National Seminar Department of English Education Tarbiya Faculty and
Teachers' Training May, 2015
WRITING ITERATIVELY
By: Ratna Sari Dewi ratna@uinjkt.ac.id
ABSTRACT
The aims of this paper are to reduce college students’ anxiety while they do their project of writing likes a task, a paper and a final project of writing hopefully; to give valuable ways to be a skillful and critical writer. The steps of writing iteratively are; work on writing, practice, get feedback and learn from the errors and missteps as well as from what they do well. Feedback can be from friends and lecturers. In the process of iterative writing, thinking process always accompany before we write, when we write, while we write, even after we write. At the time of the process, new ideas occur, when we can connect the new ideas and make it clearer, sharper and more concise. We state our point concisely, support and refer them to relevant sources. The benefit of this process are; students become more confidents, be able to express ideas skillfully and critically in writing and helps students to grow–in knowledge, ability and also in self –confidence.
Key words: Iterative Writing, referee, and rewrite
A. Introduction
good writers or they have many experience to practice their writing skill. Then, our students have to have good enough comprehension in grammatical rules, spelling, and structure of English. They must know the function of punctuation, the tenses, types of sentence, and others. Another one to consider is the contain of the text likes the information and ideas are being stated in the text which affect one and others (faigley et al., 1985; Odel 1992; wiemelt 1994).
To get our goals of teaching writing, we must help our students by using many strategies, method, and techniques. One of the ways to guide our students to have a good writing is by helping, guiding, and controlling their writing through iterative writing. Hopefully the writer wants to share her idea
about writing iteratively. The next parts are about the meaning of writing iteratively, the steps of iterative writing In this activity we as lecturers, teachers, and instructors spend more time for our students to be their referee and should be patient while we are doing the task to give valuable input for our students’ progress of writing.
B. Iterative Writing
The word iterative means doing something again and again , usually to
improve something: iterative process ( Cambridge Advanced learner’s
Dictionary). Repeating; making repetition; frequentative. (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved).
A process for arriving at a decision or a desired result by repeating rounds of analysis or a cycle of operations. The objective is to bring the desired decision or result closer to discovery with each repetition (iteration). The iterative process can be used where the decision is not easily revocable.
Based on the definition of iterative, we can describe that iterative writing is writing process in which the writers (students ) have to finish their work iteratively. They have to write the text, give or send the result of their writing to
the referee, make revision from the referees’ report by enriching the knowledge
of the written material, realize the mistakes and try to make comprehensible
involves and takes time dealing with this system. This should be done by the learners themselves and teachers as their guide. What should teachers do? They have to monitor the result of the process of students writing by giving some corrections, comments, and constructive critics. Revisions are the hardest thing to do in feedback (Sherranclarence: 2013) . And the task of students is not only to revise the mechanics mistakes but also they have to rethinking the ideas they deliver in the text.
Learners change when they provide with the feedback and opportunity to rewrite. They can learn and think more about the missteps they do in their text. In this process there is a relationship between the process of writing and the
process of thinking (Vardi 2011).
Based on the activity above student step by step know more new information of the material being discussed on the task being written. They will ask some questions and the question is not the standard one, but they ask more deep questions in their mind: Is my argument clear? Is it interesting? Does each supporting paragraph help to build the main argument? Does it enlist appropriate evidence? Do I successfully address counter-arguments? Does each paragraph follow logically from the last? Are the transitions smooth? Does my conclusion both sum up and add a new perspective to the rest of the paper? These questions broaden their knowledge and also build up their confident text again by giving the new revision with deeper ideas and critical thinking (7)
edit, and last submit the revised text (Smith).
In these activity the role of referee is very important dealing with the
of teacher/referee feedback during the rewriting process is a significant feature (Ferris: 1997). The value of feedback give substantial improvements for the learners result of writing.
D. The Advantages of Writing Iteratively
1. Students become more confidents,
2. Students be able to express ideas skillfully and critically in writing and
3. Helps students to grow–in knowledge, ability and also in self –confidence.
Based on the advantages above it can be said that students’ writing can be
developed by teachers’ involvement on their writing. It will give them supports and suggestions and then they realize their process of learning while they are doing their writing projects. They arrange their writing smoothly and skillfully. Step by step they will grow their ability in writing, and at the end they are sure that their writing have valuable input for the readers.
E. Conclusion
Writing iteratively is a system of writing where students have an opportunity to revise their text on their project of writing before teacher gives final score. Students have to consider not only on the form of the text but also the content of the text. They get valuable input on their written text. It builds up their knowledge, skill, and self confident. Iterative writing is a good system to be implemented by teachers in their teaching, especially in writing class. Teachers should give more of their time to read and give comments on their students text. They have to be patient teachers..
F. References:
Beason, L. 1993. Feedback and Revision in Writing across the Curriculum Classes.
Faighley, L., R. Cherry, D. Jolliffe, and A. Skinner. 1985. Asessing Writers’ Knowledge and Processes of Composing. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex
Publishing Corporation.
Fathman, A.K., and E. Whalley. 1990. Teacher Response to Student Writing: Focus
on Form Versus Content. In Second Language Writing: Research Insights for
the Classroom , ed. B. Knoll. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ferris, D.R. 1997. The Influence of Teacher Commentary on Student Revision.
TESOL Quarterly 31, No.2: 315—339.
Sherranclarence. 2013. Writing as an Iterative Process: Finding in Drafting and Revising.
Smith. Iterative Writing. Davidson College.
Vardi, Iris. 2011. The Impact of Iterative Writing and Feedback on the Characteristics of Tertiary Students’ Written texts. Teaching in Higher Education Vol. 17, No. 2,
