The Second Year Students’ Ability to Arrange Jumbled Sentences to Create a Descriptive Paragraph at English Department of Bung Hatta University

Abstrak

Writing is representation of language in a textual medium through the use of signs or symbols. According to Brown (2001), writing is thinking processbecause writing is a process of putting ideas down on paper, to transform thought into words and to give them structure and coherent organization. The purpose of this research was to find out the second year students’ abilityto arrange jumbled sentences to create a descriptive paragraph at English Department of BungHatta University.

The research belongs to descriptive design. The population of this research was the second year students atEnglish Department of Bung Hatta University.They werechosen as sample by using total sampling technique.The total sample members were 24 students, but when the data was collected only 20 students attended the test. The methodused in this study was descriptive method. In collecting data, the researcher usedwriting testin the form of arranging jumbled sentences as instrument to collect data.The data had validity and realibility index was 0.99.

The results of data analysis showed that the second year students’ ability toarrange jumbled sentences to create a descriptive paragraph was very good. It was proved by the factthat 12 students (60%) had very good ability, 0 students (0%) had good ability, 5 students (25%) had moderate ability and 3 students (15%) had low ability. Specifically, the second year students’ abilityin arranging jumbled sentences describing a place was moderate. It was proved by the fact that the majority of students (25 %) hadvery good ability, 30% students had good ability, 40% students had moderate ability and 5% had low ability. The second year students’ ability to arrange jumbled sentences to create a descriptive paragraph describing a person was very good. It wasproved by the fact that the majority of students (55%) had very good ability, 30%students had good ability, 0% students had moderate ability and 15% students had low ability. This study also found that the third year students’ ability to arrange jumbled sentences to create a descriptive paragraph describing a thing was very good. It was proved by the fact the majority of students (60%) had very good ability, 10% students had good ability, 15 % students had moderate ability and 15% students had low ability.The second year students’ ability to arrange jumbled sentences to create a descriptive paragraph was very good. It was proved by the fact themajority of students (12%) had very good ability, 0% students had good ability,25% students had moderate  ability and 15% students had low ability.

In conclusion, the result of this study showed that students’ ability toarrange jumbled sentences to create a descriptive paragraph was very good. Therefore, the studentsare suggested to do writing test constantly in order to defend ability.The researcher suggests the lecturers to use jumbled sentences as one of alternative techniques to improve the students’ ability in writing. In addition, the reseacher suggests the next resercher to do research on other types of pararaph such as: narrative, expository and argumentative paragraph.

Keywords :writing, descriptive paragraph, jumbled sentences