8 English language, at least nine years when entering senior high school because of
the curriculum transformation from curriculum 2006 to 2013. Moreover, there are a curriculum and syllabus which are used as standards
for teaching English in a classroom. Most of all senior high schools still implement Curriculum 2006 as a national curriculum in academic year 20152016
as being ordered by the Minister of Education and Culture Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia No 160 Tahun 2014
, and then create into a developed syllabus. Curriculum 2006 itself is an operational
curriculum, called Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan KTSP. An operational curriculum means that the curriculum is organized by each educational institution.
A syllabus is included in such curriculum. Thus “a syllabus should be developed
by teachers to adjust time allocation and student characteristics ” BSNP, 2006.
Regarding the curriculum 2006 implemented in academic year 20152016, in senior high school, teachers educate on English as a foreign language four
times in a week. Each time allocation is worth 45 forty five minutes. Thus, each student will learn English in a classroom for 180 one hundred and eighty
minutes per week Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Republik Indonesia Nomor 22 Tahun 2006
. There are basic competences which students should achieve. Then, it is
used to identify the learning material to support the learning achievement. In second grade senior high school, the learning materials on curriculum 2006 are
report text, narrative text, analytical exposition and hortatory exposition based on standard competences and basic competences Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan
9 Nasional Republik Indonesia Nomor 22 Tahun 2006
. Each learning material is comprised of its purpose, structure text, and language features. Besides, when the
following curriculum K-13 is implemented, there is no difference in learning materials between curriculum 2006 KTSP and curriculum 2013 K-13
Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 64 Tahun 2013
. Next, those materials should lead to standard competences which consist of language performances: listening, speaking, reading and writing Badan
Standar Nasional Pendidikan , 2006.
2. Assessing Writing
Regarding writing skills as one of language performances which students should acquire and also the object of this research, the researcher wants to discuss
writing skills. This section will be divided into two sub-topics: the nature of writing skills and its assessment.
a. The Nature of Writing
Writing skills, according to Brown 2004, is a field of language for recording speech and for facilitating grammatical and lexical features of language.
Writing has the uniqueness as a skill through its own features and conventions p. 218. Bachman, Palmer and Douglas 2000 find that there are consisted of
grammatical knowledge, textual knowledge, functional knowledge, and sociolinguistic knowledge, based on taxonomy of language knowledge which is
applicable to the writings as cited in Weigle, 2002, p. 42. Thus, there is no doubt that grammatical knowledge is also an essential part and need to teach in the
classroom. Moreover, Knapp and Watkins 2005 contend that grammar which is PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
10 linked to the purpose and function of texts becomes meaningful learning in
pedagogic p. 32. The writers should understand those features of language clearly while
mastering writing skills because it deals with how the writers organise the language within sentences Knapp Watkins, 2005, p. 33. They are also
supposed to understand the principles of writing to accomplish their writing. As writing in a second language, the writers may be more frustrated on language
rather than its content Weigle, 2002, p. 35. It is because the writer s‟ language
proficiency is limited. Therefore, the learners should have been given writing exposure before
creating grammatically acceptable sentences and able to spell words correctly. Unfortunately, there are many features of language which make writing harder
and cause errors. Norrish 1983 also admits that writing is a skill which has been found with many problems to master p. 63. Besides that, the main purpose of
language is communication. Writing is not only one of language skills which leads to performance. It also has its own linguistic features and conventions which
should be taken notice of in order to accomplish it. Apart from the writer and writing itself, there are many types of writing
text; one of them is personal writing Brown, 2004. It is the genre which is used most in the classroom, such as writing a personal letter, journal or diary, short
story, or making invitations. This genre involves r ecording writers‟ feelings,
experiences, or ideas and composing it without trouble Stubbs Service, 2009. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
11 Weigle 2002 also notes that the type of writing is to entertain the readers and
show imagination and deep feeling p. 8
b. Assessment in Writing
General assessment is a process of gathering data or information. Test is one of the instruments in gathering data. Also, a score or a verbal description is
the outcome of the assessment Bachman Palmer, 2010, p. 20. The main objective of assessment is to make a conclusion about learner language from
assessment scores analysed Purpura, 2004. In order to assess learner language clearly, writing as a performance
assessment is needed Weigle, 2002, p. 46. The focus of this assessment is divided into two senses, strong and weak one. The strong sense is focused on how
the message of language is delivered. Besides that, the weak sense is considered on the language features which are the use of vocabulary, organization, and so on.
Those language features are also responsible for the success in the writing test. In other words, the test is also to discover the learner language proficiency. As the
result, the administrators, who give and score the test, are focused more on the linguistic aspects Weigle, 2002. It is visible that grammar is one of
considerations to assess writing. One of the writing tasks is the timed impromptu writing test. It is a result
of writing as a product. Weigle 2002 points out that the significance of giving timed writing test in class is to evaluate what the students are able accomplish on
their own. It gives a good benefit for teacher to know the learner language, what heshe has achieved and not mastered p. 178. However there should be more
