Writing is one of the instruments to deliver inspiration
and ideas in
written form that can be read by others. It involves
knowledge and skill that comes from experience; it can be personal or others experiences.
In general, writing is an activity which is useful for oneself and others. Booth, et al., (2008, p .12) describes the three functions
of writing. According to
him, these three functions are write to remember, write
to understand, and
write to test your thinking. All of
them will be explained below.
First, writing to remember. This is related to the human nature that is created not perfect. Everyone has lack ability to remember
or understand something
perfectly. For example, in the case when someone read
a book. He will
not memorize and understand the contents of the book as a whole. He
tends to take the important points in the
book that are considered useful
for him. Thus, if the readings are not
rewritten, the opportunity to forget will be large.
Booth et al,.
(2008, p. 12)
said that "When you do not take notes
on what you read, you're Likely to forget or
worse misremember it". Their opinion indicates that rewriting
of ideas or important points from the readings
or from experience
is very important. Beside to remember, these
records are also useful
for the long term. The existence of ancient manuscripts and writings
in the caves give
a proof that writing is one of the ways
to remember. If
the writings do
not exist, surely the history of
the past will be difficult
to be learnt. Through these writings, the modern society can learn and
know the information in the past history.
Second, writing to understand. Sometimes someone
does not understand about what he has written down. Writing is one
of the ways to test his
understanding. By writing person
will read a variety of literature
to enrich his
term of word and add to the talk in the
form of written. Booth, et al., say that “A
second reason for
writing is to see
larger pattern in
what you read. When you arrange and Rearrange the result
of your research
in new ways, you
discover new implications,
connections, and complications
"(2008, p.
12). The opinion from Booth, et al., reinforcing that a person who writes
will get 'something
new' that he does
not find when he does not write. The
more someone writing, the more arises
in him a desire to know what he has been written in more detailed. It
encourages him to
be more active to know a lot of things he does not know before.
The author of Quantum Writing also a motivator, Hernowo says "a good writer, because
he was a good reader". He has proved that writing took him to
understand many things.
For 3 years he
has written 17 books and some of his books became the bestseller in Indonesia.
Finally, the third function according to Booth, et
al., writing is to
test your thinking.
They stated, "A
third reason to write
is to get your
thoughts out of
your head and onto
paper, where you'll
see what you
really can think" (2008, p. 12). The
opinion from Booth, et al., Is true.
If someone gets information
from books or listen it from
seminars, television and other media tries to write the information into an
article. By rewriting, someone can assess how far
he can understand the information well. By
rewriting the past memories can
be stored his writing. However, it is not easy to rewrite the information, because the spoken language is very different from
the written language. Written
language emphasizes the systematic
writing, logical and can connect or compare the information that has been acquired. While the spoken
language, are more prioritize in information and pragmatic aspects.
Thus, rewriting the information
that is obtained is useful to test your mind
and make your
ability in thinking and writing will increase.
Those are the three opinions which are
expressed by Booth et al., about the
function of writing. Based on the
explanation above, it can be concluded that writing will bring you
to know many things. By writing you can improve your writing skills
and also train your mind to solve the problems.
Imam Al-Ghazali
says that , "If you are not a king's
son, and you are not the children
of the great scholars, so just become a writer".
Begin to make a habit
to write anything. The habit that must be nurtured
from an early, any
form of writing it is not important. The important thing is
the process of writing and the culture to
write itself.
(created by Nasrul SN’
and translated by Epi Stiyo )
