Improving student’s writing skill by using diary as strategy
INTRODUCTION
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. So learning writing must be begun when we was child. Whenever you write, you have the readers that will read what you hone written. The students must communicate and transfer your goal to them clearly and effectively. It is important to master writing rules, since on the school.
To get the writing skill, there are five components of the materials to be taught, namely: structure, reading, vocabulary, conversation/ dialogue and composition or writing. Relating to the importance of teaching writing skill for the students, as far it is known some students are always faced with problems of using the right sentences. In order to help students improve their English writing skill, strategy is needed to be found. It is writing diaries regulary in every English class. In this study, teachers can help their students build their motivation through writing diaries and make them interested in what they are learning.
Beach and Bridwell ( 1984: 47 ) state that if writing is linked to the specific subject matter students are learning, the ability to think and learn can be strengthened simultaneosly because of the students’ high motivation to study. Written communication plays an important role in communicative activities, especially in daily activities. Diary writing, although not the focus of most writing courses, has probably been one of the most effective and popular additions to writing activities. Diary writing can allow a personal voice to develop, which is often lost when only traditional basic writing skills are stressed. Because diary involves students in non-threatening exploration and development of ideas. The content based approach, which connects language with the study of specific academics, is widely advocated. In teaching English for specific purposes. In teaching writing, it is seen as a good way to develop thinking, researching, and writing ( Shih, 1986: 58 ). Diary usually saves the secret of the writer’s life. Besides its training the students to write well, this could be made the students closer to their teacher.
OUTLINE THEORY
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. A diary is personal record of events that happen over a period of time, usually consist of date of each diary item, and be as brief or detailed as the writer of diary like. 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. Writting diary
This instance of personal, expressive writing based on experience or recollection offers very good insight on the students’ own perception of their learning process by reflecting on their own lives. Additionally, they will gradually gain independence from the teacher and autonomy in their learning. Learning diary, in particular, is multidimensional self-evaluations that create a visible record of the students’ linguistic growth and simulate the development of meaning-making strategies, critical thinking and habits of reflective questioning. Record events in the order in which they happened it. Includes descriptions of the events, impressions about the events, feelings triggered, and opinions the writer of diary formed based on the events. A written diary consist of one or more sentences and the sentences should have a clear relation with each other. In technical fields, the communicative aspect of writing has gained widespread. Attention as writing has become one of the most widely used modes of communication. Technical writing involves several genres of reporting: oral presentations, technical reports, proposals, business letters, journal articles ( Huckin and Olsen 1983 ). However the basic skill involved in writing diaries as their activity and report. The diary writing describes their daily activity, write on their private book or in other media, telling about their life. Besides its training teh students to write well, this could be made the students closer to their teacher. It can also make the students no seperated walls to learn.
3. The Advantages 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 the students 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 the students 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 the students’ 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 the students 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.
4. How to Write in 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.
5.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 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.
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
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