Analysis of the Second Year Students’ Problem in Writing a narrative Paragraph at the English Department of Bung Hatta University

Abstrak

 Writing is a system of communication which signifies language through the writing of signs and symbols. It is an important skill which makes the students think and organize their mind and understand ideas and concepts (Shabani et al. 2016). Although the students have studied writing a narrative paragraph, the students still have problem in writing a narrative paragraph. The problems deal with organization of paragraph, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. It can be seen from their exercises in writing a narrative paragraph. The researcher found that they had some errors in grammar, vocabulary and using mechanic. This fact makes the researcher eager to know scientifically the students’ problems in writing narrative paragraph. The purpose of this research was to analyze students` problem in writing a narrative paragraph at the English Department of Bung Hatta University. 

The design of this research was descriptive research. The population of this research was the second year students at the English Department of Bung Hatta University. The total sample members were 24 students, and they were chosen by using total sampling technique. The data were collected through writing test. To make the test reliable, the researcher used inter-rater method. It means that there were two scorers to check the students’ writing. The correlation coefficient of two sets of score was 0.87. It means that the test was reliable.

The result of this research showed that the students had no problem in writing a narrative paragraph. Specifically, the students had no problem in writing topic sentence, supporting sentences, vocabulary and mechanics. However, they had problem in writing concluding sentence and grammar. It was indicated by the fact that 52, 18 % students had problem in writing concluding sentence, and 60, 87 % students had problem in applying correct grammar.

Based on the finding of this study, a simple conclusion could be drawn that the students had no problem in writing a narrative paragraph. It is suggested that the students should maintain their ability by doing more exercises and practice writing. Besides, the lecturers are suggested to give more explanation as well as exercises on grammar and writing concluding sentence. And, the next researcher is suggested to do related research.

Key words: Writing Skill, Writing Paragraph, Narrative Paragraph