What is writing? The definition of writing according to experts

Definition of Writing

    In order to understand the writing well, the writer will present some

definitions of writing. According to Meyers (2005) in Fathali and

Sotoudehnama (2015, p. 2) writing is a way to produce language, which

you do naturally when you speak. There are two ways in producing

language, those are writing and speaking. The difference between writing

and speaking is the media used. In speaking, to convey ideas, people do it

orally. Meanwhile, in writing, to make letters and symbols, pen or pencil

and paper are needed.

    Moreover, according to Hyland (2003, p. 9) writing is a way of sharing

personal meanings and writing courses that emphasize the power of the

individual to construct his or her own views on a topic. In addition, Nunan

(2003, p. 98) also defines writing as the process of thinking to invent

ideas, thinking about how to express into good writing, and arranging the

ideas into statement and paragraph clearly. People tend to write to convey

their personal ideas of something. By arranging their ideas into clear

statement, the writer hopes that the reader will understand what is meant

by the writer.

    While Rivers (1981, p. 294) states that writing is conveying

information or expression of original ideas in a consecutive way in new

language. Furthermore, Troyka (1987) as cited in Handayani (2013, p. 1)

also states that writing is a way of communicating a message to a reader

for purpose. The writer’s purpose is to provide information which can be

useful to the readers. By writing, the writers indirectly keep in touch with

the readers.

    From those explanations above, it can be concluded that writing is a

process of thinking to produce language to share and communicate

personal leanings and writing courses which provide useful information

for the readers.

References

Fathali, Somayeh., Sotoudehnama, Elaheh. (2015). The Impact of Guided Writing

Practice on The Speaking Proficiency and Attitude of EFL Elementary

Learners. The Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 7(1), 1-25.

Handayani, A.A Komang., Dantes Nyoman.,& Ratminingsih, Ni Made. (2013).

The Effect of Guided Writing Strategy and Students’ Achievement 54

Motivation on Students’ Writing Competency. e-Journal Program

Pasca Sarjana Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha. 1. 1-12

Hyland, Ken. (2003). Second Language Writing. USA: Cambridge University

Press.

Rivers, W.M. (1981). Teaching Foreign Language Skills. Chicago: University of

Chicago Press.

IS COMIC STRIPS AN EFFECTIVE MEDIA TO TEACH NARRATIVE WRITING? (A PERSONAL THOUGHT!)

IS COMIC STRIPS AN EFFECTIVE MEDIA TO TEACH NARRATIVE WRITING? HOW AND WHY? (A PERSONAL THOUGHT!)

Hey there! It is been a while since my last post in this blog. I was so busy in doing my thesis, so I had no time to write. But I have graduated!!! Yeay!!! (AFTER ALL THIS YEAR XD)

Talking about my thesis, I did a research about how comic strips could be a suitable media to teach narrative writing. So today, I would like to share my personal thought of how comic strips could be an effective media. But before I share my thoughts, I would like to explain some points about writing, narrative, and comic strips briefly.  

Writing can be the most difficult skill that must be learned by the foreign language learners. According to Scott (1995, p. 68) writing has certain characteristics which are difficult to be mastered by pupils. One of the characteristics is that pupils cannot use the same body language, intonation, tone, eye contact, and all the features to convey the meaning as they use in speaking. Therefore, it can be a challenge for students in writing a text properly so that the meaning can be conveyed. In addition, Nation (2009, p. 119) states that some students have an ability to say what they want to write but might have difficulty in putting it into written form. It means that they have problems in conveying their ideas into written text. Some students are able in doing this but are very slow. The students may be lack of proficiency in turning ideas into text. A possible reason might be the difference between the students’ first language writing systems and the second language writing system.

One of the writing products is Narrative Text. According to Elite (2000) in Putri and Adnan (2019, p. 154), narrative is a story that is roled by characters who experience some events sequentially. However, some students might have difficulties in writing narrative. As stated by

To overcome these problems, teacher must determine a certain media in teaching writing in order to improve students’ ability and willingness in writing, so that the teaching and learning process will be effective and the students can be active in classroom. One of the media that is suggested to be used in classroom is visual aids. According to Kreidler (1965) in Rizky (2013, p. 127) visual aids is useful to language teacher. In addition, according to Harford and Baird (1996, p. 1) visual aids help people to learn and remember. It is clear that visual aids are very helpful in teaching and learning process. One of the visual aids that can be used in teaching English writing is picture.

One of the picture media that can be used is Comic Strips. According to McCloud (1996, p. 9), comic is juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer. Moreover Sudjana (2002, p. 64) defines comic strips as kind of cartoon form which expresses the characters and composes a story. Comic strips consists of a story which expresses briefly and interestingly. Additionally, Kunzle in Sommerland and Wictorin (2016, p. 3) states that comic strips is a sequence of separate images with a preponderance of image over that appears in a mess medium and tells story which is both moral and topical. In addition Jungst in Mӓlzer (2015, p. 323) states that comic is narrative in a sequence of panels combined into page layout where words appear in speech balloons, caption, or as onomatopoeia integrated into the picture.    

PERSONAL THOUGHT

From the explanation above we can conclude that comic strips is a set of drawings in a panels combined into page layout where words appear in speech balloons, caption, or as onomatopoeia which expresses characters and story briefly which intends to produce aesthetic response in a viewer. Therefore, comic strips might give the students an opportunity to improve the writing content which refers to the idea of the text. In writing a narrative, students need idea, comic strips has a sequence which refers to the organization of text, grammar which refers to rules which help the writer to construct sentences, vocabulary which refers to word choice, mechanics which refer to spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. These aspects are important in teaching narrative writing. Comic strips will assist students to build up their idea since comic strips is equipped pictures which show characters, place, and situation of the story.

