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IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL

BY USING WEBLOG

(A Classroom Action Research at the Second Grade of SMA N Colomadu

in the Academic Year of 2010 / 2011)

A Thesis

Written by

Azis Oka Setiawan

X2209010

Submitted to Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret

University as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Obtaining

The Undergraduate Degree of Education in English

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY

SURAKARTA

2011


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ABSTRACT

Azis Oka Setiawan. IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL BY USING

WEBLOG. A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH AT THE SECOND

GRADE OF SMA N COLOMADU IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2010/2011.

Thesis, Surakarta: Teacher Training and Education Faculty. Sebelas Maret

University, 2011.

The second year students of SMU Negeri I Colomadu, Academic Year

2010/2011, had problems dealing with writing skill. First, they found it hard to

express their idea in writing including expanding content and making a better

organization of sentences. Second, they found it hard to make a better language

use. Third, they lacked vocabulary mastery. Fourth, they lack of mechanics skill

which make them unable to use it correctly. Fifth, their interest or motivation in

learning English is low. To overcome the problems, the researcher designed an

action research to teach writing skill by using weblog. The purpose of the research

is to investigate whether or not weblog writing can improve students’ writing skill

and class condition.

The action research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consisted

of four steps: planning, action, observation and reflection. To collect the

qualitative data, the researcher used field notes, questionnaires, and interview. To

collect the quantitative data, the researcher conducted tests. The tests were pre-test

and post tests. To analyze the qualitative data, the researcher used Constant

Comparative Method. There were five steps to analyze the qualitative data: (1)

Assembling the data, (2) Coding the data, (3) Comparing the data, (4) Building

interpretations, and reporting the outcomes. For the quantitative data, the

researcher analyzed the mean scores of the tests to compare differences between

pre-test and post-test.

The result of the research shows that weblog writing could improve:

(1) the students’ writing skill. The students could make a story with a good and

well expanded content. Their ideas also had been better. Then, the students had

the ability to construct sentences based on the grammar. They also used

appropriate vocabularies dealing with the topic in their writing and their

mechanics had also been improved. In general, students are encouraged to practice

writing as much as possible. The improvements of the mean scores showed that there was an improvement on the students’ writing skill. Therefore, it could be

concluded that weblog writing could improve the students’ writing skill. (2)

Weblog could also improve the class condition. It is proven by the students’

attendance. They come on time in English class. They always pay attention and

keep listening to the teacher’s explanation.

Based on the result of the study above, the researcher suggests that

English teachers had better implemented weblog writing in their class in order to

help the students improve their writing skill.


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MOTTO

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and

magic in it.

Goethe

Never let your schooling interfere with your education.

Mark Twain

The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to

find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.

Voltaire


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DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to:

1. My beloved Mom and Dad, thanks for your care

and prayer for me everywhere and every time.

2. My elder brother who gives me cheers in my life.

3. My girlfriend who always motivates me to be a

better person.

4. All my best friends in English Department.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praise be to Allah SWT, The Lord of Universe, who always blesses

the researcher in finishing his thesis as a partial requirement for getting the

Undergraduate Degree of Education in English Department. The writer would like

to express his special gratitude to those who have given him their help, guidance,

and support in writing this thesis.

1. Prof. Dr. M. Furqon Hidayatullah, M.Pd, The Dean of Teacher Training and

Education Faculty, who has given his permission to write this thesis.

2. Endang Setyaningsih, S.Pd, M.Hum, The Head of English Department, who

has given his permission to write this thesis.

3. Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd, the first consultant for his patience, guidance, and

suggestions.

4. Hefy Sulistyawati, S.S, the second consultant for his patience, guidance, and

suggestions.

5. The lecturers of English Education Program who have given him knowledge

and education.

6. The family of SMU Negeri I Colomadu for facilitating, helping, and

participating in this research.

7. My beloved friends in OFIA boarding house, Wisnu, Eka, Yudi, Rifki, Galih,

Habibi, Gilang, and Bambang who pray, support and everything to the writer.

8. My family, friends, and those who are impossible to mention one by one for

their love, support, help, prayer, understanding, and everything that they give

to the writer.

The researcher realizes that this thesis is still far from being perfect.

So, he accepts gratefully every comment and suggestion. Hopefully, this thesis

will be useful for the readers and English education improvement.

Surakarta, November 2011

AOS


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TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE ............................................................................................................... i

APPROVAL ..................................................................................................... ii

LEGITIMATION ............................................................................................ iii

ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... iv

MOTTO............................................................................................................ v

DEDICATION ................................................................................................. vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................... vii

TABLE OF CONTENT ................................................................................... viii

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... x

LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................. xi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study .................................................. 1

B. Problem Formulation ........................................................ 5

C. The Objectives of the Study .............................................. 5

D. The Benefits of the Study .................................................. 6

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Review of Writing Skill .................................................... 7

1. The Definition of Writing Skill .................................... 7

2. The Elements of Writing ............................................. 10

3. The Types of Writing ................................................... 11

4. The Process of Writing ................................................. 12

5. The Criteria of Good Writing ....................................... 16

B. The Review of Weblog ...................................................... 18

1. The Definition of Weblog ............................................. 18

2. The Types of Weblog in Education .............................. 19

3. Tools for Weblog ......................................................... 19

C. Implementation of Weblog in Writing .............................. 20

D. Steps of Teaching Writing ................................................. 22


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E. Advantages and Disadvantages ......................................... 24

F. Rationale ............................................................................ 27

G. Hypothesis ......................................................................... 28

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. The Setting of the Research ............................................... 30

B. The Subject of the Research .............................................. 30

C. The Research Methodology ............................................... 31

D. The Procedure of Action Research ................................... 33

E. The Technique of Collecting Data ................................... 34

F. The Technique of Analyzing the Data .............................. 38

CHAPTER IV RESULT OF THE RESEARCH

A. Introduction ...................................................................... 41

B. Research Finding .............................................................. 42

1. The First Cycle ............................................................. 43

a. Planning the Action ................................................. 43

b. Implementing the Action ........................................ 43

c. Observing the Action ............................................... 45

d. Reflecting the result of the Observation .................. 47

2. The Second Cycle ......................................................... 50

a. Revising the Plan ..................................................... 50

b. Implementing the Action ......................................... 51

c. Observing the Action .............................................. 54

d. Reflecting the Result of the Observation ................. 55

C. Discussion ......................................................................... 57

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion ........................................................................ 61

B. Implication......................................................................... 61

C. Suggestion ......................................................................... 62

BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDICES


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Pretest and Post-test I average score of indicators .............................. 48

Table 4.2 Pretest, Post-test I, and Post-test II average score of indicators ......... 56


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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Lesson Plans ................................................................................ 68

Appendix 2. Field Notes .................................................................................. 98

Appendix 3. Interview Note ............................................................................. 123

Appendix 4. Sample of Students’ Questionnaires............................................ 138

Appendix 5. Result of Students’ Questionnaires ............................................. 143

Appendix 6. Scoring Rubrics ........................................................................... 151

Appendix 7. Pre and Post Test Items ............................................................... 153

Appendix 8. Sample of Students’ Test Results ................................................ 159

Appendix 9. The result of the Test ................................................................... 171

Appendix 10. Photographs of Students Activities ........................................... 175

Appendix 11 Permission Letters ..................................................................... 177


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English has been known as an International Language which is used

all over the world. Nowadays, it has become one of the most important subjects

that must be taught in most formal institutions from primary schools until

universities in Indonesia. Besides, in primary and secondary schools, English has

become one of the subjects in the final examination (UAN). This matter is stated

in Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Nomor 75 Tahun 2009 pasal 7 ayat 7

that stated "Mata Pelajaran UN SMP/MTs, dan SMPLB meliputi: Bahasa

Indonesia, Bahasa Inggris, Matematika, dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam (IPA)”.

Now, it is clear that English is very important to be learned.

There are four language skills that should be mastered by the students

in learning English, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Harmer

(1983: 44) also empowers this matter that listening and reading belong to

receptive skills in which the language users are required to have the ability to

receive spoken and written language, while speaking and writing belong to

productive skills in which the language users are required to have the ability to

produce language both spoken and written. These four language skills are

integrated and related to each other. Based on KTSP curriculum, all skills in

teaching and learning English that are integrated each other must be learnt and

taught by both students and teacher. Writing will help students master the other

skills and of course in mastering English completely. Besides, the students are

sometimes afraid and shy to say what they want to say but they can write what

they think and what they want to say.

Writing, which belongs to productive skills, can be described as an

act of forming graphic symbol or making marks on flat surface. Graphic symbols

here include letters or combinations of letters that relate to the sound people make

when they speak (Byrne, 1997: 1). The symbols have to be arranged to form


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words, sentences, and/or paragraph. Writing involves transferring message from

our thoughts to the form of flat surface (written form) using language. In addition,

the students’ writing must involve several writing components including content,

organization, vocabulary, language use (grammar), and mechanism which can be

said as a good writing (Jacobs in Haswell, 2007: 1).

According to the pre-research observation in the students of XI IA 4

writing ability of SMA N Colomadu, Karanganyar is still low. The problems

faced by the students in writing text include difficulties in exploring and

expressing their idea, lack of vocabulary, less tenses understanding, difficulties in

making good sentences, and they are often confused in starting writing. It is

shown in their bad marks in English lesson pretest by 26.67 % of students mark

above the KKM in pretest. There are also five indicators of mean score which are

below the KKM in pretest like content (66.38%), organization (65.575%),

vocabulary (60.425%), language use (59.8%) and mechanics (59.7%). Moreover,

the questionnaire indicates that the students have difficulties in all five indicators

of writing, namely, content (sometimes for 66.67%), organization (sometimes for

70%), vocabulary (sometimes for 60%), language use (sometimes for 60%), and

mechanism (sometimes for 50%). The students also seem to feel difficult when

they are asked to write their idea. Then, when they submit their work, it is almost

blank or some students write only a few words. Their attitude and motivation

toward the English lesson also show that they are not so interested in joining the

class. When the English lesson started, the students were still talking and when

the teacher explained the material, they ignored it.

The problems faced by the students and the teacher are caused by

some factors that may come from the students, the teacher, media, or method used

in teaching learning process. The students are not so interested in learning English

especially writing because English is just considered as a foreign language and not

used in daily conversations. They think that learning English is just to know the

grammatical patterns and vocabulary. Besides, they mostly come from families

with low or middle level of social economy that makes them have low

understanding about English and have limited attention from their parents because


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they think English will not be used after they graduate from school. Those are all

that make them have low motivation in learning English.

There are also some causes coming from the teacher. First, the teacher

does not give adequate practice for the students to write because the teacher

merely teaches grammar and reading. Second, no media and creative technique

are used in exploring the students’ skill in writing. Teacher should be able to make

conducive class by using creative media and strategy in presenting the materials,

motivating the students, giving reinforcements, and using variety of methods to

get the goal. So far, most teachers teach conventionally, by giving the students

lecture and presenting the materials without any media. The media are so

important in teaching English. The media include tape recorders, cassettes, video

cameras, film, pictures, television, computers, etc.

Related to the problem above, the teacher proposes the technique and

media to improve the students’ writing skill by using Weblog or Blog which is

simply defined as “online diaries, logs of thoughts, reflections; a space for

individuals to write whatever they choose with an option for readers to comment

on what they have read (Eastment, 2005: 358-361). Blog is one of the newest and

the most promising one with regard to effective writing instruction. This method

uses the class as a discussion class of what material they have worked in the blog.

Likewise, Campbell (2003: i-ii) also discusses the possibilities of

integrating weblogs into educational context, especially in language teaching field

and mentions three types of blogs that are likely to be beneficial for language

learners. The first type is tutor blog through which the class teacher can produce

special texts for reading and vocabulary activities by considering the students

proficiency levels. Creating a tutor blog, the language teacher can also direct the

students towards English websites and guide them in their self-study by creating

“links to online quizzes, English news sites, key-pal networks, audio and video

files for listening practice and interactive websites”.

The second is learner blog run by individual learners. He claims that

this type of blog “may be best suited for reading and writing classes” and he

explained the function of learner blogs in writing as follows: individually, blogs


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can be used as journals for writing practice, or as free-form templates for personal

expression. The idea here is that students can get writing practice, develop a sense

of ownership, and get experience with the practical, legal, and ethical issues of

creating a hypertext document. The last advice for use with language classes is a

collaborative work through effort of an entire class. It can serve like a free form

bulletin board for learners to share thoughts on a common topic assigned as

homework. It can also prove to be useful for an international language exchange.

