Background of Study INTRODUCTION

Skill of Recount Text” A Quasi Experimental Study at the Eighth Grade Students of MTs. Negeri 13 Jakarta.

B. Identification of the Problem

Based on the background of study above, there are some problems identified. They are: 1. Most of students do not know how to start writing. 2. Most of students do not know how to organize sentences into coherence paragraph. 3. Most of students get difficulty in generating and organizing their ideas into well-organized paragraph. 4. Most of students do not know and use any technique in writing recount text which can guide them in developing and organizing their ideas.

C. Limitation of the Problem

Based on the identification of problem above, the writer would like to limit the study by focusing on the effectiveness of guided question technique on students’ writing skill of recount text. The study will be conducted at the eighth grade students of MTs. Negeri 13 Jakarta.

D. Formulation of the Problem

Formulation of the problem in this study is “Is the guided question technique effective on developing students’ writing skill of recount text at the eighth grade students of MTs. Negeri 13 Jakarta?”

E. Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to find out the effectiveness of using guided question technique on students’ writing skill of recount text.

F. Significance of the Study

This study results are expected to provide useful information for students, teachers and researchers. 1. For students, this results of study are expected to make process of learning writing is easier for them and increase their interest in writing. 2. For teachers, this results are hoped to give the advantages. They can take advantage from this effectiveness of guided questions technique in teaching writing. They can take its information as a kind of teaching technique and they can evaluate whether this technique is better to be applied in the classroom or not. 3. The result of this research would give information to the next researcher about the effectiveness of guided question technique in teaching writing. This result can be a future reference if the use of guided question technique is effective on students’ writing skill. 6

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Writing

1. The Definition of Writing

Writing is an important part in life, whether in everyday life, workplace or school because it can be used as a tool for communication. Through writing, people can express their ideas, feeling, and expression or sharing something to others in a written form. Talking about writing, there are many definitions of writing that can be found. According to Raymond, “writing is a way of remembering and thinking”. 1 Through writing, people need to recall what in their memory is about and what they are going to write. Beside it is a way of thinking, writing makes people challenged to think carefully about what writing is for and whom it will reach. 2 It means that in writing, people have to determine the purpose of writing itself and its audience. Moreover, writing can be defined as a process of discovery. 3 This means that people should explore their thoughts in writing. In exploring their thoughts, people use a series of steps to write. The step can be like a straight journey until the writing is finished and also can be a zigzag journey. People may have an obstacle in the middle of writing which makes them have to switch the direction or changing the idea of their writing. Based on the writing definitions above, it can be concluded that writing is a tool for communication in a written form. When people do writing, they need to think what they are going to write and determine the purpose and their audience. In addition, writing also a process of discovery that makes people need to explore their thought when they are writing. 1 James C. Raymond, Writing is an Unnatural Act, New York: Harper Row Publisher, 1980, p. 2. 2 Andrea A. Lunsford, The St. Martin’s Handbook, sixth edition, New York: BedfordSt. Martin’s, 2010, p. 23. 3 John Langan, English Skills, eighth edition, New York: McGraw Hill, 2006, p. 15.

2. Writing Skill

Writing is one of productive skills in English. It is a skill of a writer to communicate information to a reader. 4 This means that the writer can communicate through a written form. Writing skill is needed for people to get complete communication besides reading, listening, and speaking skill. That is why writing skill important to be mastered. In addition, writing skill is also related to the ability in apllying the rule of language to the written form. 5 The rule of the language includes grammatical aspects, punctuations, the types of the information, and the rhetoric that the writer conduct in a communicative event. The writer needs to concern this ability in writing. Moreover, the writing skill is a complex skill which has to concern many aspects such us planning, organizing, spelling, punctuation, translating to the readable text, word choice, etc. It also can be more difficult if the L2 learners’ proficiency is weak. 6 Furthermore, writing sometimes becomes frustrating for people because it is not easy to transfer thoughts and feelings from one’s head into words. Even writing is difficult, it can still be mastered by people with a hardwork because writing is a skill like driving, cooking, etc. It is not an automatic process. 7 From the explanations above, the writer infers that writing skill is one of the productive English skills which is difficult to master because the writer needs to concern several things. They are planning, organizing, spelling, punctuation, translating, word choice, language rule, etc. Even so, writing can be mastered by working hard or practice because it is a skill not an automatic process.

3. Genres of Writing

Each type of writing has features that make it different from another. It is important for students to know that writing has many genres. According to 4 Sanggam Siahaan, The English Paragraph, Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu, 2008, p. 2. 5 Ibid. 6 Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice , New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 303. 7 John Langan, op.cit, p. 13.