21 doing discussion, and giving correction and feedback are some ways to raise
students’ attention span, self-esteem and learning achievement.
2. Writing Skills
In this discussion of writing skills, some main points are presented. Those are the nature of writing, writing as a process, and macro and micro skills of
writing.
a. The Nature of Writing
Read and Hays 2013 state that writing is a complex activity that has wide variety related to the situation, audience, and purpose. Furthermore, Hyland
2003 defines that texts are a set of appropriate grammatical structure and have “slot and filler” pattern in which the sentences can be arranged into a coherent
paragraph by putting those different words in the slots. According to Brown 2001 written language is graphic representation of spoken language, and that
written appearance is almost same with spoken performance, the only difference is in the representation between graphic and auditory signal. It can be said that
writing is a set of written sentences which have particular meaning that the writer wants to communicate with the readers. Writing is one of the productive language
skills but it is different from speaking. Brown 2001 has suggested seven characteristics of written language.
First, permanence deals with the revisions before writing is going to its final. Second, production time leads the writer such times to develop their process in
order to make better final product. But sometimes, some educational contexts ask
22 the students to finish their final writing in fewer time limits, for example in
writing examination. Third, distance deals with the differentiation between writer’s and reader’s characteristics, general knowledge, culture background,
literary schemata, and the most important thing, how the writer’s language will be interpreted by the reader.
Fourth, orthography refers to letters, written symbols, the way spelling and writing words that are accepted and understandable for the students. Fifth,
complexity deals with the process of removing redundancy, arranging and combining sentences in order to produce coherence paragraph, etc. Sixth,
vocabulary is needed in writing activity. Richness vocabulary gives a lot of advantages for the writer in writing a text. Seventh, formality is one of the
characteristics of written language that is the most difficult for ESL students since the students have to describe, explain, compare, contrast, criticize, argue, etc.
In addition, Raimes 1983: 4 establishes the differences of speaking and writing:
1 Speech is universal that everyone learns their native language in the
beginning of their age but not everyone learns reading and writing. 2
Spoken language has numbers of dialects and variations; written language generally has standard forms of grammar, syntax and vocabulary.
3 Speakers can use voices pitch, stress, and rhythm and body language to
convey the meaning; writers only have words to express their meaning. 4
Speakers use pauses and intonation; writers use punctuation. 5
Speakers use pronunciation; writers use spelling.
23 6
Speaking is spontaneous and unplanned; writing is planned, takes time and can be changed.
7 Speakers has listener who is right there and can give direct response
nodding, interrupting, questioning, etc; writers only have reader that can’t give direct response.
8 Speech is usually informal and repetitive; writing is formal and compact.
9 Speakers use simple sentences connected by a lot of “and” and “but”;
writers use complex sentences connected with however, who and in addition.
In the other hand, Langan 2011 states writing can be defined into three, they are writing as a skill, writing as process of discovery, and writing as a way to
communicate with others. Writing as a skill means that writing is not a natural gift and can be learned by everybody. Writing as a process of discovery means that
writing is a process of a discovery that involving several steps and sometimes the writers have to do several corrections, change the shape of their writing, etc.
Writing as a way to communicate with others means that writing can be a tool for communication between the writer and the audience or the reader. Writers have to
know and suit the purpose of the writing with the audiences or readers who will read the writing.
From the explanation above, it can be said that writing has its own characteristics, components and process that differentiates writing from speaking.
Writing also has specific rules and patterns that cannot be ignored by the writers. Those rules make writing become more complex than speaking.
24
b. Writing as a Process
Nation 2009: 114 says that one way to differentiate writing with other language skills is to look writing as a process because writing has seven parts that
have to be filled by the writers. The seven sub processes of writing proposed by Nation are considering the goals of the writer, having a model of the reader,
gathering ideas, organizing ideas, turning ideas into written text, reviewing what has been written, and editing. Nation emphasizes on the communicative aspect
between the writer and the reader so that the writer’s meaning can be expressed and successfully caught by the reader. Harmer 2004: 4 also states that there are
four stages of writing; they are:
1 Planning
Before writers start to write or type they should think about what they are going to write or say. There are three main issues that have to be considered
by the writers in planning stage; they are the purpose of the writing, the audience of their writing, and the content structure of the writing.
2 Drafting
The first version of writing is called a draft. In its way to final writing there will be a number of drafts that need to be edited before they come to be final
writing. 3
Editing Reflecting and Revising Once the writers have done with their draft, they need to read through what
they have written to see if there is any mistake in their writing. In this process, the writers may ask for help from other readers editors to revise
