USING JUMBLED PARAGRAPHS TO IMPROVE PARAGRAPH WRITING SKILLS OF XA STUDENTS IN SMA SANTO MIKAEL WARAK SLEMAN A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Educa

  

USING JUMBLED PARAGRAPHS TO IMPROVE PARAGRAPH WRITING

SKILLS OF XA STUDENTS IN SMA SANTO MIKAEL WARAK SLEMAN

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

  

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Agnes Siwi Purwaning Tyas

  

Student Number: 081214033

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  

USING JUMBLED PARAGRAPHS TO IMPROVE PARAGRAPH WRITING

SKILLS OF XA STUDENTS IN SMA SANTO MIKAEL WARAK SLEMAN

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

  

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Agnes Siwi Purwaning Tyas

  

Student Number: 081214033

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  

STATE TEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

  I honestly declare that th t this thesis, which I have written, does not contain tain the work or parts of the work of o f other people, except those cited in the quotatio tions and the references, as a scientific ific paper should.

  th

  Yogyakarta, October 15 , 2012 The Writer

  Agnes Siwi Purwaning Tyas 081214033

  

LEMB BAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARY YA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKAD ADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan di di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata ta Dharma: Nama : Agnes Siwi Purwaning Tyas Nomor mahasisw iswa : 081214033

  Demi pengembangan ilm ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Per Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharm arma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

  USING JUMBLED PA PARAGRAPHS TO IMPROVE PARAGRAPH W WRITING SKILLS OF XA STUD UDENTS IN SMA SANTO MIKAEL WARAK S SLEMAN beserta perangkat yang d g diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya m memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk m menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam ben entuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk p pangakalan data, mendistribusikan s n secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Int Internet atau media lain untuk kepe pentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin in dari saya maupun memberikan roy royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan n n nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 15 Oktobe ber 2012 Yang menyatakan

  

ABSTRACT

  Tyas, Agnes Siwi Purwaning, 2012. Using Jumbled Paragraphs to Improve

Paragraph Writing Skills of XA Students in SMA Santo Mikael Warak Sleman.

Yogyakarta: English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

  Writing skill is one of the English skills which should be acquired by the students. The indicator of writing success is the text organization is well- managed. In reality, the students often find that maintaining writing organization is difficult. XA students of SMA Santo Mikael often made mistakes in developing the topic sentences into paragraphs and maintaining the connection between paragraphs. Owing to the situation, the students had to be given the chance to analyze the pattern of organization independently through arranging jumbled paragraphs activity. After the implementation, the students used the knowledge to write their texts.

  This research aimed to answer this question: How does arranging jumbled paragraphs help XA students of SMA Santo Mikael write good paragraphs? The participants of this research were 15 XA students of SMA Santo Mikael in academic year 2011/2012. All of them tended to brainstorm all ideas they had in their writings without considering the organization. Thus, they needed to improve their paragraph writing skills. In line with the problem, this research aimed to know how arranging jumbled paragraphs activity overcame the writing problem experienced by the students.

  In order to improve the students’ ability in writing paragraphs, the researcher conducted Classroom Action Research by implementing the arranging jumbled paragraphs activity. The researcher collected the students’ writings and scored the organization before and after the implementation. From the scores, the researcher could analyze the improvement. Besides analyzing the scores, the researcher also distributed questionnaires and interviewed some students. The purpose was to know students’ opinions toward the implementation of arranging jumbled paragraphs activity to improve their paragraph writing skill.

  According to the data gathered, employing arranging jumbled paragraphs activity before writing helped the students to produce well-organized texts. Within two cycles of implementation, all students developed well-managed-coherent texts. They obtained scores equal or above 20, which determined the success. They were able to state the topic sentence and develop it by adding suitable supporting sentences. The organization of the supporting sentences was also well- managed. This demonstrated that the students made use of the knowledge acquired from arranging jumbled paragraphs activity to write.

