CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Writing
1. Definition of Writing
In English, there are four skills in English that should be mastered
by students when they learn English namely reading, speaking, listening,
and writing but master all the skills in English is not easy. Generally, there
are a lot of problems that should be faced by English learners including the
students when they learn English skills especially writing skill which is
usually recognized as the most difficult skill in English
Writing basically can be defined as an activity to transfer
information in the authors’ ideas into the text form before it be transferred
to the reader (Castelló and Donahue, 2012:62). Then, writing is also one of
language skill in English and it is also a productive skills (Marry Spratt,
et.al, 2011: 37) which bring some beneficial for people who master it such
as improvement in overall language skill because writing helps to
consolidate the language which is already known and it can help people to
extend their language (Osborne, 2005: 84).
Furthermore, writing is not only a productive skill but also a
reflective skill that can be used as a tool in monitoring knowledge and
performance (Linda Allal, et.al, 2004: 198). In a book of Pearson
that requires a writer to make use of his/her knowledge of grammar,
vocabulary and the concerned subject to produce a text through which
he/she tries to reach out to the readers.
2. Types of Writing
Writing is a productive skill in English which can be categorized
into some types and every type of writing has a function which is useful
for English users. In common, writing can be categorized into 4 basic
types (Davidson, 2007: 46-49), they are:
a. Narrative writing (personal and imaginative)
Narrative writing or story writing has all the elements of fiction
characters, setting, a central idea or problem, vivid descriptions of
character interaction, and finally a conclusion or solution to the
problem. Narrative writing can be personal or imaginative.
b. Expository writing
Expository writing explains or gives information. This type of
writing requires thought and planning because the order of facts or
events is important.
c. Descriptive writing
Descriptive writing paints a vivid picture of what is in the
writer’s mind and is linked throughout the other genres. In narrative
writing, description plays on important role in clearly showing what
d. Persuasive writing
Persuasive writing gives an opportunity for students to try to
convince the audience to agree with their points of view. While
persuasive writing is based on option, it must be supported with facts
and examples.
3. Purposes of Writing
Writing purpose can be define as the reason or reasons why a
person composes a particular piece of writing. And according to
According to Copeland (2007: 2-6), there are 11 purposes of writing, they
are:
writing is needed to make a better writing product. According to Donohue
(2009: 9-14), the steps of writing that can be used by teachers in classroom
a. Pre-writing
The assessment-based writing process is began by developing a
clear understanding of the writing goal through the use of mentor texts,
exemplars, or modeled writing. The purpose of the pre-writing stage is
that students develop a key understanding of the piece of writing they
will need to create. Through this stage, students will develop a solid
understanding of the craft of constructing the writing, the product that
they will create, and the features that will make it successful.
b. Drafting
During the drafting stage, the students are able to craft their
own writings. There are 3 wide ranges or experiences that students
may explore when experimenting with new forms of writing. Through
this stage, the teacher can use various levels of support to assist
students in the creation of their writing.
c. Revising and editing
Once students have had the opportunity to explore the writing
form and draft piece, the teacher provides descriptive feedback. This
feedback is crucial for students to move forward in the writing process.
There is no purpose in providing feedback on completed writing pieces
(once the student has published the piece), since there is no room for
making improvements at that stage. The time for feedback is after
the student has created a draft, and before the student has created a
d. Publishing
This final stage of the writing process includes sharing,
reflection and assessment of the student’s writing, students and
teachers are able to measure the piece against the success criteria that
were initially established. They can use the success criteria to form
student-friendly rubrics that enable students to evaluate their work.
5. Importance of Writing
Every skill in English is important because every skill in English
will bring advantages for the English learners including the students, and
according to Harmer (2004: 31-32) the advantages of writing for the
students are:
a. Writing encourages students’ focus on accurate language use. b. Writing may provoke students’ language development.
c. Writing can be used reinforce students’ English mastery.
Furthermore, not only advantages of writing which are made
writing important, but also the functions of writing in daily life, those
functions are:
a. For action
There are some types of writing product for action such as
public sign (roads and situations), product labels and instruction (on
foods, tools, or toys purchased), recipes, maps, television and radio,
manuals and printouts, for social contact and personal correspondence
(letters, postcards, greeting cards).
b. For information
There are some types of writing product for information such
as newspapers, magazines, nonfiction books, public notices,
advertisements, political pamphlets, scholastic, medical, etc.
c. For entertainment
There are some types of writing product for entertainment, for
example light magazines, comic strips fiction books, poetry and drama,
newspapers, features, film subtitles, and games (Nunan, 1991: 84).
