The Problem and The Benefit of Studying Writing

A.      The Definition of Writing

Before knowing and understanding the problem and the benefit of studying writing, first of all, we need to know the definition of writing. Writing is one of the Language skills. There are some definitions of writing:

1.    Writing is a process of expressing ideas or thoughts in the word.[1]

2.    The written productive language skill is called writing.[2]

3.    Writing is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form.[3]

As the student of English Education, We need to learn and study about writing. Studying writing is not easy, but we need to complete our writing skill to got the language skill. Writing skill is the skill of a writer to communicate information to a reader or group of readers.

B.       The Problem of Studying Writing

Studying Writing includes of knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure. Other knowledge that we need for studying writing is Vocabulary, as is correct spelling and formatting.

In short, studying writing is not only just study how to write, but also we need to learn other section of studying English like grammar and sentence structure. Because of that, we may meet the problem when we are studying about writing.

There are some problems of studying writing:

1.    The written text may doesn’t fit with grammatical function (Grammatical Errors)

We should write without forget about the grammatical function. In writing, grammar is one of important things that we can’t ignore.

Example: She sing a song. (It is false, because the subject “She” is third person singular personal pronouns. So, the verb should ending by –s)

The correct sentence: She sings a song[4].

2.    We should careful about punctuation.

The punctuation is the mark used in writing that divide sentences and phrases or the system of using these marks.[5] Sometimes, we make a false when writing because we forget to add some punctuation.

Example: i study English (Wrong Example)

We may forget to write with capital letter in the beginning of the sentence and to add full stop (.) in the end of the sentence. Whereas one of characteristic of the sentence is: sentence always beginning with capital letter and ending by punctuation full stop (when positive statement).

The correct sentence: I study English.

Others function of punctuation:

a.       Ending by (!): if the sentence is exclamation.

b.      Comma (,): for break two sentences become one sentence or to break other word in the sentence.

c.       Ending by (?): if the sentence is asking the question.

3.    Tenses

Tenses is one of the common problem when we are talking about writing. Some people still confused when using tenses for making a sentence.

Example: They will come from Bali last week. (Wrong)

That sentence is wrong because if the event has passed last week, it should use “Simple Past Tense”.

The correct sentence: They came from Bali last week.

4.    Lack of Vocabulary

Certainly, if we want to write our idea becomes a sentence, we need to have much vocabulary. It is very important to have a lot of vocabulary, so every thought that we have can be conveying in the written text. If we have lack of vocabulary, it will be a problem for us.

5.    There are so many kinds of writing essay

Writing has many kinds of the text. Some of them are Narrative essay, Descriptive essay, Expository essay, Argumentation essay, etc. That could be problem for the student when studying writing because they may difficult to differentiate one text with other text.

6.    Confused for the topic that would be written.

7.    Stuck in the middle of writing the text.

8.    Difficult to organize the written text.

9.    Make the written text effectively and efficiently.

10.     Difficult to explore the idea.

C.      The Benefit of Studying Writing

Beside of the problem of studying writing, studying writing is also has the benefits. There are some benefits of studying writing:

1.    To improve our writing skill.

2.    To help us make well-constructed arguments to communicate our ideas on paper.

3.    To help us increase our advanced level of grammatical and stylistic skill.

4.    To develop our creative thinking and problem-solving abilities by analyzing different writing styles.

5.    We can make a good Essay about Narrative, descriptive, expository, and others.

One of the purposes of studying writing is the student can make a good paragraph or Essay. In this section, we will discuss about Narrative and Descriptive essay.

---

[1] Sutanto Leo. English for Academic Purpose : Essay Writing. Yogyakarta : ANDI, 2007. p.1

[2] Sanggam Siahaan. The English Paragraph. Yogyakarta : GRAHA ILMU, 2008. p.2

[3] https://www.englishclub.com/writing/what.htm accessed on November 5^th, 2014 at 6.43 AM

[4] Betty Schrampfer Azar. Fundamental of English Grammar Third Edition. p.12

[5] Oxford Advanced Learner’s  Dictionary 8^th edition. New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.