  Keywords: paragraph writing skill, arranging jumbled paragraphs activity, pattern of organization, generic structure

  

ABSTRAK

  Tyas, Agnes Siwi Purwaning, 2012. Using Jumbled Paragraphs to Improve

Paragraph Writing Skills of XA Students in SMA Santo Mikael Warak Sleman.

Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Keterampilan menulis adalah salah satu dari keterampilan berbahasa Inggris yang harus dikuasai oleh siswa. Indikator dari keberhasilan dalam menulis adalah organisasi teks yang tersusun dengan baik. Pada kenyataannya, siswa mengalami kesulitan dalam mengatur organisasi tulisan. Siswa SMA Santo Mikael kelas XA sering membuat kesalahan dalam mengembangkan kalimat topik menjadi sebuah paragraf maupun dalam mengatur hubungan antar paragraf. Oleh karena itu, siswa perlu diberi kesempatan untuk menganalisa pola organisasi secara mandiri melalui aktifitas menyusun paragraf. Setelah implementasinya, siswa dapat menggunakan pengetahuan mereka untuk menulis teks.

  Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menjawab sebuah pertanyaan: Bagaimana aktifitas menyusun paragraf membantu siswa kelas XA SMA Santo Mikael menulis paragraf yang baik? Partisipan penelitian ini adalah 15 siswa kelas XA SMA Santo Mikael tahun akademik 2011/2012. Mereka sering mengungkapkan semua ide dalam tulisannya tanpa memperhatikan organisasinya. Maka dari itu, mereka perlu meningkatkan keterampilan mereka dalam menulis paragraf. Sejalan dengan masalah ini, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana aktifitas menyusun paragraf menyelesaikan masalah yang dialami siswa dalam menulis.

  Untuk menyelesaikan meningkatkan keterampilan siswa dalam menulis paragraf, peneliti melaksanakan Classroom Action Research dengan mengimplementasikan aktifitas menyusun paragraf. Peneliti mengumpulkan tulisan-tulisan siswa dan menilai organisasi tulisan baik sebelum dan setelah implementasi. Dari nilai-nilai tersebut, peneliti dapat menganalisa peningkatan organisasi tulisannya. Selain menganalisa nilai, peneliti juga membagikan kuesioner dan mewawancari beberapa siswa. Hal ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pendapat siswa mengenai implementasi aktifitas menyusun paragraf untuk meningkatkan keterampilan mereka dalam menulis paragraf.

  Berdasarkan data yang dikumpulkan, aktifitas menyusun paragraf yang dilakukan sebelum menulis membantu siswa untuk menulis teks agar tersusun dengan baik. Dalam dua siklus implementasi, semus siswa mampu menulis teks yang tersusun dengan baik serta koheren. Mereka mendapatkan nilai di atas 20 yang merupakan standar keberhasilan dalam meyusun organisasi teks. Mereka mampu mengungkapkan kalimat topik dan mengembangkannya dengan menambahkan kalimat-kalimat pendukung. Organisasi kalimat-kalimat pendukung juga tersusun dengan baik. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa siswa mampu menggunakan pengetahuan dari kegiatan menyusun paragraf untuk menulis.

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would like to thank my Almighty God because of His grace and wondrous blessing He had given to me all the time and during the process to finish this thesis. His love gave me power, optimism, and strength to achieve this wonderful dream.

  In this opportunity, I would like to thank Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., as my sponsor, for giving me support to conduct the research, guiding me patiently to finish my thesis, and giving me suggestions to improve it. I also thank Drs. Emanuel Sunarto, M.Hum. for spending his time to check my thesis, give me support, advice, and suggestions. I also give my gratitude to my academic counselor, Dr. Retno Muljani, M.Pd., for her support and advice, so that I could finish my study. I am also thankful to all of my lecturers’ valuable lessons shared with me during my study in this university.

