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C Text-specific Feedback versus General Feedback
Text-specific feedback is a kind of comment that directly relates to the text at hand; whereas, general feedback can be attached to any paper. Many experts in that field argued that
teacher feedback is more helpful if it is text-specific. According to Reid, feedback should be informative and detailed enough to help the student writers return to the task of writing but not so
overwhelming that they cannot form a revision plan. As they write, receive response, and revise, students should be able to feel good about what they have done well and realize that they can
improve on what they have not done effectively 1993: 225. There is a role in teacher commentary for general responses. A general response of encouragement is no doubt better than
none.
C. Writing 1. Definition of Writing
Peter Elbow as quoted by Brown 1994:4 says ‘Writing as two-steps process. First you figure out your meaning, and then you put it into language. Second, you figure out what you
want to say; don’t start writing till you do; make a plan, use an outline, begin writing only afterward.
In another case, Done Byrne 1997:1 defines writing as the act of forming letters or combination of letter: making sign of flat surface of some kind.
Furtermore, Nurgiantoro in Rahayu 1998:7 writing activity is the manifestation of language competence and skills, which are required by students after three other skills; reading,
listening and speaking.
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Basically, writing is means of communication between reader and writer. For this reason, writing may be said to represent an attempt to communicate with the readers Raimes, 1983:4
From the ideas above, the writer concludes that writing is a complex process for conveying or delivering ideas, thoughts, opinions and feeling using combination of letter in
written language that other people can understand. It is complex because we have to consider about grammar, spelling accurately,
punctuating meaningfully, linking ideas and information across sentences to develop a topic, etc. Writer means that we have to organize our sentences into a coherent text whole which is possible
and complete in it, so that we are able to communicate successfully with our reader through the medium of writing
2.
The Process of Writing
Writing is a process of expressing thoughts and feelings, of thinking, and of shaping experiences. It requires putting words and larger units into pattern or arrangement for the
purpose of expression. Some experts have identified that writing is commonly seen as a three stage process. Petty and
Jensen 1980: 363, for example, note that writing consists of three phases: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Similarly, Tricia Hedge nominates that the process of writing is often described as
consisting of three major activities or group of activities: prewriting, writing, and post writing or revising Hedge, 1998: 21.
A. Prewriting The prewriting phase helps writers gathering information and ideas. It includes discussion
of proposed writing, namely the theme or topic, ideas and related words, and feelings and thoughts.
In this phase, the writer should consider two important points. The first one is the purpose of his writing. It has something to do with function. Is it a report, which the writer hopes will be
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persuasive and stimulate action? Is it an explanation of how something works, which has to be careful, detailed, and clear? Is it a letter of invitation or a letter applying for a job?
The second important point is the target reader. The reader may be an individual, one you know well, or a group of colleagues, an institution, and so on. Considering the target reader helps the
writer to select the most appropriate style and word choices- formal, friendly, serious, or tentative.
B. Writing The writing phase includes pausing and rereading as the writing occurring, interaction
with others further discussion, consulting resources looking up word meaning or spelling, for example, and reformulating the ideas and organization of composition.
Good writers tend to concentrate on getting the content right first and leave the details like correcting, spelling, punctuation, and grammar structures, until later the writing phase
focuses primarily on what the writer wants to say, while rewriting progressively focuses on how to say it most effectively.
C. Post writing or Revising Post writing phase means rewriting, rewriting, and then rewriting some more. This phase
consists of reading through and trying to apply a reader’s perspective in order to access how clearly readers might flow the ideas. It means that this phase guides the writer to make final
readjustment and checks accuracy so that the text written is maximally accessible to the readers.
3. Type of Text
According to Tri Wiratno 2003 in his book Kiat Menulis Karya Ilmiah dalam Bahasa Inggris there are several types of text namely as follows:
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a. Narrative Text
.
Generally speaking, narrative text i.e., fiction is easier to comprehend and remember than expository text i.e., factual and informational material. The narrative text uses story to
inform and persuade, For one thing, the content of a narrative is usually more familiar than the content of an exposition. Most research on narrative text has focused on teaching students to
utilize story structure as an organizing framework for understanding critical aspects of the stories they read. Even preschool children use story structure to aid their comprehension. As they get
older, children improve in their ability to use it. The most familiar and most studied text structure is narrative text or stories. Although there is no prevailing consensus on the definition of
narrative text and some debate over the features of a story, narrative text depicts events, actions, emotions, or situations that people in a culture experience. A story is written to excite, inform, or
entertain readers and may report actual or fictitious experiences.
While there are no clear boundaries between categories, narratives include myths, epics, fables, folktales, short stories, novels, tragedy, and comedy. The depictions of events are
organized so that the audience can eventually anticipate them. That is, readers must be able to infer motives of characters and the causal relations among events. Most research on narrative
text has focused on teaching students to utilize story structure as an organizing framework for understanding critical aspects of the stories they read. Even preschool children use story structure
to aid their comprehension. As they get older, children improve in their ability to use it. However, students with learning disabilities are slower to develop this ability. They may not be
good at certain tasks, such as picking out important story information, making inferences, and
identifying story themes. Here are instances of Imaginative narrative: Anecdotes, Diary entries, Captions Journal entry, Personal letters Dialogues monologues.
