Teaching Writing

by, Warsito
In the past, most teachers focused on students’ final product when they taught writing. The main purpose of teaching writing in product oriented includes content, organization, vocabulary use, and grammatical use, spelling, and punctuation errors. But a paradigmatic has changed in the teaching of writing. The teachers pay attention more to process of students writing. So the students can express what they really want to communicate to someone else without afraid of punishment when they conduct the grammatical errors. Fauziati (2001:149) says “in the process approach, students are taught strategies that should help them to finally reach a decent product”. Further, she explains. 

Traditionally, in curriculum practice, a distinction has been drawn between the activities which focus on products and the activities which is focus on the process. Broadly speaking, a product oriented approach focuses on the end result if the learning process that is, what the learner is expected to be able to do as a fluent and competent user of the language Brown (1993) in Fauziati (2001: 147). Process approach, on the other hand, focuses more on the various classroom activities which are believed to promote the development of skilled language use Nunan (1991) in Fauziati (2001: 147)

In the way of teaching writing, which focuses more on the product, very little attention is paid to help learners develop their ideas in the process of meaning-making. No wonder that writing activity becomes dull, dry, and boring. Leki (1996) in Fauziati (2001: 147). Meanwhile, there has been a paradigmatic change in the teaching of writing. Attention to the writer as language learner has led to the second approach—a process approach. Fauziati (2001: 147)

In teaching writing, many teachers focus their teaching on the writing as product. So, students feel bored and they can express their idea happily, because they are afraid of conducting mistakes. In contrasts, there many teachers focus their teaching on the writing as process. In this paradigm, the teachers give the students opportunity to write and express their idea free without afraid of punishment. These are more explanation about writing.   

a.      Product Approach

In the product approach-oriented type of teaching writing, the main purpose of the learners’ activity is “to catch grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors” (Leki (1996) in Fauziati, 2001: 148). Fauziati (2001: 148) says “in the traditional way of teaching writing teachers mostly concerns with the final product of writing and what the product should look like”. Brown (1993) in Fauziati (2001: 148) has mentioned some traditional criteria of good writing. Compositions, he states, are supposed to “(1) meet certain standards of prescribed English rhetorical style, (2) reflect accurate grammar, and (3) be organized in conformity with what the audience would consider to be conventional”.

b.      Process Approach

In the process approach, students are taught strategies that should help them to finally reach a decent product, but of course “the product is still an important goal, but the writing class is more exploratory, less punitive, less demoralizing; and the student writer is less alone” (Leki (1996) in Fauziati, 2001: 148).

It must be understood that writing is not easy. So, the students should express their idea without afraid of punishment. It does not mean that product is not important but to reach the product the students have conduct the correct process. Oshima and Hugue (1999: 2) explain

 Writing, particularly academic writing is not easy. It takes study and practice to develop this skill. For both native speakers and learners of English, it is important to note that writing is a process, not a “product”. This means that a piece of writing, whether it is a composition for your English class or lab report for your chemistry class, is never complete; that is always possible to review and revise, and review, and revise again.

In teaching writing, students should be active in the class. They can discuss the topic with their friend, so, the class is noisy. But, they must consider the consequence of teaching writing as a process,

In teaching writing as a process, consequently, the students may produce several drafts or versions of their writing with emphasis on the process of writing and on getting feedback from classmates. The new emphasis on the process, however, must be seen in thee prospective of a balance between process and product. (Fauziati, 2001: 150).

In the process approach, the students can express their idea freely but they must construct the process of writing clearly. So, the students can conduct writing as process and writing as product as well. Brown (1993) in Fauziati (2001: 150) says that “’the product is, after all, the ultimate goal; it is the reason that we go through the process of prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing”

A.  Writing Process

Concerning with the stages in the process of writing, several scholars on the field classify them differently. Caudery (1995) in Fauziati (2001: 150) argues that the process of writing includes planning, drafting, and revising. Brown (1993) in Fauziati (2001: 150) states that prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing take place throughout the process of writing and more detailed account of stages of writing has been proposed by White and Ardnt who argue that stages in process writing include generating ideas, focusing, structuring, drafting, evaluating, and reviewing, which all interact recursively.

Oshima and Hugue (1999: 2) argue that academic writing is the kind of writing that writes/students are required to do in college or university. It differs from others kind of writing such as personal, literary, journalistic, or business writing. Its differences can be explained in part by its special audience, tone, and purpose. Audience is people who will read what the writes have written, tone is writers’ style or manner or expression, and purpose of a piece of writing determines the rhetorical form chosen for it.

