c. Micro and Macro Skills of Writing
Brown 2004: 220-221 describes micro and macro skills of writing: Micro skills
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 acceptable grammatical systems e.g., tense, agreement, pluralization,
patterns, and rules. 5
Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms. 6
Use cohesive devices in written discourse.
Macro skills 1
Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse. 2
Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts according to form and purpose.
3 Convey links and connections between events, and communicate such relations
as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, exemplifications.
4 Distinguish between literal and implied meanings when writing.
5 Correctly convey culturally specific references in the context of written text.
6 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.
d. The Process of Writing
Graves in Johnson 2008:179 describes five stages of writing process: 1
Prewriting The goal of this step is to generate ideas. The activities in this stage include
listing, brain storming, outlining, silent thinking, conversation with a neighbor, or power writing.
2 Drafting
Drafting is the writers’ first effort to capture ideas on paper. The draft should contain a rambling and disconnected accumulation of ideas. The draft will be
taken into the next step if the writers think that it is valuable enough. 3
Revising This stage is crucial in writing process. It is about reshaping a piece of writing.
Here, the writers can add or take some parts of the text if necessary. This process can be done many times until the writers think that all parts of the draft
are complete. 4
Editing This step is when the writers examine and correct grammar, spelling, and
punctuations errors. Many writers assume that this step be included in step 1, 2, or 3. If writers are worrying about mechanics at the previous stages, they will
not be able to generate ideas smoothly.
5 Publishing and Sharing
After the writers finished the fourth step, it is time to share the piece of writing with an audience. It makes the writing process becomes real. In the classroom,
the teacher can ask the students as the writers to put together class books, collect their writings, publish them in school or class newspapers, or display
short samples of writing in the hall or out in the community. Besides, the teacher can also ask them to read their work out loud in groups to make the
writing experiences become even more powerful.
2. Teaching Writing