LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents some actual theories as references to support this study. It

contains at the following sections; Teaching Writing, Feedback, the Role of Teacher in Giving

Indirect Feedback to Students’ writing, The Assessment Technique of Students’ Writing,

Stages in Writing, Overview of Process in Descriptive Writing, and Review of Related

Studies.

2.1 Teaching Writing

Writing is one of important skills that language learners need to learn as an essential

component not only for their academic practice but also later in their professional life.

Teaching or learning how to write successfully gets even more complicated and challenged

for both language teachers and students. However, many teachers agree that in the classroom,

writing should get much attention as reading, speaking and listening. Yet many teacher and

students alike consider writing to be most difficult subject of language skill to learn. (Senduk

in hasyim, 2002: 13)

The teaching of writing is a matter of prescribing a set of predetermined tasks or

exercises to the students. When teachers teach writing course not only teach about how to

develop ideas in writing, but also need a serious attention of how to write English sentences

grammatically and systematically. So, teaching writing will be good if depends on the

teachers' ability how to teach writing effectively which can make the students’ ability being

improved.

According to Lee (2005), in improving the effectiveness of writing, there are some

important notes must be noticed in teaching writing and assessment. In teaching writing, the

teaching should engage students in peer /self-evaluation. When they apply the criteria, they

become better informed about the requirements of good writing (for specific genres) and

Provide students with a language for discussing their writing. In assessing writing, teacher

should respond to writing based on criteria that have been communicated and taught to

students and responses to errors. To respond the error teacher can use a feedback that contains

specific criteria for the writing task and criteria that have been taught and communicated to

the learners.

2.2 Feedback

One of the ways to make students be able to create good writing is the teacher should

provide constructive feedback to their writing. In this section, the writer wants to explain what

kind of feedback that important to students’ writing, the advantages and disadvantages of the

feedback itself.

Feedback is kind of assessment that concern to the giving information about students’

writing performance. Ur (1996: 242) says that “in the context of teaching general, feedback is

information that is given to the learner about his or her performance of the learning task,

usually with the objective of improving their performance”.

In addition, Roger (2001) says “Feedback is not just about weaknesses. Student will

respond if teachers are encouraging as well as allowing mistakes, emerging capabilities, and

give ideas for directing further learning”. From these definitions, it is clear that feedback is

very useful in teaching and learning process, besides students will learn how to evaluate their

self (self-evaluate), it also help students to take greater confidence of their learning and

increasing the students’ performance.

In providing feedback, teacher should encourage students to continue writing, in order

students feel good with their writing and carry the activity through completion (Grabe and

Kaplan, 1996 : 275). So, in process writing teacher must motivate students to do more toward

their writing.

2.2.1 Types of Teacher’s Feedback

Feedback consists of some types. One of them is teacher’s feedback/correction.

Feedback from teacher on the students’ writing could play a vital role especially in teaching

process. In this case, teacher recognizes that teachers’ feedback is essential element in helping

students improve, and an essential part of the teaching process (Anderson, 1982). It indicates

that under teacher’s feedback, students will know the appropriate of the language feature for

their composition, how their composition should be arranged and their composition will be

better.

There are two kinds of teacher’s feedback; they are direct and indirect feedback.

Direct feedback is a technique of correcting students’ error by giving explicit written

feedback. While, indirect feedback is when the teacher/tutor alerts students to error using

general comments, but gives students the opportunity to fix errors themselves (Ferris, 2002 :

19). Lee (2005) defines Direct feedback is provided when the correct form is written on

student’s paper whereas indirect feedback is provided if the teacher indicates the location of

the error indirectly on the paper by underlining, highlighting or circling, or indirectly by

indicating in the margins that there is an error on that line but without providing the correct

form.

2.2.2 Direct Feedback Vs. Indirect feedback

Although there are some types of feedback, there must be the difference when using

direct or indirect feedback on students’ writing. Frodesen (2001) notes that indirect feedback

is more useful than direct feedback. Students are able to express their ideas more clearly in

writing and to get clarification on any comments that teachers have made. Similarly, Fulgor

(2006: 34) states that in indirect feedback, students appreciated its beneficial effect on their

learning and direct feedback to be more helpful when revising syntax and vocabulary,

whereas they felt that indirect feedback was useful in encouraging them to reflect on aspects

of their writing and to develop improvements.

