student has a different level of proficiency from others. Some students are good in English, but others are not really good. The level of proficiency makes them learn
in different ways and catch different amounts of knowledge. Some students also lacked motivation. They were not really interested in
writing. The researcher found that some students got difficulty in transferring their ideas into sentences. They made many mistakes in their sentences. They also still
translated from Indonesian into English word by word. It happened because they did not know how to construct sentences and they lacked vocabulary. In addition,
they were still confused about the grammatical rules. They did not know how to apply the grammatical rules correctly.
C. Delimitation of the Problems
Grade VIII students of SMPN 6 Magelang had a problem in writing. Their writing skills were not very good. Based on that condition, the researcher and the
English teacher limited this research to the effort to improve the writing skill through guided writing for Grade VIII students of SMPN 6 Magelang in the
academic year 20142015.
D. Formulation of the Problems
The problem of this research was formulated as follows: “How can the writing
skill of Grade VIII Students of SMPN 6 Magelang be improved by guided writing?”
E. Objective of the Research
The objective of this research is to improve the writing skill of Grade VIII students of SMPN 6 Magelang in the academic year 20142015 through Guided
Writing.
F. Significance of the Research
1. Practical Significance a.
For the students, this research is expected to encourage them to improve their writing skills and motivate them to write in English properly.
b. For the teachers, this research is expected to encourage them to find out the
good technique for teaching writing. 2. Theoretical significance
a. This research can be used as a basis for the next researchers in conducting the
further research.
6
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
A. Literature Review
1. Definitions of Writing
Writing is one of the four language skills after listening, speaking, and reading that must be learned by students at junior high school. Writing involves
some aspects such as content, organization, originality, and accuracy. Some experts have given many definitions about writing. Brookes and Grundy 2000: 1
state “written language was thought by some to be spoken language put into written form. …. Furthermore, the assumption that writing is putting the spoken
language into written form is only true for activities like taking down dictation or transcribing a tape.” Therefore, writing is more than putting spoken language into
written form. Writing is more than making a sentence, but it is a process and a complex
activity. As stated by Harris 1993: 10 “writing is a process that occurs over a
period of time, particularly if we take into account, there sometimes extended periods of thinking tha
t precede creating an initial draft.” Furthermore, he also states 1993: 122 that writing is a complex activity.
To support the definition of writing proposed by Harris, Hedge 1998: 19 states
“writing is a process. In fact, it is a complex process with a member of operations going on simultaneously. Moreover, some writers seem to have a much
better understanding of how to make the process work effectively for them and consequently produce more successful pieces of writing.” we may conclude from
