The Micro- and Macro-skills of Writing

25 teacher but we can also involve peer learning to make it less monotonous. Only after the students are prepared through the stages of writing they can be able to produce an appropriate writing product.

c. The Micro- and Macro-skills of Writing

Teaching writing includes the mastery of micro and macro skills. Micro skills are those that the students need to comprehend in order that they are able to produce an acceptable writing like acceptable grammar, correct cohesive devices, and also the ability to express a meaning in different grammatical forms. Macro skills in the other hand are further skills and strategies that are required in order that the students being able to convey the meaning they want to communicate in their writing. Brown 2004: 342-343 distinguishes micro- and macro-skills of writing as follows: 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 grammatical system 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. Accomplish appropriately the communicative functions of written text 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. 11. Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text. 12. Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately assessing the audience‘s interpretation, using prewriting devices, writing with fluency 26 in the first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting peer and instructor feedback, and using feedback for revising and editing. From the macro- and micro-skills mentioned above, it can be concluded that the main point of micro-skills are about grammar mastery and the macro-skills are about larger elements like the process of generating ideas, and the use of writing organization. Therefore, it is necessary for English teachers to improve their students ‘ writing ability, especially those that are related to those aspects. It is mentioned that mastery of grammar is also emphasized at the micro skill requirements of writing. Grammar as linguistic aspects of writing mentioned above includes tense, agreement, and pluralization are still considered as a difficult aspect to master in this research. Therefore the researcher includes grammar as one of the aspects being improved in order that the learners being studied can be able to improve their writing.

d. The Teaching of Writing in Senior High School Grade X