Improving Students Writing skill In Narrative text through Blog

Improving Students Writing skill In Narrative text through Blog
Compiled by:
SITI HAIRANI
07211210289
Faculty of Teacher Training and Educational Science
Ibn Khaldun University Bogor
2010
Introduction
Teaching Writing is a tool for expressing students’ ideas
Writing is one of language skills which are important for students in learning English. It becomes very important because with writing the teacher can know all of about English skills of student including speaking, reading, and listening. Commonly the students write what they got from their environment even in school, home, or their neighborhood. Writing becomes interesting activity when the teacher knows how about teaching it. One of important point the teacher can should be an inspiration about their writing and becomes good supporter in writing learning process. Actually writing is a tool for students to express their ideas through the paper, book, and file until blog that is provided in internet facility. As a teacher we have to guide their writing based on the purpose of the teaching learning process. Therefore, the students also have to pay attention on grammatical language including what kinds of tenses that should be used for their writing, how about the sentences are structured, and also how about the appropriate words that is used in their writing. In this paper the writing that I want to emphasize is narrative writing because the tense that commonly used is simple past tense and its pattern is not difficult to remember by student. The other reason is because the students usually write about their selves even their experience or sharing the feeling which was felt by them in one event. To make it easy in teaching the media that is used to help writing process is internet. The facility that is used is blog because when the students put their writing in a blog it is meant the other people can give comments directly including teacher or their friends, so they can know about the lack and surplus of their writing. From those comment the students are hoped to improve their writing more and more because the application is very important beside some theories.
Theoretical Background
Teaching is an activity that is very needed in educational world. Teaching consist of contact between two individuals person, they are teacher and students. This process will be effective if the teacher use the appropriate or the interesting method for different materials. Talking about method, there are many facilities which can help the teacher in their teaching because English is an interesting language if we can make it as an interesting thing too. The process of learning English will be going as soon as well if the learners love it very much. The teacher as the facilitator in improving their English learning skill also should have the best strategy of teaching it to help the student’s success. However the most effort must be done by the students themselves. Commonly in the case of teaching learning also the teacher should have the role as student’s friend. That purpose only for making the situation of class is more active and also not just active in the class but out of class. Especially by using blog the students can express their ideas more effective. One of the biggest consumptions of teachers’ time is the correcting and grading of writing. As with all instruction, it is important to give the students the maximum amount of feedback but the process of evaluation should also provide a venue for the maximum amount of learning. It also would not hurt if teachers did not kill themselves with the amount of time they have to put in marking up assignments. If the teacher leaving school even more tired than their students they may want to reconsider teacher’s methods. While teaching is tough work, learning should be even more exhausting. If the teacher is doing all the editing by themselves, the teachers are removing half the learning cycle. Writing and evaluation are two sides of the same coin. To grow as writers, the students must learn to develop an editorial eye by continuously re-engaging each piece of text. No one or not even famous writers, gets everything right the first time. For the students to receive the maximum benefit from the writing process and for the teacher to retain some sense of sanity, peer editing should be an integral part of teachers’ instructional design. Narrative is one of the important materials in writing. Related to that material the teacher should understand how the way or
method to transfer their knowledge to the students in teaching process. It can be used for many kinds of telling the story, the event, the chronological procedures and others. As we know the technology always improve every year and even every time, therefore it is better for the teacher to use this chance as well as possible. Education and technology are two things that complete each other and both of them can not be separated for teaching learning process. As Glennan and Melmed (1995) stated that technology without reform is likely to have little value; widespread reform without technology is probably impossible. A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary or guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people. One thing should be noted here the students can make a blog and read it with their standard browser and they can post comment each other on the content of blog. There are many advantages of using blog such as the students can write many sentences because it provided unlimited blank of file, the reader can easily comment about their written then the writer exactly know about their mistake therefore they should be corrected it exactly. From that activity the teacher know about the improving students’ skill especially in English writing.
