Writing

1. The nature of English writing

Among others there are two popular points of view about the nature of English writing; the product approach and the process approach.[4] Product approach focuses on the final result of the act of composition; for example, the letter, essay, story and many more.  On other hand, the process approach focuses on the process in order to produce some writings. It is concerned more in the act of composing that evolves through several stages as writer discovers through the process, what it is they are trying to say. Hence, in the process approach it is often hard to produce a coherent, fluent, and extended piece of writing English. English writing probably is the most difficult skill in learning language.[5] Considering that phenomenon, it is imperative for people especially for the students to explore their ability in writing English. Writing is not a natural activity. People learn to speak a language. Yet, all people have to be taught how to write.[1]  People use language to communicate to one another. No matter what the language is, the process of communication can be spoken and written form. In the spoken ways, people can express their idea orally, while in written form, people need certain processes before they can write their ideas. Writing is some activities of writing both of written and printed words.[2]  And writing in English involves a good deal of rereading and rewriting.[3]

Principally, to be able to write easily, the students need to intensively practice to write. Besides that, they can read a lot of references such as newspaper, magazines, books, or other resources to encourage them in writing. By reading, the students can get the model or reference about the component of writing, such style of writing, the diction, and other language components. Moreover, by reading, the students can get a lot of new vocabularies. This helps them to produce a clearly and comprehensive text in the writing English.

In the teaching of English writing, both approaches suggest able. It includes how the students go through the stages of writing, from brainstorming until proofread and editing and the writing product constructed through those processes.

2. Definitions of Writing

Writing is one of language skills and productive skill that will be learnt by students in junior high school, senior high school and University. There are many definitions about writing; Kern stated that writing is functional communication, making learners possible to create imagined worlds of their own design. It means that, through writing, learners can express thought, feeling, ideas, experiences, etc to give a specific purpose. Moreover, the purpose of writing is to convey some information.

Meyers said that writing is an action^[6]. This means that when we first write something down, we have already been thinking about what we are going to say and we are going to say it. Then after you have finished writing, we read over what we have written and make changes and corrections. Writing is one of productive skills, which contains a symbol (orthographic) and involves a complex process. In making good writing, we must use correct grammatical rules, choose appropriate vocabulary, and consider the coherent and cohesion. Some linguists gave some definitions of writing that may help us get clearer definition. One of them is stated by Celce and Murcia, that writing is the production of the written word that results in a text but the text must be read and comprehended in order for communication to take place^[7]. O’Malley and Pierce add that writing is a personal act in which writers take ideas or prompts and transform them into self, initiated topics^[8]. It prosecutes students to formulate goals and plans for creating an organized structure in their compositions.

Students will be able to express their ideas and feeling by English writing. Learning writing as a foreign language is not easy as learning native language; they will meet all of learning problems dealing vocabulary, sound system, and grammar or structure. Many English learners think of writing as the fact of picking up a pencil and forming letters either by printing or writing them in cursive they could think about the fact composing a piece of text. Writing is very important as part of man’s culture, and speech sounds. Because it can be used to maintain thoughts, ideas, and speech sounds. Someone can produce the sequences of speech sounds produced by original speaker. There are two main types of writing: first, writing in which each character is picture of an object or idea, called picture writing or demographic writing such as the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians; second, writing in which each character represents speech sounds called alphabetic writing. Most languages, including English and Indonesian, use alphabetic writing to represent their speech sounds, which is used by public in books, paper, magazines, and writing letters.[9] Writing is a combination of process and product of discovering ideas, putting them on paper and working with them until they are presented in manner that is polished and comprehensible to readers.[10]

Writing really started in long ago, it has remained for of most its history a minority occupation because although most all human being grow up speaking their first language and sometimes their second or third as a matter of course, writing has to be taught. Spoken language, for a child, is acquired naturally because of being exposed to it, whereas the ability to write has to be consciously learned.[11]

3. Basic Concept of Writing Persuasive Text

There are many definitions about writing; Kern stated that writing is functional communication, making learners possible to create imagined worlds of their own design. It means that, through writing, learners can express thought, feeling, ideas, experiences, etc to give a specific purpose. Moreover, the purpose of writing is to convey some information.

Meyers said that writing is an action^[12]. This means that when we first write something down, we have already been thinking about what we are going to say and we are going to say it. Then after you have finished writing, we read over what we have written and make changes and corrections. Writing is one of productive skills, which contains a symbol (orthographic) and involves a complex process. In making good writing, we must use correct grammatical rules, choose appropriate vocabulary, and consider the coherent and cohesion. Some linguists gave some definitions of writing that may help us get clearer definition. One of them is stated by Celce and Murcia, that writing is the production of the written word that results in a text but the text must be read and comprehended in order for communication to take place^[13]. O’Malley and Pierce add that writing is a personal act in which writers take ideas or prompts and transform them into self, initiated topics^[14]. So, it prosecutes students to formulate goals and plans for creating an organized structure in their compositions.

White states that writing is an act of sharing new ideas or old ideas with a new perspective with the human community^[15]. Written language is simply the graphic representation of spoken language, and that written performance is much like oral performance, the only different lies in graphic for writing instead of auditory signals for speaking^[16]. So writing is closely related to speaking not only in such item of content, organization of ideas, and vocabulary but also the relationship of the ideas or the coherent with the other sentence.

