CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Writing
1. Definition of Writing
Nowadays, writing has received the first priority to be focused. As
Palmer (1994:1) states that writing is a top priority in many classrooms
today. In fact, however, writing is a complex activity. Nunan (1991:6)
and Davis (2000: 96) state that writing is extremely complex cognitive
activity that requires the writer to control several variables at one. It
implies several elements such as grammar, vocabulary, sentence
structure, cohesion, and so on. They should be combined or applied by
students when they deal with writing.
Developing the writing ability, therefore, students are hoped to be
able to master the basic skills needed. Besides, students should also
have the cognitive skills if they are in the higher level. The cognitive
skills are gathering information and ideas relevant to the topics and
discarding what is not relevant, organizing the information and ideas
into a logical sequence, structuring the sequence into sections and
paragraphs, expressing the information and ideas in a written draft, and
editing the draft and writing out a final text (Davis, 2000:96).
Moreover, Nunan (1999: 88) and Langan (2000: 12) said that
writing process includes inventing ideas, thinking about how to
Hence, the ideas should be organized and arranged into an
understandable and acceptable language because the reader can not
totally be ignored. Meanwhile writing as a skill, means that, it can be
learned by each person. When someone wants to create a good writing
he must do exercise continuously.
2. Writing Process
Some of Assumptions said that writing is ―a natural gift‖ then they
thinks that writing is should be simple, it is in the straight line from the
writer’s head onto the written page. Yet, in reality writing is a rather
complicated activity, like one step of journey that finished on a paper
comes out of draft. Langan (2000: 12) states that, writing is a process
of discovery involving a series of steps and those steps are very often a
zigzag journey.
Writing is a process. When someone conducting writing, they do
several steps started from their willingness to write until his writing is
ready to be read by the others. If we want our writing is readable and
understandable, we need some of stages.
According to Oshima (1999: 3) there are four main stages in the
writing process. Those are: prewriting, planning, writing and revising
draft, and writing the final copy.
a. Prewriting
Prewriting is the first step in producing a piece of writing,
to prepare continuing with the other steps in writing process.
During this stage, students plan and organizational stage consist of
a series decision about why to write, what to write about which
aspects of the topic to focus on, where the audience will be and
which approach to take.
b. Planning (outlining)
After getting the idea to write, students have to plan to
organize it well. They can create the outline that contains some
consideration about purpose, audience, point of view, and format.
Harmer (2004: 4) states that writers have to think about three main
issues. The first is the purpose of writing; it includes the type of
text, the language they use, and the information. Second, the
audience they are writing for. It includes the shape of writing and
the choice of topic. Third, the contents structure of the piece that is
best to sequence the fact, ideas or arguments which they have
decided to include. In conclusion, the writer should make outline in
order to be able to arrange and focus their ideas based on the topic.
The basic function of outlining is to understand the important how
to organize topic into good paragraph
c. Writing/ revising drafts
Revising means the writer revise or change what they have
1) Writing the first rough draft
The first version of a piece of writing has the same meaning
as rough draft. The writers are able to write exactly what they
want to say and how they want to say it the first time. In fact,
most writers make many changes before they finish writing. It
means that the first version of a piece of writing is not perfect.
Oshima (1999: 10) states it is known that no piece of writing
ever perfect the first time. It means that the students make the
first draft without any revising and editing.
2) Revising content and organization
After producing the finish draft, writers need to reread their
writing to determine if they have included sufficient and
appropriate detail to support ideas. Also they need to check the
order in which they express their ideas to be certain that the
relationship of the ideas is clear and easy to understand. The
teacher and peer correction take the important role in this time.
3) Proofreading
Proofreading or editing is the last step in the writing
process, so it should be easiest. Proofreading is the final step in
which you make sure your paper is grammatically correct and
free of error. In proofreading, students give attention to
language use such as tense, pronoun, article and etc. beside that
punctuation, handwriting, and it may also make minor stylistic
changes.
d. Writing a final copy
After writers have edited their drafts that they consider being
necessary, they produce their final version. The final version is the best
writing that should be taken into score. This represents the whole idea
of their writing that is complete and perfect.