  I am very much grateful to my mother, my inspiration, Ibu Yuliana Sri Rohani, who has been struggling to help me achieve my dream. This is the answer to her prayer and present for her never-ending love. I also give my gratitude to my grandmother, Pakdhe Wid, Budhe Wid, Pakdhe Hardjomono, Budhe Hardjomono,

  

Bulik Janti, and all of my family who always pray for me, give support and

  motivation. Their encouragement gave me strength to always feel optimistic and confident to finish my thesis. I am also very much grateful to my father, Bapak Paulus Pujiarto. I believe that even though he is not here with me in this world, he

  I thank my family in Samya Eka Sadhana who always supports me and reminds me to pray for my success. I also thank my friends in OMK Santo Aloysius Gonzaga, especially to Mbak Hanny, Mbak Wied, and Miss Vero, who made me feel optimistic that I could finish my thesis as soon as possible.

  I am grateful to Tia Xenia and Didi, who always accompanied me during conducting the research and working on this thesis. I also thank my best friends; Gisa, Rei, Desya, Coro, Pita, Delis, Bella, Nican and all of my friends in PBI for their support and motivation. Lastly, I thank those who helped me directly and indirectly.

  Agnes Siwi Purwaning Tyas

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE ....................................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................................. ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY .................................................... iv

  

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ...................................... v

  ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... vi

  

ABSTRAK .......................................................................................................... vii

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... x LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................ xiii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................... xiv LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... xv

  CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

  1.1 Research Background ........................................................................... 1

  1.2 Research Problem ................................................................................. 5

  1.3 Problem Limitation ............................................................................... 5

  1.4 Research Objectives .............................................................................. 6

  1.5 Research Benefits ................................................................................. 6

  1.6 Definition of Terms ............................................................................... 6

  CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

  2.1 Theoretical Description ......................................................................... 9

  2.1.1 Jumbled Paragraphs..................................................................... 9

  2.1.1.1 Definition of Jumbled Paragraphs ..................................... 9

  2.1.1.2 The Intergration between Arranging Jumbled Paragraphs and Effective Reading ..................................................... 9

  2.1.1.3 The Aspects of Text Analyzed through Arranging Jumbled Paragraphs ..................................................................... 10

  2.1.2.1 The Characteristics of a Good Paragraph ........................ 12

  2.1.2.2 Paragraph Writing Skill ..................................................... i

  2.1.3 Types of Writing Process .......................................................... 14

  2.1.4 Writing Cycle ............................................................................ 15

  2.1.5 The Intergration between Reading and Writing .......................... 16

  2.2 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................... 17

  CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

  3.1 Research Method ................................................................................ 21

  3.2 Research Setting ................................................................................. 25

  3.3 Research Participants .......................................................................... 25

  3.4 Research Instruments and Data Gathering Technique .......................... 25

  3.4.1 Research Instruments before the Implementation ........................ 26

  3.4.2 Research Instruments during the Implementation ....................... 31

  3.5 Data Analysis Technique .................................................................... 34

  3.6 Research Procedure ............................................................................. 36

  CHAPTER IV RESEARCH RESULT AND DISCUSSION

  4.1 The Description of the Implementation of Arranging Jumbled Paragraphs Activity in the First Cycle ................................................ 38

  4.1.1 Planning .................................................................................... 39

  4.1.2 Act and Observe ........................................................................ 39

  4.1.3 Reflect ....................................................................................... 44

  4.2 The Description of the Implementation of Arranging Jumbled Paragraphs Activity in the Second Cycle ............................................ 47

  4.2.1 Planning .................................................................................... 47

  4.2.2 Act and Observe ........................................................................ 48

  4.2.3 Reflect ....................................................................................... 50

  4.3 The Contribution of Arranging Jumbled Paragraphs to Improve the Paragraph Writing Skills .................................................................... 51

  CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

  5.1 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 77

  5.2 Recommendation ............................................................................... 78 REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 80

  

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 The Scoring Criteria of Students’ Writing .......................................... 28Table 4.1 Students’ Scores in the First Cycle .................................................... 44Table 4.2 Students’ Scores in the Second Cycle ................................................ 50Table 4.3 Students’ Scores in the Observation ................................................... 53Table 4.4 The Result of the First Questionnaire ................................................. 55Table 4.5 The Improvement of the Students’ Paragraph Writing Skills .............. 62Table 4.6 The Improvement of Text Organization ............................................. 64Table 4.7 The Result of the Second Questionnaire ............................................ 70

