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AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT
THESIS
Submitted to the English Teaching Department of Tarbiyah
and Teacher Training Faculty of IAIN Batusangkar as A Requirement to Obtain Bachelor Degree in English Teaching
PUTRI AYU RAMADHANI Reg No. 14104054
ENGLISH TEACHING DEPARTMENT TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING FACULTY STATE INSTITUTE FOR ISLAMIC STUDIES (IAIN)
BATUSANGKAR 2019
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v ABSTRAK
Putri Ayu Ramadhani, Reg.No. 14 104 054, judul skripsi: “AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING A DESCRIPTIVE TEXT” Jurusan Tadris Bahasa Inggris Fakutas Tarbiyah Institut Agama Islam Negeri (IAIN) Batusangkar.
Permasalahan dalam penelitian ini adalah belum terungkapnya apa-apa saja kesulitan siswa SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab dalam menulis teks deskriptif.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apa-apa saja kesulitan yang dialami siswa di dalam menulis teks deskriptif.
Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Populasi pada penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas delapan SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab. Sampel penelitian ini diambil menggunakan teknik purposive sampling. Teknik Pengumpulan data dalam penelitian ini menggunakan Interview guide kepada siswa yang memiliki kesulitan dalam menulis teks deskriptif dengan cara melihat pada nilai yang di bawah KKM dalam mata pelajaran Bahasa Inggirs, dan dalam hal ini peneliti mewawancarai 10 orang siswa yang belum tuntas dalam menulis teks deskriptif.
Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ada 6 jenis kesulitan siswa dalam menulis teks deskriptif. Kesulitan pertama yang dihadapi siswa adalah mengatur ide yang sudah ada kemudian menulisnya (Organizing Idea), dalam hal ini 6 dari 10 siswa mengalami kesulitan dalam mengatur ide yang siswa miliki. Kesulitan kedua. yaitu penggunaan Tenses, 6 dari 10 siswa diantaranya mengalami kesulitan dalam tata bahasa (Grammar). Kesulitan selanjutnya adalah kesulitan dalam menentukan kosa kata (Vocabulary) dan 9 dari 10 siswa memiliki permasalahan dalam kosakata. Kesulitan berikutnya yang dihadapi siswa adalah (Lack of Understanding), ada 2 siswa yang mengalami kesulitan ini karena kurangnya pemahaman tentang materi itu sendiri. Kesulitan ke lima yaitu kurangnya pengalaman (lack of background knowledge), dalam hal ini 1 dari 10 siswa diantaranya mengalamai kesulitan dalam background knowledge. Dan kesulitan terakhir adalah pengejaan kata (Spelling), dalam hal ini 3 dari 10 siswa diantaranya mengalami kesulitan didalam pengejaan kata.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER ... i
SURAT PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN ... ii
THESIS ADVISORS’ APPROVAL ... iii
THESIS EXAMINERS’ APPROVAL ... iv
ABSTRAK ...vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii
LIST OF TABLES ... x
LIST OF APPENDICES... xi
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Problem ... 1
B. Research Focus and Question ... 6
C. Purposes of the Research ... 6
D. Definition of the Key Terms ... 6
E. Significance of the Problem ... 7
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE A. Review of the Related Theories ... 8
1.The Nature of Writing ... 8
a.Definition of Writing ... 8
b.Purpose of Writing ... 10
c.The Writing Process ... 12
d.Difficulties of Writing ... 16
e.Descriptive Text ... 26
f.Definition of Descriptive Text ... 26
g.Purpose of Descriptive Text ... 27
h.Generic Structures of Descriptive Text ... 28
i.Language Features of Descriptive Text ... 29
j.Kinds of Descriptive Text ... 31
B. Review of Relevant Studies ... 31
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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A.Research Design ... 33
B.Research Informant ... 33
CTechnique of Data Collection ... 33
D.Checking Data Trustworthiness ... 35
E.Technique of Data Analysis ... 36
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION A.Research Finding ... 38
B.Discussion ... 47
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A.Conclusion ... 48
B.Suggestion ... 57
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 59
APPENDICES ... 62
LIST OF TABLES
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Table 1 : Comparative Table of Writing
Process...
16 Table 2 : Comparative Table of Dificulties in
Writing...
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LIST OF APPENDICES
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Appendix 1 : Interview Guide... 54
Appendix 2 : Transcript of Interview... 56
Appendix 3 : Transcript of Interview (Triangulation)... 65
Appendix 4 : Data Reduction... 74
Appendix 5 : Data Display... 80
Appendix 6 : Conclusion and Verification of the Data... 81
Appendix 7 : Nilai siswa……….. 82
Appendix 8 : Documentations……… 84
Appendix 9 : Recommendation Letter of The Research (LPPM)…… 87
Appendix 10 Recommendation Letter of The Research (KESBANGPOL)……… 88 Appendix11 : Surat Balasan Penelitian………. 89
1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Problem
English is usually regarded as the most difficult skill to learn, not only because of the needed to master many skills of English such as reading, speaking, listening, and writing but also because of the difference between the learner's‟ native language rules and that of the language being learned and all of the skill has been set in curriculum. Curriculum is a set of instructional activities consisting of several important elements namely purpose, content, procedures, resources and tool of assessment. It does not only cover the planning of both school and out of school activities. This definition implies that curriculum is broader than a syllabus and that a syllabus is part of curriculum.
According to Wachidah in Nur (2014:125), the 2013 English Curriculum seems to be the reactions or correction of the previous curriculum and the reality that has happened. The reality shows that most high-school learners can hardly use English in the real world even for simple purposes. It is also far below the nationally set standards of English Competence. In curriculum 2013, the students is introduced to some genres and taught through the model of reading texts where they are explicitly taught about the social function, the generic structures, and the language features of the genres. By introducing them to reading model texts, they were expected to know and understand the difference between one genre to another in English, so that they were able to write the genres by themselves with the right order of generic structures and the correct use of the language features of genres.
