a. GENRES OF
WRITTEN LANGUAGE
The discussion of assessment of reacting listed more than 50 written language genres. The sane classification scheme is reformulated
here to include the most common genres that a second language writer might produce, within and beyond the requirements of a
curriculum. Even though this list is slightly shorter, you should be aware of the surprising multiplicity of options of written genres that
second language learners need to acquire.
Genres or writing
1. Academic writing
papers and general subject reports essays, compositions
academically focused journals short-answer test responses
technical reports e.g., lab reports theses, dissertations
2. Job-related writing
messages e.g., phone messages lettersemails
memos e.g., interoffice reports e.g., job evaluations, project reports
schedules, labels, signs advertisements, announcements
manuals 3.
Personal writing
letters, emails, greeting cards, invitations messages, notes
calendar entries, shopping lists, reminders financial documents e.g., checks, tax forms, loan
applications forms, questionnaires, medical reports, immigration
documents diaries, personal journals fiction e.g., short stories, poetry
b. TYPES OF WRITING PERFORMANCE
Four categories of written performance that capture the range of written production are considered here. Each category resembles the
categories defined for the other three skills, but these categories, as always, reflect the uniqueness of the skill area.
1. Imitative . To produce written language, the learner must
attain skills in the fundamental, basic tasks of writing letters, words, punctuation, and very brief sentences. This category includes the
ability to spell correctly and to perceive phoneme-grapheme correspondences in the English spelling system. It is a level al which
learners are trying to master the mechanics of writing. At this stage, form is the primary if not exclusive focus, while context and meaning
are of secondary concern.
2. Intensive controlled . Beyond the fundamentals of imitative
writing are skills in producing appropriate vocabulary within a context, collocations and idioms, and correct grammatical features up to the
length of a sentence. Meaning and con-text are of some importance in determining correctness and appropriateness, but most
assessment tasks are more concerned with a focus on form, and are rather strictly controlled by the test design.
3. Responsive
. Here, assessment tasks require learners to perform at a limited discourse level, connecting sentences into a
paragraph and creating a logically connected sequence of two or three paragraphs. Tasks respond to pedagogical directives, lists of
criteria, outlines, and other guidelines. Genres of writing include brief narratives and descriptions, short reports, lab reports, summaries,
brief responses to reading, and interpretations of charts or graphs. Under specified conditions, the writer begins to exercise some
freedom of choice among alternative forms of expression of ideas. The writer has mastered the fundamentals of sentence-level ;warn-
mar and is more focused on the discourse conventions that will
achieve the objectives of the written text. Form-focused attention is mostly at the discourse level, with a strong emphasis on context and
meaning.
4. Extensive
. .Extensive writing implies successful management of all the processes and strategies of writing for all purposes, up to
the length of an essay, a term paper, a major research project report, or even a thesis. Writers focus on achieving a purpose, organizing
and developing ideas logically, using details to support or illustrate ideas, demonstrating syntactic and lexical variety, and in many
cases, engaging in the process of multiple drafts to achieve a final product. Focus on grammatical form is limited to occasional editing or
proofreading of a draft.
c. MICRO- AND MACROSKILLS OF WRITING
We turn once again to a taxonomy of micro- and macroskills that will assist you in defining the ultimate criterion of an assessment
procedure. The earlier microskills apply more appropriately to imitative and intensive types of writing task, while the macroskills are
essential for the successful mastery of responsive and extensive writing.
Micro- and macroskills of writing Microskills
1. Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.
2. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.
3. Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns.
4. Use acceptable grammatical systems e.g., tense, agreement, pluralization, patterns, and rules.
5. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms.
6. Use cohesive devices in written discourse.
Macroskills
7. Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse.
8. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according to form and purpose.
9. Convey links and connections between events, and communicate such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information,
generalization, and exemplification. 10. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing.
Kategori