Writing in process approaches
is seen as predominantly to do with linguistic skills, such as planning and
drafting, and there is much less emphasis on linguistic knowledge, such as
knowledge about grammar and text structure (Badger and White, 2000: 154). However,
many educators advocate a process approach to writing (Harmer, 2007: 326). This
is because process approach was considered to be the most successful approach in
the history of pedagogical reforms in the teaching of writing (Matsuda: 2003 in
Halira and Litinin, 2012: 1). In process approach, a teacher and students play
important roles during the teaching and learning process. For the teacher, he
or she serves as resource, facilitator, motivator, feedback provider, and
evaluator (Widodo, 2008: 102). While for the students, they serves as competent
planners, writers, feedback providers of their peers’ work, and editors for
their own composition (Widodo, 2008: 103).
There are some different views on the stages
that writers go through in producing a piece of writing. Widodo (2008: 103)
states that there are seven main activities in writing process; pre-writing,
drafting, responding, revising and editing, assessing, post-writing, and
reflection.
1)
Pre-writing
This is an activity that encourages the students to write. Pre-writing
is designed to stimulate ideas or thoughts for the students to start writing.
The purpose of this stage is to make the students to be able to explore certain
topics in unstructured and non-threatening way before working on formal
writing.
2)
Drafting
In this stage, the students are encouraged to develop their ideas
into rough draft without considering the grammatical accuracy first. In other
words, in drafting, the students are promoted to the fluency of ideas so that
they can do the writing task smoothly.
3)
Responding
Responding to the students writing both by the teacher and the
students plays important roles in the implementation of process approach. In
this stage, the students are also expected to be active and think critically
while they are responding their friends’ writing.
4)
Revising
and editing
When the students revise the drafts, they review their writing task
based on the feedback that is given in the responding stage. In editing, the
students are engaged in refining their task as they prepare the final draft for
product assessment by the teacher.
5)
Assessing
In this stage, the teacher evaluates the students’ task. The purpose
of this phase is to know how well the students’ writing product is.
6)
Post-writing
Post-writing is any activity that the teacher and the students can
do with the completed writing task (product). It can be done by publishing
online or displaying the writing product on the wall magazine or any media.
7)
Reflection
This stage is done in order to encourage the students to self-evaluate
their strength and weaknesses of their writing abilities. Moreover, this phase
also encourages the students to think of how they will make improvement foe
their writing abilities.
Seow
(2002: 316) states that process writing as a classroom activity incorporates
the four basic writing stages-planning, drafting (writing), revising
(redrafting), and editing- and three other stages externally imposed on
students by the teacher, namely responding (sharing), evaluating, and
post-writing.
1)
Planning
(pre-writing) is any activity in the classroom that encourages students to
write.
2)
Drafting
is the stage where the students are focused on the fluency of writing and are
not preoccupied with grammatical accuracy or the neatness of the draft.
3)
Revising
stage is the stage in which the students review their texts on the basis of the
feedback given by the teacher or peers.
Editing is the stage in which the students are
engaged in tidying up their texts as they prepare the final draft for
evaluation by the teacher. They have to make sure that their texts are
grammatically and mechanically correct
Harmer
(2004: 5-6) states that process approach comprises of four stages namely
planning, drafting, editing (reflecting and revising), and final version (final
draft).
1)
Planning
This is a stage where the students plan what they are going to
write. It can be done by making detailed notes or jotting some important words.
2)
Drafting
In this stage, the students are encouraged to compose a draft of
writing on the assumption that it will be amended later.
3)
Editing
(reflecting and revising)
This stage allows the students to have some interaction with the
teacher and the other students and see their draft whether it is ambiguous or
confusing or not, whether the vocabularies used are correct or not, and whether
it is grammatically correct or not.
4)
Final
version (final draft)
In this stage, the students have to produce a final draft based on
the feedback, comments, and suggestion that they get form editing stage.
Referring back to the discussion of
the stages in the process approach, the researcher goes to a conclusion that there
are five stages that students go through in producing a piece of writing namely
prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
1)
Prewriting
In this stage, the students have to think about the topic and
explore ideas that they are going to write.
2)
Drafting
In this stage, the students have to write a text based on the idea
that they have already explored in pre-writing stage.
3)
Revising
In this stage, the students have to check or reexamine the draft
based on the feedback that they get from the teacher or their friends.
4)
Editing
In this stage, the students have to make sure that their text is
grammatically and mechanically correct.
5)
Publishing
In this stage, the students have to share or publish their writing
product.