Writing became the most difficult skill when it is learned by foreign language learners. According to Rass (2001:30) “Writing is a difficult skill for native speakers and non-native speakers; because writers must be able write it in multiple issues such as content, organization, purpose, audience, vocabularies, and mechanics such as punctuation, spelling, and capitalization”, it was because there were some aspects that
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the students should learn to make a good writing. Those aspects are grammar, vocabulary, and mechmechanicsey must understand those criteria well in order to produce good writing. In the teaching and learning process of writing, the teacher has an important role. According to Brown (2001): “writing is a thinking process because writing is a process of putting ideas down on paper to transform thoughts into words and gave them structure and coherent organization. Wyrick (2011:323) adds that the writer of description creates a word picture of persons, places, objects, and emotions using a careful selection of detail to make an impression on the reader. Without the writing, the people will not be able to communicate with each other. Harris (1969:38) stated that “ students can use writing to express their ideas, opinions, realities, and point of view. People can communicate a variety of messages known readers or unknown readers by writing. Furthermore, writing is an essential aspect of interaction in language teaching besides reading and speaking. The students learn it because it can be used to practice grammatical rules.
In Junior High School there are many genres are learned. They are narrative, procedure, recount, and descriptive. The researcher will focus on the descriptive text which is taught in Junior High School. In the descriptive text, the students should organize their thinking logically and they can communicate with the other people in detail when they want to describe people, places, or things. This is why the researcher chooses descriptive text. In Junior High School also had learned reading descriptive in eighth-grade students, especially in the second semester.
Hence, the researcher assumes that they already know well about the descriptive text. There were generic structures of descriptive writing:
identification, and description. Identification was a part of the text where the students could identify the phenomenon while description was the part where the students were able to describe parts, qualities, and characteristics. According to Siahaan (2013: 115), Descriptive text was a text which is intended to describe a particular person, place or thing
When the researcher did Practice Teaching at SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab, the researcher did preliminary research in teaching activity at the school especially in English subject in eighth-grade students. In addition to this, the researcher also did an interview with the teacher who teaches English subjects. The result of observation showed that the standard of minimum completeness in learning English is 65. When the teacher showed the evaluation value of the students, the researcher saw a value below average, and that was the value for descriptive text assignment. The researcher was interested in asking more about the value, what the problems were faced in learned about descriptive text? And the teacher said if the students lack how to developing and organizing ideas especially in describing the place. Because in describing the place, they should master a lot of vocabulary to anything about the place. For example, when a student wanted to describe his/her house, then they should have background knowledge about parts of his house, such as how many rooms that the student has? what was the color of the wall? how wide or how high the house was?. And the researcher asked the teacher, how did the teacher taught about describing the place? He said by using pictures, for the first meeting, the teacher explains the definition of describing the place, and the second meeting the students should write fifty vocabularies about the place in a sheet completed with the meaning. And the next meeting, the teacher gave a picture (house) to the students and they asked to describe it.
The researcher also interviewed the eighth-grade students at SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab to gather information about the problems in writing a descriptive text. and they said when they learned about descriptive text, they are confused how to translate the word into the English language but they can see in the dictionary, and they have difficulty to arrange the word to be the correct sentences. After that, the researcher asked the students, which one is more difficult between describing, thing, place, or person?
And the students said they have difficulties in writing describing the place.
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Because in describing the place, they should describe many things about the place.
Based on the interview with the English teacher and the students at SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab the researcher concluded that there were some difficulties that students face during writing the descriptive text especially in describing place. First, the problem faced by the students were the students want to develop one topic to be a sentence. The teacher said, based on students' wrote many main ideas in one paragraph; the idea of the paragraph was still ambiguous. Sometimes, it is also found that some paragraphs were written in one sentence. The idea of the paragraph was not clear. Second, the problem in arranging the ideas, sometimes after the students finish to describe one topic sentence and continue to another topic, the students back to discuss the previous topic. A paragraph needs more than a unified point; it needed a reasonable organization or sequence.
The students have to organize their ideas into good paragraphs; the students have to make their writing readable. To wrote a descriptive paragraph, the students can organize their ideas by identifying the topic and gave the descriptions about the topic.
Third, the students found difficulties in language features in descriptive text such as using an adjective, time signal and so on. If the students face this difficulty, it will influence certain patterns of how words were put together to form the correct sentences. It will made the ideas is developed well. Fourth, when students process to write something, many problems could be found. Some students were lack of vocabulary and they also have difficulties in developing their ideas related to their topic. Some students were still in doubt about choosing the correct words while composing descriptive text. Lack of vocabulary made the students confused in developing their ideas. In this case, the students have to choose the correct words that they need. The last difficulty was related to spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
Some how not all of the aspects became the difficulties or problems for the students. Students may have difficulties in one aspect but
they were maybe good at other aspects. For example, some students have difficulties in arranging their idea, but they were good at translating into English. In language features of descriptive text, the students have to use appropriate grammar, in this case, simple present tense. In composing the text, students have to choose the appropriated and words to express the ideas. In the mechanics component, students have to use good punctuation, spelling, and capitalization. When the students write a text, there were some aspects that they must master such as vocabulary and grammar. The students can use simple present and an adjective clause in writing a descriptive text. The errors were the students still feel strange and face some difficulties with English lesson especially in developing paragraphs.
In learning English, the descriptive text was a type of text that has at least generic structures compared to other texts such as recount, narrative, and procedure text, and in descriptive text use the simple present tense. As explained before, generic structures in descriptive text were identification and description. Why the students‟ still difficult to write descriptive text while the descriptive text has at least a generic structure. Therefore, the researcher wants to their difficulties in writing a descriptive text especially in describing the place.
From the phenomenon above, the researcher interested to describe the analyze indicators to see the students‟ difficulties in writing descriptive text in describing place on the second grade students at SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab with entitled “An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Writing A Descriptive Text” on the Eighth Grade at SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab in 2018/2019 Academic Year.