  

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 The Action Research Spiral (Burns, 1991, p. 33) .............................. 23Figure 4.1 The Improvement of Students’ Paragraph Writing Skill ................... 63Figure 4.2 The Improvement of Text Organization ............................................ 69

  

LIST OF APPENDICES

  Appendix 1 Letters of Permission ..................................................................... 83 Appendix 2 Samples of the Students’ Writings in the Observation .................... 85 Appendix 3 Samples of the Students’ Writings in the First Cycle ...................... 88 Appendix 4 Samples of the Students’ Writings in the Second Cycle .................. 91 Appendix 5 The Research Instruments .............................................................. 94 Appendix 6 The Samples of the First Questionnaire ........................................ 103 Appendix 7 The Samples of the Second Questionnaire..................................... 108 Appendix 8 The Sample of the Observation Checklist in Cycle One ................ 113 Appendix 9 The Sample of the Observation Checklist in Cycle Two ................ 115 Appendix 10 The Field Notes in Cycle One ..................................................... 117 Appendix 11 The Field Notes in Cycle One ..................................................... 123 Appendix 12 The Interview Guide .................................................................. 128 Appendix 13 Raw Questionnaire Data ............................................................ 130 Appendix 14 Lesson Plans ............................................................................... 135

  background, research problem, problem limitation, research benefits, research objectives, and the definition of terms.

  The educational system in Indonesia applies student-centered learning approach now. Department of Education of Sleman implements this approach in every school in the regency because it focuses on the learning needs of the students. One school that is being supervised is SMA Santo Mikael. Under the supervision, the teachers are using student-centered learning to encourage students to be independent to achieve the learning goal. One learning goal that the students are trying to achieve is being able to use English in written and spoken forms.

  Teachers believe that student-centered learning guarantees students’ success because it stimulates the students to be the center of learning or to dominate the class by being the active learning participants. As the focus, student- centered learning supports students to explore the material instead of only receiving the information from the teachers. Thus, the teachers should be the learning facilitators. They facilitate the learning activity by letting the students find the useful information for their learning process. An example of student- mammals. She did not explain all the time. She gave students the opportunity to share their understanding of mammals. Then the class was divided into several groups and each group was given a set of cards with animal picture on each card. In the main activity, the students classified the animals in the cards which belong to mammals. In this student-centered learning, students experienced the learning activity to enrich their knowledge independently. The teacher functioned as facilitator of learning process.

  Student-centered learning which was implemented in SMA Santo Mikael encouraged the students to perform better in written cycle activity. Students of SMA Santo Mikael found difficulty in learning essay texts. Compared to reading skill, students’ writing skills needed improvement. In reading activity, they were able to identify the generic structure of recount text successfully. The teacher gave them a recount text consisting of four paragraphs. The students could identify that the first parapraph was the orientation, the second and the third paragraphs were the events, and the last paragraph was the reorientation. It ccould be inferred that the students mastered the structural recognition.

  However, mastering the structural recognition is not enough. Written cycle activity does not end with reading. The main goal is that the students have the ability to produce their own texts. This ability is called productive skill. Productive skill refers to the skill to produce language in spoken or written form. When it came to writing activity, the XA students of SMA Santo Mikael could not organize text based on the generic structure. When they wrote their recount texts, students introduced the characters involved and told the readers about the event or series of event which happened in the story. It was obvious that the text were not well-organized in terms of the generic structure.

  Based on the correct generic structure, the characters must be introduced in the first paragraph, while the event is put in the following paragraph. The lack of structuring skill showed that students could not build the structuring concept in their mind. They did not have any idea about the information which had to be put in each generic structure.

  In writing activity, students should pay attention to the rhetorical forms. Rhetorical forms can be defined as the patterns which structure a text. Rhetorical forms help the students to organize the information based on the patterns. Affar, Arens, and Byrnes states that the students acquire rhetorical forms mastery through reading (1991, p. 58). Thus, reading helps students master rhetorical forms of a text or commonly known as the generic structure.