Ward (2004: 1-15) expresses the place of weblog in writing

instruction. As for the language teacher, the weblog is a timely arrival which can

fulfill many of the needs identified for the effective teaching of writing. The

weblog provides a genuine audience, is authentically communicative, process

driven, peer reviewed, provides unusual context and offers a completely new form

with unchartered creative potential. By forming a learner blog, the writing teacher

can make use of blogging in all the stages of writing process from drafting to

publishing and assessment. In drafting stage, the students can share their writings

through blog pages and this will ease the feedback process. All the class members

and the teacher can reach the drafts at any time and place so they can give

feedback easily. Since the drafts are on the net, there will be no time restriction (as

it is in classroom context) and peers can examine the drafts as long as they want.

There are some advantages and disadvantages coming from the

weblog itself both from the teacher and the students. In teacher side, blog has

advantages that it is a convenient teaching aid because it is simple to edit class

material or if something new needs to be added. Then, on students’ side, weblogs

also serve as a valuable learning assistant because they have the option of

previewing the class material before class and reviewing the material after class

easily. In addition, they can easily look up words they do not understand in an

online dictionary.

The disadvantages from the teacher are that weblog is not easy to be

prepared because weblogs have the potential to be hacked, accidentally deleted or

suddenly out of service. For this reason, hard drive backups and printouts of

material posted to weblogs are essential. On students’ side, network etiquettes


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may sometimes turn out to be a risky matter for students because of the reader

criticism which could be unproductive, hurtful or even offensive.

Apart from reviewing their peers’ writings, weblogs allow the

students to see the feedback given by the teacher to the other students and this is

assumed to contribute to their understanding of successful writing. The

opportunities offered by the weblogs are not restricted only with the teacher and

peer feedback; it is also likely that an awareness of the audience is aroused in the

students depending on open-to-anyone nature of the internet. The concept of

awareness of the audience is continually emphasized in the writing instruction

with the claim that if the students know what they have written will be read by

someone other than the teacher, they will produce more meaningful and

successful texts.

These are the benefits that are probable to be obtained from the learner

blogs. In addition to the learner blogs, teachers can make use of blogging by

setting a tutor blog through which they can provide their students with lots of

materials internet includes, so they can create opportunities for extra studying for

the students. The students can choose among the materials given by the teacher

according to their own needs, and this will lead to the individualization of learning

(Stepp-Greany, 2002: 165-180). When the choice of material to study is left to the

students, they will take much more responsibility for their learning and develop a

sense of autonomous learning, which is assumed to increase success in writing.

Considering the roles of blog in language learning, it is expected that

through blog, students can be motivated in learning language, express their idea

into a good paragraph more easily, and improving their writing skill. In addition,

the teacher will only use tutor and student’s learner blog to improve student

writing skill.

Based on the problems and the proposed solution above, the writer is

interested to conduct an action research with the title “Improving Students’

Writing Skill by Using Weblog (A Classroom Action Research at SMA N

Colomadu in the Academic Year of 2010 / 2011)”.


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B. Problem Formulation

Based on the background of the study above, the problems are

formulated as follows:

1. How can Weblog improve the students' skill in writing a text?

2. What happens when weblog is implemented in teaching writing?

C. Objective of the Study

Based on the problem formulation above, the objectives of this

research are:

1. To describe how weblog can improve the students' skill in writing a text.

2. To describe what happens when weblog is implemented for teaching writing.

D. Benefit of the Study

If the research gives positive result, it is expected to be able to give

some benefits for students, teachers, schools, and other researchers.

1. For students, it is expected that this research result will help them improve their

writing skill. The students will be able to:

a. explore their ideas into words;

b. choose the appropriate words in certain context;

c. make a good sentence with the right word order and tense; and

d. make a simple text correctly and appropriately.

2. For teachers, this research result can be used as resources so teachers can apply

weblog in improving students' writing skill.

3. For schools, this research result can be used as resources in developing

techniques of teaching writing.

4. For other researchers, this research result may help them in finding references

for further research.


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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Writing Skill

1. Definition of Writing Skill

Generally, writing can be interpreted as the act of forming or

tracing a character on paper or other suitable materials with a pen or pencil.

Byrne (1980: 24) defines that writing is a primary means of recording speech,

even though it must be acknowledged as a secondary medium of

communication. He also defines that writing is an act of forming graphic

symbols, or making marks on flat surface of some kind. Graphic symbols here

include letters or combinations of letters that relate to the sound people make

when they speak. The symbols have to be arranged, according to certain

conventions, to form words, sentences, and/or paragraph

According to Enre (1988: 148) the aims of writing are:

a. to explain or to inform

b. to tell something as it was looked and heard

c. to tell something about something happened

d. to convince someone

Meanwhile, Flower (1989: 54) suggests a more elaborate

definition, he states:

“Writing is best understood as a set of distinctive thinking

processes which writers orchestrate or organize during the act of

composing. The processes of writing are hierarchically organized,

with component processes embedded within other components.

Writing is a goal-directed process. In the act of composing, writers

create a hierarchical network of goals and these in turn guide the

writing process. Writers create their own goals in two key ways: by

generating goals and supporting sub-goals which embody a

purpose; and, at times, by changing or regenerating their own top-

level goals in light of what they have learned by writing.

Meanwhile, Meyers (2005: 2) says that writing is a way to produce


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language when you do and when you speak. Writing is communicating with

others in a verbal way. Meyers states:

“Writing is a way to produce language, which you do naturally

when you speak. Writing is communicating with others in a verbal

way. Writing is also an action- a process of discovering and

organizing your ideas, putting them on a paper and reshaping and

revising them”.

Harmer (2004: 86) in How to Teach Writing states “Writing is a

process that what we write is often heavily influenced by the constraints of

genres, then these elements have to be present in learning activities”.

Then, Pelz in Burton, et al. (2009:5) describes:

“writing in which persons seek to probe their experience, to reflect

upon it, with the intentions of discovering and developing their

attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and ideas about experience . . . .The

audience for such writing is the author of it, as well as trusted

friends and colleagues who might be in a position to help the writer

carry on the exploratory purpose of the writing. . . . Its subject

matter perforce draws heavily upon the personal experience and

knowledge of the writer, no matter what the nominal topic of the

writing might be. . . . Thus, its form is typically meditative and

associative, . . and its style is, therefore, casual, adhering to the

natural idiom of the writer.

Next, Jacob in Haswell (2007:1) states that students’ writing ability

refers to the students' competence in applying the components of writing

including content, organization, vocabulary, language use (grammar), and

mechanism.

In the same occasion, Langan (2001: 23) states that for many

people, writing is a process that involves the following steps:

a. Discovering a thesis, often through prewriting.

b. Developing solid support for thesis, often through more prewriting.

c. Organizing the thesis and supporting material and writing it out in a

first draft.

d. Revising and then editing carefully to ensure an effective, error free

paper.


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He also states that there are four clear-cut goals in writing like unity, support,

organization, and error-free sentences to aim for in writing.

Furthermore, Hedge (1998: 5) states that writing requires a number

of things; a high degree of organization in the development of ideas and

information; a high degree of accuracy so that there is no ambiguity of

meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis; and

a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures to

create a style which is appropriate to the subject matter and the eventual

readers.

The other expert, Freedman, Pringle and Yalden (1979: 2) as cited

in Corbet (1965: 626), defines about writing, he states:

“….that writing was not studied in the schools; for in the

meantime, as suggested above, there had arisen that very limited

tradition of composition teaching which is so familiar to all of us in

first and second language situation, with its emphasis on correct

usage, correct grammar, correct spelling, and its focus on the topic

sentence, the various methods of developing the paragraph

……and the holy trinity of unity, coherence, and emphasis”.

According to Celce-Murcia, writing is an act of communication

that requires an interaction process which takes place between the writer and

reader via text (1991: 331). In other words, writing is an activity that requires

communicative or interactive process between writer and reader.

From the definitions above it can be concluded that writing is a

process of forming graphic symbols from our thought that involves

discovering, developing, organizing and revising by using medias such as

paper or a computer screen and is aimed for several writing competence like

content, organization, vocabulary, language use (grammar), and mechanism.

Skill is defined as the ability to do something well (Hornby, 2004:

1109). To conclude, writing skill can be defined as the ability to form graphic

symbols from our thought that involves discovering, developing, organizing

and revising by using medias such as paper or a computer screen and is aimed


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for several writing competences like content, organization, vocabulary,

language use (grammar), and mechanism.

2. Elements of Writing

Harris (1969: 68-69) states that there are four elements of writing,

as follows:

a. Mastering Vocabulary/Diction

He states that vocabulary’s mastering/diction played an important

role in a language, especially in the writing activity. The choice of

vocabulary could describe the writer’s knowledge. The number of words

that is mastered by a writer could indicate that he/she mastered a number of

concepts, mastery of vocabulary can be improved by reading and listening a

lot.

Furthermore, Keraf (1982:16) said that the vocabulary’s mastery

could be observed from two sides, those were quantitatively and

qualitatively. Quantitative vocabulary mastery is defined as a must for the

students to master the vocabulary in a language as much as possible, in this

case, the students should master the vocabulary actively, it means that they

are able to use vocabulary in communication. Qualitative vocabulary

mastery consists of knowledge, meaning of words, and structure of words.

Its mastery will support the students to choose the appropriate words, so it

can support the effectiveness of using language. The mastery of quantitative

and qualitative vocabulary is a must. The mastery of quantitative vocabulary

is the first demand to broaden a draft, while the mastery of qualitative

vocabulary is the second demand to deepen the knowledge of words.

b. Mastering Grammatical Rules/Sentence Structure

Mastering grammatical rules/sentence structure consists of

phonology, morphology, and syntax. Phonological rules don’t have any

roles in the writing activity, while morphological and syntactical rules play

some important roles in the writing activity. It deals with the effective use of

the right affixes, conjunction, prefixes, and composition, the structure of the

sentences.


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c. Coherence

Coherence means that the writer’s paragraph is easy to read and

understand because the supporting sentences are in some kind of logical

order and the ideas are connected by use of appropriate transition signals.

d. Spelling

One of the most difficult and confusing aspects of the English

language is spelling system. There is often a discrepancy between the

pronunciation of a word and its spelling. They cannot always know how to

spell a word by its pronunciation or how to pronounce it by its spelling, to

avoid this problem, the students are suggested to open dictionaries before

they are going to write.

3. Types of Writing

A composition is a piece of writing that has more than one

paragraph. It is divided into three parts, namely beginning, middle, and end. A

good composition is a composition in which the paragraphs are arranged

logically and smoothly from the beginning until the end.

Reid (1993: 23) states that there are two ways in which students

may express their thoughts and ideas into English writing; namely controlled

writing and free writing/guided writing. Meanwhile, Raimes (1983: 5)

mentions several approaches in teaching writing.

a. Controlled writing

In this type of writing, the students are helped to produce a good

composition by certain control exercises consisting of pieces of discourse in

which students are instructed to copy and then make discrete changes or fill

in the blanks. This will enable students to more practice with the structure,

punctuations, and grammar.

The controlled-to-free approach is sequential: students are first

given sentence exercises, then paragraphs to copy or manipulate

grammatically by changing questions to statements, present to past, or plural

to singular. They might also change words to clauses or combine sentences.

With these controlled compositions, it is relatively easy to for students to


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write and yet avoid errors, which make error correction easy. As such, this

approach stresses on grammar, syntax, and mechanics. It emphasizes

accuracy rather than fluency or originality.

b. Guided Writing

It is the type of writing in which the students from controlled

writing transit before going to the free writing. In this type, the students are

still guided but not given full control by the teacher. The teacher gives only

title scaffolds while the writing process. Students are allowed to try some

free composition after they have reached an intermediate level of

proficiency.

c. Free Writing

This type stresses writing quantity rather than quality. Teachers

who use this approach assign vast amounts of free writing on given topics

with only minimal correction. The emphasis in this approach is on content

and fluency rather than on accuracy and form. Once ideas are written down

on the page, grammatical accuracy and organization follow. Thus, teachers

may begin their classes by asking students to write freely on any topic

without worrying about grammar and spelling for five or ten minutes. The

teacher does not correct these pieces of free writing. They simply read them

and may comment on the ideas the writer expressed. Alternatively, some

students may volunteer to read their own writing aloud to the class. Concern

for audience and content are seen as important in this approach.

4. Process of Writing

Meyers (2005: 3 – 12) states that there are six steps to make a good

writing, among others are:

a. Exploring Ideas

Writing first involves discovering ideas. Before writing, let our

mind explore freely. And then record those thoughts by writing on whatever

you can. As in speaking, you must have something to say, a reason for

saying it, and someone to say it to.

