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UTILIZING STUDENT BLOGS TO IMPROVE
WRITING SKILL
(An Action Research at 8
thGrade of SMP Negeri 1
Wonogiri in the Academic Year of 2010/2011)
THESIS
By:
NISA AULIA AZAM
K2207037
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
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UTILIZING STUDENT BLOGS TO IMPROVE
WRITING SKILL
(An Action Research at 8
thGrade of SMP Negeri 1
Wonogiri in the Academic Year of 2010/2011)
By:
NISA AULIA AZAM
K2207037
Thesis
Submitted to Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret
University as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Obtaining the
Undergraduate Degree of Education in English
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
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ABSTRACT
Nisa Aulia Azam. K2207037. UTILIZING STUDENT BLOGS TO IMPROVE
WRITING SKILL (AN ACTION RESEARCH AT 8th GRADE OF SMP
NEGERI 1 WONOGIRI IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2010/2011), Thesis.
Surakarta: Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Sebelas Maret University, April. 2011.
This research aims at investigating whether and to what extent the use of student blogs improve students' writing skill and to analyze what happens when student blog is applied.
The method used in this paper is a collaborative action research. This research has been implemented within two sequenced cycles at the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri in the first semester of the academic year 2010/2011. The research data were collected through questionnaire, observation, interview, diary, photographs and tests. In order to have a clear understanding, the data were analyzed through constant comparative method and descriptive statistic.
The results of this research showed that students’ ability in producing recount text had improved along with the changes of classroom situation which became more motivating. The improvement in students’ writing skills includes: 1) the students had fewer misspelled words in their writings; 2) the students used the words in appropriate context; 3) they produced grammatically correct sentences related to recount text; 4) the students also could write the text chronologically; and 5) they are able to develop the text into interesting one. The final result of the tests showed that their scores were improving in the mean score; from 74.45 (pre-test) to 82.18 (test in Cycle 1) and 84.50 (post-(pre-test). It was above the minimum standard of the school (Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimuml/KKM), which is 78.00. Related to the improvement in the classroom situation, the research findings showed that 1) the students could work effectively to finish the task; 2) the students had greater interest on the lesson; 3) they paid full attention during the class; 4) the students could utilized their own laptop in the lesson; and 5) there was no more student who did not like to share the writing.
Considering the inspiring result of this study, it is suggested that other teachers be able to make use of this improvement in utilizing and developing other media. It is also hoped that the teachers conduct the Action Research in their classroom to solve the teaching-learning problems.
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ABSTRAK
Nisa Aulia Azam. K2207037. UTILIZING STUDENT BLOGS TO IMPROVE
WRITING SKILL (AN ACTION RESEARCH AT 8th GRADE OF SMP
NEGERI 1 WONOGIRI IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2010/2011),
Skripsi. Surakarta: Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Sebelas Maret, April. 2011.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menginvestigasi apakah dan sejauh mana penggunaan student blog dapat meningkatkan kemampuan menulis (writing skill) siswa serta untuk menganalisis apa yang terjadi selama student blog diterapkan.
Metode yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah collaborative action research. Penelitian ini telah dilaksanakan dalam 2 siklus terhadap siswa kelas delapan SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri pada semester satu, tahun pelajaran 2010/2011. Data penelitian dikumpulkan melalui kuesioner, pengamatan, wawancara, buku harian, foto, dan tes. Untuk mempeoleh pemahaman yang jelas, data tersebut dianalisis melalui constant comparative method dan descriptive statistic.
Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dapat disimpuklan bahwa kemampuan siswa dalam menulis teks recount telah meningkat seiring dengan perubahan situasi kelas yang menjadi lebih motivatif. Peningkatan kemampuan menulis siswa meliputi: 1) siswa lebih sedikit melakukan kesalahan dalam mengeja; 2) siswa menggunakan kata pada konteks yang tepat; 3) mereka menulis kalimat dengan tata bahasa yang benar sesuai dengan ketentuan teks recount; 4) siswa juga dapat menulis teks secara kronologis; dan 5) siswa dapat mengembangkan teksnya menjadi lebih menarik. Hasil akhir tes para siswa menunjukkan peningkatan pada nilai rata-rata kelas; dari 74,54 (pre-tes) menjadi 82,18 (tes pada Siklus 1) dan 84,50 (post-tes). Nilai tersebut sudah melampaui batas minimum sekolah (Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimum/KKM), yaitu 78,00. Sehubungan dengan peningkatan situasi kelas, hasil temuan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa 1) siswa dapat bekerja secara efektif untuk menyelesaikan tugasnya; 2) siswa menjadi lebih tertarik dengan pelajaran; 3) mereka memberikan perhatian penuh selama kelas berlangsung; 4) siswa dapat memanfaatkan laptop pribadi mereka selama pelajaran; dan 5) tidak ada lagi siswa yang tidak suka menunjukkan hasil pekerjaannya kepada orang lain (menjadi lebih percaya diri).
Mengingat hasil yang baik dari penelitian ini, sangat disarankan bagi guru lain supaya dapat memanfaatkan peningkatan yang telah tercatat untuk memanfaatkan serta mengembangkan media baru lainnya. Selain itu, juga diharapkan agar para guru turut menerapkan Action Research di dalam kelas mereka sebagai upaya menyelesaikan masalah-masalah yang berkenaan dengan kegiatan belajar-mengajar.
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MOTTO
not hing you can see, you can’t do
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DEDICATION
to my beloved parents
and
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillah, thanks to Allah for having this page to give final touch on
this research. It was a great deal to have this study finished. I would like to
acknowledge my first gratitude to Dra. Dewi Rochsantiningsih, M.Ed., Ph.D., my
first consultant, for the inspirations and invaluable experiences. There are so
many things waiting to touch after meetings with her. This work is not a final
ending, but a start of new beginning.
This paper will not be able to be bounded without patience of my second
consultant, Drs. Muh. Asrori, M.Pd., for reading these pages and gave many
invaluable suggestions to make it better and worthy to read. I have learnt and got a
lot of interesting things that lead me to be more knowledgeable and confidence.
