THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

CHAPTER II

THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

A.    THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

1.      Writing

a). The definition of writing

In learning English, there are four skills that should be mastered; those are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Among the four skills, writing is the most difficult skill to be learnt. This opinion is supported by Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya,”Writing is the most difficult skill for second languange learners to master”. The difficulty is not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating idea into readable text. There are many different definitions about writing given by experts from many resources. According to Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R. Coopers’ said, “writing is a complex process and as such contains element of mystery and surprise. But we know and believe that writing is a skill that anyone can learn to manage”.

Marianne C. Murcia said, writing is “the ability to express one’s ideas in written form is a second or foreign language”.3 It means that writing is an activity to express our ideas in written form. On the other side, Barnet and Stubb’s said that writing as a physical act, it requires material and energy. And like most physical acts, to be performed fully, to bring pleasure, to both performer and audience, it requires practice”. From definitions above, it can be said that writing can be distinguished from other skills as the most difficult one. There are many factors influencing writing to be a good one such as grammatical, vocabularies, punctuation, and spelling knowledge which must be integrated to be a paragraph. From the ideas previously, the writer conclude that writing is more than a medium communication. It is a way of remembering and a way of thinking. Because of that, writing is not easy. It needs a hard work. In writing we have to produce words, phrase, sentences, and paragraph at the same time. It is a way of leaarning. None of us can write much of interest without first thinking, probing, observing, asking question,experimenting, and reading.

b). The writing process

Writing is  a process that involves several steps. At least, there are three steps in the writing process mentioned by Karen Blanchard, and Christine Root in their book; Ready to Write: A first Composition Text. Step one: Prewriting Thinking about your topic and organizing your ideas. Step two: Writing Using your ideas to write a first draft.

Step Three: Revising Improving what you have written.

If the writers follow the steps, and practice by writing often, they will find it easier to write paragraphs and to improve their writing.

1.      Prewriting

Prewriting is the thinking, talking, reading, and writing we do about our  topic before we write a first draft. Prewriting is a way of warming up our brain before we write, just as we warm up our body before we exercise. There are several ways to warm up before start writing:

- Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a quick way to generate a lot of ideas on a subject. The purpose is to make a list of as many ideas as possible without worrying about how you will use them. To brainstorm, follow these steps:

a) Begin with a broad topic.

b) Write down as many ideas about the topic as you can in five minutes.

c) Add more items to your list by answering the questions what, how, when, where, why, and who.

d) Group similar items on the list together.

e) Cross out items that do not belong.

- Clustering

Clustering is another prewriting technique. It is a visual way of showing how your ideas are connected using circles and lines. When you cluster, you draw a diagram of your ideas. This term will be explained in the next section. 

On the other hand said that pre-writing is any activity in the classroom that encourages students to write. It stimulates thoughts for getting started. In fact, it moves students away from having to face blank page toward generating tentative ideas and gathering information for writing. The following activities provide the learning experiences for students at this stage:

a) Group Brainstorming

b) Clustering

c) Rapid Free Writing

d) WH-Question   

2. Writing

After we have spent some time thinking about our topic and doing the necessary prewriting, we are ready for the next step in the writing process: writing our paragraph. When we write the first draft of our paragraph, use the ideas we generated from prewriting as a guide. As you write, remember to:

1) Begin with a topic sentence that states the main idea.

2) Include several sentences that support the main idea.

3) Stick to the topic.

4) Arrange the sentences so that the order of odeas makes sense.

5) Use signal words to help the reader understan how the ideas in your paragraph are connected.

- Writing Skill

Writing skill can be defined as an ability to communicate all the ideas or imaginations into the form of structured pattern so that the readers may understand what the writers mean in their writing. Lennenberg in Brown (2001: 334) says that writing is similar to swimming which means that somebody is able to swim if someone else teaches him how to do so and so is writing. Briefly, if a student is willing to be able to express his ideas in the written form, he needs someone else to guide and teaches him how to do so well and appropriately. 