Finding Data
A. Definition of writing
Writing is an extension of human language across time and space. Writing most likely began as a consequence of political expansion in ancient cultures, which needed reliable means for transmitting information, maintaining financial accounts, keeping historical records, and similar activities. In this globalization era , the complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form. In both Mesoamerica and Ancient Egypt writing may have evolved through calendrics and a political necessity for recording historical and environmental events. Writing commonly uses the example in that content to support the writer’s statement and add their understanding of that writing. Therefore, the example should be a specific example till the reader imagines it easily. The writer also might in the other examples perhaps about the experience of her friends experience or her experience. The second, to write an effective paper based on written sources we should read critically. Critical reading requires abilities both to summarize and to evaluate an author’s presentation. If statement can be related with my writing because teaching learning process needs some critiques to improve that process to the best one. Critical reading requires discommend, sensitivity, and imagination. Qualities that can be developed only through repeated practice and little memorizing are important. All critical reading begins with an accurate summary, before beginner an evaluation we must be able to locate an author’s thesis and identify the content and structure of a passage. Writing and reading are the related subjects each other especially in learning writing. The purposes of writing are all but infinite in number because each purpose is the writer’s precise aim for a particular audience about limited subject. The conversational view of writing implies that writers need to observe many of the same guidelines that people observe in conversation. For example we are as the writer; when we are talking to someone, we engage the other person interest, we say clearly things that are relevant, we say as much as is required, we must try
to make sure that the other person can follow our words. We say only what we believe or know to be true and so on. These rules of conversation apply to writing as well. If we are too aggressive we will drive reader away. If we are too defensive, people will wonder why they should pay attention. If we are go on too long, people will lose interest. But there are differences between writing and conversation that are just as obvious as the similarities. Writers do not usually have the advantages of seeing the expression on their readers’ face that would tell how the conversation is going. That is why many writers get people to read their draft in order to improve them. Learning to write is a process of discovering and organizing ideas, putting them on paper, reshaping and revising them. Many students find writing to be the most difficult lesson since they have to write in English to procedure an English text. They have to write down what they think of in their mind and state it on a paper by correct procedure. The readers do not have the advantages of being able to deflect the conversation in midstream. This means that writers must take special care to construct their half of the conversation in way that are fair, attractive, interesting, obviously useful and easy to follow. The rules of conversation that also apply to writing be relevant, be efficient, be clear, and so on are merely general advise about how to write for active readers and also we can learn more specific strategies by looking at ideas and structure. The word opinion is usually derogatory, meaning a personal view, unsupported evidence, subjective, perhaps intuitive and not very logical more closes related to feelings than to though. A good story lets the readers respond to some events; even they can almost feel the same. The action details and dialogues put the readers in the scene and make it happen for them. Moreover, it often engages readers’ emotion so powerfully. It can play a large role on other types of writing. To figure the problems out, the writer tries to use a blog in teaching narrative text. Students can feel more relaxed in learning writing and it will be easier for them to produce a narrative text.
B. Kinds of writing
Writing is not only just say what the people mean but say it for the other one so that it will interest, inform, and influence each others. Commonly some professionals like to build the organizational framework before they have much to put into it. It started with a few phrases or sentences push them into the pattern of an outline and keep working until they have a series of statements representing the main points. They want to make in order they want to make them. Different kinds of thinking are associated with different types of writing; therefore writing is classified into many classes such as expressive writing, narrative writing, descriptive writing, expository writing and argumentative writing. It should be known that writing activities would also bring together your personal experience. The Expository Writing is the writing serves to explain and inform something while Descriptive Writing is writing that serves to show and describe something. Narrative Writing is tells a story, Persuasive Writing is arguing for or against an issue. Creative Writing is interestingly, creative writing is a vague term, but it includes (while is not limited to) fiction, poetry, drama, screenwriting, autobiographies and more. Another way to divide the kinds of writing is from a target audience, or purpose point of view. So there can be: Academic writing includes essays, research papers, reports and so on, each of them may use some of the modes listed above. Professional Writing is writing for academic or scientific journals, business reports, position papers, policy statements, and the likes, because these have to follow a standardized form. Business writing includes technical writing, business plan writing, resume writing, letter writing etc. Copywriting is writing marketing text, grant writing. Journalists, columnists, article writers (staff or freelance) these writers write for newspapers and magazines either news articles, commentary or articles which focus on a certain subject. Non-fiction book writers Fiction are novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, short stories writers, and Poets
C. The Blog Media
A blog (short for weblog) is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs are defined by their format: a series of entries posted to a single page in reverse-chronological order. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or reflect the purpose of the Web site that hosts the blog. Topics sometimes include brief philosophical musings, commentary on Internet and other social issues, and links to other sites the author favors, especially those that support a point being made on a post. Blogs are considered to be the latest trend in online communication; millions of online individuals make use of free blog sites to propagate their online presence either for personal use or for business functions. Using one for your online purpose offers advantages than having a professional make you one from scratch. The other definition, a blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary or guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people. People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process. Blogs are alternatively called web logs or weblogs. However, "blog" seems less likely to cause confusion, as "web log" can also mean a server's log files. It is uses as a personal Web site that provides updated headlines and news articles of other sites that are of interest to the user, also may include journal entries, commentaries and recommendations compiled by the user. There are many advantages of blogs such as you can post your writing as often as you like and post as much as you like, email spam filters do not block blogs because they are not an email communication, the last you can make as many blogs as you like on any subjects
Analyzing Data
A. Definition of Narrative Writing
Narrative meaning is created by establishing that something is a part of a whole and usually that something is the cause of something else. It is usually combined with human actions or events that affect human beings. The meaning of each event is produced by the part it plays in the whole episode. To say what something means is to say how it is related or connected to something else. To ask the meaning of an event is to ask how it contributed to the story in which it occurs. It is the connections or relations between events. Meaning is a social phenomenon. Meaning is produced not only by individuals but by groups, communities, societies and cultures which maintain - through language and agreed understandings - knowledge of the connections between signifying sounds and signifying events. Groups, communities, societies and cultures also preserve collections of typical narrative meanings in their myths, fairy tales, legends, histories and stories. To participate in a group, community, society or culture requires a general knowledge of these accumulated narrative meanings. The cultural stocks of meanings are dynamic and are added to by new contributions from members and deleted by lack of use. Narrative meaning is about connections. It links individual human actions and events into inter-related aspects of an understandable composite. Narrative displays the significance that events have for one another. (The anti-story makes explicit that events do not have causal connections between each other.)