3. Principles for Teaching Writing
The classroom of teaching learning process requires some principle
to make the learning focus on the goal of writing subject. The principle
should be adapted to the many different learning situations. Below are the
principles for teaching writing based on Nunan (2003: 92-94) point of
view.
a. Understand the students’ reasons for writing
The greatest dissatisfaction with writing instruction comes when
the teacher’s goals do not match the student’s, or when the teacher’s
goals do not match those of the school or institution in which the
student works. It is important to understand both and to convey goals
to students in ways that make sense to them. Are the students required
to take other courses? If so, which ones? Will those courses require
b. Provide many opportunities to students to write
Writing almost always improves with practice. Evaluate lesson
plans: how much time is spent reading or talking about writing, and
how much is spent actually writing. Since writing is in part a physical
activity, it is like other physical activities—it requires practice, and lots
of it. When practice writing sessions are integrated regularly into the
syllabus, students will become more comfortable with the act of
writing. Practice writing should provide students with different types
of writing as well. Short responses to a reading, journal entries, letter
writing, summaries, poetry, or any type of writing you find useful in
your class should be practiced in class.
c. Make Feedback Helpful and Meaningful
Students crave feedback on their writing, yet it doesn’t always have
the intended effect. If the teacher writes comments on students’ papers,
make sure that students understand the vocabulary or symbols used.
Take time to discuss them in class. Be cautious about the tone of
comments. The margins of a paper are small and can force you into
short comments. When writing short comments, we tend to leave out
the words that soften our message. Finally, feedback should not entail
―correcting‖ a student’s writing. In order to foster independent writers,
you can provide summary comments that instruct students to look for
problems and correct them on their own. So, instead of adding an –s to
might say, ―There are several verbs that are missing an -s at the end.
Try to locate and correct these verbs in the next version of this paper.‖
d. Classify How Students’ Writing Will be Evaluated
Students often feel that the evaluation of their writing is completely
subjective. One way to combat that feeling is to first develop a
statement about what is valued in student writing, either in classroom,
some questions might be asked. Those are: 1) on a scale of 1–10, how
important is creativity, or originality of ideas? 2) on a scale of 1–10,
how important is following a particular written format (such as a
research report, book report, letter, etc.)? 3) on a scale of 1–10, how
important is grammatical accuracy? 4) on a scale of 1–10, how
important is it that the assignment include recently taught material? 5)
on a scale of 1–10, how important is accuracy in spelling and
punctuation? Answering these (and other questions that are relevant to
the situation) will help the teacher to develop a rubric of writing, a
kind of scoring grid that elaborates the elements of writing that are to
be evaluated. This rubric should outline the weight of grammar and
mechanics in relationship to content and ideas, as well as other features
of writing that teacher find important
4. Features of Effective Writing
A writer should be able t recognize an effective writing. In order to
make a writer able in telling some expressing idea in their concept, they
(2003: 1) there are five features of effective writing. Those are: focus, organization, support and elaboration, style, and conventions.
a. Focus
Focus is the topic/subject established by the writer in response to
the writing task. The writer must clearly establish a focus as he/she
fulfills the assignment of the prompt. If the writer retreats from the
subject matter presented in the prompt or addresses it too broadly, the
focus is weakened. The writer may effectively use an inductive
organizational plan which does not actually identify the subject matter
at the beginning and may not literally identify the subject matter at all.
