the vocabulary aspect, he still had difficulties to select the appropriate vocabularies for his writing such as “cold” that should be “could”.
In Cycle 2, the students did a lot of improvements in all aspects of writing. One of the students’ writing showed that he could develop the ideas into a good
chronological order and write the generic structure of the text clearly and correctly. He also did fewer mistakes in vocabulary and language use.
After the researcher implemented the actions, based on one of the students’ writing, there were some improvements in organization and content
aspects. He was capable to develop the ideas coherently. He also wrote more sentences in his writing. He rarely made mistakes in language use and diction. For
the example, on the orientation of the text, he provided the background information answering who, what, when and where. He described the series of
events that happened very clearly. Moreover, on the reorientation, he stated his personal comment to the story, i.e. “I think it was really fun to have a holiday like
this.” And “I hope my next holiday will be more interesting”.
1. Students’ Score
This part presents the students’ writing score in the pre-test, Cycle 1, Cycle2 and the post-test. The researcher analyzed the students’ mean score in all
aspects of writing. There were content, organization, vocabulary and language use. The table below shows the mean score of the content of writing.
Table 9: Students’ Mean Score in the Content Aspect
Component Pre-test
Cycle 1 Cycle 2
Post-test Content
2.09 2.4
3.63 3.82
The students’ mean score in the content aspect in the pre-test only achieved the scale of 2.09. In Cycle 1, it increased to 2.4. In cycle 2, the students’
mean score in the content aspect increased to 3.6. In the post test, it became 3.82.
Table 10: Students’ Mean Score in the Organization Aspect
Component Pre-test
Cycle 1 Cycle 2
Post-test Organization
1.87 2.35
3.27 3.54
The students’ mean score in the organization aspect increased after the actions during the implementation of picture series. The students’ gain score is
obtained by comparing the students’ mean score in the pre-test and the post-test which was 1.67.
Table 11: Students’ Mean Score in the Vocabulary Aspect
Component Pre-test
Cycle 1 Cycle 2
Post-test Vocabulary
1.86 2.17
3.04 3.24
The students’ mean score in the vocabulary aspect in the pre-test only achieved the scale of 1.86. In Cycle 1, it increased to 2.17. In cycle 2, the
students’ mean score in the vocabulary aspect increased to 3.04. In the post test, it became 3.24.
Table 12: Students’ Mean Score in the Language Use Aspect
Component Pre-test
Cycle 1 Cycle 2
Post-test Language use
1.74 2.17
3.06 3.12
The students’ mean score in the language use aspect in the pre-test only achieved the scale of 1.74. In Cycle 1, it increased to 2.17. In Cycle 2, the
students’ mean score in the language use aspect increased to 3.06. It became 3.12 in the post test.
To know the students’ improvements after the actions during the research, the researcher summarized the general findings of students’ score from pre-test,
Cycle1, Cycle 2 and post-test.
Table 13: General Findings of Students’ Score from Pre-test, Cycle 1, Cycle 2 and Post-test
Component Pre-test
Cycle 1 Cycle 2
Post-test Mean score
1.89 2.27
3.25 3.43
The students’ mean score in the pre-test only achieved the scale of 1.89. In Cycle 1, it increased to 2.27. In Cycle 2, the students’ mean score increased to
3.25. It became 3.43 in the post test. It is concluded that picture series improved the eighth grade students’ skills in writing recount texts at SMP N 3 Pakem.
C. Discussions