"The narrative is present at all times, in all places, in all societies; the history of narrative begins with the history of mankind; there does not exist, and never has existed, a people without narratives:" (Barthes).
A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format (as a work of writing, speech, poetry, prose, pictures, song, motion pictures, video games, theatre or dance) that describes about a sequence of fictional or non-fictional
events. It derives from the Latin verb narrare, which means "to recount" and is related to the adjective gnarus, meaning "knowing" or "skilled". But can also be used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative. A narrative can also be told by a character within a larger narrative. An important part of narration is the narrative mode, the set of methods used to communicate the narrative through a process called narration. Narrative writing had been defined as the kinds of writing that simply records a series of events. The opening sentence of a narrative paragraph provides the information that begins the story to be told or the event to be described. A narrative paragraph can introduce a longer paper primarily concerned with exposition or analysis. The Personal experience in narrative’s form is usually interest the reader than the other ones. In addition to provide interest value for the reader, this approach permits the writer to lead into the materials to be analyzed in the essay. Reading and writing are things can not be separated. To get a good writing the writer are demanded to have reading skill well, it mean to read continuously and relate with what they want to write about. Purpose is central to the kind of narrative we write. For example if the writer will tell what he did and what he saw. He must concentrate on actions and sensations. Therefore, if the students want to report the event to their readers will understand what happened, why, and what came of it. It must be given a reason. There are three kinds of narrative account; the first account, which tells what happened in someone’s experience, is called a personal narrative. It should have some central meaning. It should make a point building that point into their statement of purpose- the general indication of what they are trying to do. That will help give
direction to their planning and writing. To avoid crossing the line that separates interpreting from moralizing, the writer can work at selecting details that will lead readers to make the comment for them. Nersessian (2008) refers to model-based reasoning practices as the signature of research in the sciences, both in the discovery of new scientific ideas and in the application of more familiar ones. Models are analogies in which objects and relations in one system, the model system, are used as stand-ins to represent, predict, and elaborate those in the natural world. As the statement above, the writer should decide what the material or ideas that he wants to write. Then he has to think the model of writing that related to his ideas. If he had decided the material and the model of writing the next step is choosing the media that can help him in writing, specifically for this chance is about narrative text in writing. As the explaining in previous chapter Narrative Writing is telling a story or telling the experience of someone or the event that we felt it directly. That is the interesting activity because in writing process the writers do not have to thing hard about the topic or the ideas so far. Perhaps the process of making narrative text is simpler than making the other kinds of writing. To make the narrative text is felt interesting; the writer should use the process of making narrative as well as possible. The ways of making it as interesting is based on the knowledge of writer in arrangement the paragraph and the appropriated word choices that he used in his writing. The addition that has to know is Creative Writing. It is a vague term, but it includes while is not limited to fiction, poetry, drama, screenwriting, autobiographies and more. Those are also sometimes using the narrative patterns in their content.
