research study. The combinations of the similarities and the differences are reflected in the following discussion.
1 The test is designed in which the students are asked to write descriptive paragraphs.
2 In scoring the students’ writing, the study uses inter-rater reliability. It means the scoring of the students’ writing test is done by the
researcher as the first rater and the English teacher as the second rater.
3 This study investigates five aspects of writing, i.e. content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. The students
are expected write well based on those aspects. 4 The last, in term of the process of revising and editing the students’
drafts. In this process, the students are only asked to revise and edit their drafts without revising and editing question.
This study is important because inquiry-based learning is one of the effective teaching and learning writing strategy. It is because the
teaching and learning strategy which is used like observing and gathering the information, discussing, sharing, and asking and answering
questions together in group. Thus, if there is a student who has less understand about the learning material in the class shehe can ask to
herhis friends to help herhim to clear herhis problem. The results of the use of inquiry teaching method have proven effective in teaching
writing by Shakir 2003. It can be seen from the increased value of
students writing ability. The same is also done by Sholeh 2008 with the results of the research study that shows that students writing
improved from before using this teaching and learning strategy.
C. Conceptual Framework
The process of teaching and learning writing is not an easy thing to do. There are some aspects which make writing difficult. They are
vocabulary, grammar, spelling and punctuation, and organization of the sentences. If students find difficulty in studying those aspects, surely they
will find difficulties in writing. This difficulty is also found in SMP N 1Prambanan. Many students in the school lack of ability to express their
ideas and arrange the sentences. To overcome the problem, one strategic technique is needed.
In this research study, the researcher offers inquiry-based learning process in the teaching and learning writing to the class to solve the
problem in writing. This technique is proposed for some considerations. Firstly, inquiry-based learning has appropriate process for teaching and
learning writing as proposed by Paula 2006 that the cyclical process of inquiry can help students to solve the problem or question from their
teacher. The discussion allows students to solve the problem or question from their thought with comments from others and share personal
experiences in order to make sense of their ideas. Secondly, inquiry-based learning is a suitable learning approach. It is considered as a suitable
learning approach because it can be applied for any age group. It means that inquiry-based learning can be used to teach writing from young
learners to older ones. The last, inquiry-based learning has some benefits for students and teachers. The benefits for some students are: first, they
become more confident. They become confident because they can answer the questions from the teacher by exploring their own meaning and their
own ideas based on the investigating, discussing, and sharing with the team. Second, they develop their socialization. It happens since inquiry is
the teaching and learning process which needs team work skill. The last, they can express their ideas freely based on the investigation result. It also
provides some benefits for teacher, one of the benefits is they will be creative teachers because they make a teaching and learning process not
monotonous. The teacher role is as facilitator to help the students who find difficulties in the process of teaching and learning and they who need
suggestion from their teacher. By using inquiry activity, the students will solve the question by
investigating the object or the resources. Then, they discuss their ideas to reach the final answer together. Through this kind of activity, students will
have high motivation to learn. It makes students more confident in doing their work in the writing class. The use of inquiry-based learning strategy
in the writing teaching and learning process is expected to improve the students’ writing skill so that the students get a good score in the writing
test.
