By Muhammad
Jauhari Sofi*
Academic English writing in is understood as essays that are
written in college or university classes. These essays are somewhat formal in
nature and very direct. Academic writing is linear in structure; that is, it
has beginning, middle, and an end, and it continues directly from one part to
the next.
Some common questions often arise when talking about English
writing skill, and more importantly learning it as foreign language (EFL). The
first question must be why we need to learn English writing. One of the reasons
is because writing skill is one of the most basic skills to communicate with
English. It can be a ticket to better academic achievement because it reflects
our intellectual flexibility and maturity.
However, accomplishing writing skill cannot be rushed. It takes
time and patience. The most important thing we need at the beginning is a good
vocabulary. Using words correctly and effectively can be a passport to worlds
of interesting and exciting information (Mahmud 1997:1). Without words, we have
nothing to work with. Furthermore, we have to start with the strong foundation
of writing and slowly build our sentences day by day.
Writing
in English
Different languages use different
writing systems. Different languages also use different writing styles of
organization. English writing is different from Arabic or Indonesian style of
writing. English organization, for example, is simple. English uses a straight
line from beginning to end as described in the organization below:
The
diagram shows us that when English speakers read an article, they expect the
article to have a beginning, middle, and an end. The beginning should say what
the article is going to be about, the middle should talk about the topic of the
article, and the end should say what the article was about (Boardman and Jia F.
2008: XV).
However,
it is important to understand that one style of writing is not better than
another, just as one language is not better than another. The styles are just
different. To be a successful writer in any language, we need to learn the
writing style in addition to words and grammar rules. In other word, we also
need to know the criteria of good writing.
Criteria of Good Writing
There are many criteria of good writing
mentioned by the experts worldwide. The consideration of how good writing is,
however, not completely different from one to other experts. There are always
remaining common elements of good composition.
Aristotle maintains that a good writing
should have unity, coherence, and focus of attention. He continues that
coherence among sentences or paragraphs is not simply build by putting
transitional conjunctions such as moreover, furthermore, nevertheless,
in addition, etc., and using them frequently (Flesch 2006: 46). Langan
joins Aristotle in providing four bases to evaluate writing, namely unity,
support, coherence, and sentence skill. More specifically, unity is
understood as advancing a single point and stick to that point, while support
involves using specific evidence to support the point. Coherence, on the
other hand, requires organizing and connecting the specific evidence, and
lastly, sentence skill refers to clear and error-free sentences
that involve grammar, mechanics (capital letters, punctuation, etc.), and word
use (Langan 1997: 95).
In this sense, we consider that all
mentioned criteria are clear and thorough. Therefore, bearing in mind some
criteria of good writing, to some extent, is the important factor that helps us
in improving our writing skill.
Steps of Writing Process
Learning
writing is often considered as more complicated than learning other language
skills. It is not simply encouraging people to take a pen in hand and expect
words to flow perfectly onto paper. Moreover, it employs strategies to manage
the composing process. Learning writing requires people to involve various
activities such as generating ideas, drafting, editing, etc. in writing
process. Below is a consideration involved in learning writing.
Richards
suggests that most of the writing tasks can be completed by a sequence of
activities that focus on the writing process as follows:
- Pre-writing phase. It includes
discussion of the topic, model of compositions, brainstorming on the topic,
etc. to generate students’ ideas and collect information related to the topic.
- Free writing. Students use their
ideas, information, and notes to plan their compositions. During this phase,
students write freely on the topic. The focus here is organizing ideas – not
perfecting grammar and spelling.
- Drafting. Students now write a
first complete draft in sentence and paragraph form, but again without worrying
about grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
- Revising. This is in pair or
group feedback sessions. Here students ask questions for clarification or
suggestions. After this, they work alone to reorganize, revise, and rewrite
their draft.
- Editing. Students check their
second draft for accuracy. This time, they concentrate on checking that their
ideas are clearly organized and have included enough details. When content and
organization seem fine, students then focus on grammar, punctuation, and
spelling.
- Final phase. Students write a
clean third (final) draft to hand it for comments. They may submit their
writing to the teacher or put up on classroom bulletin (Richards 1998: X).
To
learn English writing well means to strive hard to complete the above-mentioned
activities. Daily practice is very important. We
do not need to worry about the mistakes. The more mistakes we make, the more we
will learn from them.
Now
is the time to try. Good luck,
The writer is the chairman of WEC 2009 and alumnus of IELSP in The
University of Arkansas, USA.
