AN ANALYSIS OF THE SECOND GRADE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING AN EXPLANATION TEXT AT SMAN 1 PARIAMAN

Abstrak

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to describe the second grade students’ ability in writing an explanation text at SMAN 1 Pariaman. The design of this research was descriptive. The number of population members of this research was 151 students. They were divided into four classes. The size of the sample was 75 students. The researcher used stratified cluster random sampling technique to get representative sample. The instrumentation used to collect the data was writing test. In this test, the researcher gave some topics to be written by students about explanation text. The reliability index of this test was .84. This study found in general that the second grade students’ ability of SMAN 1 Pariaman in writing an explanation text was moderate (70.67%). In specific, their ability in writing general statement was moderate (65.33%), their ability in writing a sequenced explanation was moderate (65.33%), their ability in writing closing was moderate (68%), their ability in using the correct form of grammatical structure was moderate (72%), their ability in using appropriate vocabulary was moderate (68%), and their ability in using the correct mechanics was moderate (65.33%). The findings of the research lead the researcher to conclude that the ability of the second grade students at SMAN 1 Pariaman was moderate. Based on the conclusion, the researcher gives suggestion to the teachers and the students. The researcher suggests the teachers to give more explanation and give more exercises in order to help the students to improve their ability in writing an explanation text. She also suggests the students to learn more about explanation text and do more practices in writing an explanation text.

Key words: writing, explanation text.