A good writing skill will not appear at once. Writing skill needs process which has four stages. Hogue (1999: 3) mentions them as follows:

a.      Pre-writing

Pre-writing is the first stage in the writing process. There are two steps namely choosing and narrowing a topic and brainstorming.

b. Planning (Outlining)

It organize the ideas the learners generated by brainstorming into an outline. There are three steps on planning that is: making sublists, writing the topic sentence, and outlining.

c. Writing and Revising Draft

In this stage, a writer does three steps: writing the first rough draft, revising content and organization, and proofreading the second draft  

d. Writing the Final Copy to Hand in

As the final activity in a writing process, a writer has to rework the written drafts and polish them for the presentation or publication.  Baruah (1991: 246) states that the main aim of developing the skill of writing is to train the student in expressing himself effectively in good English. The learners who have a good writing skill can:

o   write the letters of the alphabet at a reasonable speed,

o   spell the words correctly,

o   recall appropriate words and put them in sentences,

o   use appropriate punctuation marks,

o   link sentences with appropriate sentence connectors and sequence signals (e.g. pronouns, definite article, etc.),

3. Revising

It is almost impossible to write a perfect paragraph on the first try. The first try is called the first draft. After you complete the first draft, you must look for ways to improve it. This step is called revising.

When students revise, they review their text on the basis of the feedback given in the previous stage. They reexmaine what was written to see how effectively they have communicated their meanings to the reader.

In another source stated that writing is a process that involves the following steps:

1) Discovering a point-often through prewriting.

2) Developing solid support for the point-often through more prewriting.

3) Organizing the supporting material and writing it out in a first draft.

4) Revising and then editing carefully to ensure an effective, error-free paper.

c. Purposes of Writing

According to Penny Ur “the purpose of writing, in principle, is the expression of ideas, the conveying of messages to the reader. So the ideas themselves should arguably be seen as the most important aspect in the writing”.

It means that when the writers do their writing, of course they have some purposes. They have to consider the purpose of their writing since this will influence, not only the type of text they wish to produce, but including the language which they use, and the information that they choose.

In addition, there are really only four common purposes in writing they are: to inform, to explain, to persuade, and to amuse others.

-          Writing to Inform

In much of the writing that the writers will do, they will intend simply to inform their readers about a subject. To inform is to transmit necessary information about the subject to the readers, and usually this means just telling the readers what the facts are or what happened. Although informative writing is the simplest kind of writing, it is also one of the most important, because information lays a foundation for other writing purposes. As the writers write to inform, they will want to keep two large concerns in mind; selecting the right information and arranging it effectively. 

-          Writing to Explain

Writing to explain means writing to take what is unclear and make it clear. In explanatory writing, a writer who understands a complex topic must take sure that his readers understand it as well. 

All of us use several common methods of explaining something to another person in our everyday conversation, and these same techniques can provide basic strategies for organizing an explanation in writing. 

-          Writing to Persuade

The most important writing we ever do in our personal life, our work life, and may be our school life will probably persuasion. Complaints to the rent board about our landlord, letters of application for jobs, essay on examinations are all likely to involve writing persuasively. Your task in persuasion is to convince your readers to accept the main idea, even though it may be controversial.  

-          Writing to Amuse

Others Writing to amuse requires that you focus on readers other than yourself. You may enjoy the experience and take pride in what you accomplish, but you cannot settle for amusing yourself alone. Writing to amuse gives you an opportunity to bring pleasure to others. Seize the opportunity and make the most of it. If you find pleasure in writing to amuse, it will come from knowing that you succeed in bringing pleasure to others. When write to amuse, your primary object is to make readers enjoy themselves. You can be funny, but you should also be good- humored. This means having sympathy for human frailty rather than a contempt for anyone or anything that seems different from what you are accustomed to.

d. Types of Writing taught in Junior High School

Based on the core competencies and basic competencies recommended by the government, there are some types of writing which have to be taught in junior high school, they are; procedure, descriptive, recount, and narrative.