“There are four main stages in the writing process. (a) Prewriting, (b) Planning, (c) writing and (d) revising drafts” (Oshima and Hugue, 1999: 2)

B.    Paragraph

A paragraph is a collection of related sentences dealing with a single topic. (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource. December 17, 2007).  The paragraph contains three majors element and every element has own functions. There are topic sentence, supporting details, closing sentence. Moreover, there are eight kinds of paragraph.  These are the detail explanation about paragraph.

1. Notion of Paragraph

The most important thing in writing is paragraph. Some students get difficulties to write paragraph because writing a paragraph may be the most difficult task for some but it surely is not impossible (http://as.starware.com). It brings the message which writer wants to communicate to readers. A paragraph is a unit of text that develops one idea or topic in specific detail (http://as.starware.com). The paragraph can be as short as one sentence or as long as ten sentences. Oshima and Hoque (1999: 16) define

A paragraph is a basic of organization in writing in which a group of related sentences develops one main idea. A paragraph can be as short as one sentence or as long as ten sentences. The number of sentences is unimportant; however, the paragraph should be long enough to develop the main idea clearly.

2. Parts of Paragraph

The paragraph contains three major elements and every element has its own functions. There are topic sentence, supporting details, closing sentence. The topic sentence is the first sentence in a paragraph. It introduces the main idea of the paragraph. Supporting details are sentences which come after the topic sentence, make up the body of a paragraph. They give details to develop and support the main idea of the paragraph. (http://www2.actdent.com. December 14, 2007). The closing sentence is the conclusion which emphasizes the insight you have arrived at (http://as.starware.com December 14, 2007). Oshima and Hoque (1999: 17) explain

A paragraph has three major structural parts: (a) a topic sentence: the topic sentence states the main idea of the paragraph. (b) Supporting sentences: they develop the topic sentence. (c) The concluding sentence: it signals the end of the paragraph and leaves the readers with important points to remember: in conclusion, gold is treasured not only for its beauty but also for its ulidity.   

3. Kinds of Paragraph

Many experts divided paragraph into eight types (http://www2.actden.com/Writ Den/tips/paragrap/index.htm Descember 4 2008). The first is definition paragraph. It is paragraph which writers take a thing or an idea and explain what it is. The second is description paragraph, it describes a person, place, or thing is like. Sometimes, the writers may describe where a place is located. The third is classification paragraph. In this paragraph, the writers group things or ideas into specific categories. The fourth is comparison and contrast paragraph. In a compare and contrast paragraph, the writers write about the similarities and differences between two or more people, places, things, or ideas. The fifth is sequence paragraph. In a sequencing paragraph, the writers are writing to describe a series of events or a process in some sort of order. Usually, this order is based on time. The sixth is choice paragraph. In a paragraph where the writers have to make a choice, they need to choose which object, idea, or action that they prefer. Often, they will need to give their opinions on a choice of actions or events.  Next paragraph is explanation paragraph. In an explanation paragraph, the writers need to explain how or why something happens. Very often in social studies class, they will be asked to explore causes and effects of certain events and evaluation. The last paragraph is evaluation paragraph. In an evaluation paragraph, the writers make judgments about people, ideas, and possible actions. They need to make their evaluations based on certain criteria that they develop. In the paragraph, they will state their evaluations or recommendations and then support it by referring to their criteria.

C.   Media Used in Teaching Writing

Scott and Ytreberg (1990: 72) argue that there are many media to teach writing in the class.

a. Fill-in exercises: Fill-in exercise is useful activities, especially at the beginner stages. They do not require much active production of language, since the most of the language is given, but they do require understanding.

b.Vocabulary charts: the pupils might like to make a picture dictionary of their own, using their own themes and ideas. Pupils can try a sentence or two beside their labeled drawings, too.

c. Movie: Scott and Ytreberg (1990: 75) argue that “student need to spend time on pre-writing work – warm–up activities which are designed to give them language, ideas, and encouragement before they settle down to the writing itself”. Today, the good media to stimulate students’ idea is movie, so the researcher will use this media in teaching narrative writing. Moreover, a expert say about this media

There are many ways films, paintings, and photographs can be used in teaching freshman college composition courses. These materials illustrate such rhetorical principles as unity, use of detail, comparison, point of view, and metaphor. Similarly, popular culture such as advertisements, song lyrics, comics, newspapers, and magazines can illustrate rhetorical principles, especially the problem of audience-directed writing.

(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource. December 17, 2007)