My gratitude goes to The Dean on FKIP UNS, Prof. Dr. Furqon Hidayatullah,
M.Pd., as without his approval and permission this study will never exist. My
sincere gratitudes are also extended to The Head of Language and Literary
Department, Drs. Suparno, M.Pd., and The Head of English Department, Drs.
Martono, M.A., for any debt in my study during these semesters. I also gratefully
thank to all of my lectures for all of the knowledge shared; that will always grow
bigger and long lasting.
My special gratitude is for my parents who never stop loving me with
their prayers and never give up to remind me for dinner. Abi, Ummi, this writing
makes laugh and cry completely blended.
To my brother, thank you for every movie you had copied. That was
joyful moments, chatting in front of the moving pictures and hope it will be
repeated again soon.
To my closest, every time you spent listening to me murmuring around
was enlightening. Finally, words will never enough to replace all what I have got.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Page
TITLE
THE APPROVAL OF THE CONSULTANTS
THE APPROVAL OF THE EXAMINERS
ABSTRACT
MOTTO
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENT
LIST OF TABLE
LIST OF PICTURE
LIST OF APPENDIX
ii iii iv v vii viii ix x xiii xiv xv
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1
A. Background of the Study
B. Problem Statements
C. The Objectives of the Study
D. The Benefits of the Study
1
7
8
8
CHAPTER II REVIEW ON RELATED LITERATURE 9
A. Writing
1. The Nature of Writing
2. Writing Skills
3. Writing in the Classroom
4. Writing Recount Text
5. Assessing Writing
B. Blog
1. What Blog is
2. Types of Blog
3. Blog in the Classroom
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a. Blog as teaching-learning mediab. Teaching writing using blog
c. Advantages and disadvantages of blog
C. Related Research
D. Student Blog in Improving Writing Skills
E. Action Hypothesis
21 22 23 24 25 25
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 26
A. Context of the Research
1. The Setting of the Research
2. The Subject of the Research
B. The Method of the Research
1. Action Research
2. The Procedure of Action Research
C. Technique of Collecting the Data
D. Technique of Analyzing the Data
26 26 27 27 27 28 31 32
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34
A. Situation Prior to the Research
B. Research Implementation
1. Procedure of the Research
2. Cycle 1
a. Planning the action
b. Implementing the action
c. Observing the implementation
d. Reflecting the result of the observation
3. Cycle 2
a. Revising the plan
b. Implementing the action
c. Observing the implementation
d. Reflecting the result of the observation
C. Findings
1. The improvement of the students’ writing skill
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2. The improvement of the classroom situation3. The improvement of the students’ attitude
D. Discussion
1. Student blog is able to improve students’ writing skill
2. Student blog is able to improve situation in the writing class
58
58
59
59
60
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTIONS 61
A. Conclusion
B. Implication
C. Suggestion
61
62
63
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LIST OF TABLE
Page
Table 2.1. The Scoring Rubric of ESL Composition Profile
Table 2.2. The Scoring
Table 2.3. The Use of Blog in the Classroom
Table 3.1. Schedule of the Research
Table 3.2. The Classroom procedure of the Research
Table 4.1. Situation Before the Research
Table 4.2. The Research Procedure
Table 4.3. The Improvement of the Students’ Learning and Achievement
in the End of Cycle 1
Table 4.4. The Improvement of the Students’ Learning and Achievement
in the End of Cycle 2
Table 4.5. Summary of the Research Findings
Table 4.6. The Improvement of the Students’ Achievement
Table 4.7. The Sample of Students’ Achievement
16
17
21
27
30
36
37
48
54
55
56
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LIST OF PICTURE
Page
Figure 2.1. Screenshot of a Blog Page
Figure 2.2. Screenshot of a Blog Posting Form
Figure 3.1. The Individual Aspect in Action Research
Figure 4.1. Chart of Number of Students Passing the Test
Figure 4.2. Chart of Students’ Interest on Writing
19
19
30
56
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LIST OF APPENDIX
Page
Research Journal
The Summary of the Research
List of Activities
Teacher Syllabus
Lesson Plans
Pre-Questionnaires
Post-Questionnaires
Students’ Worksheets A (Writing Task)
Students’ Worksheets B (Pre-Test)
Students’ Worksheets C (Post-Test 1)
Students’ Worksheets D (Post-Test 2)
Students’ Blog Posts
The Result of Pre-Questionnaire
The Result of Post-Questionnaire
The Result of Pre-Test
The Result of Post-Test 1
The Result of Post-Test 2
The Result of the Tests
Sample Students’ Achievement
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
The recent national standard of education in Indonesia is decided on the
Government Regulation No. 19/2005. It has the purpose of ensuring the
development of education in Indonesia by stating the minimum standard for every
level of education. The content is about the standard of content, process,
graduated competence, teacher, and materials for education, cost, and evaluation.
This curriculum has a function as a basis of planning, action, and controlling the
education to reach a good quality of education.
It is stated in the curriculum that the students are supposed to master
English for communication. The purposes of English learning in Junior High
School level are 1) to develop communicative competence either written or
spoken in the functional level; 2) to raise learners’ awareness about the
importance of English in the global society; and 3) to develop students’
understanding about the relationship between language and culture. In short, the
students should master both spoken and written discourse of English in order to
communicate and to use the language actively in the social environment.
The curriculum in Indonesia is adapted from the genre-based approach.
This approach focuses on the text as the main resources in language learning. The
goal is “to enable students to develop the knowledge and skill to deal with spoken
and written texts in social contexts” (Nugroho and Hafrizon, 2009: 4). This
approach is developed based on three basic assumptions: language learning is a
social activity; learning occurs more effectively if teachers are explicit about what
is expected of students; and the process of learning language is a series of scaffold
developmental steps which address different aspects of language. The genre-based
approach relies on the principle that learning is conducted through collaboration
of the students-teacher and among students.
In line with the curriculum and genre-based approach, being able to
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literacy. The literacy level, in the term of Junior High School students, is the
functional level. It means that the students should be able to communicate in
spoken or written discourse to have the daily activities done, for instance reading
newspapers, manuals, or instructions. In addition, there are two skills which
naturally belong to the literacy skill; one of those is writing. It is one of the skills
to be mastered by the students in learning English other than listening, speaking,
and reading. In some schools, most of the English classes are dominated by
writing activities. Nevertheless, students rarely implement their skills in the real
life situation and cannot communicate well using their text.