1.      Procedure

Based on Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson procedure is a piece of text that tells the reader or listener how to do something. Its purpose is to provide instruction for making something, doing something or getting somewhere. Example of procedure texts include: recipes, itineraries, instruction manuals, directions.

2. Descriptive 

According to Elizabet Cowan descriptive presents the appearance of things that occupy space, whether they are object, people, buildings, or cities. The purpose of descriptive is to convey to the reader what something looks like. It attempts to gain a picture with words. According to Linda Gerot that the purpose of descriptive text is to describe about people, place or thing. The generic structure of descriptive text are identifying something that is described thephenomenon, and it is called identification. Then, description that describes about the part, qualities, and characteristic.

The significance grammatical pattern of descriptive text are focuse of specific participant, using simple present tense, use of descriptive adjective to explain more, then using of verb of being and having, and the last is focus on specific participant not general.

The use of the words that refer to the senses of sight, sound, touch, smell and taste or ususally called as sensory words must be used in writing descriptive. It makes the reader easy to imagine what we are describing. As well, the physical characteristics such as height, weight, and hair color, also used when describing person. Use detail to write good description to make reader easier to imagine the person who is described.46 Actually we often describe things, person, or places in our daily life. It such as when we are talking with our friend about something that lose. Then we will ask our friend and called the characteristics of it. If we are aware when we called the characteristics, it is same as we describing things, and it is will be a descriptive text if we write those on paper. 

3.Recount

According to Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson recount is a piece of text that retells past events, usually in the order which they happened. The aim of a recount is to give the audience a description of what occurred and when it occurred. Some example of recount text types are; newspaper, reports, conversation, speeches, television interviews, etc. 

4. Narrative

Based on Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson narrative is most generally described as a story told by the narrator. Narratives are not as simple as that. They are construction of certain characteristics that relate a tale through an organization of words. This construction includes three discernible layers, the elements that make up the content of the narrative, and the agent. Understanding these concepts is the key to defining a narrative. The narrative text is type of written text that tells a story of one character or more who face certain situation. Its purpose is to present a view of the world that entertains or informs the reader or listener. It is related to the recount type. There are many different types of narratives including: humor, romance, crime, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, real-life fiction, adventure, diary-novel, etc.

2.      Description Text

a.      The definition of descriptive text

Descriptive text is a part of factual genres. Its social function is to describe a particular person, place or thing. Description in writing is the process of creating visual images and sensory impression through words. More often, description is a part of another piece of writing and is used to inform an audience about how something or someone looked or to persuade an audience to see something from the writer’s point of view. 

Description recreates sense impression by translating into words, the feel, sound, taste, smell, and look of things. Emotion may be describing too, feelings such as happiness, fear, loneliness, gloom, and joy.Description helps the reader, through his or her imagination, to visualize a scene or a person, or to understand a sensation or an emotion.

As Barbara Fine Clouse said in her book, The Student Writer, “Description adds an important dimension to our lives because it moves our emotion and expands our experience”. Description expands our experience by taking us to place we might not otherwise know much about, which explains the popularity of descriptive travel essay in magazines and newspapers.

Traditionally, descriptions are divided into two categories: objectives and subjective. In objective description you records details without making any personal evaluation or reaction.  In subjective description, you are free to interpret the details for your reader; your reaction and description can be emotional and value-loaded.

The goal when we write subjective description is to create vivid mental images. To do that, we will use concrete sensory detail, which consists of specific words that appeal to the sense (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch).

Whether objective or subjective, descriptions can serve a variety of purposes, but in every case it is important to make that purpose clear to your reader.

b.      Purposes of descriptive text

As social beings, we want to share our experience, so we write to others to describe things such as vacations, childhood homes, and people we encounter. We even use description to persuade others to think or act in particular ways: advertisers describe products to persuade us to buy them; travel agents describe locales to entice us to visit them; and real estate agents describe properties to stimulate a desire to see them. As the examples in the following chart show, description enables us to entertain, express feelings, relate experience, inform, and persuade.