The presence, therefore, of a focus must be determined in light of the
method of development chosen by the writer. If the reader is confused
about the subject matter, the writer has not effectively established a
focus. If the reader is engaged and not confused, the writer probably
has been effective in establishing a focus.
b. Organization
Organization is the progression, relatedness, and completeness of
ideas. The writer establishes for the reader a well-organized
composition, which exhibits a constancy of purpose through the
development of elements forming an effective beginning, middle, and
end. The response demonstrates a clear progression of related ideas
c. Support and Elaboration
Support and Elaboration is the extension and development of the
topic/subject. The writer provides sufficient elaboration to present the
ideas and/or events clearly. Two important concepts in determining
whether details are supportive are the concepts of relatedness and
sufficiency. To be supportive of the subject matter, details must be
related to the focus of the response. Relatedness has to do with the
directness of the relationship that the writer establishes between the
information and the subject matter. Supporting details should be
relevant and clear. The writer must present his/her ideas with enough
power and clarity to cause the support to be sufficient. Effective use of
concrete, specific details strengthens the power of the response.
Insufficiency is often characterized by undeveloped details,
redundancy, and the repetitious paraphrasing of the same point.
Sufficiency has less to do with amount than with the weight or power
of the information that is provided
d. Style
Style is the control of language that is appropriate to the purpose,
audience, and context of the writing task. The writer’s style is evident
through word choice and sentence fluency. Skillful use of precise,
purposeful vocabulary enhances the effectiveness of the composition
through the use of appropriate words, phrases and descriptions that
sentence styles to establish effective relationships between and among
ideas, causes, and/or statements appropriate to the task.
e. Conventions
Conventions involve correctness in sentence formation, usage, and
mechanics. The writer has control of grammatical conventions that are
appropriate to the writing task. Errors, if present, do not impede the
reader’s understanding of the ideas conveyed
5. Technique for Teaching Writing in Classroom
Teaching writing in classroom is the main focus of the rule of
teaching learning process. The technique to deliver the material into the
whole class should be planned better to overcome the students’
weaknesses in doing activity. Nunan (2003: 97) argued that the activities
of writing is not only to encourage the idea to learning to write but also
for creating the final product by using learning of series of skill leading
to writing product. Some of the techniques are bellow.
a. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is an activity with which most people are familiar.
The object in brainstorming is to compile as large a list as possible of
potential examples for a given topic. This is a great activity to do in
small groups or with the entire class, Nunan (2003: 97).
brainstorming. Give your students permission to be as creative as they
like. Anything goes with brainstorming. Challenge your students to
come up with as many examples as they possibly can for whatever
topic you give them
b. Free Writing
Free writing is an individual activity for getting thoughts from your
head on to paper. Free writing is simply putting on paper every thought
that is going through their heads. Like with brainstorming, anything
goes. The goal of this activity is to never let your pen or pencil stop
writing. Help students understand that though they will begin with a particular topic in mind, it is okay to veer off on tangents as they write.
Spelling and grammar are not important for this activity; it is ideas that
we are trying to grasp. Give your students a set length of time for this
activity..
c. Journalistic Questions
Journalistic questions approach a topic in a more structured manner. Start by reviewing the question words: WHO, WHAT,
WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW. Then, given topic, ask questions
starting with each of these words. For example, if the topic was study
habits, they might ask, ―Who has good study habits? Who benefits
from good study habits? What are the good habits? Where do people
with good study habits study? Where to they keep their books? Where
they complete assignments? This activity can be done either
individually or in groups with success. Have students write answers to
each question. When finished prewriting, have them go back and read
what they have written and organize their thoughts in preparation for
writing
d. Cluster Mapping
Cluster mapping, also called IDEA WEBBING, is a great way to show relationships between ideas. Cluster mapping is also part idea generation and part organization, so students will know exactly how to
group their ideas once they are ready to write. To begin, write your topic in the center of the page and put a circle around it. Then you can move in one of two directions.
e. Flow Charting
Flow charting is similar to cluster mapping in that it shows relationships between ideas. However, flow charting is most effective when examining cause and effect relationships. With the central theme drug abuse in the center of your page, to the left
students would make list of causes for drug abuse with arrows pointing
at the central idea. Depending on the topic, students may create a chain
of cause and effect relationships and choose to write about the series
f. Double/ Triple Entry
two or three topics or when exploring two or three areas of one topic. With this prewriting method, have students make two (or three) columns on their paper. Each column should have a topic which
focuses the idea generation.