B. Focus and Question of the Research
Based on the phenomenon above, the researcher analyzed the difficulties that face by the students in writing a descriptive text especially in describing the place. Based on the focus above, the researcher was formulated as follow: “what are students‟ difficulties in writing a descriptive text in describing a place on the eighth grade at SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab in 2018/2019 Academic Year?”
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C. Purpose of the Research
The purpose of this research was to describe the students‟
difficulties in writing a descriptive text especially in describing a place by eighth students of SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab 2018/2019 academic year.
D. Definition of the Key-Terms
There were some terms used in this problem that is needed to be defined to avoid misunderstanding, they were:
1. Descriptive Text
Descriptive Text is a text wrote by the students of SMPN 1Sungai Tarab with its purpose is to entertain, to express a feeling, to inform and to persuade the reader about the place.
2. Students‟ Difficulties
Students‟ difficulties were some problems faced by the students of SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab in writing descriptive text.
E. Significance of the Research
The result of the research is expected to be useful references, especially for:
1. The Teacher
It hopefully can help the teachers of SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab how to respond to the student's‟ difficulties in writing a descriptive text especially in describing the place.
2. The Students
This research can give information to the students at SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab about the difficulties that they faced in writing a descriptive text especially in describing the place.
3. The Researcher
This research may give benefits to the researcher. Firstly, the researcher knows what were the student's‟ difficulties in writing a descriptive text, especially in describing three places. Secondly, for candidate of English teacher, it can help in developing strategies in teaching English especially in writing a descriptive text. And the last,
this research intends to fulfill a requirement for r Bachelor's degree (S1) from the English Department of IAIN Batusangkar.
8 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE A. Review of the Related Theories
1. The Nature of Writing a. Definition of Writing
Experts define writing in different meaning. Nunan (2003:88) states that writing is the mental work of inventing ideas, thinking about how to express them and organizing them into statements and paragraphs that will be clear to a reader. It is supported by Oshima and Hogue (2007:15) who state that writing is a cognitive and learning experience that helps someone to find out what s/he wants to say. The same idea said by Negari (2011: 299) states that writing is a complicated process which involves a number of cognitive and metacognitive activities, for instance; brainstorming, planning, outlining, organizing, drafting, and revising. It means that writing can help someone to think critically. It is valuable in learning about people, events or things.
Next, Erisda (2017:11) states that writing is a highly complex process involving multiple brain mechanisms and specific abilities.
The act of writing requires the writer to formulate ideas, organize, and sequence points in logical order, select vocabulary, check for grammatical correctness, spell words correctly, punctuate, and write legibly. Then, Brown (2001:335) said that writing skill is very complex. It includes many things that are used as criteria. A good deal of attention is placed on “model” compositions that students would emulate and how well a student final product measured up against a list of criteria that include content, organization, vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation.
This is line with the theories above that Keir in Erisda (2017:12) states that writing is a process involving the steps of
gathering ideas and/or information, organizing those ideas, then making a draft which will later be edited and revised. In addition, Richards and Renandya (2002:303) states that writing is the most difficult skill for second language learners to master. The difficulty is not only in generating and organizing ideas but also in translating ideas into readable text.
Based on the explanation above, it can be defined that writing is as a cognitive or mental working to think critically to understand and comprehend the ideas and also to pay attention in some aspects such as how to organizing the idea, grammatical, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation to be clear to a reader.
In another opinion, Welty in Ruggles (1944:9) states that writing is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer‟s own life. It same with Meyers (2005:2) who said that writing is speaking to others on paper or on a computer screen. Writing is also an action or process of discovering and organizing the writer‟s ideas and putting them on the paper, reshaping and revising them. Related with this theories, Harmer (2004: 31) states that writing (as one of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing) has always performed part of the syllabus in teaching of English. Then, Hugley et al (1983:3) explained that writing is a communicative act. It depends upon the awareness of the social expectation.
Based on the ideas above, the researcher concluded that writing is not just an activity on paper, but a media to express idea in different ways and pay attention in rules of writing.
Another experts explained that, Boardman and Frydenberg (2002: 2), writing is used to communicate a message. The writer should be able to get readers' attention in conveying a message.
Writing as communication also considers the reader. Then, White (1943: 12) states that writing is public discourse, and for that reason, it should be worthwhile, well organized, sufficiently developed to
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accomplish its intended purpose, clearly, and effectively written. He also adds that the act of writing is also an act of sharing new ideas with the human community. In conclusion, he states that any act of writing is influenced by three variables, the intended readership the writer‟s motives and the nature of the subject matter. Thus, from his argument it can be concluded that in writing, someone expresses his/her ideas; a sharing to readers it will be there.
While, Myles (2002:1) said: the ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill; it is usually learned or culturally transmitted as a set of practices in formal instructional settings or other environments. Writing skills must be practiced and learned through experience. Then, Harris et al (2014:57) also said that writing is a skill in language learning and all teachers need to evaluate their students‟ writing ability. It can be said that assessment is important for writing. Harris et al (2014:55) said that writing is an activity of putting down the graphic symbols which have a function to present a language in order to convey some meaning so that the reader can grasp the information which the writer has tried to convey.
Based on the quoted theories above, it can be seen that the experts may have differentt oponion about the definition of writing.
But, it can be concluded that writing is a process of producing a text that includes lower and high self-regulated thinking to express their idea through the use of signs, symbols, etc.
b. Purpose of Writing
According to Raimes (1983: 4), there are five purposes of writing they are: first, to communicate with a reader, it means that between a writer and a reader. Second, to express an idea without the pleasure of face to face communication, it means that someone can communicate with other people without the pleasure of face to face.
Third, to explore a subject, it means that the readers can explore something in the book that make by the writer. Four, to record experience means that if someone afraid if they know its betterfor
him to write on a paper or the same lastdiary. Five, to become familiar. with the conventions of written English discourse (a text).