From some definitions above, it can be concluded that writing is a system of human communication which represents a symbol. By writing, we can share our idea, feeling, past experience or anything that exist in our mind. Writing prosecutes students to focus on generating idea, organizing coherently, revising it into good composition, using discourse markers and rhetorical conventions cohesively, and editing text for appropriate grammar. Moreover, students who want to be able to write a good writing, they must learn to write regularly.

Writing is a never one-step action. Writing as one of productive skills needs a process. This process sues writer to write in sequence stages. Harmer states that the writing process is the stages that a writer goes through in order to produce something (a written text) before to be a final draft^[17].

According to Blanchard and Root there are four processes of writing[18]:

• Planning

At this stage, the writer must think about three main issues. Those are the purpose, the audience (the reader), and content structure. The purpose of writing will influence not only the type of text that the writer wants to produce, the language that the writer uses, but also the information that the writer chooses to include. Secondly, the writer must think of the audience. The audience will influence not only the shape of the writing (how it is laid out or how the paragraph is structured) but also the choice of language (formal or informal language). Thirdly, the writer has to consider the content structure of the piece. It means that how the writer sequence the fact, ideas, or argument.

This stage is often called by pre,writing process. Pre,writing is the thinking, talking, reading, and writing that the writer does about his topic before he writes a first draft. Pre,writing can be defined as a way of warming up the brain before write.

• Drafting

After you have finished in planning, you can continue to the next step (drafting). As you write, the first draft on your paragraph, use the ideas you generated from planning as a guide. As you write, remember to:

1. Begin with a topic sentence that states the main ideas, include several sentences that support the main idea.
2. Stick the topic does not include information that does not directly support the main idea.
3. Arrange the sentences so that the other ideas make sense.
4. Use signal words to help the reader understand how the ideas in your paragraph are connected.

• Editing

It is almost impossible to write a perfect paragraph on the first try. The first try is called the first draft. Perhaps the order of information is not clear or the discourse marker is wrong. The way to revise and improve the first draft is called editing. The writer edit their own or their peer’s work for grammar, spelling, punctuation, diction, sentence structure, and accuracy of supportive textual material such as quotations, examples and the like.

It is almost impossible to write a perfect paragraph on the first try, so it needs to be revised. The steps are:

1. Add new ideas to support the topic.
2. Cross out sentences that do not support the topic.
3. Change the order of the sentences.
4. Using the following checklist to revise your paragraph;
   1. Make sure you have a topic sentence.
   2. Cross out sentences that do not relate to the main idea.
   3. Check to see if the sentences are in the right order.
   4. Add new ideas if they support the topic sentences.
   5. Make sure you have included signal words to help guide the reader.
   6. Check the punctuations, spelling and grammar.

• Writing Persuasive

Writing persuasive is a form of writing in which the writer uses words to convince the reader that the writer’s opinions is correct in regards to an issue. Persuasive writing sometimes involves persuading the reader to perform an action, or it may simply consist of an argument to align the reader with the writer’s point of view. Persuasive writing is one of the most commonly used writing types in the world. Persuasive writers employ many techniques to improve their argument and show support for their claim. Simply put, persuasive writing is an essay that offers and supports an opinion in which it help you talk in s great voice.

This type of writing is often used for advertising copy, which is written in an attempt to get consumers to purchase specific products. It also a form of writing in which someone tries to get readers to agree with a position. A well written persuasive piece is supported with a series of facts which help the author argue his or her point. Many authors also include counterpoint argument in their pieces which they can debunk, showing readers that they have considered both sides of the argument at hand, and that any arguments which could be raised against the side of the written piece could be dismissed. In addition to facts, author may include anecdotes and hypothetical situations to build a stronger case.

[1] David Nunan, Designing Task for the Comunicative Classroom, (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press,1995), p.36

[2] Oxford, Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, op.cit, p.1383

[3] Eric Gould, The Art Of Writing, (New York: Random House,1989), p. ix

[4] David Nunan, Designing Task for the Comunicative Classroom, op.cit, p.36

[5] David Nunan, Second Language Teaching and Learning, (USA: Heinle and Heinle publishers,

1999), p. 231

[6] Alan Meyers, Gateways to Academic Writing: Effective Sentences, Paragraphs, and Essays, (New York: Pearson Education, Inc, 2005), p.2

[7] M. Celce  and Murcia Elite Olstain, Discourse and Context in Language Teaching, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p.142

[8] J. Michael O’Malley and Lorraine Valdez Pierce, Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners. Practical Approaches for Teachers, (Great Britain: Longman, 1996), p.136

[9] Ramelan, English,  9.

[10] Caroline T. Linse, Practical English Language Teaching: Young Learners, (NY: Mc Graw Hill, 2006), 98.

^[11] Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach Writing, (England: Pearson Education Limited, 2004), 3.

[12] Alan Meyers, Gateways to Academic Writing: Effective Sentences, Paragraphs, and Essays, (New York: Pearson Education, Inc, 2005), p.2

[13] M. Celce  and Murcia Elite Olstain, Discourse and Context in Language Teaching, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p.142

[14] J. Michael O’Malley and Lorraine Valdez Pierce, Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners. Practical Approaches for Teachers, (Great Britain: Longman, 1996), p.136

[15] Fred D White, the Writer’s Art. A Practical Rhetoric and Handbook, (New York: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1986), p.12

[16] H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principle, (San Francisco: Longman, 2001), p.335

[17] Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach Writing, (England: Pearson Education Limited, 2001), p.4

[18] Karen Blanchard and Christine Root, Ready to Write, (New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2003), p.41-44