B. INTEREST
1. Definition of Interest
There are many definitions of interest. Many experts present the
definition of interest that differs from another but their ideas complete
each other. According to Crow and Crow, the word interest may be used to
refer to motivate force which causes individual to give attention to a
person, a thing, or an activity (crow and crow, 1973:159). Besides, WS
Winkel (2004:188) and Slameto Hilgard (2003:57) have the own opinion
about interest, it is defined as the persistent tendency of subjects to feel
interested in the subject or a certain subject and was pleased to learn that
the study. It is persisting tendency to pay attention to enjoy some activity
or content. It means that interest is a permanent tendency to notice and
remember some of the activities, attention constantly accompanied
pleasure. Moreover, he also stated that interest is a preferred taste and
interest in a matter or activity, without being told". Interest is essentially
the acceptance of a relationship between people with something outside
themselves. It can be said that the stronger or closer the relationship the
Markshefel defines that interest is something that implies or motivates
the learners to strive for a particular goal (1969: 63). Hornby (1989:654)
also states that interest is a cause of one of somebody to give one’s or his
attention or to be concerned about something. Meanwhile, according to
Sutarno NS (2006:27) that "The interest of one's fellow feeling that
something is high, the passion or desire someone of something". Interest
may arise because of the habit. Interest a person can determine what
activities will be selected. So the interests of one another that shows the
difference. In the relation of teaching learning process, the term interest
can be interpreted as a persistent tendency owned by a person or students
are interested in particular object or material and that she or he will enjoy
to learning it and of course it is followed by feeling of content.
Based on various definitions of interest, it can be concluded that the
definition of interest is a tendency interested or excited about something
that can be established, learned and developed, so it is not a trait of interest
and it may arise because of the habit.
2. The Importance of Interest
Interest plays an important role in all activities. It is the important
factor that must be fulfilled before carrying out the activities. It can
motivate someone to do them and to achieve the goal consciously. If one
has good interest they will likely to seek some book to learn.
In learning activity, interest determines one’s success. Hurlock
supported by Abraham (1964: 188) who states that interest is the major
factors in any learning situation. It is a motivation to learn. Interest has
great sense within its correlation with the learning process. Without having
interest, one wills not succeed in learning.
From those statements above, it can be stated that interest has a high
important role in influencing learning activity which include emotion,
feeling, attention, satisfaction, motivation and pleasure. The personal
positive interest and attitudes of each learner will increase the chance for
success.
3. Kinds of Interest
Carl Safran as quoted by Sukardi (1988: 63) determines the kinds
of interest into three. Those are:
a. Expressed Interest
Expressed interest means that people can express his interest in
a choice by saying a certain word. For example: he says that he is
interested in tracking.
b. Manifest Interest
Manifest interest can be explained that people can express their
interest by saying what he likes. For example: he like dancing, then
join in dance club
c. Inventoried Interest
Inventoried interest is people can evaluate their interest in
Mappiare (1982; 63-65) divided the kinds of interest into four.
Those are:
a. Social and Individual Interest
The adolescent awareness about the appraisal social
surrounding is looked at from their own such as school, finances,
own things and friends. So they are show their self by dress up,
body treatment, clots or jeweler that appropriate with their group.
b. Recreation Interest
The activities that is done by adolescent such as sport,
watching movie stories, reading novel or comic, and listening radio
drama with adventure, heroic or romance theme.
c. Religious Interest
The adolescent seriously think about religion. They discuss
about religion with their friend and tend to influence other with
their religion.
d. School and Position Interest
Their parents and group interest influence the adolescent
interest. They will work oriented if their parent and group are work
oriented. But they will college oriented if their parents and group
are college oriented too.