Written language is not the only way of communication using a
language. To communicate, people also produce the spoken form of a language. In
comparison, writing is not merely about transcribing the spoken language into the
written form. Writing is considered as a complex skill since “people need to be
able to form letters and words, and join these together to make words, sentences,
or a series of sentences that link together to communicate a message” (Spratt,
Pulverness, and Williams, 2010: 26). Palmer in Matthews, Spratt, and Dangerfield
(1989: 71) says “ writing is a special skill that does not spring naturally from an
ability to speak a language“ since errors are commonly found in students writing
not only in English (L2), but also in their first language (L1).
The standard of curriculum is applied to every school in Indonesia,
including RSBI (Rintisan Sekolah Berbasis Internasional) which is expected to be
internationally standardized. Faridi (2009: 3) states:
Menurut buku panduan yang dikeluarkan oleh Diknas Propinsi jawa Tengah th.2007/2008, pengertian sekolah bertaraf internasional adalah suatu sekolah yang telah memenuhi Standar Nasional Pendidikan pada tiap aspeknya, meliputi: kompetensi lulusan, isi, prosess, pendidik, dan tenaga kependidikan, sarana dan prasarana, pembiayaan, pengelolaan, penilaian dan telah menyelenggarakan serta menghasilkan lulusan dengan ciri keinternasionalan.
In other words, that type of school should adapt and/or adopt an
education standard in the country or abroad which has a high quality and has been
approved internationally. SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri is one of the RSBI schools that
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grade for English lesson in this school is stated at 78.00. Although the students
belong to RSBI school, their writing skills aren't good enough and need to be
improved. They have a good interest in English but not in writing.
The main problem faced by the students in writing a text is the difficulty
of sharing ideas in the written form. The indicators of this problem are clearly
indicated in their works. The students rarely consult to dictionary and mostly use
their own interpretation about the spelling in writing, so that they write the words
incorrectly. They also tend to use the literal translation of word and use it
improperly within a sentence. Furthermore, the students are not aware of the use
of some grammatical aspects (tense, article, preposition, pronoun, phrasal verb,
etc.) . They frequently make mistakes in writing grammatically correct sentences.
Once they make it, some details are forgotten, for example the articles. It is also
found that the students write the sentence in wrong word order and carelessly
punctuate the text that may lead to misinterpretation. Besides, their writing texts
are sometimes incoherent. The ideas of the story are not well developed and the
use of conjunction are ambiguous in some cases.
In addition, the classroom situation shows that the students did not
directly do the task given. They keep on maintaining their activity which has no
relation with the lesson. Some of them are indicated not too interested in the
lesson. It seems that they get bored when they have to wait and see the model of
the lesson. As a consequence, they prefer having a talk with the next friends to
paying full attention to the teacher.
In SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri, the students are allowed to bring personal
laptop with them. The students who bring their own laptop will operate it during
the lesson. It may help them in learning, but it may also bring disadvantages when
uncontrolled. The students access the internet and forget about the lesson they sit
in. It distracts their focuses, hence they work slowly. Another indicator of the
problem faced by the students is that they do not have enough self-confidence in
their writing. They prefer not to show and not to share their writing to others.
The problems found are related to the material and teaching techniques,
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and the technique point of view, the current sources of material are not
communicative and it has a higher level than the students’ general ability. The
teacher does not distribute the textbook because of this reason. Furthermore, the
facilities served in the school are not used effectively. The teacher only uses the
whiteboard during the lesson instead of the LCD projector that is available in the
classroom and the students do not access the internet under any task of English
lesson.
The most causes are coming from the students themselves. They rarely
practice their writing skill to communicate broadly. It is true that the students like
to access internet which is basically a very rich resources to learn English;
however, they do not use it to practice whether they are not motivated to utilize it
or really not interested in it. Besides, most of them easily lose their focuses during
the lesson. They are still in the range of children who have short time of interest.
They could not be forced to stay in a topic for any longer than they want. Another
cause of the problem in students’ writing is the literal translation. They translate
their mother tongue in writing which may lead to misunderstanding in
communication.
It is mentioned in the syllabus that the standard competence of writing
skill for the eighth grade student is “expressing meaning in short written
functional text and essay in descriptive, recount and exposition to communicate
with the closest environment and/or in academic context to build good character”.
This standard is then broken down into two basic competences:
1. Expressing the information in short written functional text accurately,
systematically, and acceptably to communicate with the closest
environment and/or in academic context to build good character.
2. Expressing meaning in short essay in descriptive, recount and exposition
accurately, systematically, and acceptably to communicate with the closest
environment and/or in academic context to build good character.
Nevertheless, the students in SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri could not reach the
standard of competence which is drawn from the curriculum and the syllabus.
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score (74.45) that lies under the school minimum target (78.00) and the
teaching-learning process.
The situation and condition that distract the learning process in reaching
the target can be solved by optimizing the facilities in the school and the use of
internet in the classroom. Since 1990s, there is a new term TELL (Technology
Enhanced Language Learning) that focuses on the utilization of internet use and
communication technology. There are many reasons to bring internet and
technology into classroom, some of them are:
- Internet access is becoming increasingly available to learners
- Young learners are growing up with technologies, and it is a natural and
integrated part of their lives—it is a way of bringing the outside world into
the classroom.
- English as an international language, is being used in technologically
mediated context.
- Technology, especially the Internet, presents new opportunities for authentic
tasks and materials, as well as access to a wealth of ready-made ELT
materials.
- The Internet offers excellent opportunities for collaboration and
communication among learners who are geographically dispersed.
- Technology is offered with published materials such as coursebook and
resource books for teachers.
- Learners increasingly expect language schools to integrate technology into
teaching.
- Technology offers new ways for practicing language and assessing
performance.
- Technology can not only be used in the classroom, but also at home and
even public area.
- Using a range of ICT tools can give learners exposure to and practice in all
of the four main language skills – speaking, listening, writing, and reading.
