CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

B. LEARNING MEDIA

C. WRITING

1. The Nature of Writing

Communication can be done in two ways: in oral and written form. When someone

cannot share the ideas by speaking, they can use a written form to communicate

with others. There are some definition of writing based on the some experts.

Harmer (2004: 4) says, writing is sequence of letters, words, or symbols marked on

a surface. It is used for a wide variety of purposes it is produced in many different

form. Writing involves the ability of all elements target language such as grammar,

content, vocabulary and mechanic together. Brown, (2001: 336) also claimed that

writing is a thinking process. He states that writing can be planned and given with

unlimited number of revisions before its release. Meanwhile, Randal (2004: 160)

states that writing is an ability to make a form of words that in general it may have a

higher truth value than the fact that it has set it down. It means that the product of

writing should be truly acceptable by the readers. Besides, it must contain

meaningful values so that the readers can get the benefits from the writing.

Furthermore, Sudaryanto (2001: 64) says that writing skill is a person’s ability to

express his/her mind and feeling which is expressed in a written language, in

graphic symbols so that the readers are able to understand the message inside. From

the statement, it can be said that writing is a skill where the writer can set his idea

down in the form of words, sentences, and paragraphs which are easy to understand

for the readers. In line with this opinion, Tarigan (1992: 21) states that writing is a
process in describing a language that can be understood by others, i.e readers. It

means that writing needs a process so that the idea can be understandable and

expressed smoothly. Nura (2003: 71) says that writing is an activity. Writing is not

merely symbolize spoken language. Writing is a person’s way to express

him/herself and to adapt with society. Through writing, readers will understand the

writer’s way of thinking. It means that writing can be a reflection of the writer’s

mind.

In addition, Gaith (2002 : 1) states that writing is a complex process that allows

writers to explore thoughts and ideas, and make them visible and concrete. Writing

encourages thinking and learning. It motivates communication and makes thought

available for reflection when thought is written down, ideas can be examined,

considered, added, rearranged, and changed.

Based on experts’ opinion mentioned previously, the researcher concludes that

writing is an activity of thinking process which it is expressed into letters, words, or

symbols in a communicative written language. In expressing the thought into a

written language, feeling plays an important role as well, so that the products will

be easily understood and enjoyed by the readers. To do so, of course, it needs a

good writing which concerns all elements in it such as organization, content,

vocabulary, mechanic and interesting language. In other words, writing is closely

related with the thought, feeling, and ability in using a language. In other words,

writing is closely related with the thought, feeling, and ability in using a language.

In this case, a communicative language is completely needed. In writing there are

five elements organization, grammar, content, vocabulary and mechanic. It must be

included in the written text in order to produce good written text. In this case, a

communicative language is completely needed. In writing there are five elements

the written text in order to produce good written text.

2. The Importance of Writing

Writing is the complex process. It means that in writing students have to consider

many things to build a good writing result. Harmer (2004: 31-33) states that there

are many advantages of learning writing. They are as follows:

a) Writing is often not time-bound in the way conversation is. It means that

students have longer time to think than in speaking activity. They can check

their grammar patterns.

b) Writing encourages students to focus on accurate language use because they

think as they write. It may provoke development as well as they resolve

problems which writing puts in their mind.

c) Writing is often used as a means of reinforcing language that has been

thought. They use writing skill to make a note about what they have learnt

while learning process happens.

d) Writing frequently useful as preparation for some other activity.

e) Writing can also be used as an integral part of larger activity where the

focus is on something else such as language practice, acting out, or

speaking. As the example, the teacher asks the students to make a short

dialogue which they will then act out.

f) Writing is also use in questionnaire activity. Writing is important to face

questionnaire test. In the examination, students are asked their answer in the

form of written.
 From the explanation above the researcher can conclude that writing skill is very

important to be learnt. Writing helps us in solving and improving other skills in

learning language.

3. The Criteria of Good Writing

The stock of vocabulary, grammar, and comprehend how to make a correct

sentence must be considered to make good writing. The students’ writing score will

be evaluated by the scoring system. The aspects of scoring are organization,

content, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanic (Brown, 2001: 357).

a) Organization

It means how the students organize their idea. Whether each paragraph is

organize well or not. The organization of the text is fluent in expressing,

reveal clearly ideas, good organization, logic sequence, and cohesive.

b) Content

The content refers to the topic and its explanation, discussion, evaluation,

and conclusion. It should be clear, specific, and relevant. The good content

had to fulfill the criteria such as full of information, substantive make a clear

thesis development and relevant with the problem.

c) Language

The students use effective complex sentence construction and make only

few faults in the using of grammar.

d) Vocabulary

If the students could choose the correct words as it is function and master

informing words.

e) Mechanic
 Paragraph is a combination of some sentences which needs good spelling

and punctuation. If the use of punctuation is not appropriate, the paragraph

will be unreadable. So, the students should be mastered in writing good

paragraph.

In addition, according to Nurgiyanto (2001 : 307) there are some aspects of writing

that can be evaluated, those are :

a) Content (the agreement with the title)

A good writing is when the title represent the content of it. The content of a

text should be relevant or equivalent and describe the title in complete. As

stated by Brown (2004: 73) the writing section measures the ability to write

English, including the ability to organize, develop ideas, to support those

ideas with example or evidence, to compose response to one assigned topic

in standard written English and to generate.

b) Organization (Paragraph unity, coherence and cohesion)

It means that how the students organize their idea. Whether each paragraph

organize well or not. However, a good text consist of paragraphs which are

arranged well with some connecting words which can make the paragraph

coherence.

c) Vocabulary (The precision of using vocabulary)

Rivers as cited Nunan (1992: 11), vocabulary is essential for successful

study on the second language. In writing, a writer should use the appropriate

vocabulary to express what they want to write.

d) Grammar

The tenses and structure mastery are really necessary to have paragraphs

constructed. It is not important to use a long sentence, but the grammar that
 is used is correct. It is difficult for students to arrange a good paragraph if

they lack of tenses and structure mastery.

e) Mechanic (Spelling and punctuation)

Paragraph is combination of some sentences which needs good spelling and

punctuation. Whether the students master the role how to write and make

only few faults in the spelling.

The theory of categories for evaluating writing is organization, content,

language, vocabulary, and mechanic. It is used by the researcher to asses the

students’ descriptive text.

4. The Process of Writing

In writing there are some important things that the researcher has to notice when the

researcher will make writing. Based on the explanation of writing process in simple

situation, Harmer in book “How to Teach Writing” (2004: 4) was divided the

writing process into four elements. These elements will be explained as follows:

a) Planning

Experienced writers plan what they are going to write. Before starting to

write or type, usually the writer decides the topic or the idea that will be

said. For some writers this may involve making detailed notes. But others

may not actually write down any preliminary notes at all since they may do

all their planning in their heads. When planning to write, the writers have to

think three main issues.

b) Purpose

Purpose is the first issue when planning to write something. Because

purpose of their writing will influence (amongst other things) not only the
 type of the text they wish to produce, but also the language they use, and the

information they choose to include.

c) Audience

Experienced writer think of the audience they are writing for. Since this will
influence not only the shape of the writing (how it is laid out, how the
paragraphs are structured, etc), but also the choice of language, whether, for
example, it is formal or informal in tone.