the components of business lbtter writtei

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English Education Study Program- STKIP PGRIWest Sumatera _t2OL71

THE COMPONENTS OF BUSINESS LBTTER WRITTEI{

BY THIRD GRADE STUDENTS OF SMK KARTIKA T.2 PADANG

Kicky Ditalokar), Sesmiyanti,S.S$.Pd2), Rindilla Antika, M. Pd ³⁾

thnglish department student, college of teaching training and education (PGRI) West Sumatera

,)EngIishdepartmentlecfures,"*il:t'mucation(PGRI)WestSumatera 3)Englishdepartmentlecfur.es,"l;H1mcation(PGRI)WestSumatera

E-mail: Dillarindilla@ema ABSTRACT

This research was descriptive qualitative rcsearch which aimed to analyze the appropriate

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components of business letter written by administration office students. Instrument of this research was document checklist. The data got from third year students of SMK Kartika

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Padang. In this research, the researcher took

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data of students'writing business letter class )(II C1. At this third year, the administration office students should be able to write the business letter especially application letter. Based on the data analysis, the researcher found that 21 students still complete yet in writing heading of the letter, but in writing heading on indicator date, there were 5 students who have be able

to write it. In writing inside address, there was only 1 students ra*ro did not write the inside address completely. In writing the salutation, there were l8 students who have be able to write the salutation correctly. In writing the body of the letteq there were 21 students who have be able to write it based on tlre correct criteria. In writing complimentary close, there were 2 students who have be able to wdte it

correctly. And in writing the signature, there were 18 students who have be able to write it based on the right criteria on writing business letter.

Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif kualitatif yang bertujuan untuk menganalisa kesesuaian komponen surat bisnis yang telah dibuat oleh siswa administrasi perkantoran. Intrumen dalam penelitian ini adalah dokumen ceklis. Data yang diperoleh dari siswa tahun tiga SMK Kartika 1- 2 Padang. Dalam porelitian ini peneliti mengambil 21 datatulisan surat bisnis siswa dari kelas

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Pada tahun tiga siswa administrasi perkantoran harus mampu membuat surat bisnis dengan baik, kususnya dalam membuat surat lamaran keqa. Dari hasil analisis, peneliti _menemukan ke 21 siswa masih belum lengkap dalam membuat heading surat, akan tetapi di dalam membuat heading, pada indikator date 5 siswa sudah mampu membuat date. Dalam menulis inside address hanya

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^{dari 21}

siswa yang tidak menulis inside addressnya dengan lengkap. Dalam menulis salutation 18 siswa sudah mampu membuat sahttation dengan benar. Dalam menulis body oJ' lener 27 siswa tersebut sudah m&mpu membuatnya sesuai dengan kriteria menulis surat bisnis. Dalam membuat complimentary clo.re 2 siswa sudah mampu membuat sesuai dengan kriteria menulis surat bisnis. Dalam membuat signatare

18 siswa sudah sesuai dengan kriteria menulis surat bisnis.

Key Words : The Components of the Letter, Business Letter

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3) Second Advisor

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INTRODUCTION

Writing is the one of four skill beside reading, speaking and listening. In learning English and also writing which is considered as the different skill. Then, writing is considered as a complex skill because it requires the students in having many ideas and also knowing about grammar and mechanical of writing.

In vocational school learning about write a letter is very important for the students because they will come to the field after finishing their study in vocational school. So they need to know well about how to make some letter especially business letter. Beside component of the letter, there are many kinds of aspects in writing they should be mastered such as grammar, vocabulary, students potential in compose the sentence and component of the letter. All of the aspect is very important to students before write a business letter because with the aspect reader will know with the purpose of the letter. There are some aspects in writing a business letter and component is complete aspect because in component have some part such as the heading, the inside address, the salutation, the body of the letter, complimentary close and the signature. In business letter have some kind of the business letter such as complaint letter, inquiry letter, order letter, bad news letter, ordering letter, invitation letter, offering letter and application letter. Therefore, the writer only focus in application letter .

Moreover, the students at vocational school need to learn how to write application letter because they will come to the work world after graduation. Application letter document which is sent with the resume to provide additional information on your skills and experience to apply job. Based on demand of Curriculum at Vocational School the students who learn administration of office should know how to write the application letter because it is important to find the work because students must write the application letter to find the job.

