STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING CAUSE AND EFFECT SENTENCE AT TWELFTH GRADE OF CULINARY ART, SKMN 2 PARIAMAN

Abstrak

INTRODUCTION Writing is one of the important skills in our communication with others. There are four language skills in learning English, namely reading, speaking, listening and writing. Writing is a skill to express ideas, thoughts, and memories into written form, either in the form of sentence, paragraph, or essay which needs some practice done step by step[1]. Based on the study conducted by Khalel (2020), he found that more than 50% students had difficulties in writing simple sentences in writing positive simple sentences by using expressions of quantity (both, a couple of, several, a number of) [2]. There are several types of sentence completions; restatement, comparison, contrast, cause and effect. A cause and effect sentence is a sentence that expresses a relationship between events and things that happened. A cause and effect sentence is made by using cause and effect generally involving an action that makes something happening and there is a result of that action [3]. To write cause and effect sentences we must use logical sentences and grammar that are correct so that readers can easily understand our writing. Based on the explanation above, the researcher decided to research that concern students’ ability in writing cause and effect sentence at twelfth grade of Culinary Art, SMKN 2 Pariaman. METHODS The researcher used a descriptive method for this research. Descriptive research involves collecting data in order to test hypotheses or to answer the questions concerning the current status of the subject of the study [4]. The population of this research was the twelfth grade students at SMKN 2 Pariaman. The total number of population members were 29 students. It means that all the population would be the research sample. The researcher used the total sampling technique in selecting the sample of this research. In this research, the researcher used a writing test for collecting the data. Based on the result of the data analysis, the reability index of this test was 0.98 (very high correlation). It was categorized as very high correlation. It meant that the test was reliable and could be used as instument to collect the data. The researcher collected the data as follows; First, the researcher created a WhatsApp group whose members are all of the research sample. Then, researcher explained the direction and prepared the test by using a Moodle application which used the school’s website. After that, students did the test in 40 minutes. The researcher converted the score into school’s criteria, and the researcher classified the students’ ability who have very high, high, moderate, and low ability. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS Based on the result of the data analysis, the students had moderate ability in writing cause and effect sentence at twelfth grade of Culinary Art, SMKN 2 Pariaman. It was showed that were 6 students (20.68%) classified into good ability, 16 students (55.17%) classified into moderate ability, 7 students (36.84%) classified into low ability in writing cause and effect sentence. Table 1. Students’ Ability in Writing Cause and Effect Range of criteria Quality Number of Students Ability 95-100 A+ 0 Very good 90-94 A 0 85-89 A- 0 80-84 B+ 0 Good 75-79 B 2 70-74 B- 4 60-69 C 16 Moderate Less than 60 D 7 Low Total Number of Students 29 1. The Students’ Ability in Writing Cause and Effect Sentence In this finding, generally it is more than a half of students had moderate ability in writing cause and effect sentence. It was 16 students (55.17%) had moderate ability. It is in line with a study which was conducted by Aulia (2015), the second year students’ ability to write a short message at MTSN Kuranji 1 Padang. It was found that 62.5% students could write a short message and it can be classified into the moderate ability. So, these two studies had similar finding. 2. The Students’ Ability Sentence to Apply Grammar in Writing Cause and Effect The second finding of this research that the students’ ability to apply grammar in writing cause and effect was 13 students (44.82%) who got moderate ability. It is not in line with a study conducted by Asral (2021), the third year students’ ability to write a definition by using a complex sentence at the english department of Bung Hatta Universtity. Based on her result, it was found that 73% students could apply grammatical structure and it can be classified into the good ability. So, from these two studies were found different findings. 3. The Students’ Ability to Use Vocabulary in Writing Cause and Effect Sentence The third finding of this research that the students’ ability to use vocabulary in writing cause and effect was 19 students (65.51%) got moderate ability. It is in line with a study which was conducted by Maharani (2016), entitled “The Correlation Between Students’ Vocabulary and Grammar Mastery Towards Their Ability in Writing an Argumentative Essay in Bung Hatta University”. It was 36% students could use vocabulary in writing argumentative essay and it can be classified into the very good ability. So, from these two studies were found different findings. 4. The Students Ability’ to Apply Mechanics in Writing Cause and Effect Sentence The four finding of this research that the students’ ability to apply mechanics in writing cause and effect was 17 students (58.621%) got good ability. It is in line with a study which was conducted by Putri (2014), An Analysis of The Tenth Grade Students’ Ability in Writing Recount Text at SMA Adabiah 1 Padang. It was 46.875% students got moderate ability to apply mechanics in writing recount text. So, from these two studies were found different findings. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS Based on the result of the data analysis, the researcher concluded that the twelfth grade students of culinary art at SMKN 2 Pariaman had moderate ability in writing cause and effect sentence. Related to conclusions, it is suggested to the teachers are expected to give some exersises to improve the students ability in developing cause and effect sentence. Next, the researcher suggests to the next researcher to conduct the study about what causes the student only has moderate ability in writing cause and effect especially in aplyying grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. Then, the researcher suggests the student minimize some mistakes in writing the cause and effect especially in aplyying grammar, vocabulary and mechanics. Keywords: Cause, Effect, Grammar, Vocabulary, and Mechanics