Moreover, some research evidences suggest that indirect feedback is more helpful on

students’ long-term writing development than direct feedback (Ferris, 2003; Fratzen, 1995).

The results showed that indirect feedback with student self-editing contributes to accuracy

more than direct feedback. Others have reported that indirect feedback may be more

beneficial to students than direct feedback in editing, because indirect feedback can guide

learning and help the students solve problem by themselves (Lalande, 1982).

From those statements, the researcher believes that indirect feedback will be more

increasing the students’ ability in writing and students who get indirect feedback will be

preserved in his/her brain in a long time. While, direct feedback will be kept in their mind in a

short time. If the students are only provided by direct feedback, the student will not have

opportunity to reflect and correct the errors for themselves; they only note the note of the

errors from the teacher.

To make indirect feedback is more effective, Lee (2004) state that indirect feedback

can be done by a symbol representing a specific kind of error (T=verb tense, Sp=spelling) and

to reduce student confusion, teachers can consistently use a standard set of symbols or

markings to indicate place and type of error and train the students in what kinds of corrections

to make based on each symbol. Furthermore, teachers should familiarize students with the

system so they will not be surprised when new symbols are occured.

Finocchiaro in hasyim (2002:23) gives the symbols or codec that can be used to

indicate error in indirect feedback can be seen as follows:

Table 1 Correction codes used to indicate error types in indirect feedback

No Code Meaning Kinds of errors

1 WC Word choiceThe words are inapplicable with the

sentences/ meaning

2 PREP Preposition Wrong preposition

3 VT verb tense or GR =  more

general grammar problemsWrong tense/ use another tense

4 S/V A subject verb agreement subject and verb don’t agree

5 SP spelling errorWrong spelling/punctuation your

spelling

6 ART ArticleUse article a, an or the for singular

noun

7 N.P new paragraph Unorganized paragraph

8 ^ missing word There is a missing word need to insert

9 ? question mark) unclear

meaning

I can’t understand this. The meaning is

not clear. Write in another way to

make the meaning clearer.

10 good Good idea, good detailYou have something good here: a good

word, idea, detail, etc

11 WO word orderthe words in this sentence are in the

wrong order

2.3 The role of teacher in providing indirect feedback to Students’ writing

The students cannot write alone and writing also not only a single step but a process.

To pass the process from the first draft until the final draft, they need guidance, supporter and

counselor/advisor to make their writing better. Therefore, they need someone to check about

the mistake that they made. It could be from teacher or peer because writing usually involves

one person for another to help them in expressing their ideas in writing form. Even though

peers feedback is more advantageous, the teacher’s feedback is eventually needed to provide a

whole class impression before they are engaged in an individual writing as practice. Here,

teacher can be as describer when he/she gives feedback. But before that, teacher should be a

reader and as advisor for them.

The patterns of feedback and responses given by the writing teacher depend very

much on the teacher’s conception of the composing process and his/her understanding of

learner’s errors. Teachers may, on the one hand, present themselves as helpful facilitators

offering support and guidance; on the other hand, they may act as an authority imposing

critical judgment on writing products (Ferris et al , 2001).

Teachers can offer self–correction opportunity for their students by providing indirect

feedback on student’s grammatical errors (Chandler , 2003 ). The assistance and feedback

given by the teacher should not be confined to the last stage of the writing process. The

marking of products should always open more opportunities in which students can redraft

their work. By depriving them of their opportunity for redrafting and reassessing, the students

cannot have the chance of correcting the wrong behavior and re-practicing the correct

behavior.

In addition, students are able to express their ideas more clearly in writing and to get

clarification on any comments indirectly that teachers have made to their writing.

2.4 The Assessment Technique of Students’ Writing

In assessing the students’ writing Quality, Jacob (1981: 60) suggests five components

or criteria to evaluate the students’ writing quality: content, organization, vocabulary,

language use (grammar) and mechanics.