1) Your subject


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Before writing, ask yourself, “what is the subject or the material

you want to write about and what do I know about it?” Choose a subject

that you care about and know about (or can find out about). Then, you

will have something interesting to say, and you will say it more clearly

and confidently. You must select and then narrow your subject. Then,

you will practice doing that in the exercise that follows later.

2) Your purpose

After deciding the subject, now ask yourself, “What is the

purpose?”Communicating always has a purpose: to persuade, or to

entertain or may be to do all the three. You could inform, persuade or to

entertain your classmate with example of odd incidents you have

experienced at your job.

3) Your Audience

After deciding your subject and your purpose, ask yourself, “Who

is the audience?” To answer to that question will determine what you say

about your subject and what the purpose you hope to achieve. You may

need to provide a lot of evidence to persuade a reader who does not agree

with your opinion, but provide far less for someone who tends to agree

with you.

b. Pre Writing

The second step of the writing process involves writing your

thoughts on paper or on the computer. Don’t worry about making mistakes

because you will probably change your mind and your wording later

anyway. This step is called pre writing. It is a time to relax, to write quickly

and to begin organizing your thoughts. There are also a few ways to speed

up the writing, as follows:

1) Brainstorming

One way to capture your thought is by brainstorming, or listing

thoughts as they come to you. You might brainstorm a second or third

time to generate more ideas.


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2) Clustering

In clustering, you write your subject in the middle of the page and

then circle it. You write related ideas around the circle as they occur to

you. Then you circle the ideas and connect them to your subject circle.

These related ideas are like branches.

3) Free Writing

Another way to get started is free writing. You simply write about

the subject without worrying about sentence, structure, spelling, logic

and grammar. Write as you would speak so that you can get your ideas

down fast.

c. Organizing

After you have put your ideas into words, you can begin to

organize them. This process involves selecting, subtracting, and adding.

Think again about your purpose and audience what goal does you want to

accomplish, to inform, persuade, or entertain? What point do you want to

make? And what should you tell your readers so that you can accomplish

those goals?

Return to your pre writing and do the following:

1) Underline or highlight best ideas in your brainstorming list, putting

related ideas together. Add to the as more ideas occur to you and remove

or ignore the parts that are not related to your choices.

2) Choose the part of the clustering diagram that has the best ideas. Do a

second clustering diagram that explores those ideas in greater detail.

Ignore the parts of the original diagram that are not related to your

choice.

3) Circle or highlight the best parts of your free writing. Do a second even a

third free writing on them, ignore the parts of each free writings that are

not related to your choice. And focus more specifically on your subject

and add more details.

4) Outlining after selecting, subtracting and adding, the writer can make an

informal outline (Meyers, 2005: 5-6).


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d. Writing the First Draft

You have done some pre writing, selected your best ideas,

expanded on them, and arranged them in some reasonable order. Now you

can begin the first draft of your paragraph. Don’t worry about being perfect,

so write fast as if you were speaking to your readers.

Some steps for drafting can be stated as follows:

1) Say something about before you write in

2) Write fast by hand or by computer

3) Use only one side of the paper

4) Leave wide margins and double space to make room for changes.

5) Save your work every five or ten minutes on the computer (Meyers,

2005: 6).

e. Revising the Draft

Revising is among the most important steps in writing, especially

for people who write in a second language. Revising means improving what

you have already written. When your revise, you examine how well you

first draft make its point and achieves its purpose for its audience. That may

require rearranging ideas, developing ideas further, cut out ideas that do not

support your point, and changing the wording of your sentences.

These are some tips for revising:

1) Make notes in the margins or write new material on separate sheet of

paper.

2) Circle words you think you misspelled or will want to change later.

3) Tape or staple additions where you want them to go.

4) On the computer, use cut and paste or insert commands to move things

around.

5) Print out a double space copy for revisions: slow down and revise in

pencil (Meyers: 2005: 7).

f. Producing the Final Copy

There are two steps in producing the final copy, they are:


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1) Editing

After you have revised your paragraph, you can edit your work.

Check it carefully. Focus on grammar, words choice, verb forms,

punctuation, and spelling. Read the paper more than once. Copy it over

or print it our again with all your corrections. This draft should be perfect

and should represent your best effort (Meyers, 2005: 8).

2) Proofreading

The final stage in the revision process is proofreading. That

means carefully reading your draft more than once to check that your

revisions and editorial changes were made correctly (Meyers, 2005: 8).

5) Criteria of Good Writing

A good writing must meet at least three requirements. First, it must

discuss one topic only. The writing must have unity of the subject matter.

Second, tire sentences within the paragraph must have coherence and cohesion.

Finally, they must be tied together so that the readers can read the text as a unit,

not as a collection of separate sentences.

a. Unity

Unity of the text means the relevance of the sentences in a

paragraph. A text has unity if all of the sentences in the text discuss one

main idea. The sentences in the paragraph must support the topic sentence.

If there is a sentence in a paragraph which is not in line with the topic

sentence, it means that the paragraph does not have unity of text.

b. Cohesion and Coherence

Conor in Reid (1993: 36) states about cohesion and coherence as

follows:

1) Cohesion

It is defined as the more limited term; specific words and phrases

(transitions, pronouns, repetitions of the key words and phrases) that tie

prose together and direct the readers. Cohesion is achieved through the

rise of variety of lexical and grammatical relationship between items

within a sentence in a text. There are five types of cohesiveness:


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a) References

Anna did not come to school because she was sick

b) Substitution:

I want red skirt and the blue one.

c) Ellipsis:

Do you want another novel? I have ten more.

d) Conjunction:

I was not informed. Otherwise./ would not take some action.

e) Lexical:

John gave his girlfriend his own portrait. As it happened, she has

always wanted the portrait of John.

2) Coherence

Tannen in Reid (1993: 37) states that coherence is broader-based

concept. It is the underlying organizational structure that makes the

words and sentences in discourse unified and significant for the readers.

Achieving coherence in a text is actually the writer's job. The

readers then just follow the writer and not only understand the words

sentences, and paragraphs, but also relate them to each other and see

what purpose the writer serves in the development of the text. The writer

may use connectives to achieve coherence such as although, but, for

example. A paragraph can be said as coherent when the movement from

one sentence to the next is logical and smooth.

From the explanation above, it can be concluded that writing is a

process of forming graphic symbols from our thought through several

processes like exploring ideas, prewriting, organizing, writing the first draft,

revising and producing the final copy, using four important elements, namely,

diction, sentence structure, coherence, and spelling, including the five

indicators of writing, namely content, organization, vocabulary, language use

(grammar), and mechanics which are in a good unity, cohesion, and coherence.


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B. Review of Weblog

1. Definition of Weblog

There are many theories of weblog. One of them is stated by

Lamshed, et al. (2002: 9) in his book “Blogs: ”Personal e-learning spaces”, he

defines a blog (or blog) as a web-based space for writing. Blogs can be

thought of as an online journal where all the writing and editing of information

is managed through a web browser or a handheld device (PDA). Then he

simplify its meaning as a personal web site managed by an individual who

compiles lists of links to personally interesting material interspersed with

information and editorial. The user can instantly place their words and thoughts

onto their own web log site through one of the many pieces of blogging

software available. He also added that blog is like a journal, a blog can be a

continually updated resource that grows over time with the accumulation of

writing and other content. This archived information is accessed using a

simple calendar that highlights the dates on which entries were made.

Other theories come from Grossman (2004: 65), he defines

weblogs, or blogs as amateur websites that provide news, information and,

above all, opinions to rapidly growing and devoted audiences drawn by nothing

more than a shared interest or two and the sheer magnetism of the editor's

personality.

In short, White (2003:10) defines blogs as Web diaries. Blogging

enables individuals to publish their thoughts on the web in a diary format

without a need for programming or HTML knowledge. According to Farmer

(2004: 274), weblogs allow users to:

a. frequently update their blogs through simple web-publishing technology

b. publish items by time and date of publishing

c. attach to items the facility for comments to be added and for postings

elsewhere that have linked to that item to be tracked back

d. publish with each new posting a web feed such as RSS or Atom

From the definition above, it can be concluded that weblog is an


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individual web based space for writing in a shape of online journal or diaries to

place the writer thought, words, or interest which can be commented or linked.

2. The Types of Weblog in Education

There are three types of weblog in education (Campbell, 2003: i-ii),

as follows:

a. Tutor Blog

The tutor blog is run by the tutor for the learner, and its purpose is

to give reading practice to the learners, promote exploration of English

websites, encourage online exchange by use of comment buttons, provide

class or syllabus information, and serve as a resource of links for self-study.

b. Learner Blog

Learner blogs are run by individual learners themselves. Learner

blogs are best suited for English reading and writing classes. This blog is

used to work a homework given by the tutor or teacher.

c. Class Blog

The class blog is the result of the collaborative effort of an entire

class. It can be used for posting messages, images, and links related to

classroom discussion topics in English. Class blogs could also be used as a

virtual space for an international classroom language exchange.

3. Tools for Weblog

There are several tools that can be used to create a blog which can

be got freely from the internet. Below are the examples of free blog tools.

a. Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/)

Prospective users create an account to allow log in and are guided

through a process of creating a blog including decisions about title,

description, public status and whether the blog is open to the public.

Blogger offers several key features including:

1) Archiving of posts

2) Management of membership

3) Adding of permanent links allowing other websites to link directly


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4) A "BlogThis" feature which posts a link from a currently browsed site

directly to a user's blog without entering Blogger

5) An ability to add a search engine to a blog is possible, which allows

users to search content.

b. Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/)

These blog tools are also free to use, and the features are almost

same with the blogger.

c. 21Publish (http://www.21publish.com/)

21Publish is full-featured, meaning users can post images, audio,

video, links, and even documents. This is also a free to use blog.

C. Implementation of Weblog in Writing

Mainly, the cycle of blogging activities that were implemented include

students setting up blogs, collaborating with blogging buddies (some within an

appointed group of classmates called “blogging groups”), making blog posts,

then reading classmates’ post and commenting. The explanation below will

explain about the blogging cycle in teaching writing.

1. Blog posts

Based on Downs (2004: 14) at one time a recurring criticism of the

use of blogs in education was that blogging students only write “trivia”. In

this blog posts well-structured activities and requirements directed by a

classroom teacher, blogging activities and the associated technology provide

the ideal forum not just for informal writing but also writing for academic

purposes.

First, the students before writing anything, students would read

thematically related material, perhaps watch a popular or documentary video

with content of a similar thematic focus, and discuss the content in class.

Students would then use the content materials as a basic for doing narrowly

focused writing tasks, such as question development and answers, idea

outlines, and summarizing exercises. Finally, each student would make a blog

http://www.21publish.com/


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post in short essay form in response to a teacher-generated question or

assigned task. Such assignments would usually be formulated so as to

generate a clear student opinion

2. Peer reviews

The teacher has been the traditional source of power in the second

language classroom, particularly for the writing classroom. A student’s works

is often corrected, commented on, and graded only by the teacher. Peer

review activities diffuse some of that power, giving students a sense of

responsibility and accomplishment both as readers and writers. Cho,

Christian, and Charney (2006: 270) note that, “Peer feedback appears to bring

about a higher perception of meaning-change revision while most teacher

influenced revisions happen at the surface level”.

The peer review activities usually involve pairs or small groups of

two to four student writers exchanging copies of their blogs work and making

comments based on a number of possible criteria (content focus, style,

organization, language use, writing mechanism). Such activities can be

augmented in three ways with the use of blog-based peer review: peer

comments on blog posts or blogging groups.

3. Peer comments on blog posts

The strong follow up of activity to having students post writing on

their blogs is to have their classmates read those posts and respond with

comments, whether informal feedback or assessments based on pre-

determined criteria. In addition to posting a writing assignment on his/her

blog, each student is required to read and respond to a set number of

classmates’ posts. As this peer commentator reads those posts and responds

with his/her own viewpoints, sometimes in accordance with a classmate, and

sometimes not, a number of written dialogues are initiated. This step

underlies the notion of the blogging activity as a student-centered process,

one in which “active learning, student engagement, and student

responsibility” are central. Ideally, each student writer would also return to

his/her own post of any particular writing assignment, review the


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commentary left by classmates and then, if so motivated, leave them a

response.

4. Blogging groups

A blogging group might consist of any number of students, but

since the purpose is to narrow the field of potential peer

respondents/commentators to a specific manageable group, it is best limited

to no more than six members. In addition, blogging group member have to

work with the posts of their blogging group members, students would also do

other activities as a group, such as peer reviewing various homework

exercises or carrying out content discussions. In this way, they could further

cultivate a sense of meaningful social continuity with their group members.

