An-analysis-of-students-ability-in-writing-generic-structure-of-descriptive-text.pdf

AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING GENERIC STRUCTURE OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXT (A Study at Tenth Grade of Senior High School 4 Padang 2014/2015 Academic Year) Oleh: Rini Efrianti *)

**) Armilia Riza dan **) Mayuasti Staff Pengajar Program StudiPendidikanBahasaIngris STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat

ABSTRAK Skripsi ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui kemampuan siswa SMA.Negeri 4 Padang kelas X dalam menulis generic structure dari descriptive text yang terdiri dari identification dan description. Jenis dari penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah kelas X MIA1 yang terdiri dari 32 siswa yang telah dipilih secara acak. Data diambil melalui penulisan sebuah descriptive text yang dibuat oleh siswa. Siswa diminta untuk membuat sebuah descriptive text berdasarkan 4 topik yang diberikan oleh peneliti. Mereka hanya boleh memilih salah satu dari 4 topik yang dipersiapkan oleh peneliti.Topik yang mereka pilih antara lain: My lovely Mother or Father, My Lovely Pet, My Favorite Place, My Beloved Idol. Dari hasil penelitian, peneliti menemukan terdapat beberapa cara siswa dalam menulis generic structure dari descriptive text. Peneliti menemukan beberapa variasi – variasi cara siswa – siswa menulis descriptive text seperti dalam menulis identification; focus pada satu partisipan dan spesifik, focus pada satu partisipan tapi tidak spesifik, focus pada lebih dari satu partisipan dan tidak spesifik, focus pada satu partisipan dan tidak spesifik dan focus lebih dari satu partisipan tapi spesifik. Kemudian dalam penulisan description, peneliti juga menemukan variasi – variasi cara siswa menulis description of descriptive text seperti: mendeskripsikan tentang penampilan, sifat, hobi dari partisipan, mendeskripsikan tentang penampilan dan sifat dari partisipan. Secara general, siswa kelas X dari SMA.4 Padang telah mampu menulis generic structure of descriptive text dengan baik. Namun, juga terdapat beberapa siswa yang belum mampu menulis generic structure of descriptive text dengan baik berdasarkan teori Winch . Keywords: generic structure, descriptive text, identification, description ___________________________________________________________________________ *) Penulis **) Pembimbing

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thing such as scene, thing, person or place.

INTRODUCTION Writing is one of the four basic

To practice the students’ writing, they can

skills that should be learned by the

start to write the generic structure of this

students in Senior High School beside

text first that consists of identification and

speaking, listening, and reading. This skill

discussion.

is needed for them to support the progress

structure, the students can develop their

of their academic achievement. By writing,

paragraph into good text. It is good for

the students will know how to write a good

them to increase their ability in writing. If

content into a text about the object that

they have good ability in writing, they will

they want to describe and how to organize

be easy to arrange all kinds of texts.

By

writing

the

generic

the ideas which is supported with relevant

In fact, based on researchers’

supporting sentences. In this skill, the

experience when she was teaching practice

students can improve their grammar such

at Senior High School 4 Padang at tenth

as how to use correct tenses, adjective,

grade, researcher found some problems of

articles and noun phrase. They also can

students in writing descriptive text. First,

arrange a text into good mechanics such as

in writing descriptive text, the students got

word

difficulties

spelling,

punctuation

and

to

organize

the

generic

capitalization. Thus, this skill is useful for

structure of descriptive text. They were

students especially for Senior High School

still confused what the generic structures

students at tenth grade.

of descriptive text and how to start to write

In writing, the students can search

descriptive text. Second, they still got

some ideas in their mind into some texts.

confused about how to write identification

One kind of text that can be learned by

and description of descriptive text. Some

students is descriptive text. Descriptive

of them did mistake such as wrote

text is a text that describes about particular

description in the first paragraph and wrote

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identification in the last paragraph. Third,

in writing descriptive text, they also forgot

the students got difficulties to arrange the

to use conjunctions to combine two or

content that they wanted to describe into

more ideas in one sentence.