  Based on the research done by Kintsch and Yarbrough in 1985, “The use of one well-organized paragraphs and one whose paragraphs were reordered resulted in different reading performance” (as cited in Affar et al., 1991, p. 59). Students were not successful to mention the important points in the article when the rhetorical forms were destroyed. On the other hand, their answers were correct when they were given a text in good rhetorical forms. The same case occured in reading performance of XA students in SMA Santo Mikael. Students were expected to identify the generic structure of each paragraph. They probably did automatizing concept that the first paragraph was the orientation, the second paragraph was the event, and the last paragraph was the reorientation.

  In order to improve their paragraph writing skills, the students should be encouraged to arrange jumbled paragraph. When the students arrange the jumbled paragraphs into a good text, they pay attention to the information given in each paragraph in order to arrange the paragraphs based on the chronological order.

  This method is called employing top-down factors (Affars et al., 1991, p. 40). By employing this method, the students will organize the paragraphs according to the information. The paragraph which introduces the characters becomes the first paragraph, followed by the paragraph which tells the events of the story, and the end of the story will be put in the last paragraph. The students will build the structuring concept in their mind that each generic structure has its own information and they have to be put based on the chronological order.

  Since arranging jumbled paragraphs activity focuses on the information of each paragraph, this activity employs content-oriented method. Content- oriented method aims to assist the students in reading text efficiently to produce their own texts. This helps the students to generate, develop, and organize their ideas (Hyland, 2003, p. 16). This method encourages the students to read the paragraphs to find the content before they can reorder them into meaningful text.

  By reading the content, the students are able to identify what content can be presented in the paragraphs. This method reduces students’ difficulties in generating and organizing their text (Hyland, 2003, p. 15).

  When the students write a text after the implementation, they are expected to use the knowledge obtained from arranging the jumbled paragraphs activity. This research aims to know how arranging jumbled paragraphs can be used to help students of XA in SMA Santo Mikael improve their paragraph writing skills.

  1.2 Research Problem

  The research which is done in class XA of SMA Santo Mikael tries to answer the question: How does arranging jumbled paragraphs help XA students of SMA Santo Mikael write good paragraphs?

  1.3 Problem Limitation

  The research focuses on the improvement in paragraph writing skill of XA students in SMA Santo Mikael. The researcher focuses on the improvement in organizing the information. The research is limited to the method used to improve paragraph writing skill of XA students in SMA Santo Mikael, academic year 2011/2012. The students experienced problem in writing good paragraphs. They could not organize information based on the generic structure. The researcher used the arranging jumbled paragraphs activity as a solution to improve paragraph writing skill of XA students in SMA Santo Mikael. The participants of this research are 15 students of XA in SMA Santo Mikael Warak, Sleman, academic year 2011/2012.

  1.4 Research Objectives

  The research aims to know how arranging jumbled paragraphs overcomes the problem experienced by XA students in SMA Santo Mikael, academic year 2011/2012, in writing good paragraphs. The problem experienced by them was related to information organization.

  1.5 Research Benefits

  The research is expected to give people benefits. The result of the research will be useful for the XA students of SMA Santo Mikael academic year 2011/2012, and the English teachers.

  1. The XA students of SMA Santo Mikael

  The students are expected to improve their paragraph writing skills. They will be able to organize their texts based on the generic structure.The skill is obtained from arranging jumbled paragraphs.

  2. The English teachers of SMA Santo Mikael

  This research will help English teachers of SMA Santo Mikael implement student-centered learning in teaching essay texts. Teachers will be able to use to be independent in learning by arranging the jumbled paragraphs in groups to learn about information organization. From this activity, the students will be independent to identify the information which can be put in every paragraph.

  In order to avoid misunderstanding, some terms in this research should be defined. The researcher will define the terms of jumbled paragraphs, paragraph writing skill, and the XA students of SMA Santo Mikael.