6. Difficulties of Writing
Writing is a complex skill and involves recursively several
cognitive steps. The step of writing include planning, drafting, and
revising may draw heavily on an individual's working memory (Bernice
Wong, et.al. 2011: 217), so the steps of writing become one of the
difficulties of writing. In addition, the other difficulty of writing is the
mastery of writing aspect itself such as grammar, writing mechanics, and
diction which are actually aspects in writing but when students learn
writing, they become the problems for the students because they do not
fully master it yet (Board Editors, 2010: 3).
7. Common Errors in Writing
Writing is an English skill which usually make the people who
kinds of error there are 21 errors which are usually found in writing and
categorized as common errors of writing. The 21 errors which are
categorized as the common errors in writing are:
a. Sentence fragments
Sentence fragment is a kind of common error in writing which
occurs when a sentence does not express a complete thought because
it does not have subject or verb or both. Sentence fragment is exactly
an incomplete piece of a sentence (Kane, 2011: 67). Sentence
fragments can be in form sentence with wrong verb form so that
sentence will be not effective in expressing its idea and make the
reader can get the point in that incomplete sentence. Then, a
subordinate clause which do not have a main clause also can be
categorized as a sentence. Example:
- *Tests of the Shroud of Turin have produced some curious findings. For example, the pollen of forty-eight plants native to Europe and the Middle East. (wrong sentence)
- Tests of the Shroud of Turin have produced some curious findings. For example, the cloth contains the pollen of forty-eight plants
native to Europe and the Middle East. (right sentence)
The example of sentence fragment above can be recognized as
a sentence fragment because the second sentence do not have any subject. Although the second sentence “For example, the pollen for forty-eights plants native to Europe and Middle East.” is sentence which follow the first sentence to complete its information, but the
second sentence still need a subject to make it a complete or right
b. Run on sentences
Run on sentences is one of the common error that have too
much information is given at once, and the reader has trouble finding
his or her way. Run on sentence is generally in form of two
independent clauses which are run together with no punctuation at all,
nothing to indicate where one clause ends and another begins. (Kane
2011: 69). There are two types of run-on sentence namely fused
sentence and comma splice.
Fused sentence contains no internal punctuation, such as
commas or semicolons. The second one is comma splice. Comma
splice is two or more sentences are joined by a comma or commas.
Example:
- *There was one thing she forgot at the library it was her book bag. (fused sentence)
- *Football match on TV can be really boring to watch, I love going to a live match though. (comma splice)
c. Subject verb agreement
Subject verb agreement in grammatical is offend the receiver
and label the person who erred as a careless writer or speaker (Means,
2012: 108). Example:
- *Both Al and Dante was selected as contractors of the C7 project. (wrong subject agreement sentence)
d. Possessive apostrophe error
The function of apostrophe is to show a contraction or to show
ownership or possession. The apostrophe always communicates
possession or contraction (Anderson, 2005: 113). Example:
- *The dog chewed it’s bone
It’s refers to it’s the dog’s bone. This sentence is correct about
the rule, but wrong in this case. The writer should see the larger
patterns of this mechanics issue.
e. Missing comma with introductory element
Introductory element is a sentence that opens with an
introductory word, phrase, or clause requires a small pause between it
and the rest of the sentence. The students often make an error in
introductory element. Readers usually need a small pause between the
introductory element and the main part of the sentence, a pause most
often signaled by a comma.Example:
- *To tell the truth I have never liked the Mets. (wrong sentence) - To tell the truth, I have never liked the Mets. (correct sentence)
f. Unnecessary shift in person
This error occurs when the agent of the sentence, its subject,
changes (Young, 2008: 133). Example:
- *Reading Jane Eyre in the twenty-first century.
Where the subject has switched from the first person to the
(speaker/s or writers: I); the second (the person/s addressed: you); the
third (any persons who are not the speaker/s, writer/s or addressees:
he, she, they, named people or groups, for example).
g. Incorrect punctuation of titles and dialogue
In this error, the students did an incorrect punctuation when
they write a titles and also the dialogue. Missing quotation marks are
common, often-tested errors and state writing assessments (Anderson
2005: 144). Example of incorrect punctuation dialogue:
- * “Hi,” I said.
- * “Hi,” said Romero. - * “What’s up? I asked.
- * “Nothing. What’s up with you? Said Romero.