1 The Characteristics
This technique has been applied by using story maps and by asking generic questions based on story grammar. It has also been used to move beyond the plot level of stories to teach
students with disabilities to identify story themes, a more abstract comprehension level than is typically taught to students with learning disabilities. Narratives normally involve
a Animate beings as characters with goals and motives b Temporal and spatial placements usually presented at the beginning of the story.
c A problem or goal faced by the main character that imitates a major goal. d Plots or a series of episodes that eventually resolve the complication
e Impacts upon the readers emotions and arousal levels f Points e.g., justice, honesty, loyalty, morals, or themes. In particular, narrative is such
a fundamental and ubiquitous form that it may be especially problematic to treat it as a genre.
b. Description Text
Description is also often called elaboration. It aims to elaborate what things are as they are or what things do as they do. In other words, description is an elaboration of what real
something is. What are elaborated are the form, size, element, and the characteristics. If only it deals with living being then the elaboration can complement with its habitual life. In addition, if
it covers something gone or missing, description such is identical to narration. A description
text can manifest as elaboration of the process as the process of rain or a procedure about how thing is done like how to operate the washing machine. At glance, the process of rain seems as
procedure, but factually it does not. In the process of rain, the sequence starts in any points like from the evaporation, dew or from the fall of rain itself. The process like that is tending to be
cycle rather than the procedure that cannot be placed randomly as in the procedure of how to make a paper.
Occasionally for describing something needs definition and classification. What is defined usually as technical term, particular term contains
definition or certain concept in certain specialized science. Whereas the classification is the group of something into its class, it is suitable with certain criteria. In context of science,
description text holds a prominent role. It is able to give illustration in table, figure, graphic, diagram, object or area of study.
1 The Characteristics
Linguistically, description text has features as follows:
a It is dominated by simple present tense. This is caused by a factual of description text itself. Exemplified if the temperature in the desert in the day is hot then every people will say it hot.
b It does not exploit human kind so that the more important is the main what is described not the man who describing.
c Conjunction such as firstly, secondly is used merely for setting the idea not for stating the sequence.
d Adjective is a good device for describing form, feature, and the primary elaborated situation.
e It usually reflects the partial or holistic relation. For instance, if what is described the tree then it will be a relation between the tree and the parts of tree like root, trunk, leaves, and branch. It
much more makes use of relational and material verbs. Besides for stating identification in description, relational verb is also used for making a definition. e.g. Deserts are very dry and hot
regions where only few animals and plants can live.
c . Exposition Text.
There are two kinds of this text, namely analytical and hortatory. First is hortatory which has the communicative purpose to persuade the readers by presenting arguments. The
characteristic of this kind is the use of:
1. Emotive words such as alarmed, worried. 2. Words that qualify statement such as usual and probably.
3. Words that link arguments such as: firstly, however, on the other hand, therefore 4. Usually present tense
5. Compound and complex sentence.
Another text is hortatory which has communicative purpose to persuade the readers or listener that something should or should not be the case. The characteristic of this text is the use
of:
1. Emotive words such as alarmed, worried. 2. Words that qualify statement such as usual and probably.
3. Words that link arguments such as: firstly, however, on the other hand, therefore 4. Usually present tense
5. Compound and complex sentence. 6. Modal verbs: can, may, certainly, get, stop.
7. Subjective opinion using pronouns: I and we.
d. Spoof text
Spoof is a text which tells factual story, happened in the past time with unpredictable and funny ending. Its social function is to entertain and share the story. Spoof has generic structure,
namely orientation in which the characters, setting and time of the story are established, events which tell what happened, twist which is unexpected thing or funny thing. The characteristic of
spoof is the use of:
1. Focusing on people, animals or certain things. 2. Using action verbs; ate, run.
3. Using adverb of time and place 4. Using pst tense
5. Told in chronological order.
4. Micro skill of Writing
1. Follow conventions of spelling, punctuation and capitalization.
2. Use an acceptable core vocabulary and appropriate word order.
3. Use acceptable grammatical systems i.e. tense, agreement, patterns and rules.
4. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms, with a variety of
sentence structures. 5.
Use cohesive devices in written discourse.
6. Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse.
7. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according
to form and purpose. 8.
Convey links and connections between events. Communicate such relations as main ideas, supporting ideas, new information, given information, generalization
and exemplification. 9.
Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing. 10.
Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text. 11.
Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately assessing the audience’s interpretation, using pre-writing devices, using paraphrases and
synonyms, soliciting peer and instructor feedback and using feedback, for revising and editing.
D. Review on the Related Study