Purpose	Description
To entertain	An amusing description of a teenager’s bedroom
To express feelings	A description of your favorite outdoor retreat so your reader understand why you enjoy it so much
To relate experience	A description of your childhood home to convey a sense of the poverty you grew up in
To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with the subject)	A description of a newborn calf for a reader who has never seen one
To inform (to create a fresh appreciation for the familiar)	A description of an apple to help the reader rediscover the joys of this simple fruit
To persuade (to convince the reader that some music videos degrade woman	A description of a degrading music video

Although it can serve a variety of purposes, description is most often expressive, so it most often helps writers share their perceptions. As human beings, we have a compelling desire to connect with other people by sharing our experiences with them.

c.       The structure and example of descriptive text

The generic structures of a description are as follows:

1. Identification                      : identifies the phenomenon to be described

2.Description of features        : describes features in order of importance:

a. Parts/things (physical appearance)

b. Qualities (degree of beauty, excellence, or worth/value)

c. Other characteristics (prominent aspects that are unique). 

The generic features of description are:

1. Verb in the present tense

2. Adjective to describe the features of the subject

3. Topic sentences to begin paragraphs and organize the various aspects of the description. 

The factual description scaffold

1. A general opening statement in the first paragraph

a) This statement introduces the subject of the description to the audience.

b) It can give the audience brief details about the when, where, who, or what of the subject.

2. A series of paragraphs about the subject

a) Each paragraph usually begins with a topic sentence.

b) The topic sentence previews the details that will be contained in the remainder of the paragraph.

c) Each paragraph should describe one feature of the subject

d) These paragraphs build the description of the subject

3. A concluding paragraph (optional)

a) The concluding paragraph signals the end of the text.

3.      Clustering Technique

a.      The definiton of clustering

In the writing process there is a prewriting step. One of the prewriting steps is clustering. There are a lot of definition about clustering stated by experts, Karen Blanchard, and Christine Root state one of them, they define that clustering is another prewriting technique. It is a visual way of showing how your ideas are connected using ciecles and lines. When you cluster, you draw a diagram of your ideas.

Another definition stated by Regina L. Smalley, and Mary K. Ruetten, clustering is making a visual map of the ideas.  

Santi V. Buscemi said that clustering is a good way to turn a broad subject into a limited and more manageable topic for a short essay. Also called mapping, and diagramming, it is an other effective way to gather information for an essay. To cluster ideas, begin with a blank sheet of paper. In the center, write and circle the word that expresses the broad subject which one to write about. Think of ideas and details related to this subject. This technique will help the students to organize their ideas before they develop in paragraph of descriptive writing. According to John Langan,”Clustering also known as diagramming, or mapping, is another strategy that can be used to generate material for a paper. This technique is helpul for people who like to think in a visual way. In nclustering, writers can can use lines, boxes, arrows, and circle to show relationship among the ideas and details that occur to them. It means that clustering is a technique that can help students to narrow the subject especially for visual learners.

On the other hand, Thomas E. Tyner said that,

Looping (clustering) is a technique for developing rough outline for a topic by    beginning with the most general ideas and moving to more and more specific details. It is beneficial in seeing the relationship between details, in organizing information in an orderly fashion, and in developing specific support for their main ideas.

From the definition above, the writer concludes that clustering is making a visual map or new association that allows thinking more creatively and to begin without clear ideas. Clustering can be useful for any kind of writing. Writers use it in the early stages of planning an essay in order to find sub topic in a topic  to organize information. Writers can use clustering to plan brief section of an essay as they are drafting.

b.      The definition of technique

Talking about technique there are three terms that must be differentiated because these terms used in teaching learning activity and people often confuse with these terms, they are approach, method, and technique.

From the statement above, Edward Anthony in 1963 identified three levels of conceptualization and organization, which he termed approach, method, and technique. The arrangement is hierarchical. The organizational key is that technique carry out a method which is consistent with an approach. An approach is a set of correlative assumption dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught. While method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach. An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural. Within an approach, there can be many methods.