  1. Jumbled paragraphs Kintsch and Yarbrough define jumbled paragraphs as paragraphs which are reordered (as cited in Affar et al., 1991, p. 59). The well-structured text is reordered to create the jumbled paragraphs. Before the readers can read the text, they must arrange the paragraphs into a good text. The readers need to pay attention to the information to connect one paragraph to another paragraph. This activity is in line with the rule that a good text consists of smoothly-connected ideas (Bram, 1995, p. 21). The researcher used the arranging jumbled paragraphs activity because it was a suitable method to help XA students in SMA Santo Mikael develop awareness of information organization.

  Paragraph writing skill is an important skill in learning English because writing skill is highly valued in education (Weigle, 2002, p. 17). Thus, accuracy in writing is important. The accuracy in writing includes patterns of information Mikael needed to improve their paragraph writing skill related to organizing information. The researcher would help the students to develop their awareness of information organization, so that they were able to structure the paragraphs based on the patterns of organization.

  SMA Santo Mikael is located in Warak, Sleman. One of the classes in SMA Santo Mikael is XA. There were 15 students in XA in academic year 2011/2012. All of the students found difficulties in organizing information when they wrote a text. Therefore, arranging jumbled paragraphs activity is expected to help the students develop paragraph writing skill related to the information organization. This section will discuss jumbled paragraphs, paragraph writing skill, types of writing process, writing cycle, and the integration between reading and writing.

  2.1.1 Jumbled Paragraphs In this part, the researcher will describe the jumbled paragraphs.

  Therefore, this part presents the definition of jumbled paragraphs and the use of arranging jumbled paragraphs in reading.

  2.1.1.1 Definition of Jumbled Paragraphs Kintsch and Yarbrough define jumbled paragraphs as a text whose paragraphs are reordered (as cited in Affar et al., 1991, p. 59). The jumbled paragraphs are created from a well-structured text. The text is reordered, so the readers must arrange the paragraphs into a good text before they read it.

  2.1.1.2 The Relation between Arranging Jumbled Paragraphs and Effective Reading Effective reading helps the students to construct the propositional

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  other (Wallace, 2003, p.11). Thus, effective reading should be employed before students write the texts to acquire the knowledge of information organization.

  This idea is strengthened by Krashen’s research related to paragraph writing skill in 1999. Krashen concludes that writing skill can be acquired if it is supported by extensive reading which lets the students build the concept of ideas organization pattern (as cited in Hyland, 2003, p. 17).

  In order to understand how information and ideas are connected or organized in a text, the students must be encouraged to identify the information which can be put in each paragraph. Arranging jumbled paragraph activity develops the students’ awareness in information organization. They will identify the information in each paragraph and try to connect a paragraph to another paragraph by seeing the information relation.

  2.1.1.3 The Aspects of Text Analyzed through Arranging Jumbled Paragraphs In line with effective reading, students should employ top-down processing. Top-down processing requires the students to begin with analyzing the idea that constructs the text (Walvoord, 1985, p. 4). In order to support the analysis, the teacher can use arranging jumbled paragraphs activity. By arranging the jumbled paragraphs, the students can analyze the elements that construct a good text.

  1) Text structure In order to be effective in producing written texts, the students should employ their reading comprehension related to text structure in writing. A

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  aware of and strategically use the text organization, they will build better reading comprehension to use in writing a text (as cited in Armbruster & Osborn, 2002, p.

  96). This idea is supported by Nunan who suggests that written text analysis should include organization analysis (2003, p. 94).

  2) Genre Every genre of text has its own text organization, for example narrative text consists of orientation, complication, and resolution, while recount text consists of orientation, series of events, and reorientation. If the students know the genre of the text they are reading, they know what structure to expect and it will help them to construct the position of ideas (Armbruster & Osborn, 2002, p. 96). The students can identify the text genre by seeing the purpose or the topic of the text.

  3) Main idea If students are able to identify the main idea of every paragraph, every sentence in the paragraph will be easily clicked into place (Langan, 1986, p. 319).

