13
the sentences and paragraphs connected to each other and conveys meaning.
d. Extensive. Writers are not bounded by certain rules and criteria when they are
dealing with this type of writing performance. Otherwise, it provides them with freedom to manage their writing works. The focus is that
whether the writers can achieve their writing purposes and arrange the ideas logically or not. Meanwhile, the grammatical form is not really
concerned, but only in a limited amount. The most obstacle which is quite challenging when dealing with
writing is the grammatical rules. However, in extensive writing, writers are freely to develop their ideas to be put into written text. Although the
grammatical form is still being a concern in this type of writing, writers can still achieve their purposes of writing.
2. Micro- and Macro-Skills of Writing
In writing, there are some aspects that need to be considered. Brown 2004: 220 has summarized all those aspects into two main skills, they are
micro- and macro- skills. Those skills have different categories to be implemented in writing. Micro skills include criteria which are exactly
appropriate to be applied in imitative and intensive writing because it contains light rules for writers to be able to produce writing products like
grammatical rules, vocabulary, and cohesive devices. On the contrary, macro skills are more complicated because it brings communicative function of
14
texts, conveying links, connection and specific references, and also writing strategies. Macro skills are necessary to be applied in responsive and
extensive writing. The taxonomy of micro- and macro-skills for writing production according to Brown 2004: 220 are as follows.
Micro-skills of writing include the following aspects. a. Produce graphemes and orthographic pattern in English.
b. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purposes. c. Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate order
patterns d. Use acceptable grammatical system e.g., tense, agreement,
pluralization, patterns, and rules. e. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms.
f. Use cohesive devices in writing discourse.
Macro-skills of writing include the following aspects. a. Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse.
b. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according to form and purpose.
c. Convey links and connection between events, and communicate such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information,
given information, generalization, and exemplification. d. Distinguish between literal and implied meaning when writing.
e. Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of the written text.
f. Develop and use battery of writing 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.
It can be seen from the characteristics of micro- and macro- skills above that they have quite significant differences of classification in writing
performance. Micro skills tend to describe the mechanical of writing and at the level of words while macro skill cover wider areas of writing, such as the
form and the communicative purpose of written texts, the literal and implied meaning. Thus, it is not merely about words but it is about the whole text.
15
3. Methods in Teaching Writing