While, Reid (2000:13) states that there are three general purposes of writing, they are; first is to explain. It means that the purposes of writing are to educated and to inform the reader what write. Second, is to entertain. It means writing is to amuse and give pleasure to the reader. Third, is to persuade. It means writing is to convince and to change the reader‟s mind.
Then,Ur (1999:70) states that the purpose of writing, in principle, is the expression of ideas, the conveying of messages to the reader. So the ideas themselves should arguably be seen as the most important aspect of the writing.
Based on the the thories above, it can be concluded that the purpose of writing is to express, to explore, to entertain an idea and can be conveyed to the reader. It means that when the writers do their writing, of course, they have some purposes. They have to consider the purpose of their writing sincethis will influence, not only the type of text they wish to produce, but including the language which they use, and the information that they choose.
In addition, O'Malley and Lorraine (2006:14) explain that there are three purposes in writing. They are as follow:
1) Informative writing
There are two purposes of informative writing. They are: to share knowledge and to give information, directions or ideas. An example of informative writing can be like descriptive text.
2) Expressive/Narrative writing
This kind of writing is used for entertainment, pleasure, and discovery or for having fun. Spoof, anecdote, poem belongs to expressive/narrative writing.
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3) Persuasive writing
The purpose of this writing is to influence others or to indicate action or change. The examples of this writing are hortatory exposition and analytical text.
Based on the theories above, it can be said that writing has many contributed purposes. For instance, purposes of writing are:
to express the writers‟ idea, to entertain, to explain and give information about something to the readers so the messages of the text can be accepted. And also there are three general purposes of writing. They are informative writing that aims to share and give information, expressive writing that aims to entertain the reader and persuasive writing that aim to indicate action or change.
c. The Writing Process
Writing is a process that involves several steps. At least, there are three steps in the writing process mentioned by Blanchard and Root (2003:41) Step one: Prewriting; Thinking about your topic and organizing your ideas.Step two: Writing; Using your ideas to write a first draft.Step Three: Revising; Improving what you have written.If the writers follow the steps, and practice by writing often, theywill find it easier to write paragraphs and to improve their writing. For more explanation it will discuss bellow:
1) Prewriting
Prewriting is the thinking, talking, reading, and writing we doabout our topic before we write a first draft. Prewriting is a way ofwarming up our brain before we write, just as we warm up our bodiesbefore we exercise.There are several ways to warm up before start writing:
a) Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a quick way to generate a lot ofideas on a subject. The purpose is to make a list of asmany ideas as possible without worrying about howyou will use them.To brainstorm, follow these steps. First, begin
with a broad topic. Second, write down as many ideas about the topic asyou can in five minutes. Third, add more items to your list by answeringthe questions what, how, when, where, why,and who.Fourth, group similar items on the list together. And the last, cross out items that do not belong.
b) Clustering
Clustering is another prewriting technique. It is a visual way of showing how your ideas are connected using circles and lines. When you cluster, you draw a diagram of your ideas. This term will be explained in the next section.
2) Writing
After we have spent some time thinking about our topic anddoing the necessary prewriting, we are ready for the next step in thewriting process: writing our paragraph. When we write the first draftof our paragraph, use the ideas we generated from prewriting as aguide.As you write, remember to:
a) Begin with a topic sentence that states the main idea.
b) Include several sentences that support the main idea.
c) Stick to the topic.
d) Arrange the sentences so that the order of ideasmakes sense.
e) Use signal words to help the reader understand how the ideas in your paragraph are connected.
3) Revising
According to Blanchard (2003: 44) state that revising is almost impossible to write a perfect paragraph on the first try.
The first try is called the first draft. After you complete the first draft, you must look for ways to improve it. This step is called revising.When students revise, they review their text on the basis of the feedback given in the previous stage. They reexamine what was written to see how effectively they have communicated their meanings to the reader.
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Next , Nunan (2003: 101) states that process writing helps native English-speaking children, as well as EFL or ESL young learners, develop English-language writing skills. Next, he states that the process writing approach involves the process-steps necessary to produce a good quality final piece of writing. He also states there are some steps in the writing process:
1. Prewrite
In this important first step, children are given an opportunity to prepare to write and to collect their thoughts and ideas. If done properly, it can ease children into writing without any hesitation or worry.
2. Write
Children write down all of the ideas. They do not worry about form or correctness or even the order. The objective is to get the ideas on paper as quickly as possible.
3. Revise
The initial piece of writing is examined and reworked so that the ideas are logical and flow together.
4. Edit
Learners (with the help of their teachers, or classmate) proofread their work to make sure that there are not any content errors or grammatical or spelling errors.
5. Publish
The writing piece is rewritten in a published or presentable form, in a student-made book, on special paper, and/or on a computer so that it can be displayed or shared.
While, Harmer (2004:4), the process of writing has four main elements:
3. Planning
Experienced writers plan what they are going to write. Before starting to write or type, they try and decide what it is they are going to say. For some writers, this may involve making detailed
notes. When planning, writers have to think about three main issues. In the first place, they have to consider the purpose of writing. Secondly, experienced writers think of the audience they are writing for. Thirdly, writers have to consider the content structure of the piece.
4. Drafting
We can refer to the first version of a piece of writing as a draft.
As the writing process proceeds into editing, a number of drafts may be produced on the way to the final version.
3. Editing (reflecting and revising)
When the order of the information is not clear, something in writing is ambiguous or confusing. They may to move paragraphs around or write a new statement. Reflecting and revising are often helped by other readers (or editors) who comment and make suggestions. Another reader's reaction to a piece of writing will help the author to make appropriate revisions.
4. Final version
Once writers have edited their draft, making the changes they consider to be necessary, they produce their final version.
Sometimes the first three stages of the process will take almost no time at all and we will plan, (re-)draft, and (re-)edit very quickly in our heads as we write. Nevertheless, however casually we approach the process, we will still try and plan what to write, check what we have written, and revise it before sending. This may look considerably different from both the original plan and the first draft because things have changed in the editing process.
But the writer is now ready to send the written to its intended audience.
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Table 1.