However, the students often find difficulties in writing application letter, because it is considered as the most difficult skill to learn. In one occasion, the researcher did pre-survey in

SMK Kartika 1-2 Padang through the informal interview to the English teacher in SMK Kartika 1-2 Padang. The researcher has gotten the information from English teacher about the students in writing, especially on writing application letter is not satisfy. The researcher has gotten the information from English teacher about students in writing.

the example of the students of the component of the application letter made by one of the students in Smk Kartika 1-2 Padang.

In this letter, she used un-complete component:

First, heading of the application letter, there are, name of company, address, phone number, email, and company logo. In writing the heading, the students only write the date of the letter. Second, opening of the letter is very important that make the letter polite.

Component of the application letter are letterhead or sender’s address, date, inside address, salutation or greeting, letter body, complimentary closing, signature (printed name and position of send). The body of the letter must be clearly to make the received of the letter understanding. Closing of the business letter is important that to make the letter profesional. There are include the complementary close, signature and enclosure.

Beside that there are many students which not be able in writing application letter with a complete component. This problem happen because they do not know the components of the application letter well and they can not arrange the letter in a good way. Beside that, the students also do not care and do not have the big attention about the component of the application letter.

In order to write a good business letter, the students must have to know some component business letter. There are some component: the heading, date, the inside address, the greeting, body, the complimentary close, and the signature line. According to Crowther (2000:12) component of business letter are as the follow: The heading: the heading of the letter contains the street address, city, state, and the date, the inside address: the inside address consist of the name of the person or of the firm and address. The address should comprise the street number, the city, and states.

The inside address may be written at the end of

salutation: the salutation or complimentary address to the person to whom the letter is written, in a social letter should begin at the left hand side of the sheet about half an inch below the heading and inch from the edge of the paper. In business letter the form of salutation in common use are “Dear Sir”, “gentlement”,

“Dear Madam”. The salutation follows the inside address and preserves the same margin as does tye first libe of the address, the body of the letter: the opening sentence is in an important position, and this is obviously the place for an important fact. It ought in some way to state or refer to the subject of or reason for the letter, so as to get the attention of the reader immediately to the subject, complimentary close: follows the body of the letter, about two or three spaces below it. It begins about in the center of page under the body of the letter, the signature is writing below the complimentary and a little to the right, so that it ends about at the right-hand-margin.

RESEARCH METHOD

In this research, the researcher used descriptive as a research design. The researcher used this design because the researcher analyzed the students in writing application letter in a third grade of SMK Kartika 1-2 Padang. According to Gay and Airisian (2000:275) descriptive research determines and describe thing are The source of data in this researcher was document which consist of students writing application letter which provide information data. It was supported by Creswell (2009:182), defines that document is one of qualitative data collection approaches come from participants. The data in this research took from the English teacher who teach in administration of officer at the third grade SMK Kartika 1-2 Padang. To got the data the researcher took the data on class XII C1 because the researcher got complete data in writing application letter from this class.

In this research the researcher used the document checklist to collect the data. Gay and Airisian (2000:210), descriptive data were usually collected through observation, interview, personal and official documents, photographs, draing, e-mails, and informal conversation. To collect the data, the

researcher used technique of documentation.

Creswell (2012:223) define documents consist of public and private records that qualitative researchers obtain about a site or participants in a study, and that include newspapers, minutes of meetings, personal journals, and letter. In collecting the data, the researcher followed some steps, first, the researcher took and collected the document that needed in the research. Second, the researcher read the document which have been collected. Third, the researcher collected the data that consist of letter and the researcher analyzed the component of application letter used by students. Finally, the researcher described and classified the data based on the right component of letter. The researcher analyzed the data that have been gotten in processing data collection. According to Gay, Mills and Airisian ( 2000:239), explain that steps for analyzing data: reading /memoing, description, classifying and interpreting.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

In this research, the researcher has data of students written in application letter.