Content of Writing must be knowledgeable, substantive, thorough development of

thesis, relevant to assigned topic. Organization of Writing must be fluent expression, idea

clearly stated/supported, succinct, well-organized, logical sequencing, cohesive. Vocabulary

of Writing must be sophisticated range, effective word/idiom choice, and usage, word form

mastery, and appropriate register. Language use (grammar) in writing activity, the students

will create the sentences based on their ideas and the words in the sentences must be arranged

grammatically which deals with tenses and agreement. (Mc. Crimmon ,1984:596). The last is

Mechanics of Writing which consists of Spelling and Punctuation (Capital letter, Period {.},

Question mark {?}, Exclamation mark {!}, Comma {,}, semi colon {;}, Apostrophe {‘}).

2.5 Stages in writing

Gardner and Johnson (1997) describe the stages of the writing process:

"Writing is a fluid process created by writers as they work. Accomplished writers move back

and forth between the stages of the process, both consciously and unconsciously. Young

writers, however, benefit from the structure and security of following the writing process in

their writing”. Additionally, as Campbell points out, "there is no single writing process"

(1998: 10), there are three basic stages writers go through: prewriting, drafting, and revising.

Besides, three basic stages in writing also delivered by Ron White (1987:325) states

that the stages of writing process consists of planning, drafting, and revising. Planning is a

series of strategies designed to find and produce information in writing planning is any

orderly procedure used to bring about a desire result. In this stage, the author/writer just builds

basic of a topic that should depends on the writer/author’s knowledge, ideas and experiences.

Drafting is a series strategy designed to organize and develop a sustained piece of

writing. In here, the writer can explore and improve his/her idea. This stage also concentrates

to the content tan punctuation, grammar, or spelling. Revising is a series of strategies

designed to re-examine and re-evaluate the choices that have created a piece of writing. The

revising always comes up after giving feedback to the writing. The feedback is important to

tell which the words/sentence should be changed or need correction. Revising writing can be

started by making decisions about how you want to improve your writing, looking at your

writing from a different point of view, and picking places where your writing could be clearer,

more interesting, more informative and more convincing to the reader.

Appelebe in Mappe (2000) states more complete stages, that “there are different views

on the stages that the writers go through in producing a piece of writing, but a typically

through model identifies four stages: pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing”.

The description of each stage is shown as follows:

1 Pre-writing

In this stage, students involve the activities, such as reading, brainstorming, mind

mapping, discussing, fast writing, questioning, interviewing, encourage them before they

write their sentences in the first draft. A typical pre-writing activity in the process approach

would be for learners to brainstorm on the topic being provided. By this way, students would

get motivation to write because they feel that they have something matter to say. (Richard &

White in Mappe, 2000).

2 Drafting

In this stage, students would select among ideas during pre-writing and structure. The

result of brainstorming session to provide a plan of description of topic. The content might be

written without considering the grammatical aspect first.

3 Revising

In this stage, the students review a draft to check content and organization based on the

feedback from him or herself and teacher or peers. Biaael in Mappe (2000) emphasizes that

revision is a process in which writers not only polish their style, but also develop their ideas.

In this stage, the teacher help the students through the revision to shape and reshape the text

into final form, and it’s focused more on audience, mood, voice, length, clarity, completeness

and consciousness.

4 Editing

This is where the role of teacher in giving indirect feedback will be applied. In this

stage, the students check their final text for some mistakes they have made based on the

feedback given, such as spelling, punctuation, grammar, and all presentation. Shih in Mappe

(2000) classifies three stages of editing for grammar: editing at discourse level, sentences

level and word level”.

Editing at discourse level is meant the writer needs to make changes in one sentence,

such as making the subject plural instead of singular. Editing at sentence level is to find out

the errors in sentences, such as: phrase, clause and sentence pattern. Editing at word level,

editing morphological errors require checking to see that affixes and grammatical function

words, such as: auxiliary verb, articles and preposition correct. The writer needs to focus

his/her special attention on the ends of words in order to catch the missing of an incorrect

ending: s/es, d/ed, ing as well an awareness of different points of view.

2.6 Overview of Process in Descriptive Writing

There are some approaches in writing; one of them is genre based approach. The use

of genre approach in solving the problem in students’ writing, particularly in language use and

organization is very effective way. According to Derewianka (1992:17) a genre is kind of text

types that have structured in different way and characterized by own language feature. Genre

based approach can be said to make the text structurally and characterized which consists of

purpose, generic structure, and language feature.