From the idea previously, it can be conclude that a technique is implementation-that which actually takes place is a classroom. It is a particular tricks, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective. Technique must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well.

Based on the statement above, it can be said that technique is a way of doing an activities derived from an application of principles. This statement is supported by Diane Larsen-Freeman, “technique is the behavioral manifestation of the principles”. So, clustering is one of the techniques in teaching writing because it is a teachers’ strategy which implemented in the classroom.

c.       The application of clustering technique in writing descriptive text

From the concept stated previously, it can be known that clustering is a strategy that can be used to generate material for a paper. This technique is helpful for the writers who like to do their thinking in a visual way. In clustering, the writers can use lines, boxes, arrows, and circles to show relationships among the ideas and details that occur to them.

To begin, take a fresh sheet of paper and write a general subject in the center. Then circle the world. Keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way of clustering or diagramming. It is a way to think on paper about how various ideas and details relate to one another.

In clustering you write a topic in the center of a piece of paper, then write ideas suggested by the topic around it, connecting these to the topic with lines, follow the same procedure with your subtopics.46

Furthermore, the application of clustering in teaching begins with a key word or central idea placed in the center of a page (or on the blackboard) around which the student (or teacher using students-generated suggestion) jots down in a few minutes all of the free associations triggered by the subject matter-using simply words or short phrases. Unlike listing, the word or phrases generated are put on the page or board in a pattern which takes shape from the connection the writer sees as each new thought emerges. Complete cluster can look like spokes on a wheel or any other pattern of connected lines, depending on how the individual associations are drawn to relate each other. By having students share their cluster patterns with other students in the class, teachers allow students to be exposed to a wide variety of approaches to the subject matter, which might further generate material for writing.

B.     REVIEW RELATED OF THE LITERATURE

Based on the research of Fikri Fauzi Alawi, “Improving Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text Using Clustering Technique (An Action Research at eighth grades of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Cipete-Jakarta)”. This research used Classroom Action Research (CAR) as the method of research. This research consisted of two cycles and each cycle consisted of four steps, they were: Planning, action, observation, and reflection. Each cycle was conducted in three meetings, so the researcher conducted this research in one month and one day.

To collect and analyze the data, the researcher used the information from interview, observation, questionnaire, and the students’ achievement in pre-test and post-test in order to support the data collected. 

The result of this research shows that using clustering technique in teaching descriptive writing can improve their writing’s ability. The students’ responses showed that they were interested to learn writing subject, because they felt easier to write using the technique. Moreover, the students’ achievement in pre-test and post-test showed a significant improvement. The students’ mean in preliminary study was 49.5%. In the first cycle the mean score was 64.8%. Meanwhile the mean score in the second cycle was 74.3%. it means that there was 15.2 points or 30% of mean improvement from the students’ score in the preliminary study to the first cycle and there was 24.7 points or 49.8% of mean score improvement from the students’ score in preliminary study to the second cycle. From this result, the researcher concludes that teaching descriptive writing using clustering technique at eighth grades of MTs. Darul Ma’arif Jakarta can improve their writing ability.

C.    RATIONALE

Clustering is a strategy to stimulate the learner for developing their idea that’s difficult to say. It is developed to improve writing skill and used to facilitate thinking in the classroom setting and also used to stimulate for classroom discussion. The learners will use the technique easily to generate their ideas. Furthermore they will enjoy writing well. On the other hand, direct instruction is a model for teaching that emphasizes well developed and carefully planned lessons designed around small learning increments and cleanly defined and prescribed teaching tasks. It is specifically designed to enhance academic learning time.

It does not assume that students will develop ideas on their own. Instead, it takes learners through the steps of learning systematically, helping them see both the purpose and the result of each step. When teachers explain exactly what students are expected to learn, and demonstrate the steps needed to accomplish a particular

academic task, students are likely to use their time more effectively and to learn more. The learners are hoped to write under the teacher instruction. Based on the statement, it can be assumed that clustering technique is more effective than direct instruction to teach writing skill.