e. Micro and Macro Skills of Writing
Yale 2010 states that practice in writing will help students build reading skills. They can do this practice in the process of writing their own texts then analyse
the pieces which they read. Thus, they can apply their knowledge about the use of particular language better. According to Brown 2001: 342-243, he lists out some
micro and macro skills of writing. The micro skills consist of producing graphemes and orthographic patterns of English; producing writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit
the purpose; producing an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns; using grammatical system e.g., tense, agreement, and pluralisation, patterns,
and rules; expressing a particular meaning in different grammatical forms; next, using cohesive devices in written discourse.
Meanwhile, the macro skills consist of using the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse; accomplishing appropriately the communicative
functions of written text according to form and purpose; conveying links and connections between events and communicate such relations as main idea, supporting
idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification; distinguishing between literal and implied meanings when writing; correctly conveying
culturally specific references in the context of the written text ; then, developing and using a battery of wr
iting strategies, such as accurately assessing the audience„s interpretation, using prewriting devices, writing with fluency in the first drafts, using
paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting peer and instructor feedback, and using feedback for revising and editing. From the micro and macro skills mentioned above, teachers do
not need to assess totally. The type of writing being assigned becomes the main concerns for the student‟s requirement in writing production.
f. Basic Types of Writing
Brown 2004:220-230 proposes the taxonomy of basic writing. This taxonomy involves four types of writing arranged from the basic to the complex one presented
subsequently: 1
Imitative writing Imitative writing requires learners to develop fundamental and basic skills of writing.
Both can be achieved through some tasks such as writing letters, words, punctuation, and very brief sentence; spelling correction to perceive phonemes
–grapheme, correspondence in the English spelling systems. At this stage, writers focus on the form
as the primary concern, while contexts and meaning become the secondary concerns. Learners can do some tasks related to this type e.g. copying letters, matching phonetic
symbols with the correct words, and completing missing words in listening cloze selection tasks.
2 Intensive Writing Controlled
Intensive writing aims to develop skills in producing appropriate vocabulary within a context, collocation, and idioms, and correct the grammatical features up to the length
of the sentence. These skills become important to determine correctness and appropriateness, though learners focus on form. There are several tasks that learners can
do e.g. ordering words into a correct sentence, short answer completion tasks, and choosing the right tenses in paragraph.
3 Responsive Writing
Learners are required to perform at limited discourse level, connecting sentences into paragraph and creating a logically connected sequenced of two or three paragraphs on
this responsive types. This type not only focuses on the discourse conventions but also form at the discourse level with a strong emphasis on context and meaning.
4 Extensive Writing
Extensive writing implies successful management of all process and strategies done in writing related to all purposes, up to the length of an essays, a term of paper, a major
research project, or even a thesis. Organizing and developing ideas logically using supporting details to support ideas, demonstrating syntactic and lexical variety, up to
engaging in the process of multiple drafts to ach ieve a final product become the writer‟s
focus. Both responsive and extensive writings have some tasks that learners can do
such as paraphrasing, guided question and answer, paragraph construction tasks, and the strategic options. Related to the micro and macro skills explained formerly, the imitative
and intensive types enhance appropriate to the micro skills. Then, the macro skills enhance the responsive and extensive writing when students are in high level.
g. Aspects of Writing
When dealing with writing, there are some conventions that writers should pay attention more. Two mains conventions are stated by Oshima and Hogue 1999:18.
These are about coherence and cohesion. Coherence is defined as connection in ideas to idea level. The word coherence originally means hold together. The rhetorical aspects of
one‟s writing which are developing and supporting arguments, synthesising and integrating, organizing and clarifying ideas assumes as coherence concerned. There are
four ways that the writer can do to achieve coherence level. The first one is repeating key nouns. Second, writers can use pronouns that refer back to the noun. Third is about
using some transactional signal to show the later ideas related to the former. Fourth, the writers should arrange the ideas to be the well- organized.
Cohesion means the connection of ideas at sentence level. The grammatical aspects of writing have become the focus for the writer. These affect the tone of writing
product. Though some writing instructors may say that writers will not lose the points in the case of grammatical errors, they may lose points if their tone of writing is sloppy
and looked too casual for the academic writing.
2. Teaching and Learning Writing in Junior High Schools
a. Teaching Teenagers
The junior high school students can be classified as teenagers. Lemke 2003:81 in Legutke 2010 describes teenagers as
hetrochrounous
subject as they are in the medium level of change from children to adults. During their process of changing,
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