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The internet huge range of materials and methods of communication can
allow the students to discover language for themselves in a more immediate way
than by reading a textbook. Teeler (2000: 82) states ”the internet has advantages
of providing up-to-date, authentic material in English, and opportunities for real
communication with native and non-native speakers”. In the term of writing, the
students can grab many advantages of using internet as a learning resource. One
of the activities that can help the students in improving their writing skill is
writing on blogs, since it can be done anytime and it is publicly available on the
internet. Campbell (2004) says:
Because of the relative quickness and ease of publishing this type of software affords, the number of users has grown tremendously since then, and we can now observe blogs being used for personal, educational, journalistic, and commercial purposes.
Blogs also provide a 'real-world' tool for learners with which to practice their
written English, for example when it is used as a means for contacting learners
from other parts of the world in an international exchange (Dudeney and Hockly,
2007: 90).
Blog is an online journal which is usually used to share one's thoughts,
ideas, photos, or videos. It was first sprung from the idea of compiling a list of
interesting websites on the internet in 1999. In her article, Blood (2000) shares her
note about blog as follows:
The original weblogs were link-driven sites. Each was a mixture in unique proportions of links, commentary, and personal thoughts and essays. Weblogs could only be created by people who already knew how to make a website. A weblog editor had either taught herself to code HTML for fun, or, after working all day creating commercial websites, spent several off-work hours every day surfing the web and posting to her site. These were web enthusiasts.
The later weblogs more focus on a sort of short-form journal that are usually more
about “something noticed on the way to work, notes about the weekend, a quick
reflection on some subject or another“ than about someone’s thoughts (Blood,
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weblog to maintain it with a basic knowledge of HTML code. There are also
various services on web that provide free blogging.
The owners of blogs can continuously update it easily anytime they want.
They do not need any special knowledge of HTML or FTP (File Transfer
Protocol), thus “anyone who can type, copy, or paste can create and maintain a
weblog” (Campbell, 2003). For blogs are accessible and widely used nowadays,
the students may have been familiar with it, although they never have it before. In
the classroom, blog can be utilized to teach writing. Students can post their
assignments on it and write any other things they want. Moreover, the applications
on the blog allow students to customise its appearance and it will motivate them to
write on it. Campbell (2003) states:
However, with a very basic knowledge of HTML, users can extend their ability to customize the layout of their blog and even add pictures to enhance its attractiveness. Similar to an open journal, the accumulation of writings and other content creates both a record of learning and a resource for others. Furthermore, a weblog is interactive, in the sense that readers can respond to any given entry with a comment and even threaded discussions can take place depending on the software chosen.
Based on the considerations above, the title of this research is
UTILIZING STUDENT BLOGS TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILL (An
Action Research at 8th Grade of SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri in the Academic
Year of 2010/2011. This research focuses on how to implement student blogs in
teaching writing. It also involves the teaching learning processes that happen in
the classroom.
B. Problem Statement
In order to make this study more specific, the problems are stated as
follows:
1. Can and to what extent the use of student blogs improve students’ writing
skill?
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C. The Objective of the Study
The objectives of the study are stated as follows:
1. To identify whether and to what extent the use of student blogs improve
students' writing skill.
2. To analyze what happens when student blog is applied to teach writing.
D. The Benefits of the Study
After finishing this study, it is hoped that the result can give benefits as
follows:
1. For the students: It is hoped that the result of the study can improve
students' writing skill and motivate them to write more in online
blog to build a broader community.
2. For the teacher: The teacher can improve their teaching techniques by the
elaborations of the use of student blog and the other two types.
3. For theoretical application: It is hoped that the result of the study can give
additional information of language teaching activity, especially in
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The review of related literature is aimed to provide the basic theories of
the research. There are five subheadings consisting of review on writing, review
on blog, review on related research, rationale, and hypothesis. There are two main
points of view in writing: writing as a process and a final product. It is mentioned
here the stages that are commonly done in the process of writing to produce the
writing itself. This chapter also presents the review of literature about blogs as the
main media used in this research. Blog and its features will be explained more in
the following section and continued by the review of related researches on the use
of blogs in education, especially teaching-learning English. Finally, it is closed by
the rationale and the practical hypothesis of the research.
A. Writing
1. The Nature of Writing
Literacy skills include being able to read and write different sorts of texts
for different purposes (Cameron, 2005: 124). Literacy, in the sense of social,
provides people with opportunities to share meaning across space and time, while
in the sense of cognitive, requires that specific skills and knowledge about how
the written language operates in proceeding text. Fomkin (1990: 342) states
“writing is one of the basic tools of civilization”. It was first the pictograms, then
turns into alphabet after centuries. There are three writing systems used in the
world: word writing, syllable writing, and alphabetic system. In the word writing
system, every symbol or character represents a word or morpheme (as in China);
each symbol in the syllable writing system represents a syllable (as in Japan); and
each symbol in the alphabetic writing system represents (for the most part) one
phoneme (as in English).
Supporting to Fromkin, Bram (1995: 25) states that the purpose of
writing is communication. Messages are sent through written form between the
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decontextualized form, produced in isolation from its intended audience and
without resource to share context (Arndt in Wallace, 1998: 97). It can be
concluded that in writing, someone needs some specific skills to make sure that
the other person can get the message of the written text shared.
2. Writing Skills
Writing is one of the English skills. It is usually compared with speaking,
reading, and listening. Writing is usually seen as a product, but it is actually also a
process. According to Hudelson in Richard (1995: 130), writing is “a language
process in which an individual creates meaning by using symbol to construct a
written text”. The writer’s language background, personal experience, and cultural
framework, as well as by the purpose for writing and the audience for the piece
will influence the text that individual constructs. Supporting to Richard, Harris
(1993: 10) defines writing as “a process that occurs over period of time,
particularly if we take into account the sometimes extended periods of thinking
that precede creating an initial draft”. In the beginning process of writing, initial
draft is created; it is influenced by the writer’s background knowledge and his
culture.
