CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Theoretical Framework
2. Writing
a. Definition of Writing
Writing is one of the basic skills students learn in learning a language. The rest of them are reading, speaking and listening skills. By writing a person can express what he wants to express using symbols that have been understood between each other. By writing someone will be able to convey thoughts, ideas, desires, and feelings, which performed through the forms of that symbols.
Brereton (1982, p.2) in Gultom and Gurning (2016, p.4) explained that writing is different from speaking. In writing a text, the writer has to carry all the meaning because the writer is not there for the readers to explain, whereas in speaking, the communication is in two ways round. In writing, there is only one way. Therefore, writing should contain relatively complete information and details.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Widiati and Cahyono (2016, p.139) conclude that writing is regarded as the most complicated skill compared to the other three language skills.
When we write, we will through so many steps or processes to make a good and exact writing. According to Alka (2021) Writing is an ability to compose or communicate intended implication, idea, and purposes to the reader by using a clear, coherent, and well-organized paper through the process of thinking, studying, developing organizing, producing, revising, and
editing the product. Oshima and Hogue (2007, p.15) also stated that writing is an unstinting activity which has not only one step needed but more. It needs some actions. The writer must think hardly to begin to write something about what to write and how to write it. What the writer wants to write is what the exactly the writer wants to say. So, when the writer finished writing, he or she must do correction or editing, revising and writing again until it expressed what the writer wanted to say. Syafi'ie (1998, p.45) in Suhaimi (2016) states that writing is pouring ideas, opinions, feelings, desires, and wishes, as well as information into writing and then "sending" it to others.
Based on the statement above, the researcher concluded that writing activity is an activity that goes through so many processes of thinking and developing ideas to express them into paragraphs to make it understandable to the person who is reading the writing.
With so many processes to go through, writing takes a lot of practice to master, not only would a person write down anything that relates to the idea, but it would also have to be careful to consider what to write and how to write it. So that what the writer wants to say, it would be presented to the reader.
b. Components of Writing
Heaton (1975, p.146) in Taula’bi (2016, p.152) pointed out five significant components in writing namely: content, organization, language use, vocabulary, and mechanics.
1. Content: The content of writing should be vivid so the readers can understand the message carried on from the content and get the information from it.
2. Organization: it is concerns with how the ways the writer arrangers and organizes the ideas or the message in the writing.
The organization is mainly recognized as order: chronological order, order of impotence, general to particular order and question to answer.
3. Grammar: Language use in writing description and other forms in writing involves correct languages and point of grammar.
Grammar is one of the importance components in writing.
4. Vocabulary: Someone cannot write anything if she or he have nothing to express. The writer should build the ideas in the form of word of vocabulary, the lack of vocabulary make someone fails to create what they are going to say because the writer feels difficult to choose the suitable words. Vocabulary will help the writer create their writing and also make the readers easy to understand.
5. Mechanics: The use due to capitalization, punctuation, and spelling written appropriate. In the aspect of mechanics, this is important because the reader will learn and try to immediately understand the author's exact message. The use of favorable mechanics in writing skill will make the readers easy to group conveying ideas or messages to the written materials.
Based on the statement above, the researcher concluded that there are five components used to scoring the writing ability. The components are content, organization, vocabulary, language, and mechanics.
c. Processes of Writing
Oshima and Hogue (2006, p.265) explain the four stages in writing process; prewriting, planning, writing and polishing.
1. Prewriting: when you are given a free choice of topics and can write about something you are interested in, then you must narrow the topic to a particular aspect of that general subject.
After that, you must generate the ideas and it will be done by a process called brainstorming.
2. Planning: you organize the ideas you generated by brainstorming into an outline.
3. Writing: write the rough draft first about a topic. Follow your outline as closely as possible, and don't worry about grammar, punctuation, or spelling. A rough draft is not supposed to be
perfect. Above all, remember that writing is a continuous process of discovery. As you are writing, you will think of new ideas that may not be in your brainstorming list or outline. You can add or delete ideas at any time in the writing process. Just be sure that any new ideas are relevant.
4. Polishing: After you write the rough draft, the next step is to revise it to get the improvement on what you have written.
Check it over for content and organization, including unity, coherence and transition or logic. And then proofread to check the grammar, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation before you writing the final copy to hand in.
d. Purposes of Writing
In a handbook from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012, p.30), the purposes of writing: to inform, to explain, to narrate, and to persuade.
1. To inform: The purpose for writing to inform is to share facts and other information. Informational texts such as reports make statements that are supported by facts and truthful evidence.
2. To explain: The purpose for writing to explain is to tell what, how, and why about a topic. An example is to explain in writing how to do or make something.
3. To narrate: The purpose of writing to narrate is to tell a story.
The story can be made up or truthful. Most forms of narrative writing have a beginning, middle, and end. Examples are fictional stories and personal narratives.
4. To persuade: Writing that has a purpose to persuade states an opinion or goal and supports it with reasons and supporting details in order to get the audience to agree, take action, or both. At Grade 6, the emphasis shifts to argument.