D. Steps of Teaching Writing

None in this world come in instant because everything needs steps

or process to reach it. In addition, process determines our purpose success in the

future. So, in order to succeed in teaching, there are several important steps that

should be followed. In teaching, the teacher uses process approach technique.

Generally there are two basic ways of teaching writing skills as stated by Lazaro

in Richards (1990: 100-117) they are, the product focused approach and the

process approach.

In process approach there are several principles that should be

followed, they are:

1. This approach starts from an examination of what good writers actually do as

they write.

2. Writing activities should reflect a focus on the different stages in the writing

process: planning, drafting and revising.

3. New role of learners: they assume greater control over what they write, how

they write it, and the evaluation of their own writing

4. New role of teachers: they act as facilitators, organizing writing experiences

that enable the learner to develop effective composing strategies.


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5. Students should produce complete (not isolated sentences), contextualized

pieces of writing.

6. Emphasis on why the writing is being done (a sense of purpose) and who it is

being written for (a sense of audience).

7. Students should spend c1assroom time on writing (not just a homework

activity).

8. Group composition: at each stage of the activity the group interaction

contributes in useful ways to the writing process.

After knowing about the principles in writing process, it is proper

to know about the process approach technique. As introduced by Lazaro in

Richard (1990: 100-117), the technique in process approach consists of three

stages, they are planning, drafting and revising. The details as follows:

1. In the planning stage: brainstorming, free association, word mapping, ranking

activities, quick writing.

2. In the drafting stage: elaboration exercise, reduction exercise, jumbled

paragraph, jumbled essay, writing thesis statements and topic sentences, group

drafting, quick writing.

3. In the revising stage: peer feedback, group correction activities, rewriting

exercises, teacher feedback.

In teaching writing on SMA N Colomadu by using weblog, the

writer will use the same technique above which consists of three stages, planning,

drafting, and revising. The teaching steps are as follows:

1. Planning Stage

In planning stage the writer as the teacher will use brainstorming

and quick writing to test their skill in writing. Brainstorming is used to explore

students’ idea and thought which is followed by simple quick writing. In quick

writing, the students’ grammatical errors are avoided and not too important.

After they finish their writing, they should post or upload it in their own blog.

2. Drafting Stage

In drafting stage, the students are given task to continue writing

idea in brainstorming or arrange the jumbled paragraphs given by the teacher in


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the tutor blog. The tutor blog is shown in front of the class by using LCD

projector. Then, the students do the task in group. After they finish, they should

publish their work in their respective blog with blog revision. Blog revision

works like Microsoft word which will tell the writer about the grammar

mistakes or mistype of vocabulary.

3. Revising Stage

In revising stage, the teacher uses three technique, they are group

correction activities, teacher feedback, and rewriting. In group correction

activities, the teacher divides the class into group. Then, the teacher chooses

one good and bad writing example. In group, they correct the mistakes (revise)

by sharing their ideas. After that, the teacher gives feedback of what the good

writing should be, in order to make the students understand and make a better

writing in the future. Next, they should write the revised writing in blog to

lessen the mistakes in their writing. Finally, they produce the final writing

individually to know how far their writing improves after using blogs.

E. Advantages and Disadvantages

Teaching writing by using weblog has several advantages and

disadvantages both from teacher and student. They are as follows:

1. Advantages

a. On the part of the teacher, blogs are a convenient teaching aid.

For example, the amount of time students use their weblogs is at

the discretion of the teacher. Students can use it to submit a paper, weekly

for class assignments and notes, or anything in between. Maybe, computers

in the classroom are not a prerequisite for the use of blogs but thanks to the

affordability of today’s computers and high speed internet access, most

students have Internet access at home or at internet cafe. All of the teacher’s

notes will be viewable together in chronological order. This is very

convenient when preparing lessons that build upon previous material taught

in the class. It is simple to edit class material if the text can be improved or


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if something new needs to be added. All student writing samples are kept in

one place and can be read from any computer connected to the Internet at

anytime. Teachers can give collective feedback to the class when a recurring

mistake is found by adding entries to a “Writing Feedback” class blog.

Additionally, individual feedback can be given to individual student blogs.

In order to save time when giving feedback, save a copy of the messages at

an additional teacher-only blog. If a class is taught for several years with

different students, teachers might be able to recycle these messages. From

this blog, the teacher can select the appropriate message to send to a student

regarding their feedback to their homework and writing samples (Johnson,

2004 at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Johnson-Blogs/).

b. On the part of students, weblogs also serve as a valuable learning assistant.

For instance, students have access to the teacher’s complete notes

on the Internet. Students have the option of previewing the class material

before class and reviewing the material after class. Because students are

connected to the Internet, they have access to online English dictionaries.

Students can easily look up words they do not understand by cutting the

unknown word and pasting it into an online dictionary. Because the class

material is organized into sections, students can easily find information.

Students can read comments for the class as a whole and comments directed

at them individually. This maximizes feedback and contact with the teacher.

Students can observe how their writing has changed over time (Johnson,

2004 at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Johnson-Blogs/).

2. Disadvantages

Like any other medium, the weblog has its shortcomings. As the

weblog becomes more and more visible in teaching, a great deal of worry and

concern may be generated.

a. Teacher

The language teacher using weblogs should also take security

issues into account. Like websites, weblogs have the potential to be hacked,

accidentally deleted or suddenly out of service when most needed. For this

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Johnson-Blogs/


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reason, hard drive backups and printouts of material posted to weblogs are

essential. Furthermore, “Students should be apprised of the lack of

anonymity on Blogger and of the need to use discretion in writing about

sensitive, personal subjects”(Stiler, 2003: 9).

b. Students

1) It could be argued that the weblog may have a detrimental effect on

student’s EFL literacy development, particularly in terms of reading and

writing. In Weblogs and Discourse, Wrede (2003 at

http://weblogs.design.fhaachen.de/owrede/publikationen/weblogs_and_di

scourse,) explains that just as weblog authors are not usually professional

writers, weblog readers are not generally professional readers either. He

warns that “this reading can’t compensate for the weak writing skills of

authors and potentially could be characterized as a kind of ...seeing what

one wants to see, (selective perception)”. It is likely that the reading

skills developed from scrolling the computer screen lead to an

accelerated but superficial, and often inaccurate understanding of the

content. He also voices concerns about some of the disadvantages to

writing skills that may be developed from activities such as blogging.

There have been many cases of students using phrases like BTW (by the

way) cuz (because) and U (you) in submitted written work and there was

a well documented case of a student in Scotland who wrote her entire

essay in SMS.

2) Network etiquettes may sometimes turn out to be a risky matter for

students. Students who post their work and ideas in the public sphere

may receive some criticism which could be unproductive, hurtful or even

offensive. Students also need to take care to ensure that their own

comments might not accidentally cause offence. For example, a student

who posts, “Do you understand now?!!!” might be attempting to convey

a supportive smile and a friendly laugh with the exclamations, but the

reader might interpret these marks as an aggressive rebuke. Likewise

http://weblogs.design.fh/


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with the use of capital letters, this is seen by many as a form of shouting.

However, to

3) The novice blogger who posts a blog in capital letters it might mean that

they do not know about this particular form of network etiquette, or how

to deactivate the “Caps Lock” button (Hammersly, 2003a

http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,5500,956003,00.html).

F. Rationale

Writing has become one of four language skills that must be

mastered in learning English. It means that teaching English in Senior High

School must be aimed to make the students able to express idea in written form by

using appropriate language variation fluently and accurately in writing the text.

In the process of writing, the students of SMA N Colomadu,

Karanganyar, still face some problems in vocabulary, sentence, organization, and

mechanism. The lack of vocabulary, language use, organization and mechanism

makes the students difficult in exploring and expressing idea to begin their

writing. Because they have difficulty with English, the students in the class

become uninterested in joining English class especially in writing task. In

addition, the students have problems in writing content, because their writing

content hasn’t been expanded. Furthermore, they only write English words which

are found in dictionary without knowing the good diction. In class condition, the

students always come late in joining the lesson. They are also sometimes paying

attention to the teacher’s explanation.

The problems faced by the students and the teacher are caused by

some factors that may come from the students, the teacher, media, or method. The

students are not so interested in learning English especially writing because

English is just considered as a foreign language and not used in daily

conversations. They think that learning English is just to know the grammatical

patterns and vocabulary. Besides, they mostly come from families with low or

middle level of social economy that makes them have low understanding about

http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,5500,956003,00.html


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English and have limited attention from their parents because they think English

will not be used after they graduate from school.




are used in exploring the students’ skill in writing. So far, most teachers teach

conventionally, by giving the students lecture and presenting the materials without

any media.

The students need some interesting techniques or media to engage

their motivation and imagination in developing idea of their writing. These can be

solved by introducing them with a kind of new media called Weblog which will be

used as a media to convey the materials and develop their ideas. The media

technique is quite simple; the student must see the teacher blog first to see their

exercise or homework. After that, the student writes the answer in their own blog

with or without grammar, spelling and mechanism checking and correction based

on teacher’s order. Next, the teacher looks upon the students’ blog followed by

assessing it. Then, the teacher and students discussed it together in the class.

Finally, the teacher summarizes the lesson and finds problem and solution. By

using this media, the students will be free to express their ideas and thoughts of

writing because they won’t be afraid of making mistakes since there is grammar,

spelling, and mechanism checking and correction. Since it is free to express,

weblog can improve student’s content, organization of ideas and vocabulary. In

this term, the students can expand their content in writing, with a good

organization of ideas and using better vocabulary. In addition, the grammar,

spelling, and mechanics correction can improve the students writing skill in

language use and mechanics.

From the explanation above, it can be assumed that Weblog can

improve the writing skill of the second year students of SMA Negeri 1 Colomadu,

Karanganyar.


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G. Hypothesis

Based on rational above, the writer proposes a hypothesis that

weblog can improve the writing skill of the second grade students of SMA N

Colomadu, Karanganyar in the academic year of 2010/2011. Weblog can also

improve the students’ interest and motivation in involving them in technology-

based learning.


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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Setting

This research entitled "Improving Students’ Writing Skill by Using

Weblog”' is conducted on March 2011 in Senior High School (SMA) Negeri

Colomadu, Karanganyar, Central Java. It is located at Baturan Village, Colomadu,

Karanganyar, Central Java. This school is the only state schools in Colomadu. The

location is strategic enough in the Fajar Indah Residence of Colomadu.

This school consists of three grades, namely the tenth grade, the

eleventh grade, and twelfth grade. Each grade consists of eight classes, except for

the twelfth grade which only has seven classes. Each class consists of about forty

students. The buildings are in good order and arrangement; there are 23

classrooms, teacher office, administration room, labs, computer room, mosque,

canteens, basketball yard, and also parking area. In each classroom, there are

whiteboard, 20 tables and 40 chairs for students, a teacher's desk and chair, a

clock, a computer and CD player (in certain classes) and good air circulation and

lighting. The class which is used for conducting research has a computer for each

student. It is done in computer classroom or computer laboratory of SMA N

Colomadu with good air circulation and lighting.

B. The Subject of the Research

This research involves the second or eleventh grade students of

SMA Negeri Colomadu, Karanganyar, while the subject of the research is the

students of XI IA 4 consisting of 19 girls and 11 boys. They are diligent and some

of them have low motivation in learning English. This is caused by their bad

perspective of seeing English as not important subject in their daily life because it

is not used after final exam. In addition, there are also a lot of vocabulary and

tenses that should be mastered. This makes them lazy to improve their ability in


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English. Most of them come from families with low or middle level social

economic background which is rarely using English in their life. The classroom

condition of XI IA 4 is clean and conducive enough so that it can support this

research. There are whiteboard, 20 tables and 40 chairs, a teacher's desk and chair,

a clock, and good air circulation and lighting.

C. The Research Methodology

Before deciding the method used in this research, it will be better to

know first what method is. According to Kartono (1983: 15), method is the ways

of thinking that have been well prepared to conduct research and to get the

research aim. Meanwhile, Ary in Furchan (1982: 50) defines method as the

common strategy which is used in collecting and analyzing the data needed to

overcome problems appearing. This is the solving plan for the problem being

studied. From those definitions above, method can be defined as the strategy

which can be used to collect and to analyze data in order to overcome/solve the

problems.