Seen as a process, writing is not a simple thing to do. It is done step by
step as proposed by Hedge (1998: 9) that “good writers create a text trough certain
processes which lead to successful piece of written work, these are an overall
planning, drafting, reviewing, revising, and editing”. In addition, Brown (1994:
321) states “the process approach to writing instruction is an attempt to take
advantage of the nature of the written code to give students a chance to think as
they write”. It implies that writing is not instantly produced since writers need a
couple of time to be able to produce a complete text. Drawn from the Writing
Tutorials on Microsoft© Student 2008 DVD®, the four steps of good writing are:
a. Prewriting: choosing the topic and gathering information;
b. Writing: write three parts of structure (beginning, middle, and ending);
c. Revising: checking the trait of ideas, organization, voice, word choice,
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d. Editing: checking the use of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and
grammar (mechanics).
In other words, writing process is periods of thinking that precede
creating an initial draft due to conveying one’s meaning using symbol influenced
by one’s language background, personal experience, and cultural framework. It is
done through the process of prewriting, drafting, writing, revising, and editing.
From the point of view that writing is a product, writers should master
certain skills due to creating a good writing. Hedge (1998: 8) points out some
skills that writers need, these are: (a) getting the grammar right; (b) having a range
of vocabulary; (c) punctuating meaningfully; (d) using the conventions of layout
correctly, e.g. in letter; (e) spelling accurately; (f) using a range of sentence
structure; (g) linking ideas and information across sentences to develop the topic;
(h) developing and organizing the content clearly and convincingly.
Nunan mentions some other writing skills that it includes the control of
content, format, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, letter formation,
cohesiveness and coherence of paragraphs and texts (1998: 6). He states:
Writing involves mastering of the mechanics of letter formation and obeying conventions of spelling and punctuation; using grammatical system to convey one’s intended meaning; organizing content at the level of the paragraph and the complete text to reflect given/new information and topic/comment structures; polishing and revising one’s initial efforts; selecting an appropriate style for one’s audience (1998: 7).
Burns and Broman (1975: 232) note the mechanics in writing as follows:
a. capital letters (first word of a sentence, proper names, titles of books,
days of the week)
b. period (end of a declarative sentence, abbreviations)
c. question mark (end of a question sentence)
d. apostrophe (contractions)
e. exclamation point (end of an exclamatory sentence)
f. sequence of sentences
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Supporting to the previous theories, Brown (1994: 327; 2004: 220)
mentions some microskills for writing as follows:
a. Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.
b. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.
c. Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order
patterns.
d. Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g. tense, agreement, and
pluralisation), patterns and rules.
e. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms.
f. Use cohesive devices in written discourse.
Based on the definitions above, it can be concluded that writing is a
process of producing a piece of written text to convey meanings. In doing so, the
writer has to master the skills of producing letters in correct spelling, having a
range of vocabulary, using correct grammatical system—including the use of a
range of sentence structure, maintaining cohesiveness and coherence of
paragraphs and text, and developing and organizing the content clearly and
convincingly.
3. Writing in the Classroom
Harris points out that writing has to be planned in order to achieve both
well sequenced ideas and selection of the words that will lead to effective
communication and the writers should “find ways of motivating themselves to
continue creating a text” (1993: 4). Writers need certain conditions that will
encourage them to produce a piece of writing. They should make such a mind map
about what they are going to write and crate an initial draft. These conditions will
be occupied when the writing activity is interesting and the product of writing
should be taken into account. Additionally, Brown (2004: 220) suggests the
following categories of classroom writing performance:
a. Imitative
Students are asked to write English letters, words, or even sentences in
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on the form and accuracy. Dictation is one of the activities belonging to this
stage.
b. Intensive (controlled)
The common form of controlled writing is usually related to the
grammatical aspect. Not only the grammatical correctness, but also the
appropriateness of vocabulary within a context, collocation, and idioms.
Meaning and context determine the correctness and appropriateness. The
activity that belongs to this category is guided writing.
c. Responsive
The responsive writing requires learners to perform at a limited discourse
level, connecting sentences into paragraph and creating a logically connected
sequence of two or three paragraphs. Genres of writing include brief narratives
and descriptions, short reports, lab reports, summaries, brief responses to
reading, and interpretation of charts or graphs.
d. Extensive
It can be done in the form of short writing essays, a term paper, and
research reports. This is the most complex writing performance since the
writer focuses on achieving illustrate ideas, organizing and developing ideas
logically, using details to support or illustrate ideas, and demonstrating
syntactic and lexical variety.
Along with the microskills of writing, Brown (1994: 330-332) proposes
the principles of designing writing techniques as follows:
a. Incorporate practices of "good writing"
b. Balance process and product
c. Account for cultural/ literacy backgrounds
d. Connect reading and writing
e. Provide as much authentic writing as possible
f. Frame the techniques in terms of prewriting, drafting, and revising stage
In conclusion, writing activities in the classroom should be able to
provide plenty of practices for students and able to encourage their interest and
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4. Writing Recount Text
There are some types of text used in teaching-learning language in
genre-based approach. In brief, those are descriptive, narrative, recount, report,
procedure, discussion, analytical exposition, and hortatory exposition. Nugroho
and Hafrizon (2009: 7) mention that monologue texts introduced in secondary
junior high school are procedure text, descriptive text, report text, recount text,
and narrative text.
Taken from the syllabus for the eighth grade of Junior High School
students, two text types that should be mastered by the students in the first
semester are descriptive and recount text. It is mentioned that the students should
be able “to express meaning in short essay in descriptive, recount and exposition
accurately, systematically, and acceptably to communicate with the closest
environment and/or in academic context to build good character” (Teacher
syllabus, 2010).
The focus of this research is on teaching writing recount text. Recount
text is used to retell past events chronologically for the purpose of informing or
entertaining. Every text type has its own characteristics, including recount text.
One single text commonly consists of three main parts: beginning, middle, and
ending as Harsyaf, Nurmaini, and Izmi (2009: 13) say:
Journals, diaries, biographies, personal letter all share a familiar beginning, middle and end structure. Each of them begins with a brief introduction usually providing some background information to the writing (orientation stage). This is followed by a writing about recounting of different event, one after the other (recount stages).