Bhatia (1977: 340-341) in his book points out that there are some
a. Play Interest
It is present at all stages and childhood has been described as
the play time of life. Play activities are diversified with age.
Student of education and psychology are aware of the changes that
come about in the play interest of pupils at different
b. Interest in Talking and Conversation
From they day the child learns to talk he maintains almost
incessant conversation, sometime with himself. Conversation does
not only serves communication but also helps emotional release,
self expression, co-operation and competition, social interaction
and control.
c. Reading Interest
As soon as a child learned to read he need story books.
Children are interested in stories, fairy tales and animal and travel
stories.
d. Interest in Film
Young people interest in films, however seem to be growing
very fast and children’s films have not made any headway
e. Vocational Interest
As young people grow up vocational interests emerge. In early
these interests can hardly be described as vocational. It is in latter
childhood or adolescent that vocational interesedt take a realistic
turn.
4. Factors Influencing Interest
The students’ interest is influenced by some factor to force their self in
reading some books. The factors will make the students able to read and
and knowing the content of their favorite books. Crow and Crow (1963:
159) classify factors influencing interest into three. Those are:
a. The Factor for Inner Urges
This factor is closely related to pleasure and un-pleasure, like and
dislike, and other feeling, which appear from inner urges.
b. The Factor for Social Motives
Social motives are factors which appear from outside individuals.
Those factors can be objects and activities in society.
c. Emotional Factors
Emotional factors are closely related to feeling and emotion. It the
individual success in doing activity, they will be satisfied and please.
On the other hand, if the fail, it will cause a loss of interest. Emotion is
a factor that makes interest unchanging.
C. Reading Interest
Ideally, a child must have an interest in something so that he can learn in
earnest. The size of interest will greatly affect a person's attitude toward the
as a hobby that is part of the daily preoccupations. For students in particular,
interest in reading is something very necessary for those that are expected to
facilitate the learning process. With self-interest in reading the students will
likely be able to motivate them to learn to be independent so it can help to
achieve the maximum learning achievement.
Reading activities can enrich one's knowledge, in simple terms is defined
by Oxford Learners Dictionary ( Hornby, 2002:83) Reading is to see and
understand the contents of what is written. According to Ibrahim Bafadal
(2005:192) reading is a process of capturing or acquiring the concepts
intended by the author, interpret, evaluate the author's concepts, and reflect, or
act as intended of those concepts. Thus, it can be said of reading not only
operate the various skills to understand words and sentences, but also the
ability to interpret and evaluate so as to obtain a comprehensive
understanding.
Reading is a complex and deliberate activity, in this case the form of the
thought process in which the action consists of various works in an integrated
way of thinking leads to one goal, namely to understand the overall meaning
of text exposure. By reading a person will gain new understandings, gain
knowledge, gain new ideas, expand the view so that later they have high
intelligence and civilization that is useful to himself and useful to others.
Students who love reading can facilitate learning and improve academic
achievement. Therefore, teachers or educators need to guide learners to be
reading can be interpreted as a tendency of elevated liver that person to a
particular source of reading".
Habit of reading can help a person to obtain useful information for daily
life, for smooth operation and increased effectiveness for achievement as well
as a basic capability is very important for the progress of society and the
individuals themselves. This is in accordance with the opinion Suyatmi
(2000:38) says that "reading is a situation arising from a strong desire. It arises
because of the desire of certain motifs that have a great urge to do an activity
to read"
Reading craze will not grow by itself but must be fostered through the
learning process. Therefore, to develop interest in reading, students are guided
to learn to feel not as an obligation but as a necessity. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the definition of interest in reading is a situation arising from
the desire to perform reading activities and to achieve a goal. Basically an
interest in reading among individuals to each other differently depending on
the size of the motives they have read.