The method used in this research is classroom action research since

its nature is for improving the quality of action within it. Classroom action

research is used in this research because it is directly related with teacher’s

profession. Action research is done by the teacher/researcher because of some

reasons, such as the teaching learning process which isn’t satisfying, the quality of

teaching and learning which should be improved, etc. Action research focuses on

the teaching learning process in the classroom. The general goal of this research is

improvement and change. It should be any improvement and better change after

action research is held.

There are several definitions of action research stated by some

experts. The first definition is stated by Ferrance (2000: 1), who states that action

research is a collaborative activity among colleagues searching for solutions to

everyday, real problems experienced in schools, or looking for ways to improve

instruction and increase student achievement. Rather than dealing with the


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theoretical, action research allows practitioners to address those concerns that are

closest to them, ones over which they can exhibit some influence and make

change.

Ebbutt in Hopkins (I985: 34) states that action research is about the

systematic study of attempts to improve educational practice by groups of

participants by means of their own practical actions and by means of their own

reflection upon the effects of those actions. Zuber-Skerritt (1996: 14) uses an

action research to refer to ways of investigating professional experience which

link practice and the analysis of practice into a single productive and continuously

developing sequence, and which links researchers and research participants into a

single community of interested colleagues. Action research is about the nature of

the learning process, about the link between practice and reflection, about the

process of attempting to have new thoughts about familiar experiences, and about

the relationship between particular experiences and the general ideas.

Similar definition is given by Carr and Kemmis in Burns (1999:

30) who define action research as simply form of reflective enquiry undertaken by

participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of

their own practices, their understanding of their practices, and the situation in

which the practices are carried out.

From the definitions above, action research can be defined as a

systematic study of attempts to overcome the education problems or to improve

educational practice by groups of participants by means of their own practical

actions and by means of their own reflection upon the effects of those actions.

There are several common features which can be considered

to characterize action research as stated by Burns (1999: 30):

1. Action research is contextual, small-scale and localized, it identifies and

investigates problem within a specific situation.

2. It is evaluative and reflective as it aims to bring about change and

improvement in practice.

3. It is participatory as it provides for collaborative investigation by terms of

colleagues, practitioners, and researchers.


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4. Changes in practice are based on the collection of information or data which

provides the impetus of change.

In this study, action research is conducted as an attempt to improve

students’ skill in writing a text. This research is carried out by the writer in

collaboration with the teacher. The actions that will be done are the

implementation of using weblog in teaching English especially writing. The

observation is done when the technique of using weblog as teaching media is

used. The observation and reflection will give result whether or not weblog can

improve students' skill in writing a text.

D. The Procedures of Action Research

This research will be conducted in the classroom. This activity has

four steps: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In order to be clear, the

writer will have to present the Lewin’s model of action research. It can be

depicted as follows:

Initial Idea

Reconaissance

General Plan:

Step 1

Step 2 Implement step 1

Evaluate Ammended Plan:

Step 1

Step 2

Implement Step 2

etc evaluate


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According to Elliot (1996: 70), based on the model above, there is a

basic cycle of activities. The activities can be elaborated as follows:

1. Identifying initial idea

The initial idea refers to a state of situation one wishes to change or

to improve on (Elliot, 1991: 72). In this research the initial idea is thought that

there will be a change on writing text.

2. Planning

Planning is followed up for identifying the text to find out solution

for problems. This research is intended to find out:

a. The students’ response during learning process.

b. The students’ improvement in writing text.

c. The writer will conduct the research to know the improvement of writing

text.

d. To know students’ ability in producing the text, the writer asks the

students to produce simple text.

3. Implementing

Implementing is performing the planned action. Based on the

model above, the researcher can change the plans after conducting one cycle

when they are needed.

4. Evaluating

After conducting and observing the implementing cycle, the next step

that the writer will do is evaluating. The evaluating is a fact-finding about the

result of the action. It is an analysis to find out the influence of the Blog for

improving the students in learning writing.

E. Techniques of Collecting Data

The data are collected through observation, interviews, field notes,

the students’ answer of questionnaire sheets, and also the result of the tests,

1. Qualitative Techniques:


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a. Observation

The researcher and collaborator conduct observation by observing

the teaching and learning process in class XI IA 4 to know the students’

attitude toward English lesson before, while, and after implementing the

action and the students’ progress in writing.

b. Questionnaires

This technique is the fastest and simple way of obtaining broad and

rich information from the students. There are two questionnaires given to

students. The first one is given in the beginning of the project, before

introducing the strategies and the second questionnaire is given in the end of

the project. The first questionnaire is used to know the students’ ability and

problems and causes in learning English. In the first questionnaire, there are

several problems of the students towards the five indicators. They feel

difficult to master them. It is shown by the pretest questionnaire result,

namely, content (sometimes for 66.67%), organization (sometimes for

70%), vocabulary (sometimes for 60%), language use (sometimes for 60%),

and mechanism (sometimes for 50%).

The second questionnaire is given after implementing the

techniques of using weblog in teaching writing. It examines how the

students feel about the technique of using weblog, and how it helps them in

improving writing skill. In the post questionnaire, the students feel that

weblog helps them in mastering the five indicators.

c. Interview

The researcher also interviews the teacher and students to know the

problems that they face in learning English and the students’ opinion about

the implementation of weblog in writing. The interview takes place after

each questionnaire has been completed. Informal notes are taken during the

interview. Each student will be asked the same questions with an

opportunity for them to include any other information. The questionnaire

answered by the teacher shows that many of the students feel difficult in

mastering organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanism. The less


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difficulty of the students is in content. Meanwhile, the students answered

that they also feel difficulties in those four aspects, and less difficulties in

content.

2. Quantitative Technique (Test):

Besides the non-test techniques above, researcher also uses test

technique. A test has the purpose of measuring, as stated by Brown (1994:

252), test is a method of measuring a person's ability or knowledge in a given

area. The test techniques are conducted by giving pretest before the action

begins and posttest in the end of the action.

The test instructions must be readable. The primary job of test

instruction must make students know what they are supposed to do. Students

should be informed clearly what to do for each kind of task included in the test

and they should get enough information about the test as a whole to decide how

best to expand their efforts in the time available (Genesee and Upshur, 1996:

201). Other researcher, Dubay (2004: 3) states that writing must have

readability and readability is what makes some texts easier to read than others.

In line with it, Klare cited in Dubay (2004: 3) defines readability as “the ease

of understanding or comprehension due to the style of writing”. This definition

focuses on writing style as separate from issues such as content, coherence, and

organization.

Furthermore, Nuttal (1989: 26), who states that readability is not a

matter of vocabulary but structural difficulty, is also important. To measure

readability means make use of counts of words length and sentence length

which is useful to assess the text. In this research, the researcher will try out

the test to measure the test instructions’ readability. The details of the try out

and exercise is by giving them two sheets of paper. The first sheet contains the

test itself with instruction. Then, the second sheet contains questions of

readability about the test instruction whether it is clear or not. After the

students answer the readability sheet, then, the researcher measures the

readability. Furthermore, after the researcher measures it, the students of XI IA


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4 of SMAN I Colomadu are understand about the instruction given in

readability question mentioned in the second sheet.

In addition, to help scoring in quantitative data, there is scoring

rubric taken from Heaton (1988: 146) to measure the student success in

writing, as follows:

Competency Range Items Score

Content Excellent - Very Good

Good - Average

Fair - Poor

Very Poor

Knowledgeable, substantive, etc

Some knowledge of subject,

adequate range, etc

Limited knowledge of subject,

little substance, etc.

Doesn’t show knowledge of

subject, non-substantive, etc.

30-27

26-22

21-17

16-13

Organization Excellent - Very Good

Good - Average

Fair - Poor

Very Poor

Fluent expression, ideas clearly

stated, etc.

Somewhat choppy, loosely

organized but main idea stand out,

etc.

Non fluent, ideas confused or

disconnected, etc.

Doesn’t communicate, no

organization, etc.

20-18

17-14

13-10

9-7

Vocabulary Excellent - Very Good

Good - Average

Fair - Poor

Sophisticated range, effective

word/idiom choice and usage, etc.

Adequate range, occasional error

of word/idiom form, choice,

usage, but meaning is not

obscured.

Limited range, frequent error of

20-18

17-14

13-10


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Very Poor

word/idiom form, choice, usage,

etc.

Essentially translation, little

knowledge of English vocabulary,

etc.

9-7

Language

Use

Excellent - Very Good

Good - Average

Fair - Poor

Very Poor

Effective complex constructions,

etc.

Effective but simple

constructions, etc.

Major problems in

simple/complex construction, etc.

Virtually no mastery of sentence

construction rules, etc.

25-22

21-19

17-11

10-5

Mechanics Excellent - Very Good

Good - Average

Fair - Poor

Very Poor

Demonstrates mastery of

conventions, etc.

Occasional errors of spelling,

punctuation, etc.

Frequent errors of spelling,

punctuation, capitalization, etc.

No mastery of conventions,

dominated by errors of spelling,

punctuation, capitalization,

paragraphing, etc.

5

4

3

2

F. Technique of Analyzing Data

1. Qualitative Data

The data are analyzed using constant comparative method. Burns

(1999: 156) gives several steps of constant comparative method that can be

used to analyze the qualitative data:


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a. Assembling the data

The first step is to assemble the data that have been collected over

the period of the research: field notes, interview, questionnaires, and so on.

At this stage, broad pattern should begin to show up which can be compared

and contrasted to see what fits together. By scanning the data, it begins to

process of more detailed analysis by bringing up possible patterns which can

be adapted and added lo as it is processed.

b. Coding the data

Coding is a process of attempting to reduce the large amount of

data that may be collected to more manageable categories of concepts,

themes, or types. Data analysis becomes much messier and coding becomes

less clear cut when it is dealing with diary entries, classroom recordings, or

open ended survey questions.

c. Comparing the data

Once the data have been categorized in some way, comparison can

be made to see whether themes or patterns are repeated or developed across

different data gathering techniques.

d. Building interpretations

This is the point where the researcher moves beyond describing,

categorizing, coding, and comparing to make some sense of meaning of the

data. This stage demands creative thinking as it is concerned with

articulating underlying concepts and developing the theories about why

particular patterns of behaviors, interactions or attitudes have emerged.

e. Reporting the outcomes

The final stage involves presenting an account of the research for

others. A major consideration is to ensure that the report sets out the major

processes of the research, and that the findings and outcomes are well

supported with examples from the data.

This research uses the method stated by Burns (1999: 156) to

analyze the data. There are five steps and those steps are clear and sequential. It


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begins with assembling the data, coding, comparing, than building

interpretations, and finally reporting the outcomes.

2. Quantitative Data

To analyze the quantitative data, the researcher uses quantitative

technique of analysis. The mean of the students’ score in pretest and posttest

can be calculated with the formula as follows:

= =

X = mean of post test 1 scores

Y = mean of post test 2 scores

N = number of students


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CHAPTER IV

THE RESULT OF THE STUDY

This chapter deals with how the research was implemented. This chapter

describes some findings and discussions about the implementation of weblog to

improve students’ writing skill. The objective of this research is to get some

information in some terms. The first is to motivate the students in learning

English. Secondly, the research is to improve student’s writing skills in five

indicators such as content, organization, vocabulary, language use and

mechanism. The third, the research is to evaluate the weblog role in improving the

students' skill in writing a text. The cycle in this research consists of series of

steps, namely identifying the problems, planning the action, implementing the

action, observing or monitoring the action, evaluating and reflecting the result of

the observation, and revising the plan. The explanation of the result of the study

described in this chapter is broken down into three sections: introduction, research

finding, and discussion.

A. Introduction

Based on the result of the pre-research observation, pre-questionnaire,

pretest, and interview done in SMA Negeri 1 Colomadu, the researcher could

identify the problems faced by the twelfth year students of XI IA 4 in learning

writing. The problems faced by the students in writing text include difficulties in

exploring and expressing their idea, lack of vocabulary, less tenses understanding,

difficulties in making good sentences, and they are often confused in starting

writing. The students also seem to feel difficult when they are asked to write their

idea. Then, when they submit their work, it is almost blank or some students write

only a few words. Their attitude and motivation toward the English lesson also

show that they are not so interested in joining the class. When the English lesson

started, the students were still talking and when the teacher explained the material,

they ignored it.


