‘Aspirin should be banned’ is the conclusion of the topic sentence; while ‘because excessive amounts of it are poisonous’ is the premise. This premise gives support to
the conclusion and gives boundaries to the supporting sentences that the supporting sentences are still in the boundaries of the topic “the poisonous excessive amounts in
an aspirin”. In order to gather the data, the researcher needs to conduct a test. Thus, the
researcher needs to know the basic understanding about testing writing.
2.1.4. TESTING WRITING
The best way to test the students’ writing competency is to get the students to write Hughes, 1989. In this study, the researcher will conduct a diagnostic test in
order to gather the data. This test is used to know the basic competence of the students.
2.1.4.1.Diagnostic Test
Diagnostic test is used to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses. It is intended primarily to ascertain what further teaching is necessary Hughes, 1989. It
means that by using the diagnostic test, the researcher is tried to identify the students’ basic competence to know the students’ strengths and weaknesses to
diagnose what items to be improved.
2.1.4.2. Rubric
Testing writing is a subjective matter. However, it could be minimize using a rubric. “Rubric is a tool in performance assessor kit which tells potential performers
and judges what elements of performance matter most and how the work to be
judged. The result will be distinguished in form of relative quality.” Wiggins, 1988:153
A scoring rubric is the established criteria, including rules, principles, and illustrations, used in scoring responses to individual items and clusters of items of
performance assessment. It has three main functions: establishing objective criteria of judgment, providing established expectations to teachers and students, and
maintaining focus on content and standards of a student work.
There are several elements of useful rubrics, and each is discussed in turn below Huba Freed, 2000.
a. Level of Mastery Columns which describe the level of students’ work
b. Dimensions of Quality The rows of each figure list the dimensions of quality that are important in
reaching the goal of the project or program. c. Organizational Grouping
The dimensions of quality are grouped into several groups. This helps students understand that they will be evaluated on complex abilities that are
multidimensional. d. Commentaries
For each aspect of qualities, the rubric provides a commentary describing the defining features of work at each level of mastery.
e. Descriptions of Consequences
In the commentaries, it is described for the students the likely consequences of performing at the level of quality in a real-life setting.
A scoring rubric developer can have three options: adopt, adapt, or start from the beginning. If an existing rubric which matches of with the items can be found, it
may be adopted. Otherwise, it may be modified to fit the need. Since the researcher could not formulate the rubric by herself, the researcher adapts the rubric from
several sources. The researcher adapts the rubric stated in From: Huba Fred 2000, Stiggins 2001 and other sources from Internet. The rubric was adapted and
formulated as follows: Figure 2.1 Scoring Rubric
Score Descriptions No Items
3 2
1 Topic Sentence
1. Subject and
attitude There are a
subject and an attitude
There is a subject but not an attitude
There is no topic sentence
2. Debatable
statement The topic
sentence is clear and debatable
The topic sentence is too
general and predictable
The topic sentence is
unclear or absent
Supporting Sentences 3.
Support the topic
sentence clearly and
completely develop the topic
sentence unclear or
incomplete in developing the
topic sentence Totally not
supporting the topic sentence
4. Relevant
statement There is no
irrelevant sentence
There is one irrelevant
sentence There are two or
more irrelevant sentences.
5. Reasoning
Thinking Persuasive, often
insightful adequate
Inadequate, confusing overall
Grammar and Coherence
6. Mechanics
and Grammar
All sentences are complete and
grammatical, and have no errors in
punctuation, For the most part,
sentences are complete and
grammatical, and have maximum 4
For the most part, sentences are not
complete and grammatical and
have more than 5
