AN ANALYSIS OF THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS’ ABILITY AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF BUNG HATTA UNIVERSITY IN DEVELOPING A TOPIC SENTENCE INTO AN EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH

Abstrak

Abstract

The background of the study was that the second year students got difficulties in organizing ideas, using vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. This study was aimed to describe the students’ ability in developing a topic sentence into an expository paragraph. The design of this study was descriptive in nature. The number of population was 102 students who were distributed into class A, B, and C. The writer used cluster random sampling technique in selecting the sample. Class A which consisted of 32 students (31%) became a sample. The data of this study were the students’ scores. To collect the data, the writer used writing test in the form of essay. In this test, the students should choose one of the four topic sentences to be developed into an expository paragraph. The result of trying out test showed that the coefficient correlation of two scores was 0.95 which was categorized as very high correlation. It means that the test was reliable. To analyze the data, the writer presented the raw scores; calculated the mean and standard deviation; classified the students into high, moderate, and low ability; and calculated the number and percentage of the students’ ability. Generally, the result of this study showed that 22 students (68.75%) got moderate ability in developing a topic sentence into an expository paragraph. Specifically, the result of this study showed that 18 students (56.25%) got moderate ability in organizing ideas, 22 students (68.75%) got moderate ability in using vocabulary, 18 students (56.25%) got moderate ability in grammar, and 17 students (53.125%) got moderate ability in mechanics. In conclusion, the second year students’ ability in developing a topic sentence into an expository paragraph was moderate. It means that there were some students who still got difficulties in organizing ideas, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics.

Key words: analysis, ability, developing, topic sentence, expository paragraph