A. Writing
1. Definition
Writing is a process of expressing feelings, thoughts, and ideas in the form of graphic language. Writing products an expression of one’s individuality and personality, it is important to remember that writing is also a social endeavor, a way of communicating with others, informing them, persuading them, and debating with them.
James A.W Heffeman says writing is a communication and you must consciously learn. Part of what make it hard to learn is that written words usually have to express your meaning in your absence have to “speak” all by themselves.
James A.W Heffernan and John E. Lincoln (1986:3) writing is a solitary act. When you talk, you normally talk to someone who talks back, who raises questions, who lets you know whether or not you are making yourself clear. But when you write, you work alone. So learning writing must be begun when we was child.
Whenever you write, you have the readers that will read what you hone written. You must communicate and transfer your goal to them clearly and effectively. So, it is important to master writing rules, sine on the school.
2. Function
In writing, writing has quite a few functions that can help you to improve your writing skills, namely:
A. Writing is to communicate
What we should do is achieve a balance that by writing as much as we speak, hear and read. If we look, the ability to communicate is developed from four capital goods, listening or hearing; speaking or speech; reading or reading; and writing or write.
B. Writing makes you crazy
Because it requires writing ideas, problems and goals. People can be mad and crazy reading knowledge to get inspiration for his writings; hone crazy imagination to find the crazy ideas and develop the story in his writings. People can also be as crazy as possible to explore individual and social experience to find the problem and supporting data writing; have the spirit, will and strategy that crazy for ideas, formulate and achieve the goal of his writings, and became a workaholic to produce outstanding work. Related to this, there are some people who have to write first so that she can fall asleep. This emphasizes the connection between satisfaction with the peace of mind with the express desire and imagination encouragement.
B. Writing can provide inner satisfaction
The event, write it takes sometimes is not small. Could for hours, days and even months. Moreover, if the posts made are of scientific research or a discovery, the time needed to for years. However, the process will be so valuable when the results were appreciated and gives many benefits. A satisfaction that is not bought with material values. Inner satisfaction this will give a positive influence on the mental condition of the writer. For example, can motivate creativity and his self-confidence to produce better writing.
C. Writing is that we can appreciate the data and time.
Joel Saltzman in his book If You Can Speak You Can Write revealed that writing does not stop at the first step. That is, writing not just once, and once finished, but necessary effort to write back. Editing, revising, and rewriting is an important step to improve the writing results. A writer needs to re-examine his writing critically and objectively about the variety of things, especially in the accuracy of wording, examples, and illustrations, as well as avoiding mistakes in preparation of the sentence. This shows that the time is very valuable to be used for an author and writing requires much less time to produce writings that have the power. Recognition of the positive effect on the stability and mental health of the writer. People who appreciate the time is people who are able and willing to exploit any such a narrow time for the meaningfulness of life, so that by itself will build the mentality and thought patterns.
3. The secret of good writing
a. Decide your motivation and goals before write
Before you begin, ask yourself the motivation and purpose
you write. With it you can be helped to be ready
face challenges and barriers in the world of writing that
you definitely will block
b. Start writing now
if you have set up the motivation and purpose of writing, do not
postponed again. Immediately write! Do not wait until tomorrow to
writing. Currently the right time for you to write. Idea
exist anywhere, immediately arrest and bring into the writing.
c. If this fails, try again
Writing is not easy. Once the writing is not necessarily the result
as expected. However, it is not a barrier to
keep writing. If this fails, try again. To produce
writing is good and helpful, the process is not at all
so. It takes perseverance to continue to improve writing
them.
d. Write every day
Practice writing a routine will help realize your dream
becomes a writer. Just as food needs, make
writing as an activity and you need every day. No
should take some time. Insert every day schedule
to write in your agenda. Discipline at this time will train
you are in the process of learning to write. In addition, enrich insight
you by reading and researching as it would be useful in
supporting the activities of writing itself.
e. Shout your opinions in writing
do not hesitate to write. Think critically. Write down all
your own opinion. Shout all the truth that should
write. This will help you become a writer who does not
just parroting other people, but unable to express opinions and
pers.
B. Diary
1. The meaning of diary
Hornby says that a book, sometimes with spaces for each day of the year, in which one writer about one’s daily experiences, record’s one’s private thought.Diary is a record of events, transactions, or observations kept daily or at frequent intervals. And diary is a daily log of experiences, especially those of the writer.
2. The benefit of writing diary
The simple act of writing in a diary may actually give you more free time by helping to keep your life more structured and organized. Here are some benefits of keeping a diary on a daily basis:
a. It can help you stay organized
When you write down your activities of the day in diary form, you get a clearer picture of how you're spending your time as well as an objective record of your daily activities. Most people waste more time than they know and having a written record can make you more aware of wasted time and opportunities. By keeping a diary documenting what you do each day, you can review your activities and make changes if you find you're not accomplishing your goals.
b. It can make you more disciplined
Setting aside fifteen to twenty minutes each evening to write in your diary will help you develop focus and discipline. Instead of spending twenty minutes in front of the television, you'll be doing a structured activity that requires thought and focus. This kind of focus, once developed, can help to bring success in other areas of your life. The discipline of keeping a diary can help to motivate you to accomplish more in all areas of your life.
c. It's a stress reliever
Keeping a diary allows you to express your innermost thoughts which can be an excellent way to relieve stress. If you don't feel comfortable discussing your problems with another person, you can always express them in your diary. Writing down your worries and concerns is an excellent catharsis. Once you set aside that twenty minute period to write in your diary each night, you'll begin to look forward to it as a welcome break from the hassles of the day.
d. diary is a true friend
The diary is a friend that will always listen, never judge and will have no prejudice. You will get the diary next to you all time when you are really in need of someone.
e. improve your writing
The more you write the more your writing improves. So always try to write something even if that might be a meaningless writing but your writing skill will definitely improve.
f. teach you to express your thought clearly
The diary helps you to learn to express your thought clearly. Express your thought properly is an art which you can develop by writing a regular diary.