  Even when the paragraphs are reordered, students will be able to rearrange them to create a well-organized text if they can identify the main idea of every paragraph. By knowing the main idea, students are able to connect one paragraph to the another paragraph.

  2.1.2 Paragraph Writing Skill This part discusses the paragraph writing skill. The researcher presents the

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  2.1.2.1 The Characteristics of a Good Paragraph According to Brown, written texts are supposed to meet certain standards

  (2001, p. 335). The standards are used to define a paragraph as a good one. The researcher will mention the characteristics of a good paragraph.

  1) Topic sentence Topic sentence contains the relevant information about one main or central idea. The topic sentence guides the writer to select information, to add relevant information, but to exclude the irrelevant information (Bram, 1995, p. 13). According to Chaplen, a good paragraph must contain topic sentence called controlling idea which is completely developed (1970, p. 1). The controlling idea also restricts the idea by limiting the information that can be included in the paragraph. Thus, students will not brainstorm all ideas in a paragraph. They will break down all ideas they have and put the ideas into the paragraph by segmenting the ideas. They will decide which idea can be put in the paragraph.

  2) Unity of supporting sentences All sentences in a paragraph should focus on the topic sentence. Those sentences support the topic sentence to create a good paragraph. The supporting sentences develop the paragraph because they function to clarify the problem (Bram, 1995, p. 20). The unity of supporting sentences is controlled by a principle that an old information comes before the new information (Raimes, 1983, p. 57) 3) Coherence

  In order to create a good paragraph, the students must be able to connect

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  information connection or called coherence. A good text maintains the coherence because every coherent paragraph contains smoothly-connected ideas (Bram, 1995, p. 21). Based on the theory proposed by Hoey, Martin, and Rochery in 1987, the text coherence can be maintained by paying attention to the generic structure of a text. The generic structure can support the text coherence by providing the pattern which is appropriate to its communicative purpose (as cited in Lee, 2002, p.34).

  2.1.2.2 Paragraph Writing Skill The dominant model for many years saw writing as a textual product. A text is categorized as a good one if it maintains the coherent arrangement of elements structured according to a system of rules (Hyland, 2002, p. 6). Therefore, people believe that writing is a matter of product. The final product is supposed to meet certain prescribed pattern of organization. In order to meet the requirements of writing, students should possess some aspects that are included in paragraph writing skills. 1) Analyzing and imitating pattern of organization

  Raimes proposes the idea that paragraph writing skill includes the students’ ability to copy paragraphs, analyze the form of model paragraphs, and imitate model passages (1983, p. 8).Before the students write their own texts, they should analyze the elements of the text and identify the organization to gain the knowledge of the elements which construct a text and the organization pattern. The knowledge will be employed in the writing stage to structure and connect the

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  2) Developing a topic sentence The students must be able to state the topic sentence, including the main idea and elaborate it by adding supporting details (Raimes, 1983, p. 116). If the students are able to develop the topic sentence, they can maintain the organization and the connection of the ideas in each paragraph. Wallace comes up with the idea that paragraph writing skill includes the ability to develop topic and frame (2010, p. 91). The topic refers to the content of what to write and frame helps the writer to structure or organize the content. If students are able to develop the topic and use the frame, it will result in creating good paragraphs. 3) Organizing idea

  When the students write, they will present their ideas through their writings. In order to organize the ideas, the students must be able to put the sentences together and connect the sentences (Raimes, 1983, p. 115). If they can organize the ideas, the texts will be organized as well.

  2.1.3 Types of Writing Process There are various types of writing process that can be applied in the classroom. The teacher can choose the writing process to suit the purpose of writing. According to Hyland, there are four types of writing process (2002, p. 3).

• Familiarization The purpose of this writing process is to help the students familiarize themselves with the grammar and vocabulary through writing. Therefore, the

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• Controlled writing

  The purpose of this writing process is to encourage the students use the fixed patterns in writing. The teacher will introduce the pattern of a text to the students. Then, the students copy the pattern in writing their own texts. However, the students may not change the pattern introduced by the teacher.