As discussed before the comic strips has a sequence which is made deliberately. How the students organize the text is important, so that the reader will catch the message clearly. Not only the organization, but also students must have good grammar and vocabulary since comic strips has speech balloons contain of word or sentences, so that the story will be conveyed clearly and meaningfully. In conclusion, since comic strips can help students of having these five aspects, it may lead students to have micro skill and macro skill in writing. For example, a good  spelling leads the students to have good vocabulary. When students have the aspect of vocabulary, students will use an acceptable words and appropriate word order patterns. Students who have grammar aspect will use acceptable grammar system.

So I guess that’s all about the explanation of how comic strips can be an effective media to teach narrative writing. See you. :D

References:

Harford, Nicola ; Nicola Baird. (1996). How to Make Visual Aids. Oxford: Oxfam.

Mӓlzer, Natalie. (2015). Comics: Ṻbersetzungen und Adaptionen. German: Frank & Timme.

McCloud, Scott.(1996). Understanding Comics The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publisher.

Nation, I. S. P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL: Reading and Writing. New York: Routledge,Taylor & Francis.

Putri, Irena., & Adnan, Aryuliva. (2019). Teaching Spoken Narrative by Using Animation Film to Junior High School Students. Journal of English Language Teaching.8(1). 153-159.

Rizky, M. Syaeful.,Rukmini,Dwi.,& Sutopo, Djoko. (2013). The Use of Pictures to Improve Students’ Motivation in Learning Vocabulary. English Education Journal, 3(2). 126-135.

Scott, Wendy.A. (1995). Teaching English to Children. New York: Longman

Sommerland, Ylva., & Wictorin. Margareta. Wallin. (2017). Writing Comics into Art History and Art History into Comic Research.  Journal of Art History. 86. 1-5.    

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ RECOUNT TEXT WRITING BY USING PICTURE SERIES.

Source : Yusnita, Eni ;Sada,Clary; Novita Dewi. (2012). IMPROVING STUDENTS’ RECOUNT TEXT WRITING BY USING PICTURE SERIES. P.1-14

This research was conducted in order to improve students’ recount text writing through by using picture series. According to the experience of the researcher, students are difficult to find the idea during writing. This pushes the researcher to use picture series as clues for students to get the idea. The methodology of this research is a classroom action research which consisted of 2 cycles. The subject of this research was the tenth grade students. The number of participants in this research was 40 students. In completing the research, the researcher used the observation, written test and field note as the instruments of collecting the data. By conducting the classroom action research, it was found that using picture series improved the students’ recount text writing. The result of this research has shown that the students progress in improves writing in each cycle. First cycle was 61.5 (less than 65, not achieved). The second cycles, was 66.0 (Achieved) which was higher than the KKM score. So, the use of picture series will help the students in improving recount text writing.  

This article will help the teacher to find the best way of teaching by using picture series. The picture series itself is recommended in teaching and learning process of writing recount text

THE IMPROVEMENT OF STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH ERROR ANALYSIS METHOD. International Journal of English Language Teaching.

Source : Dirgeyasa,Wy (2016). THE IMPROVEMENT OF STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH ERROR ANALYSIS METHOD. International Journal of English Language Teaching. P.1-10

This research was conducted by the researcher in order to know the effectiveness of Error Analysis Method toward the students’ achievement in English writing skill and their perceptions to Error Analysis Method (hereafter EAM) for teaching and learning writing The researcher choose EAM because it can significantly improves students achievement. As Corder (1967) and Brown (2000) both highlight that language learners’ errors are important to study because it shows the state of the learners’ knowledge. In addition, theoretically and empirically, the EAM can significantly improve the students’ learning achievement as reported by Dirgeyasa, and Husein (2007: 25).The research was conducted in Classroom Action Research. The subjects of this research are 31 students of the third semester of English Department of State University of Medan of 2012/2013 academic year. The instrument for collecting data is essay writing test. The data are analysed by descriptive analysis. The results of the research shows that 1) the students’ achievement in English writing skill is (76.74) in average or it increases (17.32) basis points from the pre-test (59.42) in average and 2) in general, the students have positive and good perceptions toward Error Analysis Method for teaching and learning writing skill of English. This implies that the implementation of EAM is significantly effective to improve students’ writing skill.

The Use of Caption Picture Media for Improving the Skills of Writing Narrative Texts and the Learning Process of Writing Narrative Text.

Source: Misianto, and Sutjipto,Budi Eko (2016). The Use of Caption Picture Media for Improving the Skills of Writing Narrative Texts and the Learning Process of Writing Narrative Text. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education (IOSR-JRME),P.45-49

This research was designed in CAR (Classroom Action Research). This research was conducted in order to improve the skills of writing narrative text and learning process of writing narrative text by using caption picture media. The researcher used caption picture media since this media is good at stimulating the students to easily develop their ideas based on the caption which gives obvious information of the pictures (Weir, 1990:62). The subject of this research was 34 Social Studies 3 students of Public Senior High School 7 of Malang Even Semester in Academic Year 2015/2016. The data collection was done by using 4 instruments, namely a pre-test, a scoring rubric of writing a narrative text used by the researcher, an observation sheet used by the collaborator, and a student questionnaire. This research has successfully developed a model of teaching narrative text writing by using caption picture media with the following procedure: (1) the teacher makes a group of 5; (2) each group is given a series of scrambled pictures for a story; (3) each group rearranges the pictures into a correct order; (4) the students individually write a narrative text based on the rearranged pictures. It is proved that there were some improvements after using this media. This media is recommended for teaching writing narrative text