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According to the teacher, there were some causes from the students. The

students are not so interested in learning English especially writing because

English is just considered as a foreign language and not used in daily

conversations. They think that learning English is just to know the grammatical

patterns and vocabulary. The students confessed that they could not arrange

sentences in their mind into correct written language. Some of them had low skill

on vocabulary, sentence, organization, and mechanism so that they could not

express their idea freely. Besides, they mostly come from families with low or

middle level of social economy that makes them have low understanding about

English and have limited attention from their parents because they think English

will not be used after they graduate from school. Those are all that make them

have low motivation in learning English.




are used in exploring the students’ skill in writing. Teacher should be able to make

conducive class by using creative media and strategy in presenting the materials,

motivating the students, giving reinforcements, and using variety of methods to

get the goal. So far, most teachers teach conventionally, by giving the students

lecture and presenting the materials without any media. The other causes come

from the class. The facilities in the class haven’t been better yet, which make the

students reluctant to study the lesson especially English.

Based on the interview with the teacher and the pre-test result, the

researcher identified that the students’ writing skill needed to be improved. He

decided to improve it through a technique called weblog. The focus of the use of

weblog in writing is to improve the students’ writing skill on the aspect of

sentence construction (dealing with structure and vocabulary), language use and

mechanism since they became the major problem faced by the students.


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B. Research Finding

The research finding is taken from what happened in the teaching and

learning process from the beginning until the last teaching-learning process done

in this research. It was done from May - June. First cycle consists of three

meetings. After the cycle was done, the researcher conducted post-test to know

the condition of the students’ writing skill. The description of the research finding

can be explained as follows:

1. The First Cycle

a. Planning

The researcher made a preparation to conduct the research. He

made lesson plans for the first cycle. He prepared the teaching material

based on the topic stated in the curriculum. The action plan would be

implemented by the writer. The writer as the teacher in this research was

helped by a collaborator. They collaborated to observe the whole

phenomena during the teaching and learning process in the classroom. The

researcher also chose the appropriate techniques supporting the process of

the teaching of writing using weblog.

b. Implementing the action

In implementing the action, the researcher played a role as the

teacher. Meanwhile, the real English teacher helped the researcher in

observing the students and in overcoming the problems faced by the

researcher in the class (during the teaching and learning process). The

researcher/the teacher did the teaching-learning process in three phases: pre-

activity, main activity, and post-activity. The pre-activity phase covered all

the things done as the opening such as greeting, checking the students’

attendance. In this phase, the researcher also did brainstorming or gave

some questions to students to stimulate their participation in the lesson. The

main activity phase included the following exercises: model paragraph,

language-based exercise, oral composition, and writing composition through

weblog. The post-activity was done by summarizing the lesson, doing


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reflection, and closing the lesson. Here is the description of the action

implementation:

1) The first meeting (06.45 a.m. – 08.15 a.m.)

The first meeting was conducted on Tuesday, 26th May 2011. The topic

was Cinderella. In short, the teaching and learning process ran as

follows. Firstly, the researcher introduced about a weblog and explained

on how to use it and also stated the goal of the lesson. “By the end of this

meeting, I would like you to be able to write anything in your mind based

on the topic and write it on your weblog”. Then, he used LCD projector

to explain and to introduce blog. After that, the students followed what

he did to make a blog and used it. As the researcher understood that the

students are capable of making and using blog, the researcher then gave

several pictures using his weblog through LCD projector. It was the

pieces of Cinderella story picture. Next, the teacher asked the students to

write in blog anything that popped up in their mind after seeing those

pictures as the final task of the main activity. After they finished their

writing, the students then uploaded it in their blog. In the post-activity

phase, they were asked to write a story from their hometown as

individual homework. The writing was done in a paper not in blog. This

homework will be used in the next meeting as a topic. Here, the students

critically asked some questions to the researcher. “Ceritanya apa aja,

Pak? Bebas yang penting dari daerah sendiri, Pak? Dikumpulkan kapan,

Pak?” The researcher replied their question by explaining about the

details of the homework. As the bell was ringing, the researcher closed

the lesson by saying goodbye.

2) The second meeting (08.15 a.m. – 09.45 a.m.)

The second meeting was conducted on Friday, 27th May 2011. The

topic was Story in your hometown. The essence of this meeting was just

to practice and let the students relearn the previous lesson. In short, the

teaching and learning process ran as follows. Firstly, the researcher did

some review dealing with the last meeting. The students were asked to


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show their homework to the teacher. Then, the teacher asked the students

to upload their story in blog. “Okay students, now upload what you have

got about story in your hometown in your blog”. For a few second, they

responded “okay sir”. After they uploaded their story, then the researcher

showed the students about grammar checking and correction. Firstly,

they were confused on how to use it. To check their understanding about

it, the teacher asked the students to pair up to check their pair writing and

correct it using grammatical, spelling, and mechanism correction. Later, a

students came and asked “gimana cara pakai correction ya pak? Saya

masih bingung”. Then, the teacher explained it again using LCD and

tutor blog. After that, the students tried to correct their pair work. After

the time was over, the researcher asked the students to upload their

writing. “Have you finished? if yes then upload them in your friend blog

as comment”, the researcher asked to the class. They said, “Not yet, Sir”

Some of them said, “Baru dua paragraph benerinnya, Pak. Sedikit lagi”.

In this activity, some of the students could not finish their writing. The

researcher gave them a chance to finish it at home and asked them to

upload it in the next day.

3) The third meeting (10.45 a.m. – 12.15 a.m.)

The third meeting was conducted on Saturday, 28th May 2011. The

topic was Malin Kundang. The essence of this meeting was to provide

the students with the new text that was still related to the previous text

but in different location. Firstly, the researcher reviewed the lesson in the

previous meeting and let the students who hadn’t finished their upload to

finish it. After the students uploaded their writing, the researcher

explained about the upcoming material. It’s about the story from

Sumatera Barat called Malin Kundang. To lessen the difficulties of the

students in writing, the researcher had given a sentence starter to be

continued by the students. After that they continued to write the story.

While the other wrote the story, a student asked the researcher,”apa kita

perlu menggunakan correction seperti kemarin pak?”. Then, he answered


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“ya, tentu saja, masih ingat kan caranya?”. Then, the student

answered,”ya pak, insya Alloh”. After the students finished their writing

in blog, the teacher then checked their work. It seemed that some of them

still had mistakes even by using this correction. The teacher showed one

of the student’s work, and correct them without the grammar correction,

only seeing in correction mark below the sentence or word. After the

students understand on how it worked, the researcher closed the lesson

by thanking the students for their attention and saying goodbye.

c. Observing the action

During the teaching and learning process, the researcher not only taught

the students, but also observed the things happening in the class. The

observations were done simultaneously when teaching and learning process

happened. The observation was made based on the field notes written by the

teacher and the observer. The following is the detail explanation about the

result of the observation.

1) The first meeting

In the beginning of the first meeting, the students looked very

enthusiastic to join the lesson because they felt like finding a new nuance in

studying English. Different teacher sometimes brings different nuance for

students. The researcher gave simple explanation about blog as the starter.

They felt enthusiastic to learn about this new method. After that, the

students tried to make their own blog. Some of them still felt confused and

asked the teacher about it. After they finished their blog, the researcher

showed a picture using tutor blog through LCD Projector about a story they

knew. Before the researcher showed the picture, they were very eager to

know. Then, the pictures were shown; the students could guess it directly.

However, when the researcher came into the main task –writing, the

students seemed to be reluctant to join the lesson. It happened since they

found difficulties in constructing ideas to make a story. They had

understood the language function but they could not express their idea in


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their mind freely into an outline. Nevertheless, their eagerness made them

want to try writing using blog. They opened their blog then, tried to write

some sentences. Some of the students could only write a few sentences but

some write better about two or three paragraphs. The class condition was

good but noisy because many of them asked when they tried to make a blog.

They did enthusiastically what the researcher told them to do since they had

few times for writing class. Therefore, the target of time could be reached

while the target of the teaching was not totally reached.

2) The second meeting

In the second meeting, the researcher focused the lesson on

practicing and tried a new method of grammar checking and correction.

Then, the researcher explained about it briefly. When the teacher asked

about their homework, few students confessed that they had not done the

homework yet. Next, the researcher asked the students to upload their story

in blog. For those who hadn’t done the homework, they should upload any

story they knew in the blog. After they finished upload their writing, then,

the researcher paired them up. In this activity, the students should check and

correct their pair writing using grammar, spelling, and mechanism

correction. They were very enthusiastic in using it. But some were confused

and asked the teacher about how to use it. The students, however, become

active in asking their pair friend about vocabulary they didn’t know. But,

some students were trying to find them in dictionary. The class condition

became active when they were paired up with their friends and checked their

pair writing. After the students finished their checking and correction, they

should upload it in the blog. Until the time was over, there were still some

students who had not finished their writing correction, so the researcher

asked them to continue it at home or upload it in the next lesson.

3) The third meeting

In the third meeting, the teaching and learning process were about

reviewing the previous meeting. The topic to be discussed in this meeting

was Malin Kundang. In this opportunity, the researcher let the students who


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hadn’t uploaded their writing in the previous lesson to do so. Firstly, they

are very enthusiastic when entering the class. But, when they were asked to

see the picture and write the story about it, fewer students seemed down and

reluctant to write. But, some students were eager to write because they said

it was easier using blog with correction. To motivate the students writing,

the researcher gave the students a sentence starter to guide their writing.

Then, the researcher asked them to continue the story. While the researcher

walked around to check the students working, there were some students who

asked the meaning of some words and their sentence structure. After the

students finished creating the paragraph, the students were asked to upload

their writing in blog. Next, the teacher checked some of the students work in

the blog and chose one of their works as a sample of teacher correction.

After that, using tutor blog projected through LCD projector, the researcher

checked and corrected it. The students were eager to follow the teacher

correction, because some students also tried to correct their friend work

while the teacher corrected it. This activity was interesting both for the

students and the researcher. The students knew their weaknesses and the

researcher provided them with some feedbacks in their writing.

d. Reflecting the result of the observation

After analyzing the observation result in cycle one, the researcher

made reflection in order to evaluate the teaching and learning process he did so

far. Besides that, after completing the first cycle of this research, the researcher

conducted the first post test. There were some positive and negative results

from the observation that could be used to guide the reflection. In short, the

observation result showed that there were some improvements achieved after

doing the action. The improvements were not only of the students’ writing skill

but also of the students’ attitudes towards writing itself. Their writing was

getting better from day to day since they were accustomed to writing, even

simple composition, in each meeting. Moreover, they used more vocabularies

in writing. It means that there was an improvement of vocabulary mastery.


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They could also identify the generic structure of simple explanation texts.

Moreover, the mean score of the first post test result done at the end of the

cycle one was 73.3 from the researcher and 73.96 from the collaborator with

the average mean 73.63. It showed that there was an improvement from the last

pretest with mean score 62.63 from researcher and 63.56 from the collaborator

with the average mean 62.59. In addition, the students became more active in

joining the lesson taught by the researcher. They paid more attention in the

instructional processes. Nevertheless, the improvement of the students’ writing

skill was not effective enough since there were still some students who were

reluctant to write.

NO

INDICATOR

AVERAGE MEAN SCORE

%

Standard

Score

Pre Test Average

score

(RC)

%

Post Test I Average

score

(RC)

%

(R)

(C)

(R)

(C)

1. Content 20.5 19.3 19.915 66.38 21.4 21.9 21.7 72.33 75

2. Organization 13.3 12.9 13.115 65.575 14.7 14.9 14.785 73.925 75

3. Vocabulary 11.8 12.4 12.085 60.425 14.6 14.6 14.615 73.075 75

4. Language Use 14.1 15.6 14.95 59.8 19.07 18.9 19.185 76.74 75

5. Mechanism 2.9 3.1 2.985 59.7 3.8 3.5 3.665 73.3 75

Table 4.1 Pretest and Post-test I average score of Indicators

Based on the pretest result from both researcher and collaborator,

the students are low in the skill of content, organization, vocabulary, language

use, mechanism. It was shown by their average mean score in five indicators of

pretest. The lowest mark was shown in mechanism. Then, it was followed by

language use, vocabulary, organization, and content. But, in post test, most of

students’ skills are improved slightly in content, organization, vocabulary,

language use, and mechanism. Even though those skills improvement were not

good yet, it was better than pretest result. The lowest improvement was shown

in the skill of content, organization, vocabulary, and mechanism. Then, for

content, it needed more expanding in it. The result of the table can be described

as follows:


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1. Content (66.38% - 72.33%, it improved only 5.95%)

2. Organization (65.575% - 73.925%, it improved only 8.35%)

3. Vocabulary (60.425% - 73.075%, it improved only 12.65%)

4. Language use (59.8% - 76.74%, it improved only 16.94%)

5. Mechanism (59.7% - 73.3%, it improved only 13.6%)

Meanwhile, in the result of pre questionnaire, the students of XI IA

4 commonly faced some problems in organization, vocabulary, language use,

and mechanism but less problem in content. After the method was

implemented, the post questionnaire result stated a good improvement in those

five indicators. Almost the students said that their writing skills improved. It

was shown by the students’ questionnaire when they are asked about whether

weblog improves their writing skills or not in the post questionnaire. Here are

the results:

1. Content (50% Usually, 33.33% Almost always, and 16.67% sometimes)

2. Organization (40% almost always, 36.67 sometimes, 23.33% usually)

3. Vocabulary (40% almost always, 36.67 usually, 23.33% sometimes)

4. Language use (33.33% almost always, usually and sometimes)

5. Mechanism (46.67% usually, 40% almost always, 13.33% sometimes)

From the result of post questionnaire above, it can be concluded

that the students’ feel their skill improved in those five indicators by using

weblog. Not only that, from the post interview, some students stated the same

thing that weblog improves their writing in those five indicators. It was shown

by the answer of the students which can be seen in the appendix.