Comparative Table of Writing Process According to Experts
No Experts
Blanchard (2003)
Nunan (2003)
Harmer (2004) 1. Prewriting :
brainstorming, clustering
Prewriting Panning
2. Writing Write Drafting
3. Revising Revise
Editing
4. - Edit
5 - Publish Final Version
Based on the table above, it can be concluded that the writing process in general divided into five steps are prewriting/ planning, writing, and revising, editing, and publish.
d. Difficulties in Writing
Writing is not an easy job, because one should consider some regulations in writing. When a student gets difficult in writing, they will be faced a problem in writing. According to Bill and Terry in Wiwit (2010: 11) state that why learning to write well are difficult.
They are: Variations from discipline to discipline, lack of uniform criteria and standards, lack of explicit criteria and standards, undeveloped writing process, misleading or incomplete writing instruction, incomplete understanding of the subject matter, lack of experience with and failure to understand genre, lack of consistent coaching, known- reflective writing experiences, students do not care about what they write.
Firstly, Variations from discipline to discipline; Disciplines are discourse communities with their own methods of developing and
communicating knowledge. However, students take classes in several disciplines at the same time and have difficulty mastering the different forms of inquiry and the different stylistic conventions that apply.
Secondly, Lack of uniform criteria and standards; Students develop the idea criteria, standards and definitions are arbitrary. Then, Brown (2001) and Harmer (2004) argued that writing is exploring ideas and organizing ideas. Exploring ideas includes vocabulary, interviewing someone, and discussion. Meanwhile, organizing ideas consists of ordering information in a paragraph, writing topic sentences, limiting information, using a time sequence, making an idea map, categorizing and making an outline, summarizing ideas, and writing the title. Organizing ideas is important as a paragraph need to develop cohesion and coherence, in order to be easily followed by the readers.
Thirdly, Lack of explicit criteria and standards; Students have little or no information about what constitutes appropriate writing; no clear sense of the goal they are supposed to work toward. Fourthly, the Undeveloped writing process; in many classes, students are expected to write well, but are not to do so. Fifthly, Misleading or incomplete writing instruction; In some classes, formal writing is treated solely as a list of rules governing the use of language (grammar, spelling, and punctuation) rather than as purposeful communication of an idea. In this is done, mechanical aspects of language are emphasized to the exclusion of important conceptual abilities. Often key writing concept is never addressed in course for example how to adapt one‟s knowledge to the audience and the situation is extremely important but rarely taught. Similarly, how to develop a coherent train of taught is crucial to good writing, but rarely taught.
Next, Incomplete understanding of the subject matter; Students very often have to write about subjects that are unfamiliar to them, and many types of novices in any subject area, their understanding as
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they write tend to be incomplete and naïve. Thus it is very common that writing lacks coherence and structure reflecting their fragmented understanding of the topic, not necessarily their incompetence as writers. Then, Lack of experience with and failure to understand genre; Students have fewer opportunities to develop knowledge of other forms of writing and to write to a different audience.
This is line with the theories above that, Aragon et al in Abderraouf (2016:20), states that the writing difficulties may be related to features like grammar, syntax, cohesion or others, and students usually vary in facing these difficulties. Furthermore, students‟ writing difficulties may be a result of different factors, because “…not only self-strategies influence students‟ performance, but also the effectiveness of the methods and techniques that teachers apply in their English composition courses”. Significant tothe nature of writing as a cognitive process, and the amount of time and effort it requires. And they also argued that students who have low interest in writing andlearning to write mostly have low writing proficiency.
Next, there are three kinds of difficulties in writing according to Abderraouf (2016:21):
1) Problems with grammar
Grammar was defined by Neuleib in Abderraouf (2016:21) as “the internalized systemthat native speakers of a language share”. A more detailed definition was proposed byin Abderraouf (2016:21) as “the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and canbe combined into sentences in that language”.These ways are called „the grammar rules‟that are basic elements in every language and are also inseparable from writing.
Grammar rules mainly include various rules such as tenses, prepositions, word class,voice, and many others. These rules stand as a problem for many students in writing. Ininvestigating the effect of teaching grammar is different studies which that formal grammar instruction made no improvement in students writing
abilitynor on their ability to avoid errors.In other, Thornbury (1994:1) explains that grammar attempts to explain why the following sentences are acceptable.
In addition, Bahri and Sugeng in Abderraouf (2016:20) state that themain writing difficulties students find in relation to grammar is the low understanding ofgrammar, which results later on in difficulties in arranging proper writing.
As Richard and Renandya (2002:145) state “grammar is too important to be ignored, and without a good knowledge of grammar, learners‟ language development will be severely constrained”. It means that the use of correct grammar will influence the sense of students‟ writing in order to catch readers interesting with the story that the students tell.
2) Vocabulary
According, Hadfield (2008:45) divides vocabulary into two kinds of vocabulary, there are :
a) Productive (active) vocabulary is words that they are able to produce themselves.
b) Receptive vocabulary (passive) is words that they understand but may never produce.
It supported by Nation (2001:11) we can distinguish four kinds of vocabulary in the text, those are :
a) High-Frequency Words
High-frequency words are vocabulary that mostly appears in the text. There is a small group of high frequency which is very important because these words cover a very large proportion of the running words in spoken and written texts and occur in all kinds of the language.
b) Academic Words
The text is from an academic textbook and contains many words that are common in different kinds of academic text:
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policy, phase, adjusted, sustained. Typically these words make up about 9% of the running words in the text.
c) Technical Words
The text contains some words that are very closely related to the topic and subject of the text. These words include indigenous, regeneration, pod carp, beech, rimy, and timber.
These words are reasonably common in this topic area but not so common elsewhere. As soon as we see them, we know that the topic is being dealt with. Technical words like this typically cover about 5% of the running words in a text.
d) Low-Frequency Words
This group is included words like zoned, pioneering and perpetuity, aired and pastoral. They make up over 5% of the words in an academic text. There are thousands of them in the language, by far the biggest group of words. They consist of the technical words for other subject areas, proper nouns, words that almost include the high-frequency list and words that we rarely use in the language. Lack of vocabulary makes what learners write become uninteresting, and boring.