There are sixs components in application letter according to Crowther (2000:12) The components of application letter such as; the heading, the inside address, the salutation, the body of the letter, complimentary close and the signature. First, the heading contains the street address, city, state, and the data. Second, the inside address consist of the name of the person or of the firm and address and inside address may be written at the end of the letter, from the left, below the signature. Third, the salutation or complimentary close addressed to the person to whom the letter is written, in a social letter should begin at the left hand side of the paper such as “Dear Sir”, “Dear Madam”. Fourth, the body of the letter is opening sentence and its important position, and this obviously the place for an important fact. Fifth, complimentary close was followed the body of the letter, about two or three spaces below it. It begins about in the center of page under the body of the letter. Last, the signature was writing below the complimentary and a little to the right, so it ends about at the right-hand-margin.. In

heading there were four category; street address, city, state, the date. Based on the data analysis, From 21 students the researcher found all of them still un-complete in writing the heading. They did not make the street address, city and state, but they just made one of the category of heading “date”, but in writing the date, just 5 students make it clearly. 2 students did not make the date.

However, 14 students still made mistake in writing date. Based on the right rule.

In inside address, also there were two categories: the name of the person, the firm and address. From 21 students, in writing inside address most of them could write complete inside address. Only one of them (students 19) still made mistake in writing inside address. She did not writing the name of company and located of company. She only made the name of receiver of letter. In writing the salutation, 18 students could write salutation well. But, 3 students did not write the salutation. In writing the body of letter, From 21 students in writing content of the body in the application letter all of them could wrote the complete body of the letter. In writing complimentary close from 21 students, 2 students could write the complimentary close. But there are 2 students still made mistake which add point after complimentary close and 15 do not add comma after complimentary close. In writing the signature, from 21 students, 18 students could wrote the complete signature. But there were 3 students still made same mistake.

Based on the finding above, the researcher found that in writing application letter must contained six components based on Crowther (2000) those are the heading, inside address, salutation, body of the letter, complimentary close and signature. Here, in writing application letter, the students has tried to compose the letter based on the correct component which useful for them when they came to the work world later. Based on the classification above, the researcher interpreted that the students have be able to make application letter based on the complete components. But, only some of them still have an difficult in writing a components in a good rule because the teacher just gave an example based on one source without explaining the material and the teacher did not explain it

detail. Beside that the students did not pay attention to the teacher while teaching learning process especially in learning how to make a good letter. Based on six components of application letter, most of the students could not write the complete heading.

CONCLUSION

The researcher used document as source of data. Based on the data analysis and finding in chapter IV, the researcher found, from 21 students the researcher found all of them still un-complete in writing application letter.. The researcher was concluded that in writing application letter the students component in application letter was the heading, salutation, the body of letter, complimentary close and signature. But, only some of them still have an difficult in writing a components in a good rule. Based on six components of application letter, most of the students could not write the complete heading and complimentary close.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Alhamdulillahirabbil’alamin, Firstly, the researcher would like to express her deepest gratitude to Allah SWT who has given the researcher mercy, chance and health to finish this thesis. In addition, thanks to Prophet Muhammad SAW as inspiration to keep fighting to finish this thesis with titles “ The Component of Business Letter Written By Third Grade Students of SMK Kartika 1-2 Padang”. This thesis was aimed to fulfill one of the requirement for S1 Degree of English Department at STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat.

The researcher expresses deepest gratitude to the Sesmiyanti.,S.S. M.Pd.as researcher’s first advisor and Rindilla Antika, M.Pd., researcher’s co-advisor who have guided the researcher to complete this thesis and gave valuable knowledge, suggestion, and support.

Thank you very much for both of my advisors.

REFERENCES

Creswell, John W. Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method Approaches. 3 ^. New York: Palgrave Macmilan Publisher Ltd, 2009. Print.

Creswell, John W. 2012. Educational Research Fourth Edition. Boston : Pearson Education Inc

Creswell, John W. Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method Approaches. 3 ^. New York: Palgrave Macmilan Publisher Ltd, 2009. Print.

Crowther, Mary Owens. How to Write Letter a Complete Guide to Correct Business and Personal Correspondence.

Gay, L.R. and Pieter Arisian. Educational Research Competencies for Analysis and Aplication. New Jersey: Prentic- Hall, Inc, 2000. Print.