Based on those result in pretest, post test, questionnaire, and

interview, the researcher concluded that there is a slight improvement from the

students in those five indicators. Here are the results of the research of cycle 1:

1. Strengths

a. Writing Indicators

1) The students’ language use skill is improved well. It is shown by

their average mean score which reached the KKM standard score

(76.74%),


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b. PBM/Class

1) The students’ motivation in joining English lesson is improved. It

is proven by the students’ attendance that comes on time in English

class.

2) The students’ enjoy the method used by the teacher because they

always pay attention and keep listening to the teacher’s

explanation.

2. Weakness


1) The students’ content, organization, vocabulary, and mechanism

skills are improved slightly but haven’t reached the KKM standard

score. The details are content (72.33%), organization (73.925%),

vocabulary (73.075%), and mechanism (73.3%).

b. PBM/Class

1) Some students still needed guidance in their writing dealing with

expanding the content and outline.

2) The internet connection is sometimes slow, and it can make the

learning process take much times.

Therefore, the researcher decided to take the second cycle in order to

make better improvement of the students’ writing skill especially for expanding

content, sentence organization, vocabulary and mechanism. To overcome those

problems, the researcher will give the students more activity which can make

their content, sentence organization, vocabulary, and mechanism better in the

future.

To improve the content, the researcher guides the students’ to write

plot in the class. It means while the students write, the researcher guide them

on what will be written. In organization, the researcher will let the students do

an exercise by making and combining sentence to make their sentence

organization better. The sentence is made inside Weblog. The details are the

students will be given words, then make them into sentence which will be

combined together into paragraph later in Weblog. This exercise will make


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their idea organization improved. Next, for vocabulary skills, it was done

before the students making sentences. The students should give the synonym of

each word given by the teacher before they make it into sentence and

paragraph. The synonym must be written inside their blog. Finally, for

mechanism, the researcher will give a brief explanation on how and when to

give a better mechanism. The explanation will be given by using tutor blog.

2. The Second Cycle

a. Revising the plan

Based on the first cycle, the researcher realized that there were

improvements in students’ writing skill, but he still found some problems

faced by the students that should be solved soon. Therefore, the researcher

had revised his plan that would be conducted in the second cycle. The plans

were:

1) For improving content, the researcher will guide the students especially

in story’s plot so that they will produce a well expanded the story’s

content. The guiding uses tutor blog, and then the student follows it by

writing the story in their blog.

2) In organization, the researcher will give the students task to make the

sentence from the words given and then make them into good paragraph.

The sentence is made in weblog and combined them inside it too.

3) Then, in vocabulary, the students should give synonym of the words

given before making sentences and also the teacher will introduce more

new words that are related to the writing assignment to the students

before the students start their writing. The synonym is written in student

blog before they start their writing.

4) The teacher will give short explanation in using a better mechanism of

writing by using tutor blog.

5) The plans were realized in three meetings; in the first meeting the

researcher gave an interesting title “Making Your Own Story” for the

writing and in the second meeting the researcher will let the students to

paraphrase a short text with title “No Charge for Love” which will make


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them improve their content, organization, vocabulary and mechanism

above the KKM standard score. Then, in third meeting, the researcher

will give a review and task to test their ability in fifth indicator. The

teacher will ask the students to review the previous writing task of their

friend’s writing, find the mistake and let them fix it with their own

knowledge. It has purpose to improve their logic and understanding in

five indicators of writing.

b. Implementing the action

The researcher implemented the action in two meetings.

1) The first meeting (08.15 a.m. – 09.45 a.m.)

The first meeting was conducted on Tuesday, 30th

May 2011. The topic

was Making your own story. The essence of this lesson was to provide

students with new materials and to make the students able to develop

their content, organization, vocabulary and mechanics. The researcher

started the lesson by reviewing the last discussion and gave some

questions dealing with the topic as brainstorming. In this session, the

researcher introduced some new words related to the material in tutor

blog. Then, the researcher also explained about how to make a better use

of mechanism in their writing. After the brainstorming, the researcher

explained more about simple past tense. Having finished explaining

about simple past tense, he asked the students, “Do you understand?”

They answered together, “Yes!”. He also gave some task to give more

chance in constructing sentences in simple past tense then combined

them together into a paragraph. The students wrote the sentence in their

own blog as an exercise. The researcher went around the class to make

sure that all the students did their task. He gave individual feedback to

some students who really needed it. The researcher asked the students to

pair up. After that, the researcher gave five new words to the students.

Before they constructed it into sentences, the researcher asked the

students to find their synonym first and write them in their blog. After

that, the students should construct it using simple past tense, and then


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make a simple story with the words given. The story should be written in

blog. But before that, the teacher gave an explanation again about the

generic structure of narrative text. “I give you ten minutes to make the

sentence, then twenty minutes to construct them into a story and you

should do it on your blog”. While the students were writing, the

researcher was also guiding the student’s plot by using tutor blog. It has

purpose, to make the students had a better plot in story’s content. They

did it enthusiastically because the topic was interesting enough for them.

Some students asked the researcher about the translation of some words

while some other students decided to look up the meaning in their

dictionaries. After the time was up, the teacher asked the students, “have

you finished?” Some of the students answered “yes” and “no” for others.

Then, the researcher gave them another five minutes of additional time to

finish it. After a while, they had finished their writing and also had

uploaded it on their blog. Before lesson was over, the researcher told the

students to prepare for the next meeting activities. Finally, the researcher

closed the lesson by saying goodbye.

2) The second meeting (06.45a.m. - 08.15 a.m.)

This meeting was conducted on Wednesday, 31st May 2011. The topic

taught was No charge for love. The researcher’s intention in this meeting

was to make the students able to rewrite or paraphrase the story with well

expanded content, organization, vocabulary, and mechanics. This

exercise covered expanding content from the text given, and practicing in

combining sentence into good paragraph with better mechanics in blog.

Then, the researcher also asked about paraphrasing to the student, “In

this chance, I would like you to paraphrase the story, do you know what

is paraphrase?”. Some of the students answered “no”. Then, the

researcher decided to explain about it for a while by using tutor blog.

Before the researcher went into the main topic, the researcher gave some

new words related to the material. The students were asked to memorize

them. After that, the researcher showed the text to the students through


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LCD projector and tutor blog about the story they should have to be

paraphrased. Finally, they made their own story based on the text given.

Suddenly, the class became noisy. Then, the researcher calmed them

down and asked them what happened. The students said they were still

confused. Patiently, the researcher explained about it again by using tutor

blog. Then, the students did the task and continued it in their own blog.

While the students were writing, the researcher was still guiding the

students about the story. It had purposed, none would lose from the story.

Some students asked the researcher about the translation of some words

while some other students decided to look up the meaning in their

dictionaries. After a while, the researcher asked the students, “have you

finished?” only a few of them had answered yes. Then, the researcher

decided to give another ten minutes to finish their writing. Finally, the

students had finished their writing, so the researcher closed the lesson

that day and said good bye.

3) The third meeting (08.15-09.45)

The third meeting was conducted on Wednesday, 31st May 2011. The

topic was reviewing. The essence of this lesson was to make the students

able to review their writing in skills of content, sentence organization,

vocabulary, mechanics, and corrected it in a better ways using their own

knowledge which was got from overall meeting in the class. The

researcher started the lesson by reviewing the last discussion named

“Charge of Love” and gave some questions dealing with the previous

topic. In this session, the researcher introduced some new words related

to the next material in tutor blog. Next, the researcher asked the student

to open their blog and saw their last writing. Then, the researcher asked

them whether their writing was good enough in content, organization,

vocabulary, and mechanics or not. The student answered “yes”. To test

their knowledge and courage in saying yes, the researcher asked them to

give a correction in their friend’s writing in weblog. Then, the students

were asked to open their friend blog, and write any mistakes in content,


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organization, vocabulary, and mechanics as a comment. The researcher

gave them 30 minutes to finish it. Some students asked the researcher

about the translation of some words while some other students decided to

look up the meaning in their dictionaries. After that, the researcher asked

„have you finished?”. Some students said “yes” but some hadn’t finished

it. Then, the researcher gave them another 10 minutes to finish it. Next,

the researcher let the students to rewrite the story with their correction in

it in their friend blog as a comment. While the students rewrite the story,

the researcher gave a little guidance in order to make the students not

lose the content of the story. Finally, the students had finished their

writing, and the researcher gave additional feedback of the task given.

The researcher also gave a further explanation about what they had done

in this meeting, summarized it, closed the lesson and reminded them that

there would be a test after the meeting. Next, the researcher said goodbye

to the students.

c. Observing the action

The result of the observation done during the teaching-learning processes in

the second cycle is as follows:

1) The first meeting

In this meeting, the students seemed to have better understanding about

the way of constructing simple sentences then combining them into good

paragraph by using weblog. They also had their content better expanded

because the researcher guided them in writing the story. Most of the

students could construct sentences almost correctly when they were

asked to write in their blog after the additional method was implemented.

The vocabulary also had been enriched, because before starting the

lesson the researcher gave some words related to the material to enrich

their vocabulary. In addition, their mechanics also had been better,

because they had a less mistake in this indicator. Furthermore, they felt

more at ease to express their idea in their writing. The teaching and

learning process could run smoothly and the students could concentrate


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well. This was also because of researcher guiding in writing the story.

Moreover, the researcher gave individual feedback to some students who

still had problems.

2) The second meeting

In this meeting, the researcher asked the students to paraphrase the topic

as the issue. Before the students paraphrased the story, the researcher

introduced a new vocabulary related to the material. Then, the researcher

also gave a brief explanation about making a good mechanics in writing.

In addition, the researcher also reminded the students on how to make a

better organization in using simple past tense. Before the student started

to paraphrase, the researcher gave another explanation on how to

paraphrase. Some of the students felt it was difficult at the first time. For

a while, the students felt discouraged to do the task given and this made

the entire class noisy. Then, patiently, by the research explanation by

using tutor blog, the students finally understood about it and they felt

encouraged to try it. While the students were writing, the researcher was

guiding them in order none of the story’s content lose from their writing.

By doing this task, the students could expand the story based on their

knowledge and constructed the sentence with their own vocabulary freely

in their own blog. Some students made a correct paraphrasing but some

were unable to do it better. The teaching learning process could run well

and researcher also gave a feedback to them who had problems in the

class.

3) The third meeting

In this meeting, the researcher asked the students to review their previous

writing and their friend’s writing to make it better. The third meeting was

focused in correcting their friend’s writing based on a good content,

organization, vocabulary, and mechanics. Before the student did the task,

the researcher gave a brief explanation on how a good content,

organization of sentence, vocabulary, and mechanism of writing should

be. By doing this task, the student could know what their mistakes are


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and could fix it in better ways. The students did their review and

correction task in their blog. Then, they rewrite the result after that in

their friend’s blog as a comment. Their rewriting activity was still guided

by the researcher, so the content would be better. In this meeting, some

of students still faced difficulty in correcting the sentences, but some of

them could do it better. The teaching learning process could run well and

researcher also gave a feedback to them who had problems in the class.

d. Reflecting the result of the observation

After analyzing the observation results in the second cycle, the researcher

found some improvements. The improvements were as follows:

1) The students were able to construct sentences almost all correct. In this

case, the sentences they constructed were based on the researcher’s

explanation and examples. They also used more vocabularies in their

writing by using weblog.

2) Their writing content had been better expanded.

3) The organization of both ideas and sentences were better improved.

4) The students used many new vocabularies in their writing.

5) Their mechanics was almost all correct.

6) All students were active enough in joining the lesson.

