ENHANCING STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE THROUGH ONLINE WRITING

Online learning is a process that incorporates a "mind over matter" mentality of rigorous, intrinsic learning. The course design addresses what the mind has to know in order for it to matter. Online learning is not a new concept but its acceptance continues to be a daunting one”( Bernola, K 2010). Web-based education as an alternative to face-to-face teaching is now being extended as an application to higher education (Baturay, Meltem Huri 2010 p43-52), so online writing can be used to increase student writing become good writing. “writing well is not just an option for young people-  it is a necessity. Along with reading comprehension, writing skill is a predictor of academic success and basic requirements for participation in civic life and in the global economy.” (Silvernail,D 2002). Writing improves a person’s ability to think concisely and clearly. Student learn to organize their ideas in a cohesive and flowing manner. Over many techniques used in enhancing writing skill, online system is one that significantly boosts and increases students’ achievement. Time efficiency, comfort, and quality are three things making it to be effective to apply.

In the first place is time efficiency.  It is easy for students to manage their time. Full-time students can set their time freely without having to worry about schedule. They will have flexible time in finishing assignments. ”by using the online writing lab, they can receive and practice in specific areas of writing without an instructor and without ever leaving home” Long distance student can study without having to go to the campus.

Secondly is comfort. “The main benefits of web-based discussion forum were the convenience for students, the time and place independence that it created for students, and the potential for students to become part of an online learning community” (Berge & Collins, M 1993)  Students can study freely and independently. They can manage and choose the place for study accordingly. They can also access more information anywhere freely.

Finally is quality. According to Piirto (1998),”approximately half of the students surveyed responded never or not often, when asked if they proofread and/or edited their electronic mail. This was compared to 90% of students who responded that they proofread and/or edited their written documents every time or most of the time.” Writing learners can produce better result of writing. They will proofread their writing before publishing to the public. Consequently, they will be motivated to learn because bad result will encourage them to learn more. 

Best quality of writing is also important for students’ need to know how they will apply the skill when entering to college or at least writing application letter for a job. (Classroom Connection 2007). The students can access online corpora to learn everithing about writing and it can help them to develop their writing quality. “Large corpora such as the British National Corpus and the COBUILD Corpus and Collocations Sampler are now accessible, free of charge, online and can be usefully incorporated into a process writing approach to help develop students' writing skills” (Gilmore, A 2009 p363-372). The students can access this online corpora to learn everithing about writing and it can help them to develop their writing quality.

To conclude, online writing can effectively boost students’ performance in writing and this method is good to apply. Hence, teachers can try to employ this method to students.