AN ANALYSIS OF THE THIRD YEAR STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING PERSUASIVE PARAGRAPH AT THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF BUNG HATTA UNIVERSITY

Abstrak

This research was aimed at describing the ability of the third year students of Bung
Hatta University in a writing persuasive paragraph. The design of this research was
descriptive. The total number of population of this research was 158. The researcher used
cluster random sampling technique in taking the sample. The researcher took 25 % of the
population as the sample. There were 40 students as the sample. In collecting the data, the
researcher used writing test. In this test, the students chose the topic they like most. In
analyzing the data based on the result of writing test, the researcher presented the raw score,
then calculated the students’ score, classified the students who get high, moderate, or low
ability, and finally, counted the percentage of students’ ability. The result of this research
showed that in general the students’ ability of the third year at Bung Hatta University to write
a persuasive paragraph was moderate. The researcher suggested to the lecturers and students
to do more exercise in writing and to the next researchers to find out other relevant aspects in
writing persuasive paragraph for example difficulties in writing a persuasive paragraph.
Key word: Ability, Writing skill, Cluster random sampling, Persuasive Paragraph.