• Guided writing

  The purpose of this writing process is to let the students imitate the model of a text. In this process, the students are encouraged to be independent. Before writing, the students should analyze a text to gain useful knowledge for writing, such as the generic structure and the language features.

• Free writing

  The purpose of this writing process is to let the students develop their writing patterns and use their own patterns in writing essays.

  2.1.4 Writing Cycle Writing is a matter of process. The students can learn how to write through curriculum cycle proposed by Callaghan and Rothery in 1988 (as cited in Knapp and Watkins, 2005, pp. 78-81). The purpose of designing the curriculum is to give direction in learning to write. The curriculum is divided into three stages. They are modeling, joint negotiation of text, and independent construction of text.

  Modeling the text involves the students to identify some aspects in writing such as the grammatical features, and generic structure of the text. This is the

  16 Donlan state that this is a crucial stage in writing because in this reading stage the

  students will read to gain information and apply their knowledge to write (1980, p. 196). Most students fail to write because they cannot learn from the reading material. As a result, they cannot apply the knowledge in writing the text. In order to reduce failure in writing, the students should be independent to examine the elements of the text and identify the text organization.

  In the process of joint negotiation of the text, the teacher will demonstrate the correct organization of a text. The teacher may invite the students to share their understanding of the text organization. This process enables the teacher and the students to develop a text together. Developing a text can be in the form of reconstruction of a text.

  The last stage requires the students to apply the knowledge acquired from the previous stages to write a text independently. Tiedt suggests the teacher to serve the role as a facilitator by letting the students become involved in writing as the real writer (1989, p. 69). The teacher should give the students opportunity to decide the ideas to write. Before writing, the teacher may define the expectations, such as the topic, the length of the text, and the use of correct grammar and generic structure.

  2.1.5 The Integration between Reading and Writing Reading and writing should be integrated by working on both skills simultaneously (Nunan, 2003, p. 71). Since there is a connection between reading

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  need to gain knowledge about information organization from reading activity. If the students understand how the elements of coherence work in texts, they are more likely to use them appropriately to develop coherence in writing (Lee, 2002, p. 35).

  Hyland (2002) says that the students not only need help in learning how to write, but also in understanding how texts are shaped (14). Thus, reading should precede writing process because it guides the students to analyze the structure of a text. Based on the writing curriculum, reading activity is put in the first stage.

  This modeling stage helps the students to identify how sentences and paragraphs are structured to create meaningful text. Reading task which can be applied to support identification is jumbled paragraphs (Hyland, 2002, p. 114). Hyland believes that by arranging jumbled paragraphs, the students will reconstruct the text using their knowledge.

  Since there is a connection between reading and writing, writing cannot be learned in isolation. Before the students write, they need to gain knowledge about information organization from reading activity. This avoids the problem of organizing the information experienced by XA students in SMA Santo Mikael.

  Usually, the problem in organizing information appears because students tend to focus on word recognition. In reading, students must first recognize words, phrases, and sentences. Goodman criticizes this strategy because he believes that

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  even though students are able to read the words, but they might have no comprehension of what they read (as cited in Nunan, 2003, p.71).

  Naturally, students should be encouraged to explore features of written English rather than to learn about the language through reading (Wallace, 2003, p.

  57). In other words, reading should facilitate the students to use their language to gain knowledge in reading, not to learn the language elements, such as words, phrases, and grammars through reading. When the students read the text, they can analyze the organization of the text and use the knowledge to write their own texts. Thus, effective reading was employed in this research. The researcher employed arranging jumbled paragraphs as one form effective reading activity to improve their paragraph writing skills.

  This research employed top-down processing to support organization analysis. Reading activity which employed top-down processing would help XA students develop paragraph writing skill in terms of organization. In order to develop their information organization in writing, the first thing that was necessary to understand was the generic structure. The generic structure mastery enabled the students to organize information in each paragraph and connect a paragraph to another paragraph to create meaningful and well-ordered text. Therefore, the researcher implemented arranging jumbled paragraphs activity because the activity required the students to analyze and identify the generic structure.

  The process of identifying the information organization was expected to