text. Sometimes, the content in each

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

paragraph that they wrote unconnected Writing each other in writing their ideas in According to Coulmas (2003:1) descriptive text. Even though, most of the there are three meanings of writing can be students in Senior High School have distinguished. First, writing is a system of already

studied

about

English

from recording language by means of visible or

elementary school, but they were not able tactile marks. Visible or tactile marks to arrange their ideas into good text. mean the writer can see the product of Fourth, in writing descriptive text, the their writing by using their eyes. Second, students also got difficulties to organize writing is an activity of putting the ideas. their ideas into good supporting sentences. The ideas are very needed in writing. Good Sometimes, main idea and supporting ideas can add knowledge or information sentences did not connect each other. Fifth, for the reader. Third, the result of writings’ the students also got difficult to use correct activity is text. It means that writing is not grammar in their sentences. The students only

communicative

skill

but

also

still used grammar inappropriate in their productive skill that can produce a text sentence. They still got difficult in using such as descriptive text, procedure text, verbal

and

nominal

sentence.

Sixth, report text and narrative text.

students forgot to add the mechanics of Based on explanations above, it can writing in their text. It could happen be concluded that, writing is both a process because they thought mechanics of writing and product. This activity can produce were not really needed in a text. Finally, some texts that can deliver a message to 3

other. In writing, the writer also can reflect

language use, vocabulary, and mechanic.

their

The writer must pay attention to these

understanding

about

the

new

information, knowledge or ideas that they

components

because

it

can

support

have. They can type it on computer or

students’ achievement in writing. It also

write it in a piece of paper as media in

can help them to arrange and organize

writing.

their writing.

Components of writing

Descriptive text

Writer needs some components in

Descriptive text is one of texts that

writing to arrange a good text. These

can help the students to construct their

components can help the writer to control

ideas into a text. In this text, the students

their writing.

can describe about someone or something

Baker (2011:5) mentions there are

based on factual fact in their life. The

three components in writing skill. First,

students can write the appearance of things

grammatical skill is the ability to construct

that occupy space, whether they are object,

meaningful sentences. It is the ability to

people,

arrange

Therefore, this text can help the students to

the

sentence

to

be

more

building,

animals,

or

cities.

explore their ideas into text.

meaningful. Second, compositional skill is

According to Winch (2005:56),

the ability how the writer compose their domain

descriptive text is a text that describes

knowledge is a component of writing skill

about particular thing such as a scene, an

that allows the writer to appreciate the

animal, person or something that happen in

perfective of the user. In short, component

nature. In this text, the writer can describe

in writing is very crucial to produce good

about scene such as view or environment.

writing. There are some components in

They can describe how beautiful the scene

writing such as content, organization,

around them into a text. Besides that, the

ideas

in

writing.

The

last,

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writer can describe about animal around

phenomenon about the thing that wants to

them for example cat, dog, chicken or

describe. Second, description, in this part,

other. The writer also can describe about

the writer can describe about parts, the

person how she or he looks like. They can

qualities and the characteristic of the

describe about physical appearance such as

phenomenon. According to Mulyono (2008:22) the

the color of skin, eyes, body that can

generic

describe her or him in particular.

structure

of

descriptive

text

consists of:

In conclusion, descriptive text is a text that describes about particular thing,

1. Identification

such as person, an animal or a place. This

It identifies the phenomenon. In

text also can make the reader be easy to

this part the writer will explain

imagine what the writer’s feeling by giving

about the phenomenon that to be

some information in detail. They can make

described such as thing, person or

physical

place.

appearance

of

someone,

characteristic of animal or shape of an

2. Description

object. This text can help the students to

It

describes

the

parts,

the

increase their writing achievement by

qualities, and the characteristic of

describing about factual thing that they see

phenomenon. In this part, the

or feel.

writer can describe about habit,

Generic Structure of Descriptive Text

behavior, shape or feature of person, thing, place or animal.