B. Personal Narrative
A personal narrative should have some central meaning. It should make a point. Building that point into the statement of purpose, the general indication of what the writer are trying to do- will help give direction to his planning and writing. Since his point of view and his descriptive details will affect the readers’ understanding of the significance of the event he writes about, choose them so that they help make that significance emerge. One way or another, directly or indirectly, any narrative should carry its own meaning. Whether that meaning is clear to you in the prewriting stage or becomes clear to you only as you write the paper, you should have it firmly in mind as you revise. Weed out incidents and detailed that blur the impression you want to get a cross. Keep only those that sharpen the impression. One paper as well as off, the bad storyteller is always blogging down in details that are unnecessary and irrelevant. To write personal narrative the thing that writer has to pay attention is honest though. It means the writer do not tell honestly also about their privacy but honest means the word or sentence that he write is his own writing. The basic structure of any narrative is the sequence of action in time, and the simplest pattern is straight chronology, with one action following another as it did in the actual event. Actually, there are a variety of ways to structure narrative story. The three most common structures are chronological approach, flashback sequence, and reflective mode. The students can select one that best fits the story they are telling. The writer also allows using the characteristics personalities and voices to emerge through unique word selection and the use of active rather than passive voice.
C. The Relation Between Writing and Blog
Teaching writing can be bored either for the teacher or especially for the student. It happened because the teacher can not convey their material as the interesting material in teaching learning process. Commonly, they just talk about the definitions that exist in teaching writing. To make it interesting and more interactive in teaching process, the teacher should use the tool or media that can help them to convey the material as well as possible. Nowadays, the improvement of technology is more enhance faster every years. That opportunity must be used by the teacher well. One of technologies tool which can be used is Blog. Blog is one of internet facilities which can be used in teaching writing, because blog is a website that can be placed as privacy web. The students can write anything about them selves about themselves by using English and make them as their home. As their daily journey that can be informed to the people over the world. By using this media the students can get many comments from the reader, especially from their teacher. This facility also as the motivation of students’ writing skill will improve easier, because their implementation of studying seems clearly. So, to make this method run as well as possible, the teacher should introduce first about blog and the benefits of using it, because the interaction between students and teacher is the key of getting success in teaching learning process. The first, the teacher should explain about narrative structure in making personal narrative. The second is introduction about blog and the way to put their writing in that blog. The last is explaining about the advantages of blog and its disadvantages. Many of the
advantages and disadvantages of Internet blogging can be judged by the type of blog being maintained. For example, some of the things that are advantages for personal blogs may actually be disadvantages for business related blogs and sites. The quick and easy way that a blog can be updated is a great advantage to bloggers’ especially personal ones who want to be able to keep a daily log of events. Another advantage of personal blogs is the ability to vent the feelings, by simply typing in some text and letting the whole world be able to read what is going on in our head. There are definitely some advantages to running a business blog, however it just an information for the student if they want to improve their interesting in business. The easy way blog can be updated does mean that person will be able to post new information quickly and get it to their customers and clients just as fast. The students will also be able to keep everyone informed of new policies, products and other important info without having to send out massive emails or snail mail. You can also drive traffic to your business site from your blog by having links on your site as well as others'. Just as there are advantages to having a business site, there are disadvantages to having personal sites. One of the biggest problem or disadvantages is posting too much personal information. This can come in the form of putting in particular information for example giving the name, address or saying something in one of their posts that they may regret later. It means blogs have a funny way of staying in the memory of search engines such as Google which keep the information that had been made by them. It's important to never post something that they might be afraid will come back to them.
Conclusion
Writing skill is one of the important English language skills that can not be separated from the other skills, such as speaking, reading and listening. It has a role as a symbolic of someone’s comprehension in English learning because his writing reflects its writer; either his writer good in learning English or not. Writing material includes narrative, expository, descriptive, and persuasive writing. Narrative is a writing that tells about story. It is used when the students tell someone about something interesting that happened to them at school, home and else. Beside that, narrative also use for writing the events of the day that had been passed by someone. Related to narrative one of the Medias that is considered help teaching writing process is blog. Blog is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. This media is appropriate to improve students writing skill, especially in narrative because commonly the people write what they had passed it, such as their experience or the event that can not be forgot by them.
References
A.Hubbard, Francis.1988. How Writing Works. Newyork: St. Martin’s Press, Inc
Behrens, Laurence and J.Rosen Leonard.1985. Writing and Reading Across Curiculum. Boston Toronto: Little,Bron and Company.
Cody, Sherwin. 2006. The art of writing and speaking the English language word study and composition and rhetoric. Newyork: The Old Greek Press
Kay Stein, marry · 2010. Instructional Explanation In the Disciplines. Newyork: Springer Science and Business media
R. Ebbit, Wilma and R. Ebbit, David. 1978. Writer’s guide and index to English. London: Scott, foresman and company
S.Stenglass, Marylin. 1983. Reading, Writing and Reasoning. Newyork: Collier macmillan