include making letters, words, and simple sentences. The next level is extensive writing which focuses on grammar, vocabulary, or sentence
formation, not necessarily to convey meaning. In the responsive and extensive writing, the activity is more complex because they allow students
to do open- ended task. In this case, students of junior high school are supposed to master responsive writing.
2. Teaching Writing a. Teaching Writing in Junior High School
Teaching writing for students of junior high school is one of the important things that have to be done well. It is because English is one of the
compulsory subjects that have to be taught for students of junior high school level. English learning in Junior High school is aimed at making the students
gain the functional level that is to communicate written and orally in solving daily problems. One scope of English learning at junior high school is that
students can understand and produce a short functional text and short essay in the form of procedure, descriptive, narrative and recount Depdiknas
2006. Therefore, in teaching writing in junior high school level, students are expected to be able to write short functional texts in the forms of four text
types. This research focused on one of writing competencies in the school English curriculum. The expected writing competency which is taken from
the grade eighth curriculum of junior high school in first semester is displayed in the following table.
Table 1: Standard of Competence and Basic Competency of Writing for the 8 Grade Students of Junior High Schools 2006 in the First Semester
Standard of Competence Basic Competency
6. Expressing the meaning of written functional texts and
simple short essays in the form of descriptive and recount to
interact with surroundings 6.1 Expressing the meaning of the
simple short functional texts accurately, fluency, and acceptably using written
language for interaction in the daily life context.
6.2 Expressing the meaning and rhetorical step of simple short essays in
written language accurately, fluently, and acceptable to interact with
surroundings in the form of recount text
From the above theories, writing can be one of important subjects for junior high school students. Hence, teachers of English language need to give
effective instruction in order to help them reach their goal in learning English, that is, communicate with written language in the forms of various
text types which fit standard of competence and basic competency. Moreover, teaching writing is not only based on standard of competence and
basic competency, students is intended to master micro-skills of writing in order to master good writing. Based on Brown 2004:221, students are
expected to achieve the micro-skills and macro-skills of writing as follows. Table 2: Micro-skills and macro-skills for Writing
Micro-skills and macro-skills for 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 system e.g., tense, pluralization, patterns, and rules.
5. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms. 6. Use cohesive devices in written discourse.
Macro-skills
7. Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse. 8. Appropriately accomplish the communicative functions of written texts
according to form and purpose.