The student who write this needs to make sure he closes her
quotes, a common error, and on a craft level, he needs help on what he
is trying to accomplish with dialogue.
h. Pronoun agreement error
Most pronoun errors are two kinds: (1) lack of agreement
between the pronoun and its antecedent (that is, the word the pronoun
refers to) and (2) a missing or vague antecedent for the pronoun
(Yagelski, 2014: 313). Example:
- *When a student gets behind in the course, they have a difficult time
i. Wrong pronoun
Pronoun errors occur when the writer uses a pronoun whose
antecedent is missing, is ambiguous, or is too far removed from its
antecedent. Example:
- *Judy asked Marie if the instructor wanted to see her.
j. Comma error
Comma error is the error when the students did the wrong
general rule when they insert the comma. According to McNeely
(2014: 270), commas errors are probably the most misunderstood
punctuation mark. Example:
- *Please return the library book, that I left on the table. (wrong sentences)
- Please return the library book that I left on the table. (Correct sentences with omitted comma)
To avoid this error the students must remember the general
rule that requires a comma in that particular sentence.
k. Homonym error
Homonym error is a common error in writing which can be
occurred when students write a sentence contains a homonym which is
dictated by the teacher, and it is exactly happened because that
students do not know the meaning of the sentence. Homonyms are
words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings
(Suter, 2008: 17). Example:
The word feet and feat are homonym. As we know, feet are body parts and a feat is an accomplishment or dead.
l. Wrong tense or verb form
This error is happened when the students make an error in
wrong tense or verb form. This error can makes the information of the
sentence to be wrong because verb tenses convey information about
when an action occurs (Ehrenhaft, 2005:316). Example:
- *Max was glad to have underwent the experience of seeing the northern light. (This sentence is wrong because it uses have underwent, a nonstandart form of the verb to undergo.)
The correct sentences is Max was glad to have undergone the
experience of seeing the northern lights.
m. Word order error
Word order is the order in which elements occur in a phrase,
clause, or sentence. Compared with many other languages, word order
in English is fairly rigid. In particular, the order of subject, verb, and
object is relatively inflexible.
Word order is one of the major properties on which languages
are compared and its study is fundamental to linguistics (Song, 2012:
1). The error is made by the students when the student did not know to
compare with many other languages. Example:
- *We five o’clock begin. (wrong word order) - We begin at five o’clock. (correct word order) n. Misplaced or dangling modifier
Misplaced modifier occurs when a modifier is placed beside a
word that it does not modify. The modifier is misplaced and often
results in an amusing or illogical statement. A misplaced modifier can
be corrected by moving it next to the word that it modifies (Dave
- *My cat was diagnosed by the vet with fleas. (misplaced modifier)
- The vet diagnosed my cat with fleas. (correct modifier)
And when the modifier does not clearly modify another word in the
sentence, it is called a dangling modifier. Example:
- * After strapping the toy cowboy to his back, my cat stalked sullenly around the house. (dangling modifier)
- After I strapped the toy cowboy to his back, my cat stalked sullenly around the house. (correct modifier)
o. Faulty parallel structure
Parallel structure is the placement of equal ideas in words,
phrases, or clauses. Faulty parallelism occurs when a sentence does
not employ equal grammatical structures to express related ideas
(Moran, 2008: 213). Correcting the faulty parallel structure can be
involved by ensuring that series contains like element-all nouns, all
adjective, all preposional phrases, and so forth-or some combination
of nouns, adjectives, and so on, that are equal.
p. Weak passive voice
In English, there are two kinds of voice namely active and
passive. A verb is active when the subject performs the action, and a
verb is passive when its action is performed upon the subject. The active voice is usually preferable over the passive voice because it’s less wordy and clearer (Stein, 2000: 365). The students often did the
weak passive voice when they don’t know the subject’s identity. Example:
q. Words frequently confused
Many spelling errors are not actually errors in spelling, but
rather a problem with using one word where another is intended, such
as affect versus effect (Levy, 1998: 270).
Common errors include transposing letters, omitting letters,
adding letters that should not be there, and writing two words as one.
Other common errors that might happen is omitting entire words or
writing the wrong words altogether.
r. Tense shift
This error is illogically mixing tenses within a sentence or
within an entire piece of writing. Example:
- *Robertson went into the market, walks over to the produce section, and picks through the tomatoes. (Tense shift)
- Robertson went into the market, walked over to the produce section, and picked through the tomatoes. (Correct tense)
s. Vague pronoun reference
The students do this error if the reader can’t tell which word(s) a pronoun refers to (the antecedent) (Hale, 2005: 104) suggest that
your biggest problems with pronouns will come if you lose sight of
the antecedent: when a pronoun drifts away from its antecedent, the
entire meaning gets lost at sea. Example:
B. Report as a Type of Text
1. Type of Text
Type of text can be defined as type or kind of text defined in terms
of its social purposes, also the level of context dealing with social purpose.