This means that the generic structure of recount text consists of
orientation, sequence of events, and reorientation. In the orientation, the reader is
introduced to the setting and participants of the text. It is continued by the events
happening which are arranged chronologically or based on time order and ended
by the participant’s reflection called reorientation.
Furthermore, Isaacson (2003) in the journal issued by Pennsylvania
University (2006) mentions some critical details of personal narrative (recount)
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a. The story tells what happened to the author.b. It focuses on one interesting event.
c. It tells everything in the order that it happened.
d. The author uses details that help the reader “see” the action.
e. The author tells why he/she remembers it or what was learned.
Texts not only differ in its purpose and generic structure, but also the
language used. Some text types are dominated by present tense sentences and
some other are written in past tense form. Recount text is dominated by past tense
sentences to retell or inform the past events. Besides, the use of sequential
conjunction is easily indicated. It also focuses on human participant, either
individual or group, and uses a lot of action verbs. Below is an example of recount
text:
My mother got me ready for school then I had to wait for her to brush my hair and place every strand in just the perfect position. I had to show her my shoes that I had cleaned the night before and my school bag had to be neatly put on my shoulder before I could get near the door. Only after my mother was totally satisfied would I be allowed to rush out of the front door.
I would leave home at 8 am on the dot and make my way down the lane. After a walk of about 700 metres I would be able to see the tall steeple of the school.
The playground would be full in the summer and the noise would make me want to rush into the yard and get into a good game of football before the bell went.
(Adopted from http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/sats/recounts.htm)
5. Assessing Writing
There are variety of testing writing since it has many kinds of tasks that
is engaged. Madsen (1983: 101) proposes three distinct stages of writing
instruction: pre-writing, guided writing, and free writing. Limited response is one
of techniques for evaluating pre-writing. It focuses on the vocabulary and
grammar. In further stage of instruction, guided writing having an objective to
check student ability to handle controlled or directed writing tasks. Some
activities that belongs to this level are dictation, text manipulation, and expanding
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certain topic. It is generally used to evaluate the effectiveness of the total
composition including sentence-level accuracy, large rhetorical matters, as well as
effectiveness in conveying ideas to the intended audience.
Madsen (1983: 119-122) and Reid (1993: 235) mention two types of
grading the score of writing test: holistic and analytic. Holistic scoring evaluates
the whole text as a unity in consideration of the reader’s impression, while
analytic scoring evaluates the various components of a piece of writing separately.
In order to have a clear grading of students’ writing skill, the rubric of scoring is
adopted from the ESL Composition Profile. The conversion of the score are listed
[image:31.612.108.541.170.702.2]in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1. The Scoring Rubric of ESL Composition Profile
Score Criteria Description
Cont
en
t
30 – 27
26 – 22
21 – 17
16 – 13
Excellent to Very Good
Good to Average
Fair to Poor
Very Poor
Knowledgeable, substantive development of thesis, relevant to assigned topic.
Sure knowledge of subject, adequate range, limited development of thesis, mostly relevant to topic but lacks detail
Limited knowledge of subject, little substance, inadequate development of topic
Doesn’t show knowledge of subject, non-substantive, not pertinent, or not enough to evaluate
Or
ga
n
iza
tion
20 – 18
17 – 14
13 – 10
9 – 7
Excellent to Very Good
Good to Average
Fair to Poor
Very Poor
Fluent expression, ideas clearly stated/supported, succinct, well-organized, logical sequencing cohesive
Somewhat choppy, loosely organized but main ideas stand put, limited support, logical but incomplete sequencing
Non-fluent, ideas confused or disconnected, lacks logical sequencing and development
Does not communicate, no organization, or nor enough to evaluate
Vo
ca
bu
la
ry
20 – 18
17 – 14
13 – 10
9 – 7
Excellent to Very Good
Good to Average
Fair to Poor
Very Poor
Sophisticated range, effective word/idiom choice and usage, word form mastery, appropriate register,
Adequate range, occasional errors of word/idiom form, choice, usage, but meaning not obscured
Limited range, frequent of word/idiom form, choice, usage, meaning confused or obscured
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Langu
ag
e
Use
25 – 22
21 – 18
17 – 11
10 – 5
Excellent to Very Good
Good to Average
Fair to Poor
Very Poor
Effective and complex constructions, few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions
Effective but simple constructions, minor problems in complex constructions, several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions, but meaning seldom obscured
Major problems in simple/complex constructions, frequent errors of negation, agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions and/or fragments, run-ons, deletions, meaning confused or obscured
Virtually no mastery of sentence constructions rules, dominated by errors, doesn’t communicate, or not enough to evaluate
Mec h anic s 5 4 3 2
Excellent to Very Good
Good to Average
Fair to Poor
Very Poor
Demonstrates mastery of conventions, few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing
Occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, but meaning not obscured
Frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, poor hand writing, meaning confused or obscured
No mastery of conventions, dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, hand writing illegible, or not enough to evaluate
In order to simplify the scoring for junior high school level, the
[image:32.612.103.540.100.615.2]conversion of each aspects evaluated is as follows:
Table 2.2. The Scoring Rubric
Aspect Description Maximum
Score Content The relation of content and its details 30
Organisation The cohesive and logical sequencing of text 20
Vocabulary The precision of vocabulary used 20
Language use The use of appropriate tense, agreement, and word order 25
Mechanics Spelling and Punctuation 5
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B. Blog
1. What Blog is
There are some social softwares that allow people to build a community
in the internet range. Some of them are blogs, wikis, and podcasts. The basic
features that distinguish those three social softwares are: a) blog is more like a
diary, b) wiki is like a website which consists of a number of collaborative web
pages, and c) podcast is more related to the audio and/or video file broadcasted
and accessed via internet. Dudeney and Hockly (2007: 86) state “a blog, short
term of weblog, is essentially a web page with regular diary or journal entries”.
Supporting to Dudeney and Hockly, Johnson (2004) defines blogs as
“electronic journals that allow the users to keep records of their writing on a
website”. In addition, Campbell (2003) states ”an individual can continuously
update the blog with his or her own words, ideas, and thoughts through software
that enables one to easily do so”. In other words, blog is an online journal that
enables the user to write his or her own words, ideas, and thoughts trough
softwares and update it as a web page.
