WRITING 5

USING R.A.F.T. AS A STRATEGY TO TEACH WRITING

ADVERTISEMENT FOR SECOND GRADE OF JUNIOR

HIGH SCHOOL

It is submitted to fulfill the assignment of Writing 5

Created by :

NIKEN ANASTASIA KUSUMA WARDANI (2223110660)

5A

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

SULTAN AGENG TIRTAYASA UNIVERSITY

2013

I. INTRODUCTION

One criteria of success in learning English is to be able to communicate to

other people by using English. One of the form of communication is writing.

Teaching writing, as one of language skills, becomes challenge for teacher. For some

reasons, students find the difficulities to write their thoughts and emotions based on

the purpose. It is also difficult as a teacher to guide them to write. As stated by

Gebhard (2006:211) that writing deals with the choice of words, the use of

appropriate structure (grammar, subject, verb, tenses, etc), the words order (syntax),

punctuation, spelling, and the organization of ideas to make it coherence and cohesive

which make writing skill is complicated. Based on the observation, one of the

students’ difficulties in learning English for junior high school in second grade is

writing functional texts. One of the functional texts that is learned by the students is

advertisement

As stated by the teacher of second grade in Junior High School 1 Ciruas, that

the main problem in the wrting functional text, especially advertisement, is the

difficulty in developing the idea instead of the vocabularies and grammar. She said

that many students cannot write the advertisement because they do not understand

how to arrange their ideas into a good and targeted advertisement. Based on the

interview with the teacher, she used to help the students in wrting advertisement only

by giving them the example of the text then she asked them to make their own

advertisement based on the example which has been given. The weakness from this

strategy is that the students get the limitation of their writing style because they only

focus on the example, without knowing the appropriate guidance to write creatively.

They do not know how to organize their idea.

A teacher needs to know how to help them solve their problems in writing

creatively. In order to teaching writing, as stated by Brown (1994:10) that there are

some stages in writing activity, they are prewriting stages; writing stages which

include generating ideas, organizing ideas, and writing the first draft; and rewriting,

that consist of two separate processes they are revising and editing. The teacher can

use a strategy based on those stages to encourage them to write. It must be interesting

and easy to be applied by the students.

Actually, there are many strategy in teaching writing functional text, one of

them is using R.A.F.T. strategy. According to Ganske and Fisher (2010:125)

R.A.F.T. can encourage students to write a creative product to express their new

knowledge accordance with the topic, purpose, target, and the audience of the text.

R.A.F.T. stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. This strategy guide the

students to focus on the position of themselves as a writer, the audience of their

purpose, the format of writing, and the topic they will write about.

This paper will describe about a) the definition of writing, b) teaching writing,

c) how R.A.F.T is used by the teacher as a strategy to help the students write

advertisement text, and d) the advantages of using R.A.F.T. It is also expected to help

them in writing advertisement by considering the role, topic, format, audience, and

purpose of the text.

II. DISCUSSION

2.1 Teaching Writing

2.1.1 Definition of Writing

There are several definition of writing stated by many experts. Lannon

(1989:9) views writing as “the process of transforming the material discovered by

research inspiration, accident, trial or error, or whatever into a message with a

definite meaning that writing is a process of deliberate decision. According to Nunan

(2003:23), writing is both process and product. The writer imagines, organizes, drafts,

edits, reads, and rereads.

Another definition stated by Scholes and Comley (1985:9) that writing is a

way of thinking as well as a means of communication. They also say that writing is

not simply frozen speech. It means that if you write a message for others to receive,

they have to read it. They have to speak to themselves in their own voice though not

in their own words.

According to Hoshima and Hogue (1999:2) writing is never a one-step action;

it is a process that has several steps. In other word, writing has more than one step.

The steps in writing process are prewriting, planning, writing and revising draft, and

writing the final copy to hand in.

2.1.2 Types of Writing

In teaching writing to junior high school based on Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan

Pendidikan 2006, the students are supposed to be able to produce two kinds of texts,

they are functional texts (announcement, short message, advertisement, memo, label,

sign, notice, and invitation) and monologue texts (procedure, descriptive, recount,

narrative, and report). It can be said that teaching writing to junior high school is

more focus to functional texts rather than monologue texts. In this session, the writer

will explain about several kinds of short functional texts, they are; announcement,

memo, advertisement, and invitation.

1. Announcement

Announcement is a public statement that is usually formal and has a

specific purpose containing information about an event that has happened

or is going to happen. This type of short functional text is commonly

found in the public place or media, respectively, such as at school (on an

announcement board), a newspaper, magazine, a window of a shop, a city

park, etc. Announcement commonly has the following features.

a. The sentences are written concisely.

b. The information is written completely and clearly, so that the

readers can understand it quickly and easily.

c. It contains type of event, date and time, place, and contact

person or address.

2. Memo

Memo, commonly sent to colleagues and co-workers, is derived from

the word memorandum from the Middle English word 'memorandus'

meaning 'to be remembered'. They differ from letters as they are more

informal and do not require a salutation or a closure statement as in formal

letter. This type of text is used to convey some basic information,

particularly to persuade action, to issue a directive, or to provide a report.

