Micro Skills in Writing

18 certain standards of prescribed English rhetorical style, 2 the compositions should reflect accurate grammar, and 3 they are organized in conformity. Furthermore, in this approach, students’ writing will be measured based on some criteria. Since the focus is on the final product, it is important to pay more attention to those compositions of the final product. In addition, the scoring criteria which are being used to measure involve some aspects including content, organization, grammar, vocabulary and writing mechanics. 2 Process-oriented approach The process-oriented approach is the reversal of the product-oriented approach. In this approach, the focus is on the various stages that any piece of writing goes through Harmer 2007:257. Those stages are prewriting, editing, redrafting, and producing the final product. There is no right or wrong approach. However, the best thing that teachers can do is by letting the students experience as creators of language do the process of writing by putting their ideas and organize them. Furthermore, there are some characteristics in the process-oriented approach. Those characteristics are adapted from Shih 1986 in Brown 2000: 335 as follows: a focus on the process of writing that leads to the final written products, b help student to understand their own composing process, c help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting, 19 d give students time to write and rewrite, e let students discover what they want to say as they write, f give students feedback throughout the composing process not just on the final product as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer to intention, g include individual conferences between the teacher and the students during the process of composition. In conclusion, both the product-oriented approach and the process- oriented approach are important. Teachers should put those approaches in a balance in the practice because students need to experience both of them in order to be able to produce a good writing.

b. The Teaching of Writing in Junior High School

English is taken as a compulsory subject for students of Senior High School. Teaching English in Junior High School must cover the four language skills, one of which is writing. There are some writing competencies that the students must accomplish according to the regulation of ministry of national education. Those competencies are written in the Standard of Competences and the Basic Competence. The content of the Standard of Competences and the Basic competence for Junior high school students especially grade VIII based on Curriculum 2006 can be shown in the table below.