Blog has some features that are used to maintain it as the user want:
a. Access Control
The users of blogs can maintain a private online space for collecting and
sharing any stuff they want or a group blog with multiple authors as an
excellent communication tool for small teams, families and other groups. They
can also set the comment moderations to allow any intended readers to give
comments of the posts (blog entries).
b. Appearance
The appearance of blogs is editable using simple moderation buttons on it.
Blog templates, font colour and size, and other page elements are easy to edit
without having to learn the HTML code.
c. Supporting Features
On the writing page of blogs, it is completed with formatting toolbar and
one-click buttons for uploading or adding photos, videos, and links to the blog
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Figure 2.1. Screenshot of a Blog Pagecommit to user
2. Types of Blog
Blogs used in education are known as edublogs. The topics covered in
edublogs are related to education, from musings on educational policy and
developments to learner compositions (Dudeney and Hockly, 2007: 87). There are
three types of blog which are used in language teaching: tutor blog, student blog,
and class blog (Campbell, 2003; Dudeney and Hockly, 2007).
a. Tutor blog
Tutor blog is a blog set up and maintained by a teacher. Some possible
uses of tutor blog are:
1) Providing daily reading practice as the teacher posts texts in order to make
the students get familiar with English texts.
2) Providing materials that will encourage students to explore the English
websites.
3) Online verbal exchange trough commenting on posts (blog entries).
4) Giving information about the class syllabus or assignments.
5) Serving a resource of links for self-study.
b. Student blog
Student blog is set up and maintained by individual or small collaborative
group of learners. It can be used to:
1) Post students thoughts after reading class.
2) Encourage students to use search engine and net surfing in English.
3) Encourage students in writing class by its connections to internet.
4) Post journal for writing practices.
c. Class blog
Class blog is set up and maintained by an entire class as a result of
collaborative effort. Learners all post to the same blog. It can be used for:
1) Publishing bulletin board.
2) Class work, e.g. creating online resources for friends.
3) Creating a virtual space for international classroom in language exchange
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Dudeney and Hockly (2007: 90) suggest some other ways of using blogs
[image:36.612.121.520.166.493.2]with learner as listed in the following table.
Table 2.3. The Use of Blog in the Classroom
Tutor blog Student blog Class blog
• Set homework.
• Provide a summary of class work.
• Provide links to extra reading/listening material.
• Question and answer (e.g. about grammar, material work.)
• Exam/Study tips.
• Personal and family information (including photos).
• Extra writing practices on class topics.
• Regular comments on current affairs.
• Research and present information on a topic (e.g. an English-speaking country).
• A photoblog on learner's country, last holiday, town.
• Reactions to a film, article, class topic, current affairs.
• Things learners like/don't like doing in class.
• A class project on any topic.
This research focuses on the use of student blog in writing class. Students
have authority to own and manage their blogs in order to complete the writing
tasks. They could also share experiences, thoughts, or anything they interested in.
Meanwhile, teacher blog is used only as a complementary tool to publish
materials so that the students can access it whenever they want.
3. Blog in the Classroom
The use of blogs in the classroom will be discussed in this section. Blogs
are commonly found in form of short articles, journals, or personal diaries. Thus,
blogs can be utilized to teach language, especially writing skill. Like the other
media, blogs also have some strengths that promote the learning and weaknesses
to overcome.
a. Blog as Teaching-Learning Media
Teaching is not merely about transferring knowledge. Teachers need to
consider about the most suitable way of engaging students to be actively
participate in the process. A good combination of method or technique and media
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Therefore, media have a significant role in order to accomplish the objective of
teaching and learning. In teaching writing, supporting to Brown (1994), Appel
suggests the use of authentic materials in writing classroom as follows:
“For communicative language teaching writing had to be authentic, which meant it was supposed to be used in the classroom in the same way as in outside life—hence the emphasis on information processing, such as note-taking or filling in forms.” (Appel, 1995: 96)
Teachers can use blogs to upload learning materials, including the later
issues, and let the students to share their opinions in form of short articles or
comments. Although it belongs to written media, it allows two-way
communication between the writer and the reader. Warschauer (2010) states
“blogs thus represent a particularly effective tool to combine the publishing and
discussion of student writing in a single medium”. In addition, Cranmer in
Matthews, Spratt, and Dangerfield (1989: 94) says that learning writing without
reading examples of written communications which provide a model or guide is
not easy. The students need to have a plenty of models to differentiate and write
certain text types.
b. Teaching Writing Using Blog
Blogs can be set up to teach writing skill in more communicative way. It
has been utilized in many writing courses. Johnson (2004) says in his article:
Blogs have been successfully implemented into journalism, political science, and various junior high to university English writing courses for native English speakers. However, the use of blogs in teaching EFL appears to still be in its infancy but has much potential, especially in teaching written communication skills.
The students are supposed to master the ability of writing in order to have
the things done. They have to be able to communicate in written form and send
the message to the intended readers. Practicing writing in the classroom, the
students may work collaboratively within groups to make a project and use the
blog to publish it. In this term, teachers had the role to guide them and it will give
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In order to give better understanding about the use of blogs, there is
suggestion of a complete classroom activity to use blog in the writing class (see
appendix List of Activities). It is stated as follows:
a. Teacher posts some blog links for the resources.
b. Teacher asks students to access the teacher blog form their personal
computer. Students work individually.
c. Students read the task on teacher blog and follow the link.
d. Students then write their personal comment on teacher blog and the
teacher does too.
e. Students then write a learning journal about what they have read in
previous activity and post the works on their own blogs.
f. After posting the task, students have to visit other friends’ blog pages to
post some comments.
g. During the lesson, teacher may follow the students’ activities online or as
the facilitator in the classroom.
c. Advantages and Disadvantages of Blog
There are some advantages of utilizing blogs to teach writing in the
classroom:
1) It promotes learning materials for students and helps teachers reflect their
teaching.
2) Blog posting can be used for evaluations; the criteria will probably
include: accuracy, fluency, coherence, and relevance.