Generic structure is general form of

Concerning

genre. Generic structure of descriptive text

to

the

explanation

is divided into two parts. There are

above, it can be understood that there are

identification and description. First, in

three parts generic structure of descriptive

identification, the writer identifies the

text. First, identification part is the part

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where the writer introduces about the

writing generic structure of descriptive text

phenomenon to be described. Second, the

at tenth grade of Senior High School 4

description part describes parts, qualities,

Padang. The abilities that the researcher

and characteristic. Description text also is

wanted to analyze such as how students

focuses on specific participants. The last

organize

part is conclusion or evaluation, in this

descriptive

part, the writer can give final comment

organization

about the phenomenon or review about

descriptive text.

their writing.

PARTICIPANTS OF THE RESEARCH

the

generic

text

and

of

structure how

students

is

of the

writing

In this research, the researcher got

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

the data from participants. The students of

The design of this research was

Senior High School 4 Padang at tenth

descriptive design. According to Gay and

grade had been participants in this

Airasian (2000:275), descriptive study

research. In this research, the researcher

determines and describes the way things

also

are. It means that qualitative research only focus on describing the phenomenon

used

percentage

to

get

the

participants.

According

to

Gay

and

Airasian (2000:134), descriptive research

without giving treatment to the students. It

common use sample 10 to 20% from the

is also supporting by Hennie (2010:11)

participants. There are 9 classes the

state that the purpose of qualitative

students of Senior High School 4 Padang

research is to describe and understand

at tenth grade and each class consists of 32

social phenomenon in term of meaning

students.

people bring to them. Based on these

It

means

there

are

288

participants that possible to be participants

theories the researcher used descriptive

in this research. The researcher took 15%

design because she wanted to analyze and

from participants. Thus, the researcher

describe about the students’ ability in 6

c. Focus on more participants and

took 32 students as representative of

unspecific

participants. The researcher chose 1 class

d. Focus

as participant randomly in this study.

participant

and

unspecific

FINDINGS

e. Focus on more than 1 participant

After the researcher analyzed students’

but specific

ability in writing generic structure of descriptive

one

text,

the

researcher

2. Descriptiption

has

a. Described about physical

answered the research questions. The first

appearances, characteristic, and

research question was “how do the

hobby of participant (person)

students organize the generic structure of

b. Described about physical

descriptive text?” the answer was there

appearances and characteristic of

were some students’ ways in organization

participant (person)

the generic structure of descriptive text.

c. Only described about achievement

The researcher found some students’ ways

(person)

how the students wrote identification and

d. Describing about place (shape and

description in writing generic structure of

contents)

descriptive text. Here some students’ way

e. Describing about hobby, habit,

in writing generic structure of descriptive

feature, and physical appearances

text, the research found some variations:

(animal ) 1. Identification

f. Describing about habit, and physical appearances (animal )

a. Focuses on 1 participant and specific

Next, second research question was

b. Focus on one participant but

how is organization of students’ writing

unspecific

descriptive text well? The answer of this 7

research question was some of students did

write generic structure of descriptive text

not

well.

write

the

generic

structure

of

descriptive text well. They did not fulfill

REFFERENCES

some criteria based on Winch’s theory

Baker,mark. (2011) Three Components of Writing Skill. retrieved on june 2014. From http://everypageispageone.com/th ree-components-of-writing-skill/

such as did not put identification in the first paragraph, described more than one participant, and they also did not describe

Coulmas, Florian (2003). Writing Systems (an introduction to their linguistic analysis). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

the thing that they wanted to describe into detail information. However, generally, all of the participants were able to write

Gay, L.R and Airasian. 2000. Educational Reading: Competency For Analysis And Aplication 6th Edition. New Jersey: Pretice Hall Company.

generic structure of descriptive text. CONCLUSION The researcher concludes that most

Mulyono (2002). English Way 2. Jakarta: Quadra Nunan , David. (2003). Practical English Language Teaching. New York: Mcgrew Hill Companies

of the students were able to write the identification of descriptive text well .It could happen because they still got

Winch, Gordon (2005). Growing up with Grammar. Sydney: New Frontier Publishing

confused how to write identification well. Then, most of the students were able to

Yudhantoro, Elang (2010). Rangkuman Bahasa Inggris. Jakarta Selatan: Gagas Media

write the description of descriptive text well In short, based on the explanation above, the researcher can conclude some of the students of Senior High School 4 Padang at tenth grade were not able to

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