The Concept of Writing
There is no particular definition about writing stated by an author or linguist. Writing is a process of sending messages from the writer to the readers. It is a process of expressing ideas or thoughts in words should be done at our leisure. It can be very enjoyable as long as we have the ideas and the means to achieve it. By writing we may flow out a burden occupying our mind offer our ideas and concepts to others, and share our knowledge and experiences. Meanwhile, Steve Peha defined writing is the communication of content for a purpose to an audience.
Based on the statement above it can be said that writing is not only transforming our thought or idea in written form but also it involves a specific skill since it uses the aspect of language such as grammatical structure, spelling and punctuating.
Writing becomes a difficult skill for any language user because writing presents a fairly challenging task for both native and nonnative speakers for English as a foreign language. In terms of skills, producing a coherent, fluent, extended piece of writing is probably the most difficult thing there is to do in language. It defines that writing academic papers is particularly difficult.
Furthermore, writing is probably the linguistic skill that is least used by most people in their native language. It means that we learn to write if someone teaches us and usually only if someone gives us assignment. Then, writing is the final product of several separate acts that hugely challenging to learn simultaneously. It can be stated that writing needs a long process that takes time and energy. Based on the statement above we know that writing is not only difficult rare activities but also it needs much time to be done.
The Types of Writing
Description
Description helps the reader, through his/her imagination, to visualize a scene or a person, or to understand a sensation or an emotion. Description writing describes parts, qualities, and characteristics of the person or something that is described.
Argumentation
Argument is designed to convince or persuade somebody that something is true or should be done. In other words, it can be said that argumentation writing attempts to convince the reader to accept a particular point of view or to take a specific action.
Narration
Narration writing tells a personal or fictional experience or tells a story based on a real or imagined event. It illustrates that narration writing has a purpose to amuse the readers with actual or imaginary experiences in difference way.
Exposition
Expository writing is writing that is designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to understand. It means that exposition writing is used to explain a process or procedure or to give directions or instructions.
Those are the types of writing which are usually used. Those types must be known and learnt by students who are learning English. The students have to know what is the purpose and tense of the writing text.
Teaching Writing
The reasons for teaching writing to students of English as a foreign language include reinforcement, language development, learning style and, most importantly, writing as skill in its own right. We will look at each of these in turn.
Reinforcement: some students acquire languages in a purely oral/aural way, but most of us benefit greatly from seeing the language written down. The visual demonstration of language construction is invaluable for both our understanding of how it all fits together and as an aid to committing the new language to memory. Students often find it useful to write sentences using new language shortly after they have studied it.
Language development: we can’t be sure, but it seems that the actual process of writing helps us to learn as we go along. The mental activity we have to go through in order to construct proper written texts is all part of the ongoing learning experience.
Learning style; some students are fantastically quick at picking up language just by looking and listening. For the rest of us, it may take a little longer. For many learners, the time to think things through, to produce language in a slower way, is invaluable. Writing is appropriate for such learners. It can also be a quiet reflective activity instead of the rush and bother of interpersonal face-to-face communication.
Writing as a skill: by far the most important reason for teaching writing, of course, is that it is a basic language skill, just as important as speaking, listening and reading. Students need to know how to write letters, how to put written reports together, how to reply to advertisements – and increasingly, how to write using electronic media. They need to know some of writing’s special conventions (punctuation, paragraph construction etc.) just as they need to know how to pronounce spoken English appropriately. Part of our job is to give them that skill.
The Concept of Writing Product
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines the word product as sth produced (by nature or by man). Furthermore, written products are often the result of thinking, drafting, and revising procedures that require specialized skills, skills that not every speaker develops naturally. In other words, it can be said that writing product is the result of transforming our thought or idea and process of monitoring any single words, rereading and revising.
In the teaching of writing we can either focus on the product of that writing or on the writing process itself. A half a century ago, writing teachers were mostly concerned with the final product of writing: the essay, the report, the story, and what the product should “look” like. When concentrating on the product, we are only interested in the aim of a task and in the end product. Furthermore, product-oriented approaches focus on the final product, the coherent, error free text. Also, Brown added that a good deal of attention was placed on “model” compositions that students would emulate and on how well a student’s final product measured up against a list of criteria that included content, organization, vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation.
The final product of writing is not nearly so instant, and as a result the writer has a chance to plan and modify what will finally appear as the finished product. We have called this the writing process. Process focuses on the steps involved in drafting and redrafting a piece of work. Then, process approaches do most of the following:
1) Focus on the process of writing that least to the final written product;
2) Help student writers to understand their own composing process;
3) Help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting.
4) Give students time to write and rewrite;
5) Place central importance on the process of revision;
6) Let students discover what they want to say as they write;
7) Give students feedback throughout the composing process (not just on the final product) as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer to intention;
8) Encourage feedback from both the instructor and peers;
9) Include individual conferences between teacher and student during the process of composition.
Based on the point out above, the process approach is aimed at helping the learner to develop a set of skills. Therefore, we not only pay attention on the final product but also we necessary give our attention on the writing process. Furthermore, the current emphasis on process writing must of course be seen in the perspective of a balance between process and product. The product is after all, the ultimate goal; it is the reason that we go through the process of prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. Without the final product firmly in view, we could quite simply drown ourselves in a sea of revisions. Process is not the end; it is the means to the end. In other words, we need both process and product.
Based on the explanation above it can be concluded that writing product is not nearly so instant. Because writing product is the result of transforming our thought or idea and process of monitoring any single words, grammatical use and mechanical consideration such as spelling and punctuation, it needs a long process that takes time and energy. There are many students’ writing product such as the essay, the report, the story, and what the product should look like it depends on the assignment.