Type of text is categorized by distinctive schematic structures such as
distinctive beginning, middle and end structure, and the social function of
text itself. Besides that, type of text is also categorized by the content,
language, purpose, and form. According to Gerrot and Wignell (1995:
192-217), there 12 types of text, they are:
a. Spoof
Report is text type presents information about something;
generally an entire class of things. It is important to note that the main
difference between reports and descriptive texts are that descriptive
texts deal with the characteristics of a particular thing (Keir, 2009: 9).
Reports include a general statement that identifies the subject
and include Information that is ordered in paragraphs and which
elaborates on the different aspects of the class of things. And possibly
include a concluding statement. Reports describe and classify
information without evaluative comments from the writer. Reports
may include diagrams, pictures or photos to enhance the text. Report
also can be defined as a text that classifies or describes something in
general. Reports begin with a general statement which introduces the
topic. In the description, facts (parts, qualities, habits and behaviors of
the subject) may be described (Gunarso Susilohadi, et.al, 2008: 144).
b. Generic Structure of Report Text
Each kind of text always has a generic structure that make it
different with other text types, and according to Wardiman, et.al
(2008:48), the generic structure of report text are:
1) General classification which includes the report’s subject, information, and its classification.
2) Description of the subject.
Language feature is the language characteristics that can be
found in each type of text, and each text have it language feature
which are quite different with other types. According to Bentley
(2008), language feature of report text are:
1) Generalized participants
2) Impersonal objective language
3) Timeless present tense
4) Technical terms
5) Paragraphs with topic sentences
c. Social Function of Report Text
As a type of text, report text has social function and the social
function of report text is to report something, just the way it is. The
subject includes natural things, environment, social matters, or human
matters (Wardiman, et.al, 2008:48).
d. Steps in Writing Report Text
To write a kind of text, some steps should be done well
because it will support their writing product quality. And according to
Susilohadi, et.al (2008: 102), there are seven steps that can be used by
the students in making a good report text, and those steps are:
1) Choose a topic you want to write.
2) Collect information for your report. Observe the real animal, plant,
or object. Also consult your science book or an encyclopedia, get
3) Plan what to include in the definition, and what to include in the
description.
4) Write the first draft based on the data you collect.
5) Check your writing against the Checklist. Revise the first draft and
make sure you have the right grammar, vocabulary, spelling and
punctuation.
6) Show the second draft to the teacher or to a friend for his
comments.
7) Revise the last draft and it will be the good report text.
e. Example of Report Text (with analysis)
The following is an example of report text and its analysis of generic
structure and language feature (Wijaya, 2011):
PLATYPUS
Many people call platypus duckbill because this animal has a bill like duckbill. Platypus is a native Tasmania and southern and eastern Australia.
Platypus has a flat tail and webbed feet. Its body length is 30 to 45 cm and covered with a thick, and woolly layer of fur. Its bill is detecting prey and stirring up mud. Platypus' eyes and head are small. It has no ears but has ability to sense sound and light.
Platypus lives in streams, rivers, and lakes. Female platypus usually digs burrows in the streams or river banks. The burrows are blocked with soil to protect it from intruders and flooding. In the other hand, male platypus does not need any burrow to stay.
1) Generic Structure Analysis
- General classification; stating general classification, the
animal of platypus.
- Description; describing in detail characterization of platypus'
2) Language Feature Analysis
- Focusing in group; the animal of platypus.
- Conditional, logical connective; but, in the other hand.
- Simple present tense pattern; Platypus lives in streams, male.
C. Sentence Fragments
1. Definition of Sentence Fragments
In writing, sentence fragment is a kind of error which is included in
common error category in writing, and some expert also consider it as the
most common error in writing.
A sentence fragment is a clause that can be punctuated like an
independent clause, but it lacks of grammatical element required to make
it a complete sentence (Kolby and Thornburg, 2004: 568). A sentence
fragment looks like a sentence because it begins with a capital letter and
ends with a period but it does not express a complete thought because it
does not have subject or verb or both. Sentence fragments indicate
uncertainty in writing a sentence, and sentence fragments are considered a
serious mistake in academic writing (Diyanii and Jen, 2003: 296).