3) All of the contents are viewable in chronological order and well-organized.
It allows the teacher and students to find information easily.
4) Students can learn more from the comments to their posts and get direct
feedback from the teacher online.
Despite blogs' beneficial role in helping the students to produce written
work, there are some disadvantages about blogs as follows:
1) Some features on blog page are not that simple to use, it may distract the
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2) There is no specific notification when the content of the blog is edited, it
may cause some problems in evaluating the contents.
3) Once the students come online, they may open other webpages which is
not related to the target of learning.
C. Related Research
Blogs have become a new trend of learning tool in recent years.
Campbell (2003), in his article about the use of blogs in classes, has mentioned
three types of blog which are commonly used in education. Those are tutor blog,
student blog, and class blog. In addition, Godwin-Jones (2003) states that blogs
have come as a web of second generation which allows the writer manipulate or
personalized its content and appearance. He suggested some ways of utilizing
blog for learners, such as uploading and linking files, writing for broader readers,
having discussion forums, and it can be used as an electronic portfolio.
Johnson (2004) has reported his study on the Internet TESL Journal; it is
about utilizing class and student blogs in a writing course. In his study, Johnson
implements the use of blog for his writing course. The focus of his study is to
share the procedures of utilizing blog in the classroom. The study was conducted
in a graduate level scientific writing course taught in the spring of 2003. Johnson
uses two types of blog in his course, class blog and student blog. He creates a
class blog for general application related to learning materials, while the student
blogs are used to post or submit assignments privately. In his study, each student's
URL address is shared only between that student and the teacher. The result of the
study shows that utilizing blog in classroom can effectively maximize students’
access to class materials and exposure to teacher feedback (Johnson, 2004).
The use of blogs in the classroom is motivating for the learners (Brooks,
Nichols and Priebe, 2004). It can enhance effective instructional approaches that
emphasize writing for meaningful social purposes, mastery of relevant genres, and
development of students’ academic language proficiency (Warschauer, 2010).
Blogs also encourage the learners about ownership and responsibility since it is
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Additionally, Blog is an alternative way of communicating among teacher and
students and encourage the students to become autonomous learners, thus it can be
prompted as a reflecting tools of the learning process (Mynard, 2007).
D. Student Blog in Improving Writing Skills
The current curriculum in primary high school requires that the students
should be able to use the English at the functional level. It means that they can
communicate in both spoken and written form to solve daily activities.
Nevertheless, their skills, especially writing, are not improved yet since they
rarely practice it in real communication. Regarding to the way of communication
nowadays, students will be asked more to use technology. In the classroom,
students can now access the internet easily. They don't have to set a certain time
to go to the internet cafe. This facility provided by school, actually, can promote
the learning process through the use of ICT since it will motivate the students.
An alternative use of ICT is utilizing blogs to teach writing. Blogs serve
the real situation for writing class and provide more space for practices. When
students are asked to publish their writing since the first instruction, it is hoped
that they will be motivated to do best. Besides, blogs are completed with the
features which consist of formatting and editing toolbar. Those features may help
students in editing their works. In addition, teacher can give comments on
students' blog as a direct feedback, therefore students know about their skill.
Outside the class, students are also allowed to write the other personal intensions
to their blog. When the students enjoy the learning, it will promote the learning
process to gain success.
E. Action Hypothesis
Based on the theories and rationale above, the hypothesis is formulated
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research in this paper was conducted by adopting the principles of
Action Research to investigate the problem, find out the solution, and note the
changes of condition which are related to the students’ writing skill and classroom
situation. This third chapter presents the methodology of the research starting
from the beginning until the end of it. It contains the context of the research,
method of the research, technique of collecting and analysing the data. The more
detail explanation will be presented in the following sections.
A. Context of the Research
1. The Setting of the Research
The research was carried out in SMP Negeri 1 Wonogiri. It is located on
Jln. Kepodang V Wonogiri 57611. This school has become a school of RSBI
since three years ago. Not all of the students in this school belong to RSBI class.
Some of them are students of acceleration class. This school already uses the
curriculum of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) as the basic teaching
and learning processes. According to the the Government Regulation No.
19/2005, KTSP is operational curriculum which is created by and carried out in
each level of education. It means that the school creates its own curriculum
including the plan, purpose, content, learning material, and the procedures as a
guide in order to achieve certain target of education.
The research was conducted in the first semester in the second grade
students of academic year 2010/2011. It was on August 2010 until January 2011.
The time setting includes the preparation stage up to the reporting stage as stated
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Table 3.1. Schedule of the Research
No. Activity Month
I II III IV V VI
1 Planning
2 Acting and Observing (Cycle 1)
4 Reflecting
5 Replanning
6 Acting and Observing (Cycle 2)
8 Reflecting
9 Data Analysis and Reporting
2. The Subject of the Research
The subject of this research was the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri
1 Wonogiri in the academic year of 2010/2011. It was the 8G class of RSBI. The
students in this class, who like to call themselves “Thei Golden”, had a better
learning ability than the other classes as stated by the teacher, “They can
understand the lesson easily and it is not so difficult to control them.” Having an
ideal number of students, 20, this class consists of 5 male and 15 female students
with an average writing skill in grade of eight.
B. The Method of the Research
1. Action Research
Action research is a process in which participants examine their own
educational practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research
(Ferrance, 2000: 1). Supporting to Ferrance, Wallace (1998: 4) states action
research is basically a way of reflecting on teaching which is done by
systematically collecting data on everyday practice and analyzing it in order to
come to some decisions about what the future practice should be.
Classroom action research begins with a question or questions about
classroom experiences, issues, or challenges. It is a reflective process which helps
teachers to explore and examine aspects of teaching and learning and to take
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Based on the considerations above, the study in this paper was conducted
under the scope of action research in order to give practical use of blog in the
classroom and improve the teacher's teaching technique in using new media.
2. The Procedure of Action Research
Burns (1999: 35) points out some phases in action research: exploring,
identifying, planning, collecting data, analysis/reflecting,
hypothesising/speculating, intervening, observing, reporting, writing, and
presenting.
a. Exploring
It is the starting point for undertaking some