Newman (2009) suggests the following general guidelines to write a

memo.

a. The purpose of the memo is clearly stated in the subject line and in

the first paragraph.

b. The language should be professional, simple and polite.

c. Sentences are written shortly.

d. Using bullets if a lot of information is conveyed.

e. Proofreading before sending.

f. The memo is addressed to the person(s) who will take action on

the subject, and CC those who need to know about the action.

g. Additional information is attached rather than placed in the body

of the memo.

3. Advertisement

The essential point is that it functions to inform and draw attention,

and it can be stated that an advertisement is information which functions

to persuade people. Thus, advertisement can be defined as typical

information used to persuade audience (readers or listeners) to do

something or to take some action. This type of short functional text

usually contains the name of a product or service and the explanation of

how the product or service benefits the audience. Language use is very

crucial in every advertisement since it greatly helps customers to identify

products and remember them effortlessly. Although it is commonly argued

that visual content and design play very powerful roles in advertisements,

the use of language cannot be neglected.

4. Invitation

An invitation is a type of letter which is written to invite a guest to a

particular event or celebration. The present and the future tenses are used

within the invitation letter. The former conveys information about the

event and the latter ensures that the guest is going to attend. Invitation is

categorized differently. Some categorize it into a formal and informal

invitation while others categorize it into a business and friendly invitation.

The purposes of writing the invitation determine the types of the letters.

For example, an invitation letter inviting peers or clients to an event

hosted by the company or inviting persons for an important meeting is a

formal letter. Those letters are categorized as business invitation letters

and are written in a formal tone. Invitation letters sent to friends and

family members can be less formal. This type of letter is sent for a social

function such as such as birthday, marriage, baby shower ceremonies, etc.

2.1.3 How to Teach Writing

Teaching English writing in the junior high school is based on phases stated

by Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan in Permendiknas No.41 Tahun 2007 (Standar

Proses) that there are three phases for teaching activities:

1. Pre teaching activities, the teacher prepares and motivates the students to

learn. After that, teacher build students’ background knowledge about the

lesson includes giving model to the teaching objective.

2. Whilst-teaching activities, including exploration, elaboration and

confirmation.

3. Post- teaching activities. In this phase, the teacher and the students conclude

the lesson well individually or cooperatively. At the end of the lesson, the

teacher should convey lesson plan for next meeting in order that the students

can prepare themselves at home.

Teacher must be aware that teaching writing is not an easy matter to do. For

students who learn English as a foreign language, it will be more difficult to express

their feelings throughout their writing. Both teacher and student need to know that

writing must convey a message with a meaning. Teacher also needs to work

continually to aid the students in their search for fulfillment as writers, as stated by

Graham & Harris (1993) cited in Hà (2011).

Harmer (1991) stated that before making a plan, a teacher needs to know

several things. This includes knowledge of how to teach, including ideas for different

activities, and knowledge of useful technique. Being an English teacher who teach

writing means that the teacher have to know the order of writing process and be

consider with the process of teaching writing. It is supported by Hairston (1982) cited

in Gebhard (2006:211) statement that teacher cannot teach students to write by

looking only at what they have written. Teacher also have to understand what goes on

during the act of writing. If teacher wants to affect its outcome, so the teacher has to

do the hard thing; examine the intangible process, rather than the easy thing; and

evaluate the tangible product. The teacher’s roles in teaching writing are being a

facilitator, helper, motivator, consultant, prompter, advisor and only then assessor.

Those roles are purposed to help learners by organizing writing as a series of stages.

First of all, students need to feel the necessity of writing. Teacher have to guide the

students to find out their purpose of writing by using these questions: Why should I

write? What is the point of writing?

Ur (2002:169) assured that the writing process is the starting point for

developing students’ writing abilities, teachers must recognize that students need a

range of writing experiences to develop themselves as writers. She also stated that

students learn to write through writing. One of our main tasks then, as teachers, is to

get the students to write a lot, thinking, as they do so and learning from their own

writing experience. In addition, in order to become good at writing, learners need

concentration, instruction, practice, and patience. The teacher’s task is to assist her

learners to gain control over the written word.

2.2 The Implementation of Using R.A.F.T. to Teach Writing

Advertisement

2.2.1 Definition of R.A.F.T

Hairston in Gebhard (2006:211) said that the teacher should understand the

process of how their preparation until they produce their writing. The preparation can

be done by applying R.A.F.T strategy to help them express the meaning in a clear

way. Based on the statement from Alisa and Rosa (2013), R.A.F.T. is first introduced

by Santa and Havens in 1995. The acronym stands for Role, Audience, Format, and

Topic. It means that the students have to consider in drafting their works. First, they

need to consider what is the role that they author will be when writing the text.

Second, they have to consider their audience that they will address. After that, they

should think what the format of their writing is. The last one, they also need to think

the topic for their writing. R.A.F.T. activity infuses a writing assignment with

imagination, creativity, and motivation. The strategy involves writing from a

viewpoint other than that of a student, to an audience other than a standard

assignment or written answer to questions.