Furthermore, according to Kirszner and Mandell (2007: 522), a
sentence fragment can be defined as an incomplete sentence (a phrase or
clause that is punctuated as if it were a complete sentence), and a sentence
a. It lacks a subject.
b. It lacks a verb.
c. It lacks both a subject and a verb.
d. It is only a dependent clause
2. Type of Sentence Fragments
Sentence fragment is a kind of common error that should be
avoided, and to avoid it firstly we should know the types of sentence
fragments. According to Salomone and McDonald (2010: 109-110), there
are 3 types of sentence fragments, they are:
a. Some Fragments Contain No Clause at All.
This type of fragment is simple to spot. It usually does not even sound
like sentence because it lacks a subject or verb or both.
Example:
- *The snow on the street. (sentence fragments)
- The snow on the street makes long traffic jam (complete
sentence)
b. Some Fragments Contain a Verbal but Still No Clause
This fragment is a bit less obvious because a verbal may be mistaken
for a verb. But remember, neither a participle nor an infinitive is a
verb.
Example:
c. Some Fragments Contain a Subordinate Clause but No Main Clause
This type of fragment is perhaps the most common because it does not
contain a subject and a verb. But remember, a group of words without
a main clause is not a sentence.
Example:
- *After snow had fallen on the street.
- There were many accident after snow had fallen in
3. Identifying Sentence Fragments
Identifying and correcting mistakes in students’ writing are some important activities for teacher to support the result of learning process. In
correcting sentence fragments, identifying sentence fragments on students’ writing should be done firstly before revising (Kolby, 2004: 569).
The easiest way to identify a sentence fragment is by remembering
that every sentence must contain a main clause (Salomone and McDonald,
2010: 109). But people also can use grammar checker to help in
identifying many (although not all) sentence fragments on their writing.
(Kriszner and Mandell, 2009: 379).
Furthermore, according to Luis A.Nazario, et.al. (2011: 529), there
are three methods (test) that can be used to identify sentence fragments,
they are:
a. Check to see whether the sentences a subject and a verb. If one of
these elements is missing, add it to make your sentence complete.
- *Mobile phone with a lot of useful facilities for supporting people activities. (sentence)
The example of sentence above does not have any verb so it can be
recognized as a sentence fragment, to revise it a verb should be add
into that sentence to make it become a complete sentence.
- Mobile phone comes with a lot of useful facilities for supporting people activities. (complete sentence)
b. Add the phrase “Is it true that...” or “Is it fact that…” to the beginning of each sentence, and read it as if it were a question. If you can answer
“yes” or “no”, the sentence is complete; if not, you have a fragment.
Example:
- *Internet many advantages for human life. (sentence)
To check whether the sentence example above considered as sentence fragment or not, add “Is it true or that…” to the beginning of that example.
- Is it true that internet many advantages for human life? (wrong question or cannot be answered)
So, the example is sentence fragment, and to revise them you can add a
verb into it.
- Internet brings many advantages for human life. (correct sentence)
c. Turn the sentence into a question tag by adding a tag question to the
end of the sentence. If the sentence could not become a right question
tag, so that sentence is sentence fragment.
Example:
To check whether the sentence above categorized as sentence
fragment or not, turn it become a question tag.
- Television many peoples for getting up to date information, isn’t it? (wrong question tag or sentence fragment)
So, that sentence is a sentence fragment, and to make it into a correct
sentence, add the missing element into it.
- Television supports many peoples for getting up to date information. (correct sentence)
4. Correcting Sentence Fragments
In writing, revising is a step that should be done when people want
to make a better written because mistake can’t be totally avoid and mistake always can be repaired, and s a type of common error, sentence fragments
also can be corrected by using some different methods. According to
Vincent Hopper, et.al (2010: 54-55), there are two methods for correcting
or repairing sentence fragments, they are:
a. By properly relating the large modifier to its noun or verb or relating
the large nominal to its verb.
Example:
- *While millions of people all over the world are dying of starvation. (fragments)
- We have an abundance of food while millions of people all over the world are dying of starvation. (revised)
b. By starting all over again and converting the modifier or nominal into a
Example:
- *Believing in equal opportunity for all. (fragments)
- My congresswoman believed in equal opportunity for all. (revised)
Furthermore, Kolby and Thornburg (2004: 570) also explained
about 2 methods that can be used to revise sentence fragments, they are:
a. Combine sentences to make them complete
Example:
- *Because I was at the office working. I did not make it to dinner. (fragment)
- Because I was at the office working, I did not make it to dinner. (revised)
b. Add the necessary elements to the fragment to make it complete.
Example:
- *From the beginning. Wanted to practice law in a small town. (fragment)
