17 Based on
the Harmer‟s explanation, the researcher can conclude that writers revisit a certain stage from the stage of planning until the last stage which
is final version. In the classroom activity, when the students want to write something, the first stage that they should do is the planning stage. In the planning
stage, students can use mind mapping to produce or obtain the new ideas. In the drafting stage, students choose the optimal ideas to be included in the piece of
writing. Editing means that students should put everything together in a coherent and cogent manner, whereas for the revising stage, students are asked to check
their written work again. The students can produce the good final version after they have already done all of the stages.
3. Ability in Organizing Ideas
Ability is the fact that somebody is able to do something. Ability can be improved by doing the exersises. It means that ability in writing skill can also be
improved by doing some assignments which are related to writing skill. Purves 1988 explains that students themselves commonly identify language difficulties,
particularly an inadequate grasp of vocabulary or grammar and to convey their ideas in appropriate and correct English as cited in Hyland, 2003.
The writer should understand some theories of writing a second language in different focus in order to produce the best writing product Hyland, 2003. The
theories are language structures, text function, themes or topics, creative expression, composing process, content, and genre and contexts of writing. In
order to achieve the ability in organizing ideas, the teacher helps the students to focus on the text function of descriptive text. One of the aims of this focus is to
18 help the students develop effective paragraph through the creation of the topic
sentences, supporting sentences, and transition. Moreover, students are guided to produce connected sentences Hyland, 2003. The connected sentences gave the
students or writers a paragraph coherence and demonstrate their writing skill.
4. Mind Mapping Technique
a. Definition of Mind Mapping
Michelco 1998 says that mind mapping is an organized brainstorming method and it makes learning, note-taking, and organizing ideas become simpler
and easier. Buzan 1993 states that mind maps attempt, visually and graphically, to portray a relationship of ideas or concepts. In order to create a mind map,
someone usually starts in the middle of the page with the central thememain idea and from that point, heshe works outward in all directions to create a growing
diagram composed of keywords, phrases, concepts, facts, and figures. Buzan 1996 says that mind map, as well as encouraging the infinite
continuous flow of ideas, enables the brain to be awake and alert by making the brain uses its skills. It means that by using mind mapping technique, students tend
to use their brain to organize and specify their ideas before doing the writing tasks. Furthermore, it can also
develop students‟ thinking skill. In addition, Anderson, et. al 1993 state that the method also activates the imagination, the
combined use of words and symbols and also increases the creativity as well as thinking skill.
Buzan 1993 describes mind maps as a representation of cognition and comprehension in learner, and as an excellent way to help learners express
19 themselves both verbally and visually. Therefore, when learners use the mind
map, they may use graphic representation which may help in the brainstorming process. Brainstorming process helps the students to think although they do not
have any ideas in their mind. The students or writers only need to write down all of things in their mind without thinking about the text organization until their
creativity has found. By using brainstorming process, writer can find the most appropriate ideas to be used in the mind mapping.
McGriff 2007 also finds that relating images to concepts is a creative task which requires thinking instead of memorizing. Adam and Mowers 2007, in a
recent study, show that students who could express their learning with visual skills had a 40 higher retention rate than that of just verbal learners. This study
shows that the use of mind mapping technique is a useful strategy to support students during writing tasks. Moreover, a study by Toi 2000 has a clear
explanation about the use of mind mapping in increasing students‟ writing skill. Toi in his study found that the application of mind mapping in planning is a useful
writing strategy that can improve students‟ writing skill. Therefore, the researcher used the mind mapping as the technique to increase students‟ ability in organizing
ideas and also their writing skill.
b. Types of Mind Mapping
According to Buzan 2006, mind mapping can be divided into two types, namely hand-drawn mind maps and mind mapping software. The hand-drawn
mind maps are the mind mapping which is drawn by someone with their own hands while mind mapping software is mind mapping which is drawn in a
20 computer software. Both types of mind mapping can help someone to organize
their ideas. The explanations below are the examples of those two types of mind mapping.
1 Mind mapping software
Tonny and Buzan 2003 state that mind mapping software or usually called as
computer mind mapping is the „digital link‟ that allows people to input the data directory via the computer screen with a digital pen. This new software
offers significant improvements in personal productivity in the areas of automatic mind map generation, editing, analyzing, creating different views of mind
mapping in the form of computer software. The example of mind mapping
software of computer mind mapping is presented in Figure 2.2.
Figure 2.2:
Example
of Software Mind Mapping
2 Hand-Writing Mind Maps
Hand-writing mind maps provide something different with the software or computer mind mapping. Buzan 1993 states that hand-writing mind maps
become the traditional mind mapping technique. In hand-writing mind maps, the writers are asked to make their own mind mapping with their imagination and
21 creativity. The writer will draw the mind mapping with their own hands. This
hand-writing mind maps give a free decision to the writers to make their mind mapping as interesting as they want. It means that each writer will produce
different types of hand-writing. The example of hand-writing mind maps is presented in Figure 2.3.
Figure 2.3: Example of Hand-writing Mind Mapping
c. Benefits of Mind Mapping
The benefits of mind mapping have been discussed by several writers; McGriff 2000, Buzan 2007, and Edward 2011. They believe that mind
mapping can balance the brain, help to organize thoughts, and improve the creativity, speed of learning, and memory. According to Buzan 1993 besides
helping someone in organizing their ideas, there are several other benefits that can
22 be found from using mind mapping. The benefits of mind mapping are presented
as follows. 1
Someone can easily add some ideas in the mind mapping or add another link that related to the mind topic in a mind mapping
2 Mind mapping can help someone to concentrate on the information structure
and relationship among the ideas. 3
By using the mind mapping, someone can really see the connections and similarities in the information
5. Descriptive Text
Mind mapping technique becomes one of many techniques which are trusted as the writing strategy. It means that mind mapping will be appropriate to
be used in several kinds of text especially a descriptive text. According to Gerot and Wignell 1994, a descriptive text is a kind of text with a purpose to give
information. The context of a descriptive text is the description of particular things, for example animals, persons, objects, appearances, landscapes, or natural
phenomenon. Gerot and Wignell 1994 explain that the generic structure of descriptive
text consists of two elements, namely identification and description. Identification gives the topic that can be described and the topic will be clarified in description.
The topic can be appearances, quality or phenomenon.
23
B. Theoretical Framework
The researcher implemented the main theories in this research in order to address the research problems which w
ere about students‟ responses to the use of mind mapping, students‟ improvement after using mind mapping, and students‟
suggestion to the further implementation of mind mapping. The explanation of the main theories presented as follows.
1. Research question 1: Students‟ responses to the use of mind mapping.
The first research questio n is about students‟ responses to the use of mind
mapping to increase ability in organizing their ideas in writing descriptive text. Students‟ responses will be various. Therefore, the researcher focuses on the
students‟ action and thought McKechnie, 1981. Moreover, the researcher also discusses
about students‟ perception and ways of thinking Braun, 1979. The students‟ responses will be about the students‟ satisfaction in using mind mapping
as well as their experiences Braun, 1979. In this research, the experiences are about the use of mind mapping in writing a descriptive text.
In line with the students‟ responses, the researcher uses the research from Pavlov 1972 about the unconditioned and conditioned response. The researcher
also sees their responses as their motivation in using mind mapping when writing a descriptive text as it is stated by Garrison 2004.
2. Research question 2: Students‟ improvement after using mind mapping.
The second research question is about students‟ improvement after using
mind mapping in writing descriptive text. As it is stated above that writing is an action or a process discovering and organizing ideas, the writer should find an