3. How to write diary
Writing in a diary is still very popular with teenagers and adults alike. It is more common among women than men. Writing in a diary is a great way to chronicle events and changes in one's life; it is a good way to pour out your emotions. A lot of confidential and deepest thoughts that people are afraid to share with anyone are easily revealed in a diary. They trust a diary more than they trust family or friends, for a diary can keep secrets and never betray the writer.
Instructions:
1. Get a pen and notebook or journal. Buy a notebook that has a lot of pages since you will be writing constantly.
2. Find a private place, like your bedroom or any place that nobody else is around. It is best to write where nobody can see you writing in your diary. This will eliminate possible curiosity of the other person who will try to invade your privacy. Furthermore, being alone when you write your diary would prevent any interruption that can hinder your train of thoughts.
3. Write the date and time on top of the page. You can start by saying "Dear Diary" as if you are writing a letter to someone. You may drop the "Dear Diary" line and just log your entries for the day. Write about what you have done today, what you have experienced, people you interacted with, what was the interaction about, whatever you may have experienced log it in your diary.
4. Be honest and truthful. Avoid fictionalization. If you want to tell a story different from reality, then a diary is not what you need. You can just write a fictional story with fictional characters but do not label it as your memoir or diary.
5. You can write real names of the people you interact with or name them with a code that you alone can tell who you are referring to. Reason why name codes should be used is that, oftentimes, people make negative comments in their diaries that are later on discovered and can hurt other people's feelings.
6. Write on a regular basis. If you can write daily, do so. If you want to just write when there are unexpected events or something great had happened, skipping the days that you think are non-eventful. You may opt to write more than once a day or when you feel the urge to write. Still, you may want to do it daily and if there is nothing eventful then just write the date, time and one sentence saying nothing new had happened.
7. Add photos to your diary. Nowadays, it is easier to just go around with a digital camera, print the photo and add it to your diary. It makes it more exciting for future reading if you have the actual photo of the event or anything that may have inspired you to take that photo. Do not put too much photos that you turn your diary into a scrapbook. There are distinctions between the two, although your scrapbook may contain journals it is not to be confused with a diary with some photos.
8. When done writing, keep the diary in a safe and secure place. Do not reveal the location of your diary to anyone. Your diary is just yours and it should remain private for as long as you want it to. You can put the diary in a fireproof safe or in a safety deposit box once you have finished an entire journal. Give instructions in your last will and testament if you want the diary to be read by others or if you want it to be discarded or burned. Some people have opted to be buried with their diaries, so ensure that you indicate this in your will if this is your desire.
4. The activities
The important thing is to actually write rather than just not doing. By recording what happened, what you think about it, how you feel, etc, you become a good friend of yourself. The diary should be kept secret by default (otherwise it affects the writing style), need not be written prefect perfectly, and you decide what you think and what you want to say yourself. As the style of writing develops, some of the material you write may be interesting to the point where you decide to publish some of it. Another cultural aspect of this is the performing of the reading of writings at parties. It's fascinating to look back at the history you've recorded yourself. Using a camera to record memories is good, but composing your own text and telling your own story of how things happened gives it a chance in the future to live again. As well as writing your personal stories in a diary, you can also write your family history. And for the first step, actually teacher can told the student to familiarize write a diary, everything what they want. And the teacher say to their student “if you want to write, just write”. After that guided writing in the English language as best they can do. Teacher always correction their writing diary. If there are words do not know what it means the student can set aside the words and can ask tomorrow in the class. Absolutely they write their feeling and whatever they want to write it can be short story but in this section especially in diary so they can explain and write it down. Then, student are allowed to open the dictionary, but is not obligated to open dictionary too often. Because the teacher will accustom and too often open their dictionary is not very well and can be bad. In every section, learners must deposit their writing and the teacher will evaluate. Absolutely from this media, the student hopefully can improve their vocabulary; can write very well with best grammar. Of course the student can direct practice in pronunciation, speaking and reading too. All of aspect can enter just in writing diary is that reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary and grammar. With one media the student can mastered in English skill.
C. Conclusion
From discussion of the review in writing and diary, the strategy by writing diary will make easy for learners to practice their writing. By writing diary, the learners will feel easier to develop their ideas, to express their feeling, to master in grammar or in vocabulary and the learners can write their ideas, their feelings with freely. Beside writing diary can help their difficulties in writing skill, can help to improve their vocabulary and to control their grammar. So the learners can make a paragraph with easy and more easily. And remember to think about:
Writing in a chronological order, start with events that happened early in the day, and
End with events that took place last thing in the evening, writing the entries in the first person. Use ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘we’re’, ‘they’, etc, making your entries detailed, but avoid over describing what is not needed, talking about events that involved you, or your familiar, or close friends. Avoid talking about strangers, and events you were not involved in, if you are feeling sad, explain what is making you feel sad. If you are happy, write down why. Include your emotions in your diary. Do not be afraid to write about your thoughts and feelings.
REFERENCES
Oxford, 2000. Learner’s Pocket Dictionary: New edition. New York: Oxford University Press
James A.W. Heffernan and John E. Lincoln (1986:3).Writing a college handbook second edition: W.W Norton & Company, Inc. United States of America
Bennet,W.A.1968.Aspect of Language and Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press
Ram Kumar Sharma, 2004.Problems and solution of teaching English: Ajay Verma Commonwealth, Delhi