2.2.2 How to Apply R.A.F.T. in Teaching Writing

In order to use R.A.F.T. strategy in the classroom, there are some steps and

activities that the teacher should be consider on. The steps of using R.A.F.T. in

teaching writing advertisement as stated by Alisa and Rosa (2013) are as follow.

The first one is about teacher’s preparation. The teacher have to prepare the

materials, media, and lesson plan before coming to the classroom and deliver the

material. The preparation of those things is very important in order to do the teaching

and learning process run well.

The second one is the teaching process. The teaching process is divided into

three steps, they are pre-teaching activity, whilst teaching activities, and post teaching

activity. In the pre-teaching activity, teacher prepares the students both

psychologically and physically to involve in the learning process. The teacher may

begin the lesson by greeting to attract the students’ attention and showing them the

advertisement video. After that, teacher may introduce them with R.A.F.T. strategy

and tell them about the objectives materials that will be learned.

In whilst teaching activities, there are three activities that should be done in

the classroom, they are:

1. Exploration

In exploration activity, the teacher checks how far students’ knowledge

about advertisement text by showing them two different posters which sell the same

product. Then teacher may ask them these question:

What is the first poster about?

What about the second poster?

Is there any differences?

What did the posters say?

Then the teacher should explain the communicative purpose of the

advertisement text continued by explain about the language features of the text.

2. Elaboration

In this activity, teacher divides the students into several groups and asks

them to structure their writing based on these elements.

Role: Who are you as writer?

Audience: Who will read your writing?

Format: What kind of form will it take?

Topic: What will the advertisement about?

For example, the teacher tells that she or he is going to write an

advertisement about milk. To explain why a writer needs to consider R.A.F.T when

she or he writes, the teacher shows two kinds of R.A.F.T in the table and

differentiates one of the components. Here, the teacher makes the same role, format

and topic but differentiates the audience. The teacher also lists some vocabularies that

may be used in the format table.

Idea:

Selling

milk

R A F T

Milk

seller

Teenagers Advertisement

Using attractive

sentence

Using suggestive

expression

Vocabularies: grow up,

need, fat, let, drink,

Drink

milk

without

worrying

the fat

available.

Milk

seller

Old

people

Advertisement

Using attractive

sentence

Using suggestive

expression

Vocabularies: protect,

strength, get, drink.

Drink

milk

without

worrying

the fat

After displaying a complete R.A.F.T example in front of the class, the

teacher discuss the key elements together. Next, she shows the students how to write

it into an advertisement text based on the structure of advertisement text, R.A.F.T and

the vocabularies given.

3. Confirmation

Teacher may ask students to make one R.A.F.T. table based on their own

idea. After that, every member in each group writes the advertisement individually

based on the table. The students can show and read their advertisement in front of the

classroom.

The last activity is post teaching. In this stage, the teacher gives feedback

to the students such as giving reward to each group which can make the

advertisement well then teacher should conclude and summarizes the lesson together

with the students.

2.2.3 The Advantages of Using R.A.F.T. in Teaching Writing

There are a lot of advantages of using R.A.F.T strategy in increasing and

motivating students to write at junior high school. They are:

a. R.A.F.T strategy will help students to understand their role as writer, the

audience they will address, the variety format and the topic of their writing.

b. This strategy provides opportunities for the students to demonstrate their

understanding of a topic or subject through a writing experience that helps

them to think about subject and communicate their understanding of it in

creative and interesting way.

c. This strategy can be great pre-writing tool because it encourages students to

organize their thoughts and brings life and creativity their writing.

d. After finished R.A.F.T assignment, the students will more proficient to

develop their style of writing.

e. At the end, this strategy increases the students’ motivation in writing, because

when the students can keep their attention and they are interested with the

writing activity, they automatically will increase their motivation in learning

English.

f. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

a. Conclusion

Based on the discussion in the previous chapters, it can be concluded that the

teacher should consider to the strategy used in teaching writing. R.A.F.T strategy can

be chosen for the alternative strategy to teach writing skill especially in writing

advertisement text. R.A.F.T. can help the students to think creatively about the

various topics, the format of the text, specific audience that will read their

advertisement, and about their role as a writer. R.A.F.T. also suitable with the concept

of writing itself as a process and product. Using R.A.F.T. strategy means that teacher

guide the students in a process to convey the message of the advertisement text and

helps them in producting the text. The process of teaching and learning advertisement

text can be held well if the teacher can guide the students to write advertisement text

using R.A.F.T. through the good order of teaching activity.

b. Suggestion

In order to reach the goal of teaching and learning writing especially

advertisement text, there are some suggestions for the teacher. First, the teacher

should be creative in selecting and using the interesting and appropriate technique to

the students; second, the teacher should know what the common problem that is faced

by the students to decide which technique will be used to solve that problem; third,

the teachers should use real object and media that closely related to student’s life;

fourth, the teacher should be creative in organizing a good teaching and learning

process.

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