In another opinion, Harris et al (2014:58), who states that lack of vocabulary makes students cannot express their ideas. They do not know what words they have to use to put their thought in their writing. Also, because of the lack of vocabulary, the students use the same words in a different context. This condition will affect the students‟ writing quality because the choice of words in writing will influence the content of their writing. Readers will get difficulties to understand and comprehend students‟ writing because the words that are used will influence the meaning of the writing. Vocabulary is an important aspect in language skills as suggested by Nation in Abderraouf (2016:22) Vocabulary is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as “all the words known andused by a person”. Vocabulary related difficulties are generally;
students failing to recall important words to use, failing to use the appropriate words and poor vocabulary. Moreimportantly, knowing words generally means knowing their meanings, basic forms.
Based on the theories above it can be seen that difiiculties in vocabulry distinguish in some level, started from high-frequency words, academic words, technical words, and low frequency words. Depends on the writer need in writing.
Then, Nakata in Abderraouf (2016:22) noted that vocabulary acquisition is an ongoing process that requires students‟
constant repetition and use of words tobe effectively attained in the long term memory and then retrieved once needed. Developing vocabulary through memorizing words of a list is not sufficient, for students to acquirevocabulary they need to learn words as a part of the context in which they occur. This methodis proven to be beneficial for “it helps the student understand the word‟s correct usage”. Moreover, Yongqi Gu in Abderraouf (2016:22) said that
“vocabulary acquisition is a learner-centered activity with the effectiveness of the learner‟sstrategies depending on his/her attitude and motivation towards new vocabulary acquisition”.
Then, Erisda (2017:22) vocabulary is one of the important aspects that must learn students in foreign language learning. Vocabulary plays important role in language learning. Vocabulary can help the learners mastering skills in language learning. Vocabulary often seems to be the least systematized and the least well centered for all the aspects of learning a foreign language. Watkins in Erisda (2017:22) states that in an approach that values the ability to communicate, vocabulary is essential, and in recent years vocabulary has become increasingly central to language teaching.
According to Watkin (2005:28) learner‟s problem and their cause in vocabulary there are:
a) The students have both had problems with selecting the right word class, and some more activities on word building (adding
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bits to the beginnings and endings of a root word to make new, related, words) may help.
b) These errors are both to do with collocation. Collocation is not always predictable. For example, we say „deep trouble‟ but
“shallow trouble‟ is not acceptable.
c) “Messed up‟ seems too informal to be used successfully in a business letter. “Departs‟ seems too formal to use with a friend.
The students do not appreciate the degree of formality associated with these words.
d) The likeliest explanation for each of these is that the student is confused by a false friend. A false friend is when a word in the mother tongue looks like an English word and so the student guesses that it means the same, but in fact, it has a different meaning in English.
e) The learners do not appreciate the grammar associated with the vocabulary that they are using.
3) Problems with spelling and punctuation
Spelling and punctuation are two commonly shared writing difficulties among students. Learning to spell words correctly is expected to take place in the earliest stages of language teaching, yet it is not always the case for spelling may become difficult in some instances. Moreover, spelling is said to be closely interrelated with reading. It supported by, Frith in Abderraouf (2016: 23) argues that “Learning to read should imply learning to spell, and learning to spell should imply learning to read”. However, this is not always the case, for there exist people with excellent reading abilities, but struggle when it comes to spelling words. Then, Banca in Abderraouf (2016:23) states that writing difficulties of relevance to spelling mainly include the misspelling of words which are a result of the irregularities of the English spelling system. This related to the similarities of vowels, for instance, that can be decoded in different spelling. Additionally, Bancha further
explained that spelling mistakes may occur when students are less concentrated due to tiredness or carelessness about the correctness of words. While, Harmer in Abderraouf (2016:23) states that the correspondence between the sound of a word and the way it is spelled is not always obvious”. Furthermore, he indicates that the reason spelling is difficult for students is the fact that not all varieties of English spell the same words in the same way”. For instance, the wayAmerican English pronounce the word
„behavior’, differs from British English „ behavior’.
Next, Oshima and Hogue (1999:245) explain that using correct punctuation is important because punctuation conveys meaning just as words do. It is supported by Harmer (2004:45) that states using punctuations correctly is an important skill. And Graham & Harris in Glynn et al (2006:98) state that writing difficulties may, in large part, be the result of three factors:
1) Lack of proficiency in the text production skills, that is, frequent errors in spelling, the use of upper and lower case, and punctuation.
2) Lack of knowledge relating to the subject content of the script to be written, and/or of the conventions and characteristics of different writing genres.
3) Lack of effective strategies in planning or revising text.
In addition, Nikmah (2016:28) states that the purpose of taking punctuation in writing is making the text clearer and reading easier. There are four functions of punctuation, those are: a) Separating (e.g. a period separating sentences). b) Classifying or enclosing (e.g. parentheses enclosing extraneous information). c) Connecting (e.g. a hyphen connecting a unit modifier). d) Impacting the meaning (e.g. a question mark making an otherwise declarative sentence interrogative).
The function of the punctuation mark is the basic rule- governed and determined whether it is needed or not. The
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modern tendency is to punctuate the prevent misreading (open style) rather than to use all punctuation that is allowed by the grammatical structure (close style). The open style allows subjectivity, arbitrariness, and the use of some marks though it results in a more inviting product. The role of the author‟s editor‟s subjectivity is crucial to make a well-punctuate text.
The main function of help the readers comprehend the intention of the writer. It could be done by choosing the appropriate grammar or logical structure of a certain sentence. Punctuation does not warranty that anything goes although it practiced by the good writer that may seem a bland of rule, convention, and idiosyncrasy. The writer must learn when the rules are absolute;
when the conventions give his/her allow to choose some option, such as and, of course, what the option is; and when the writer may follow the heart without forgetting the reading. The effort is done to punctuate effectively. The writer, of course, should consider who the readers are. The younger writer should study the punctuation harder that the older because they already have a good skill of punctuation.
