About Writing

1.      The Nature of Writing

               Brookes has the assumption that writing is putting the spoken language into written form. This assumption may only be true for activities like talking down dictation or transcribing a tape (1998 : 1). Writing is much more than the production of sounds. The symbols have to be arranged, according to certain convention, to form words, and have to be arranged to form sentences, although again Brookes emphasize that it can be said to be ‘writing’ if we are merely making list of words, as in inventories of item such as shopping list (1998).

Furthermore, Neman (1989) states that writing is like swimming or playing bridge or driving car. This activity can be understood in term of its overall purpose. Writing is simply the formulating of ideas, the shaping of thoughts into sentence, arranging them into paragraph. The purpose of writing is convincing readers that thought is true or right or good.

              From the explanation above, it can be drawn that writing is the formulation of thought into sentences which involve grammatical rules in producing text. Writing also not a simple activity because there are a lot of aspect should be involved in the process of writing as mentioned above.

2.       Kinds of Writing

                There are several kinds of writing: controlled writing, guided writing, and semi guided writing.

1)      Free Writing

                Free Writing  is the concerned writing down of  whatever occurs to you about subject, free writing  in one of the techniques of generating ideas and is free to write anything that comes up in your mind.

2)      Controlled Writing

                In controlled in the write to the students, the teacher, of course, is at liberty to go on to other to free writing assignment along the same lined should time and class performance permit. Here, the teacher gives only general directions for writing assignment at a point when students are ready for less controlled writing.

3)      Guided Writing

               To help students to develop a sensitivity to word order. The teacher. Of course, must explain to the students what is wrong in the writing. So, the students are able to do their work.

4)      Semi Guided Writing

               The students are supposed to write and have opportunities to add more information of their own.

               From the elaboration above, it can be draw that there are four kinds of writing. They are,

     3.  Division of the kinds of writings is as follows :

1.      Expository Writing  : Where the writing serves to explain, inform

2.      Descriptive Writing : Writing that serves to show, describe.

3.      Narrative Writing    : Tells a story.

4.      Persuasive Writing  : Arguing for or against an issues.

5.      Creative Writing      : Interestingly, creative writing is a vogue term, but includes (while is not limited to) fiction (across the genres), poetry, drama, screenwriting, autobiographies and more.

Another way to divide the kinds of writing is form a target audience, or purpose point of view. So there can be:

1.      Academic writing  : Includes essays, research papers, reports and so on, each of them may use some of the modes listed above.

2.      Professional Writing  : Writing for academic or scientific journals, business reports, position papers, policy statements, and the likes, because these have to follow a standardized form.

3.      Business Writing  : Includes technical writing, business plan writing. Resume writing, letter writing etc.

4.      Copy Writing  : Writing marketing text, grant writing.

5.      Journalist, columnist, article writers (staff of freelance)  : these writers write for newspapers and magazines either new articles. Commentary or articles which focus on a certain subject.

6.      Non-fiction book writers.

7.      Fiction  : novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, short stories writers, etc.

8.      Poets.

4.      Components of the Writing Process

            The writing process is composed of different components that are essential for good writing. According to Manali Oak (2008) there are 5 vital components of writing process:

1)      Mental Capacity

               Your expression in the written form originates in your thoughts. It is your mental capacity that is responsible for the thoughts you plan  to put on paper. What you put in black and white is originally in the form of abstract.

              Thought that emerge in your mind. The brain processes the abstract thoughts to concretize them, thus giving them a definite form. It is after an interaction between your brain and mind to contemplate on your abstract thoughts, that thoughts gain an expression. Creative and analytical thinking form the basic components of the writing process. Your creativity determines the way in which your thoughts transform into written words.

2)      Prewriting

               This is the process that helps your find the right words for your expression. It involves a through research on the subject to write on and the gathering of all the information about the subject from every available source of information and the experimentation of ideas.

3)      Systematic Drafting

               After you finish gathering the information about you topic, the next step is to draft your write-up. This process requires the planning and organizing of the gathered facts. The results of your research should be organized in a logical manner so that the massage borne by your writing is conveyed to your readers. For an effective relay of your thoughts to your readers, you need to present the information in an organized manner and include the different angles of looking at the subject. An organized draft of your content is one of the key components of the writing process.

4)      Revising

               The next important component of the process of writing is revising of the draft. It is the phase in which you need to correct the errors in your draft and also think about the ways to improve your writing, you may like to revise your way of communication, your style of writing or the way in which you have put up your information. Revising is an important constituent of writing as it is about giving a second thought to your writing. This is when you finalize your approach towards the subject and the way to put it up.

               Taking another look at your ideas to make them clearer, stronger, and more convincing. When revising, you are evaluating how well you have made your point.

•       Look for ideas that do not fit.

•      Look for ideas that could use more detailed support.

•      Connect ideas with transitional words and sentences

•      Revising for Unity, Detail, and Coherence

•      cut, add or move.

5)      Editing

The process of editing is another important component of writing. When you are satisfied with your writing, you can subject your write-up to the process of editing. It is checked for minor mistakes if any and your write-up is all set for publication. The process of publishing follows, after the completion of which, you can get to actual feedback from your readers. This phase of publishing is especially important, as it helps you connect with you readers and reap the fruit of the seeds of the seeds you had sown. The different components of the writing process give an over view of the different phases your thoughts need to go thought to reach your audiences in the form of beautiful words.

5.      Aspect of Writing

In writing process, the student should pay attention to the aspect of writing in order that they are able to write well. The student’s writing performance can be seen from the aspect of writing. According to Cohen (1994 : 382-32) there are five aspect of writing, they are :

1)      Content : main ideas stated clearly and accurately, chance of opinion very clear.

2)      Organization : coherent and logical.

3)      Vocabulary : choices of words, and word forms.

4)      Grammar : control of structure.

Mechanics : mastery of spelling and punctuation.