According to Martin in Grabe and Kaplan (1996), the factual writing consists of six

types, they are; recount, procedure, description, report, explanation, and exposition. However

in this study, the text will be focused on the descriptive text.

Descriptive text is a text which says what a person or a thing is like or to provide

enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written about.

Descriptive text can be divided from its purpose, generic structure and language feature. The

purpose in descriptive writing is to engage a reader's attention, to create characters, to set a

mood or create an atmosphere, to bring writing to life, and also to help a writer develop an

aspect of their work, for example to create a particular mood, atmosphere or describe a place

so that the reader can create vivid pictures of characters, places, objects etc (Martin in Grabe

and Kaplan, 1996).

The generic structure of descriptive text are Identification; identifying the

phenomenon to be described in general and Description; describing the phenomenon in parts,

qualities, or/and characteristics. They may choose vivid, fresh language, they may use

examples, they might take something ordinary and by comparing it with something

extraordinary, make it interesting, or they may use their senses. (Medina ,2003 : 152).

The language uses of this text should rely on precisely chosen vocabulary with

carefully chosen adjectives and adverbs, It is focused and concentrated only on the aspects

that add something to the main purpose of the description. Sensory description - what is

heard, seen, smelt, felt, tasted. Precise use of adjectives, similes, metaphors to create

images/pictures in the mind, Strong development of the experience that "puts the reader there"

focuses on key details, powerful verbs and precise nouns, Using attributive and identifying

process, Using adjective and classifiers in nominal group, and Using simple present tense

(Medina ,2003 : 152).

2.7 Review of Related Studies

Some studies have been done to investigate the use of feedback on students’ writing in

teaching and learning process. Hasyim (2002), Paryatun (1997), Dewi Santi (2007) had

conducted their studies in Haluoleo University, to investigate the effect of teacher’s feedback

on students’ writing. Sri Luciani (2002) did her study in junior high school. Although she

investigated the effect of teacher feedback only focused on giving feedback in students’

homework in general, and not focusing on students’ writing task.

Hasyim conducted the study by focusing on the effect of correction provided by

lecturer. In the procedure of giving correction in Hasyim’s study, the lecturer asked the

students to write about a given topic, and then asked one to ten students to write their essay on

the whiteboard, after that, the lecturer correcting students’ essay, and then, the lecturer asked

the students to rewrite their essay and finally collected the students’ essay. The result showed

that before lecturer gave the correction the total score was 48,22 and after lecturer gave the

correction, the total score was 77,36.

Furthermore, Paryatun (1997) conducted the study by showing us that either direct or

indirect correction does not improve students’ writing significantly. The writer exposed direct

correction technique in her experimental class and exposed indirect correction in the control

class. However, the writer did not also explain clearly why there was no significant different

between direct and indirect correction on students’ writing performance.

Dewi Santi investigated the effect of teacher’s feedback on students’ writing and

found that teacher’s feedback was effective. Moreover, Dewi Santi exposed teacher’s

feedback under correction and assessment (comment and grade), also suggestion and praise.

He focused giving feedback on students’ writing that would be assessed based on five aspect

of composition; content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics (Jacobs,

1981). In the end the result showed an improvement of students’ writing. That was on pretest

74,2 and in post test was 78,15.

In a similar study, Lalande (1982) in Turkish University of pre-intermediate learners

with regards to what strategy to use in responding to students’ writing in the English

Preparatory Program compared two groups: one with direct feedback and the other with

indirect feedback using correction codes. It was found that the group which received indirect

coded error feedback had more accuracy than direct feedback in writing.

Those results of previous studies indicate that feedback both directly and indirectly are

effective approach to be used in improving students’ writing. But, another research proves

that indirect feedback is better than direct feedback. Hence, the present study will conduct the

study that is different with previous studies by using indirect feedback. In this case, the writer

not only wants to prove that the students writing performance will be better than direct

feedback but also indirect feedback as the way to solve the problem of student’s writing

performance.

Further, this study serves a different design from previous study because those studies

mostly focused on giving direct feedback to students’ writing or compared between direct and

indirect feedback. While this study only uses indirect feedback that is used to solve the

problem in two aspects of writing, those are organization and language use.

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