Table 2.
Comparative Table of Difficulties in Writing According to Experts
Experts Statements
Bill &
Terry (2010)
They are: Variations from discipline to discipline, lack of uniform criteria and standards, lack of explicit criteria and standards, undeveloped writing process, misleading or incomplete writing instruction, incomplete understanding of the subject matter, lack of experience with and failure to understand genre, lack of consistent coaching, known- reflective writing experiences, students do not care about what they write.
Aragon (2016)
The writing difficulties may be related to features like grammar, syntax, cohesion or others, and students usually vary in facing these difficulties.
Abderraouf (2016)
There are three kinds of difficulties in writing: problems with grammar, vocabulary, and problem with spelling and punctuation.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that students‟ difficulties in writing influenced by some factors, they are background knowledge, organizing ideas, grammar, vocabulary spelling, and punctuation. In background knowledge, the students difficult when they asked to developing idea and the students did not have background knowledge or experience before. If in background knowledge they have difficult, it will also make the students difficult in organizing ideas and difficult to find the right word or vocabulary or class of words.
2. Descriptive Text
3. Definition of Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is a kind of writing that consists of description, characteristics, the definition of something, object or something. Descriptive writing also involves putting across feelings, describing the place, things, and objects. In this case, the researcher is going to describe the students‟ skills in writing a descriptive text based on their writing test result. There are some definitions about description. The first is from Schacter. According to Schacter (2007: 15), he said, that descriptive writing describes a person, place or thing in a way that enables the reader to capture the description. Then, Irvine (2000: 34), the other definition is presenting details an object to the readers as clearly as possible.
Next, Kane (1987:7) states that the description is also about sensory experience-how something looks, sounds and tastes based on the reader's opinion. Similarities with previous expert, Antonio
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(2008: 122), descriptive text is a part of factual genres. Its social function is todescribe a particular person, place or thing. Then, Zemach (2000:25) stated that a descriptive paragraph can be a description of people, places, and processes. It means that how something or someone feels or looks and how something‟s done could be explained in a descriptive paragraph.More often, the description is a part of another piece of writing and is used toinform an audience about how something or someone looked or topersuade an audience to see something from the writer‟s point of view.
In addition, Ahmad (2009:1) states that a descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. Take an example, the following is one of the text belongs to the descriptive text.
Descriptive text is usually also used to help a writer develop an aspect of their work, e.g. to create a particular mood, atmosphere or describe a place so that the reader can create vivid pictures of characters, places, objects, etc.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that descriptive text is a text that describing something or person or place based on their feels or looks . And the effort of the writer to explain a certain person, place, or thing to the readers as clearly as possible based on the writer‟s perspective.
b. Purposes of Descriptive Text
As social beings, we want to share our experience, so we write to others to describe things such as vacations, childhood homes, and people we encounter. According to Utami (2014:30),We even use description to persuade others to think or act in particular ways: advertisers describe products to persuade us to buy them; travel agents describe locales to entice us to visit them, and real estate agents describe properties to stimulate a desire to see them. As the examples in the following chart show,
description enables us to entertain, express feelings, relate experience, inform, and persuade.
Then, Clouse (2004: 143) states that the purpose of descriptive text is:
1) To entertain.
It is an amusing description of a teenager‟s bedroom 2) To express feelings.
It is a description of yourfavorite outdoor retreat so your reader understand why you enjoy it so much.
3) To relate experience.
Its about a description of your childhood home to covey a sense of the poverty you grew up in
4) To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with the subject).
It means that a description of a newborn calf for a reader who has never seen one.
5) To inform (to create a fresh appreciation for the familiar).
It is a description of an apple to help the reader rediscover the joys of this simple fruit.
6) To persuade (to convince the reader that some music videos degrade woman)
It is a description of a degrading music video.
Although it can serve a variety of purposes, the description is most often expressive, so it most often helps writers share their perceptions. As human beings, we have a compelling desire to connect with other people by sharing our experiences with them.
In summarized, the purpose of descriptive text is to entertain, express a feeling, to inform and to persuade the reader about people, place or things. And make the reader understand what is the messages of the writing.
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c. Generic Structure of Descriptive Text
In writing a descriptive text there has generic structure, according to Artono (2008: 122) describes that the generic structures of a description. They are Identification and description.
The identification has identified the phenomenon to be described.
The description of features is describedfeatures in order of importance of parts/things (physical appearance), qualities (degree of beauty, excellence, or worth/value), and other characteristics (prominent aspects that are unique).
Next, Djuharie (2007:24) states that descriptive text has generic structures: identification, to introduce subject or object that will be described. Description, to give more information about the feature of subject e.g. psychology, behavior, physical appearance, a specific feature, and quality. Then, Gerot and Peter (1994:208) mention that “there are two components in the descriptive text, (1) identification; identifies phenomenon to be described, and (2) description; describes parts, qualities, and characteristics.” In the identification component, the student has to identify the phenomenon to be described. It means that, in the description component, the student has to describe parts, qualities, and characteristics of the objects. After analyzing the components of the organizing idea, it was found that there are so many students faced difficulties organized the text well. First, they were able to identify the place. They were able to mention the object, place, the name, and the location. However, they could not mention the location only; they have to give the related information about the object. Second, after identifying the place the student has to organize it by describing parts, qualities and the complete features from the object itself in order to inform the reader. Unfortunately, they were unable to describe the place well.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that descriptive text has two generic structures. They are identification
and description. In identification is to introduce what will be described and in description talk about what will be described later.
d. Language Features of Descriptive Text
In descriptive text not only has generic structures but also has language feature. According to Anderson (1998:26) that the language features of description are:
1) The verb in the present tense. It supported by Raymon Murphy (2003:4), he said, we use the present simple to talk about things in general. He uses it to say that something happens all the time or repeatedly, or that something is true in general. While Betty (2002:2) said in general, the simple present expresses events or situations that exist always, usually, habitually; they exist now, have existed in the future.