Interest in reading is divided into two, namely reading interests and
reading interests patterned spontaneous. Spontaneous interest in reading is
reading activities undertaken voluntarily or spontaneously self initiative
without any encouragement or external command. While the definition of
reading is the reading pattern that occurs due to external factors, such as a
D. Correlation Between Reading Interest and Writing ability
. The relationship between reading and writing is a bit like that of the
chicken and egg. Which came first is not as important as the fact that without
one the other cannot exist. A child’s literacy development is dependent on this
interconnection between reading and writing. Basically put: reading affects
writing and writing affects reading. According to recommendations from the
major English Language Arts professional organizations, reading instruction is
most effective when intertwined with writing instruction and vice versa.
Research has found that when children read extensively they become
better writers. Reading a variety of genres helps children learn text structures
and language that they can then transfer to their own writing. In addition,
reading provides young people with prior knowledge that they can use in their
stories. One of the primary reasons that we read is to learn. Especially while
we are still in school, a major portion of what we know comes from the texts
we read. Since writing is the act of transmitting knowledge in print, we must
have information to share before we can write it. Therefore reading plays a
major role in writing
At the same time practice in writing helps children build their reading
skills (Brummit, 2008:1). This is especially true for younger children who are
working to develop phonemic awareness and phonics skills. Phonemic
develops as children read and write new words. Similarly, phonics skills or
the ability to link sounds together to construct words are reinforced when
children read and write the same words. For older children practice in the
process of writing their own texts helps them analyze the pieces that they
read. They can apply their knowledge about the ways that they chose to use
particular language, text structure or content to better understand a
professional author’s construction of his or her texts.
E. Previous Research in Reading interest and Writing Ability
For strengthening the arguments that there is a deep relationship
between reading interest and writing ability, the writer present some
researches that have resemble topic of research. Koons (2008: 88) has done a
research about reading and writing connection with the entitled The Reading
– Writing Connection: an investigation of the relationship between reading
ability and writing ability discourse modes. The research concluded that there
is relationship between reading ability and writing quality. This study
examines the relationship between grade-level reading comprehension and
writing quality. Data were collected from a total 521 students in one school
district in Mississippi. Results of correlation and structural equation modeling
analyses indicate a developmental trend in the relationship between reading
comprehension and writing quality with the largest correlations. The
affected in a systematic way by the discourse mode of the writing prompt. It
can be said that reading ability will affect the students writing ability.
Besides, Culp and Spann (1990: 3) conclude their research about
reading and writing correlation that the relationship between writing and
reading is exist. The result of study indicated that both reading and writing
was affecting each other. The used of experimental research proved the
significant correlation of writing and reading.
Furthermore, Ito (2011: 27) explains in her research about reading-
writing correlation of L2 Students in Japanese EFL high school students that
reading skill cause the improvements of writing quality. This study examines
the relationship between English reading and writing skills in Japanese high
school students, based on reading and writing test scores gathered in 2006.
The participants were 68 native Japanese high school students learning
English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The correlation between L2 reading
and writing test scores is statistically significant. These results imply some
effect of L2 readings skills on the quality of L2 composition in Japanese EFL
high school students.
The other research is from Nur Eko Krisdianto who conducts the
research in Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto. The research
investigates the correlation between students reading interest and writing
achievement. This research was conducted in April 2003 at English
Department of Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto. The researcher
test of writing to evaluate writing ability. The result of research showed that,
there is a correlation between students reading interest and writing
achievement of 2nd Semester Students of English Department of
Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto Academic Year 2002/2003.
From those reasons and research findings, it can be seen clearly that
there is a correlation between reading and writing ability. In order to make
differencies of this research and previous research, the researcher use students
reading interest of english book that be compared with their writing ability.
F. Hypothesis
Based on the research of related literature above, the hypothesis of this
research is ―there is significant correlation between students reading
