The Benefits of Using Tiered Activity

C. Conceptual Framework

Article can be used to deliver information both online and in print. To write good article, writers should have good writing skills. In the contrary, the writing skills of the English article writers of PLUSWRITER Company as the participants were low. Based on the observation, interviews, and pre-test results, there were some problems that occurred in PLUSWRITER Company. One of the problems was related to different participants’ English proficiency level. Some of the participants wrote good articles with some complex sentences while some others did not. Some of the participants also did some mistakes in using subject- verb agreement, passive voice, parallelism, noun phrase, noun clause, punctuation, and reference. Some of them also wrote article with irrelevant content and title. In addition, participants did not know some mistakes they wrote. The researcher gave feedback only when they were not busy. Before giving feedback, the editors checked the articles first. They used an assessment rubric from the Company. They only checked the content, the use of grammar, and the technical writing. They did not have a clear assessment grading scale. In order to solve the problems, appropriate materials and activities for the participants were developed. The researcher also supported their writing skill improvement by checking the participants’ work and by giving them feedback. The materials and the activities were in accordance to the participants’ needs and English proficiency level. The materials consisted of subject-verb agreement, passive voice, parallelism, and clause. Tiered activities were used to involve all of the participants in writing practices so that they can have their writing skills improved. Furthermore, the researcher also supported the writing skills improvement of the participants by checking their work and by giving feedback. By checking their work, some mistakes were found. Then, based on the mistakes, feedback was given. These actions made the participants aware of their mistakes so that they did not do the similar mistakes again. The actions also helped the participants improve their writing skills.