An Analysis of the Third Year Students Ability in Writing Cause – Effect Paragraph at English Department of Bung Hatta University, Thesis, English Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Bung Hatta University Padang.

Abstrak

Writing is a skill to express ideas, thoughts, and memories into written form, either in the form of sentence, paragraph, or essay (Agustrianti 2014). A paragraph is a piece of writing that is made up of three main parts: topic sentence, supporting sentences and concluding sentence. In writing cause – effect, students are required to give information or cause and effect to the readers in order to make readers agree with their thought, idea or statement that are supported by facts. The purpose of this research was to find out the third year students’ ability to write cause – effect paragraph at English Department of Bung Hatta University. Specifically, it is to find out the ability of the third year students to write the topic sentence, supporting sentences, concluding sentence, to use correct grammar, to use the appropriate vocabulary and to apply mechanics (spelling, punctuation, and capitalization) in writing cause – effect paragraph.

The design of the research was descriptive. The population of the research was the third year students at English Department of Bung Hatta University. The total population of the research was 31 students, chosen by using total sampling technique. The data were collected by using writing test in the form of writing cause – effect paragraph, and the reliability index was .75 it means that the test has high reliability.

Based on the result of data analysis, it is indicated that the third year students’ ability in writing cause – effect paragraph at Bung Hatta University in general was very good. It was proved by the fact that 32.26% of them (10 students) got very good ability. The students’ ability to write topic sentence of cause – effect paragraph was very good. It was proved by the fact that there were 48.39% of them (15 students) got very good ability. The students’ ability to write supporting sentences of cause – effect paragraph was low. It was proved by the fact that there were 51.61% (16 students) got low ability. The students’ ability to write concluding sentences of cause – effect paragraph was low. It was proved by the fact that there were 77.42% (24 students) got low ability. The students’ ability to use correct grammar in writing cause – effect paragraph was very good. It was proved by the fact that there were 51.61% (16 students) got very good ability. The students’ ability to use appropriate vocabulary in writing cause – effect paragraph was very good. It was proved by the fact that there were 93.55% (29 students) got very good ability. The students’ ability to use correct mechanics in writing cause – effect paragraph was low. It was proved by the fact that there were 80.65% (25 students) got low ability.

Finally, based on the findings, the reseracher concluded that the third year students’ ability to write cause – effect paragraph was good. Related to the conclusion, she suggested that the lecturers should give more practices of several aspects of cause – effect paragraph; topic sentence, supporting sentences, concluding sentence, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics in order that the students’ ability to write cause – effect paragraph will be improved. The researcher suggests the students to do more practice in writing cause – effect paragraph, and to pay attention to the components of cause – effect paragraph.

Key words: Writing Skill, Paragraph, Cause – Effect Paragraph