Simple Present Tense : S + V + E/ES + O
Example: Rini always reads grammar book in the library 2) Adjective to describe the features of the subject. It supported
by Knapp (2005) Adjective is one of word class which explains noun. The adjective has some functions in the description. Adjectives are used to add more information to nouns and technical, every day or literary, depending on the text type;
3) Topic sentences to begin paragraphs and organize the various aspects of the description.
4) Using Proper Noun. In addition to filling our descriptive writing with concretedetails and figures of speech, we might also want to include anumber of proper nouns, which, as we know, are the names ofparticular persons, places, and things.
5) Using Effective Verb. We know how important verbs are to narration, buteffective verbs can also add much to a piece of description.Writers use verbs to make descriptions more specific, accurate,and interesting. For instance, “the wind had chiseled deep groovesinto the sides of the cliffs” is more
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specific than “the wind hadmade deep grooves.” The verb chiseled also gives the reader amore accurate picture of the wind‟s action than made does.
In addition, Djuharie(2007:24) that descriptive text has language features likea specific noun, simple present, andnoun phrases, adjectives, relational process, and figurative language.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that there are seven language features of descriptive text. They are using simple present tense, using an adjective, using specific nouns, using detailed nonphrase, using the relational process and using figurative language.
e. Kinds of Descriptive Text
The descriptive text also has some kind or type to describe.
According to Antonio (2008: 122), descriptive text is a part of factual genres. Its social function is to describe a particular person, place or thing. It is supported by Alawi (2011:22) so, it normally takes on three forms they are, description of a people, and description of a thingsto describe a thing the writer must have a good imaginationabout that thing that will be described. The last is Describing a place, According to Regina describing a place, for example, a room, what should you describe first? The walls? The Floor? Unlike a chronologically developed paragraph, there is no set pattern for arranging sentences in a descriptive paragraph. It is not necessary, to begin with, one area and then proceed to another one. Nevertheless, the sentences should not be randomly arranged.
The description must be organized so that the reader can vividly imagine the scene being described. To make the paragraph more interesting, you can add a controlling idea that states an attitude or impression about the place being described. And the arrangement of the details in your description depends on your subject purpose.
B. Review of Relevantants Studies
The researcher has found some researchers that hinvestigatedated with the problemsas discussed in this study. The first, the thesis about Students Problem in Writing English Text (A study of the ninth grade students of SMPN 2 Padang Ganting in 2014/2015)”. This research has been conducted by Ani Sari Yulianti, English Teaching Department tarbiyah and teachers training faculty, STAIN Batusangkar 2015. She found that there are some problems that faced by the students in writing text. The problem spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary, organizing, grammar, lexical, and punctuation site with this research conducting in students' difficulties (problem) in writing English text, different is the researcher focus on English list text it is Descriptive text. and the researcher tried to describ student' difficulties in writing descriptive text eighth grade students of SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab.
Second, Ani Sari Yulianti (2015) did a research about “Students‟
problem in writing English text ( A study of tyhe ninth grade students of SMPN 2 Padang Ganting in 2014/2015 Academic Year). In this research she founded that there are seven problem that faced the students in writing text. the problem are 1. Spelling, 2. Sentence structure, 3. Vocabulary, 4.
Organizing, 5. Grammar, 6. Lexical, and 7. Punctuation. The similar with this research was conducting in writing text. In previous reseacrch was tried to find out the problem while in this research tried to find out the students difficulties in writing descriptive text.
32 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Design
The design of this research was descriptive qualitative research.
According to Gay (2000:11), the descriptive research involved collecting data in order to answer the question concerning with the status of the subject of the study. Then, Gay (2000:275) also explains that the descriptive method is useful for investigating a variety of educational problems and issues.
According to Moleong (2010:6), qualitative research is the study intends to understand the phenomenon of what is experienced by the subject of the contentresearch. In this research is designed to describe the students‟ difficulties in writing descriptive text at SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab.
B. Research Informant
According to Gay (2000:139), an informant is a person whose knowledge about the subject. In this research, the informants are the students who have problems or difficulties in writing describing placeethe eighthghth-gradee students of SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab that already learn about Descriptive Text.
Furthermore, the informants of this research were choosen by using purposive sampling technique. According to Gay (2000:141), purposive sampling is a judgment sampling, is the process of selecting a sample that is believed to be representative of a given population. In this research,the researcher interviews the eighth-grade students of SMPN 1 Sungai Tarab who have a problem in writing a descriptive text especially in describing the place. The researcher used their score that gets from the English Teacher andtook whohad low achievement in descriptive text.
C. The Technique of Data Collection 1. Research Instrument
The instrument of this research was the researcher herself.
According to Gay (2000: 386), an interview is a purposeful interaction, usually between two people, focus on one person, and trying to get information from the other person. In order to confirm the previous information as well as to got maintain the trustworthiness of the data.
In this research, The data was collected by applying interview technique. The researcher used the interview guide that did by the researcher in the Indonesian Language. The interview wasanalyzed in order to gain the information about the students‟ difficulties in writing a descriptive text especially in describing the place.
To guide the interview, the researcher followed some steps as proposed by Gay (2000:223) as follows:
a. Listening more, talking less. Listening is the most important part of interviewing
b. Following up on what participants say and ask question when you do not understand
c. Avoiding leading questions, ask open-ended questions d. Avoidinginterrupt. Learn how to wait
e. Keeping participants focused and ask for concrete details f. Tolerating silence. It means the participants are thinking g. Avoiding judge about participants‟ views of beliefs h. Avoiding debate with the participants over their responses
2 . Research Procedures
This research was conducted by applying several steps as follows:
a. Finding research problems
In this step, the researcher found the problem and decided to conduct the research. Then,the researcher read several sources and consulted with an academic advisor to find out interesting topics to be a problem in this study. Based on suggestion given by academic