7) The mean score of the second post test result done at the end of the action

showed that there was satisfying improvement of the students’ writing

skill on the aspect of sentence construction. The mean score reached was

77.13 from researcher and 77.07 from collaborator with 77.1 of average

mean score. It was much better than the average mean score of the first

post test result which was just 73.63.

The result of the tests also showed the improvement of the students’

writing skill. Based on the result of the tests, it could be seen that there was

improvement of the mean score among pre-test, post-test 1 and post-test 2

where the average mean score of the pre-test was 63.23, the post-test 1 result

was 73.63 and the second post-test result were 77.1.


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NO

INDICATOR

AVERAGE MEAN SCORE

%

Standard

score

Pretest

score

(RC)

%

Post

Test 1

Score

(RC)

%

Post Test 2 Post Test

2 Average

score

(RC)

%

(R)

(C)

1. Content 19.915 66.38 21.7 72.33 23.2 23.2 23.215 77.38 75

2. Organization 13.115 65.575 14.785 73.925 15.47 15.4 15.435 77.175 75

3. Vocabulary 12.085 60.425 14.615 73.075 15.4 15.3 15.35 76.75 75

4. Language Use 14.95 59.8 19.185 76.74 19.1 19.3 19.2 76.8 75

5. Mechanism 2.985 59.7 3.665 73.3 3.9 3.8 3.865 77.3 75

Table 4.2 Pretest, Post-test I, and Post-test II average score of Indicators

Based on the second posttest result above, the researcher concluded

that there is an improvement from the students in those five indicators. Here are

the results of the research of cycle 2:

1. Strengths


1) The students’ content, organization, vocabulary, and mechanics are

improved and have reached the KKM standard score. It is shown by

their mean score, namely content (77.38%), organization

(77.175%), vocabulary (76.75%), language use (76.8%) and

mechanism (77.3%). The language use skill is also improved

slightly. It is shown by its mean score (76.8%),

b. PBM/Class

1) The students’ motivation in joining English lesson is improved. It is

proven by the students’ attendance that comes on time in English

class.

2) The students’ enjoy the method used by the teacher because they

always pay attention and keep listening to the teacher’s explanation.

3) The student’s writing in content and outline has better expanded.


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2. Weakness

a. PBM/Class

1) The internet connection is sometimes still slow, and it can make the

learning process take much times.

However, these strengths and weakness did not mean that the actions

done by the researcher were already perfect and final. The use of weblog

writing was only one of the ways in improving the students’ writing skill. It

can still be improved by the teacher as long as he or she is willing to do

betterment on his/her teaching, especially in teaching writing.

By considering the improvements above, the researcher concluded

that weblog writing could improve the students’ writing skill, especially on the

aspect of content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanism.

Besides, the students showed more positive attitudes towards writing although

they seemed to be reluctant to write the first time they were asked to.

Therefore, the researcher decided to stop the cycle.

C. Discussion

In learning English, there are some difficulties faced by students.

For the students of SMA Negeri 1 Colomadu, writing is considered as the most

difficult skill. This research is aimed at improving students’ writing skill in five

indicators including content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and

mechanics. The research findings showed that those skills are improved by

implementing weblog writing in the class. In this section, those findings are

discussed by justifying them with the other theories. In general, weblog writing

is able to improve student’s writing skill. In this case, weblog means using an

online diary to improve the student’s writing skills including content,

organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. The improvement of

students’ writing skill in this research involves five indicators. Each of the

improvement is discussed as follows.


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a. Weblog improves students’ skill in content.

The research finding said that there were some improvements in

student’s content. From the weblog itself, it has purpose to attract the

readers in terms of its content, so the students must make the most attractive

content to make their blog useful for the readers. This explanation is

empowered by Lamshed, et al. (2002: 23-24) who say,” The blog mission as

defined by the site managers is to provide quality e-learning content that

attracts a diverse and emerging audience”. They also give further

explanation about blog’s content,”…. this content be “empowering

content”, which in simple terms should provide some sort of value addition

to our readers”. From the statement above, it can be seen that weblog is

emphasized in content to attract the readers to read.

b. Weblog improves students’ skill in organization of text.

The research findings show that the students made fewer mistakes

in organization of the text. This refers to ideas and structure already

presented. This statement is also empowered by Richardson in Camilleri, et

al. (2007: 9) says “Blogging is not just writing in a blog… To me the

process starts with reading what other people have written and editing that

content for depth and relevance and accuracy. It‟s making connections

about that content to other ideas (organization) to clarify what‟s important

about it. It‟s adding personal reflection to give it context because only in

knowing how the blogger experiences what she is writing about can I as a

reader decide whether her ideas are worth my time. And, finally, it‟s linking

back to that content so that the ideas can be traced to their genesis”. From

above statement, it can be concluded that blog is making connection

between content and ideas (organization) which can make the reader decide

whether the ideas are worth for the time.

c. Weblog improves students’ vocabulary.

The research findings show that the students had richer word

choices. They were able to select the appropriate words to express their

ideas. They also knew some new words which they got from other bloggers


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(classmate). By reviewing their classmate’s blogs including the researcher

efforts in giving them new words from tutor blog each meeting, they had

enriched their vocabulary better than the past time. Dalton and Grisham

(2011: 306) in their article say,” We believe that digital tools and media are

available in most schools that teachers could harness now to improve

vocabulary learning, tools that capture the interest of students and that

provide scaffolds and contexts in which to learn with, and about, words

more profitably”. From this statement, it can be said that weblog as digital

tools can be harnessed to improve student’s vocabulary.

d. Weblog improves students’ language use.

The research findings show that the students were better in

language use skill. The purpose of language use is the students are able to

communicate with other using appropriate language. In this case, blog can

transcend linguistic barrier among the students. It is stated by Raith (in

Hourigan and Muray, 2010: 210),” blogs can transcend linguistic barriers

and may be used for language learning purposes, where bloggers: “become

part of a discourse community in a complex multimodal setting”. In addition,

Richardson (in Hourigan and Muray, 2010: 210) says,” learning together in

“collaborative spaces where people negotiate and construct meaning and

texts improve language use”. In this case, blog has purpose to transcend

linguistic barrier which can improve the student’s language use in

constructing meaning and text better. It is because the more freely they can

express their language use, the better their construction in meaning and text

will be.

e. Weblog improves students’ mechanics skill.

The research findings show that the students were able to apply the

appropriate mechanics in their sentences. This finding is similar to Lamshed,

et al. (2002: 68) who already state that,” This blog has the added feature in

that each contributor is able to edit each other‟s work… So long as the text

content remained the same, spelling, grammar and other revisions could be

made”. The other revision here belongs to mechanics correction from the


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blog itself. It has a purpose to make students have better understanding in

using mechanics.

f. Weblog improves the student’s interest in learning English

The observation results in the form of field notes which are

supported by interview and photographs also show the differences of

students’ interest before and after the implementation of weblog. After the

writer conducted the second cycle, when he asked the students’ feeling, most

of them said that weblog was fun activities in learning writing. The students

paid more attention and more participation in every single activity. The

situation in teaching and learning process became conducive and made the

students were able to write narrative text easily. It is because weblog fulfill

the student’s needs in line with their own individual schedule and their own

interests. Camilleri, et al. (2007: 290 say,” By running their own blog, each

blogger is seeking to express a particular need or needs. Some, by means of

their postings and comments, wish to assert their ego, to feel valued and

recognized”. They also state,” There are also some who see blogs as a way

of expressing themselves freely….. in line with their own individual schedule

and their own interests which they share with the other members of the

community”.

The researcher also found two weaknesses or drawbacks from this

media itself. The first, weblog can’t be used in the school without any internet

connection, so it isn’t applicable in every school especially in non-internet

connection school. Secondly, weblog must be used by using computerization

system, so it needs computer and any other supporting materials for it to be

able to connect to the internet. In short, for the school in rural area, it will be

hard to use this media.


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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION

This chapter presents the conclusion, implication, and suggestions of

the Classroom Action Research conducted in the eleventh’s grade students of

SMA N 1 Colomadu in 2010/2011. They are presented as the final discussion

from the research findings.

A. Conclusion

Having finished explaining the result of the study, the researcher drew

two conclusions. The first conclusion is that weblog writing can significantly

improve the students’ writing skill in five indicators, namely expanding

content, expressing ideas in organization, enriching the vocabulary, making a

good language use, and using better mechanics. Beforehand, the students had

problems in those five indicators and their interest in joining the lesson. In

content, the students had a less expanded content and outline. Next, the

students had a bad ideas organization which covers pronouns and determiners.

Then, they also had problem in vocabulary which is less enriched or lacked.

And then, they are hardly to make a better language use. Finally, for their

mechanics, they were still sometimes forgotten to use it in better ways which

means lack of mechanics skill. In addition, their motivation towards English

lesson is also low.

Then, after weblog is implemented, the students could make a story

with a good and well expanded content. Their ideas also have been better.

Then, the students had the ability to construct sentences based on the grammar

explained by the researcher correctly. They also used appropriate vocabularies

dealing with the topic in their writing and their mechanics has also been

improved. In general, students are encouraged to practice writing as much as

possible.

Since writing is a skill gained by practicing, it makes sense to say that

the more they practice writing, the better they will write. The second point to

be concluded is that the implementation of weblog writing has improved the


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students’ motivation in learning writing. It could be seen from their positive

attitudes towards writing indicated by their active participation in the writing

lesson conducted by the researcher. They enthusiastically wrote what the

researcher asked to write.

The researcher also find two drawbacks from the research. The first,

weblog can’t be used in the school without any internet connection, so it isn’t

applicable in every school especially in non-internet connection school.

Secondly, weblog must be used by using computerization system, so it needs

computer and any other supporting materials for it to be able to connect to the

internet. In short, for the school in rural area, it will be hard to use this media.

B. Implication

The conclusion above implies that in teaching writing the teacher

should make the students accustomed to writing. Weblog writing has been

proven to be an effective way in improving students’ writing skill. Practically,

weblog writing is a suitable technique to use in teaching and learning process.

Weblog writing is one of the ways of accustoming students to writing. In short,

teachers who are willing to improve their students’ writing skill should use

weblog writing as one of the techniques applied in their teaching. It is because

weblog can improve the students’ content, organization, vocabulary, language

use and mechanics skill. The class condition after the weblog was implemented

was conducive. It is shown by their attitude towards the lesson which was very

active and eager to learn English.

C. Suggestion

Based on the conclusion made and the implication stated above, the

researcher would like to give some suggestions dealing with the teaching of

writing. Hopefully, the suggestions will be useful for those who are willing to

improve the skill in writing including teachers, students, other researchers, and

institutions.

1. for teachers

Teaching writing is not an easy work since lots of students think that

writing is the most difficult skill to be learned. Consequently, teachers will


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face many obstacles during the teaching and learning process. Therefore,

they should be clever in choosing the appropriate techniques that can both

change their students’ attitude towards writing and improve their students’

writing skill. One of the ways they can use is by applying weblog writing.

Teachers should also give the simple examples of good writing to students

as the model they can imitate.

2. for students

Writing is, of course, not easy, but it is less difficult than what many

students imagine. To improve their writing skill, all the students have to do

is practicing writing as much as possible, since, once more to say, writing is

a skill gained by practicing. Practicing writing does not mean that they have

to write something scientific. They can write freely anything they want

without worrying about the correctness of every kind. In this case, weblog is

the right method to use, because weblog writing is freely as the user wants.

Using weblog to practice writing can also enhance the student’s creativity.

They should understand that the main function of weblog writing is

conveying meaning or communicating. Nevertheless, meaningful writing

involves the aspects of writing skill including content, organization,

vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Therefore, students should read

much from their writing of the more proficient writers from other blogger in

order to get the examples of good writing. The more they read, the more

they understand about the way how they write.

3. for other researchers

This study discusses the implementation of weblog writing as a

means of improving students’ writing skill in a Senior High School. It is

expected that the result of the study can be used as an additional reference

for further researches, especially researches dealing with the teaching of

writing. The researcher also hopes that other researchers can apply this

technique in other level of students. Besides, other researchers can use this

technique to improve students’ writing skill focused on other aspects of

writing skill. They can also conduct researches, experimental researches for


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example, comparing this technique with other techniques in teaching

writing.

4. for institutions

The institution should encourage and support the English teachers to

improve the quality of their teaching. It can be done by providing facilities

needed namely, a lab with computer, internet connection, and LCD projector

by both teachers and students so that the teaching and learning process will

run well. Besides, the institution should hold regular meeting with the

English teachers in order to discuss about the problems they face in teaching

and to find out the best solutions.

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