writing skills improved. In this study, the participants of the research were the English article writers of PLUSWRITER Company.
B. Identification of the Problems
To identify the problems, a preliminary observation, interviews with editors and participants, and a pre-test were conducted. There were actually some
problems causing the participants not able to write good articles. The problems were related to not only the participants’ writing skills, but also the surrounding
situation. However, it is necessary to only discuss the results of the observation, interviews, and pre-test which are directly related to the participants
’ writing skills were found. The discussions are as follows.
Based on the Interviews, the researcher found that there were some problems related to the grammar use. Editors said that some of the participants
frequently made mistakes in using grammatical forms, such as subject-verb agreement, passive voice, and parallelism. It is supported with the results of the
interviews with participants showing that some of them wrote simple sentences to avoid some mistakes. They made some mistakes when they use some
grammatical forms so that the editors suggested them to write some simple sentences.
However, based on the pre-test result, the mistakes were not only in using some of those terms of grammatical forms. Some articles were written with
unorganized and unstructured content. Even, some of the content of the articles
were not relevant to the titles. Then, some mistakes in using clause were also found. The mistakes showed that the participants did not understand in reducing
clauses. Next, some punctuation mistakes were also identified. Some of the participants missed full stop to end their sentences. They also did not put comma
in their sentences with adverbial clause. The last mistakes found in the pre-test were the use of reference. Some of the participants used it and this to refer to a
plural noun. The results showed that they did not carefully write their articles. From both interview and pre-test results, it was found that some of the
participants had low vocabulary mastery. They still found difficulties in selecting some vocabularies related to certain topics that they wrote. They were demanded
to write some articles based on various themes and issues. Therefore, they should have good vocabulary mastery. Mastering sufficient vocabularies is required to
make them perform their jobs in well-done result. As stated by Harrel Jordan 2003: 38, vocabularies are to provide the writers with the exact references so
that they easily express their ideas. Vocabularies would be very helpful for more understanding of what they are going to learn and to write.
In accordance to the result of the preliminary observation, there was another problem that was related to the editors. Editors checked the articles and
determined whether the articles were good to be published or not. They checked the articles by using a simple rubric. The rubric was designed to focus on only
three aspects i.e. content, grammar use, and technical writing. It did not have
clear assessment grading score. Editors were also not active in giving feedback so that some of the participants were unaware that they actually made some
mistakes. Editors called the participants to give some corrections only when they were not busy with their jobs. When they gave corrections to the participants,
they did not present models or materials related to the corrections. Consequently, the participants were passive in responding to their corrections.
Considering the identified problems, the researcher assumed that it was necessary to find an action to solve the problems and to improve the writing skills
of the participants.
C. Limitation of the Problems
Conducting a research to overcome all of the problems which occurred in PLUSWRITER Company presented earlier would take a long time. Therefore,
only some feasible problems were decided to be solved in improving the writing skills of the participants. Besides, in relation to the demands of writing some
articles in various lengths and themes, the researcher and the collaborator decided to limit the study on the short articles consisting of 300 words discussing home
design. This limitation was necessary because this type of article was the most frequently written article.
Then, they discussed and determined the best action to improve the writing skills of the participants. To meet the differences of the English
proficiency level of the participants, both of them agreed to implement tiered
activity. The use of tiered activity was decided to make all of the participants more active in joining the writing activities. Then, because they were active in
writing practices, they could achieve the goal that was improving their writing skills.
D. Formulation of the Problem
In reference to the background, identification, and limitation of the problems,
the problem in this research was formulated as follows. “How could the implementation of tiered activities improve the writing skills of the English
article writers ’ training of PLUSWRITER Company?”
E. Objective of the Study
With regard to the formulation of the problem, the objective of the research is to improve the writing skills of English article writers
’ training of PLUSWRITER Company through the use of tiered activities.
F. Significance of the Study
This study gives both theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, this study can support current theory of the significance of tiered activity in
improving the writing skills. The data of the study can strengthen the theory that tiered activities are applicable.
Practically, there are some significance of this study that can give advantages for editors, writers, researcher himself, and other researchers.
For editors, this result of the study can be useful information related to the use of tiered activities to improve the
writers’ writing skills. For writers, this study can be a reflection of the enrichment of their willingness in learning
English since they enjoy the activities designed for them. Then, they can get good achievement in learning and using English, especially in writing.
For the researcher himself, this study can be used as an experience on how to conduct action research particularly in improving the writing skills and a
development of his knowledge and skills in problem solving process. For other researchers, this result can be one of many research examples to improve English
teaching and learning process so that they can be encouraged in doing similar studies.
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