Significant Aspectsin Writing Writing Skill

2. Significant Aspectsin Writing

Based on the characteristics of micro and macro skills, it can be seen that the most influential aspect of writing is grammar. Micro and macro skills list the elements of grammar within a sentence and between sentences. In macro skills, students also need to be able to use feedback to revise and edit their works. It means that to develop writing skill, the inner and outer aspects of writing should be considered. Crème and Lea 2008 propose that to achieve successful writing, some aspects inside and outside the writing should be fulfilled. Those aspects include grammar and punctuation, writing techniques, and feedbacks for revision Crème and Lea 2008. In other words, successful writing is not only determined by the inner elements of writing, such as the grammar and the techniques in writing, but also the outer element, which is feedback. Grammar in writing includes all aspects of grammar, covering tenses, compound and complex sentence, active and passive voice, and so on. Students often feel panic as well as neglect these particular concepts of grammar, and therefore, this will also lead to unsuccessful writing Crème and Lea 2008. The next concept is about techniques in writing which deal with cohesion, punctuation, reference, and coherence. Techniques in writing more focus on how the message is conveyed through the writing and how the flow of the writing is organized. This is also supported by Kellogg 2008 who asserts that to produce effective text composition, extensive range of knowledge must be available in long-term memory of the writers. These include a large conceptual lexicon, developed grammatical competence, a variety of discourse structures, and domain-specific knowledge of the topic. Hereby, successful writing involves the knowledge of sufficient vocabulary, grammar, language use, and relevance to the topic. Since most of writing aspects deal with grammar, it is believed that grammar practices are needed to obtain successful writing. Grammar practices are best delivered in separate aspects, including subject-verb agreement, parts of speech, clause, sentences, tenses, and so on Berger 2001. However, teaching grammar in separate aspects does not mean that it should be separated from the writing itself. Teaching grammar should be integrated with teaching writing. Therefore, the separate aspects of grammar should be learnt in the context of writing Berger 2001. However, some studies show the ineffectiveness of teaching grammar for writing. Teaching grammar has insignificant positive effects on improving students‟ writing Wyse 2001. It has negative impact on students‟ motivation due to the ineffective approaches to grammar and common exercises that are demotivating for the students. Wyse 2001 argues if the teaching approach to grammar is clearly set and adjusted to the needs of the students and the arrangement of the exercises provides challenging and motivating exercises, teaching grammar for writing would be more effective. Furthermore, Wyse suggests that decontextualized grammar exercises are not interesting and challenging for the students. When students carry out writing with meaningful purposes, they will be more concerned and will pay more attention to the grammatical aspects in their writing Norris and Ortega 2000, Ellis 2002. Weaver et al. 2001 propose that whether to teach grammar or not is not the main problem. Rather, the issue that should be addressed is on the selection of the grammar aspects that should be taught to enhance and improve students ‟ writing and the techniques in delivering the grammar practices Weaver et al. 2001, Andrews 2006. To build communicative writing, contexts of writing should be emphasized as well. Therefore, besides using grammar practices, developing writing skill should also pay attention to the communicative context and meaningful purposes. It means that topics should be carefully selected in such a way that the topics can enhance students‟ critical thinking to write contextually using appropriate grammar aspects. Hence, the grammar practices combine grammar aspects and meaningful topics to develop students‟ writing skill.

3. Teaching and Learning Writing at University Level