Writing is one of the four language skills after listening, speaking, and reading that must be learned by students at junior high school. Writing involves
some aspects such as content, organization, originality, and accuracy. Some experts have given many definitions about writing. Brookes and Grundy 2000: 1
state “written language was thought by some to be spoken language put into written form. …. Furthermore, the assumption that writing is putting the spoken
language into written form is only true for activities like taking down dictation or transcribing a tape.” Therefore, writing is more than putting spoken language into
written form. Writing is more than making a sentence, but it is a process and a complex
activity. As stated by Harris 1993: 10 “writing is a process that occurs over a
period of time, particularly if we take into account, there sometimes extended periods of thinking tha
t precede creating an initial draft.” Furthermore, he also states 1993: 122 that writing is a complex activity.
To support the definition of writing proposed by Harris, Hedge 1998: 19 states
“writing is a process. In fact, it is a complex process with a member of operations going on simultaneously. Moreover, some writers seem to have a much
better understanding of how to make the process work effectively for them and consequently produce more successful pieces of writing.” we may conclude from
those definitions that writing is a process which involves complex activities to produce successful pieces of writing.
Writing can be defined as a physical activity because a writer is required to be able to do the act of committing words or ideas. It is also a mental activity
because a writer should be able to express and organize ideas into clear statements and paragraphs. In other words, the written text is used to communicate a
particular message. Therefore, readers can understand writers’ ideas in the written
form. Therefore, the nature of writing can be defined as both physical and mental activity that is aimed to express and impress Nunan, 2003:88.
Brown 2001:335 states that writing is written products of thinking, drafting, and revising that require specialized skills on how to generate ideas, how to
organize them coherently, how to use discourse markers and rhetorical conventions coherently into a written text, how to revise a text for clearer meaning
and how to edit a text for appropriate grammar and how to produce a final product. It means that writing is a productive skill. A writer should be able to
express their ideas into a product in the form of writing. Some stages proposed by Brown support Nunan’s ideas that writing is a physical and mental activity, for
example how to generate ideas and organize ideas coherently. Brown 2001:335 suggests that writing is similar to swimming because it is a
learned behavior. People do not learn writing naturally, because it is a skill which only can be done consciously with effort. It cannot be done in a short period of
time. It means that writing must be learned.
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