IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL IN DESCRIPTIVE

TEXT USING CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE

(A Classroom Action Research on the Tenth Grade Students of MAN 2
Pontianak in Academic Year 2019/2020)

AN ARTICLE

BY:
NURUL KHAIRUNNISA
NIM. F1021151079

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
TANJUNGPURA UNIVERSITY
PONTIANAK
2019
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT USING
CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE

Nurul Khairunnisa, Sofian, Urai Salam

English Education Study Program of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
Tanjungpura University, Pontianak
Email:nurulk49@gmail.com

Abstract
This research aimed to invesitigate how clustering technique improved students’
writing skill in descriptive text to the tenth grade students of MAN 2 Pontianak in
academic year 2019/2020. This research was conducted by using Classroom Action
Research as the research method in three cycles. 38 students participated in this
study. The data were derived from observation checklist, field note, and written test.
The result showed that students’ problems in writing descriptive text such as
completing information and organization had been solved by using clustering
technique as the teaching medium. The students’ skill to develop their information
were improved through writing the information and supporting information relevence
to the subject. The data showed that the percentage of students mean score increased
from cycle to cycle from 84% in the first cycle to 88% in the second cycle, and then it
became 92% for the third cycle. In addition, students’ skill in organizing the
information of the text was improved by the fact that the students could complete the
exercises well. The data indicated that the students mean score in the first cycle was
about 56%, then increased in the second cycle became 68%, and contineously
improved in the third cycle to became 70%. It can be concluded that clustering
technique can be used as a medium to improve students’ writing skills in descriptive
text especially in developing information and organizing the text.

Keywords:Clustering Technique, Descriptie Text, Writing

INTRODUCTION language accurately, fluently, and acceptably

Learning English as a foreign language,
there are four skills that should be mastered
by the students. One of the important skills is
writing. Through writing the students can
express their informations, opinions and
experiences. Moreover, to express their
informations in written form, the students
need to have writing skills to produce good
writing. Because of that, Richards and
Renandya (2002, p.303) state that for some
students writing is the most difficult skill to
be learnt for them.
The objective of teaching writing
descriptive text of senior high school stated
in the curriculum 2013 is to express meaning
of short functional text using written
to interact in daily life context.
Descriptive text is a type of English
text that often appears and it is being taught
at the level of senior high school. Descriptive
text is one of the functional texts that
describes the features of people, place or
thing. Descriptive text consists of
identification and description. Based on the
pre observation in MAN 2 Pontianak, the
researcher found that the tenth grade students
of MAN 2 Pontianak have difficulty in
writing descriptive text, because they are not
used to writing so it is difficult for them to
write.
There are some components in writing,
these components are: information,

1
organization, vocabulary, language use, and
mechanics. In this research, the researcher
focused on students’ writing information and
organization. Those components of writing
have to do with coherent arrangement of
material. The students need to arrange and
explore the material or informations in a
logical and coherent sequence, so that
informations are effectively identified by
reader. Based on the pre-observation, the
researcher asked the English teacher about
students’ problem in writing, he said that
most of students have difficulty in
developing and organizing their
informations.
Teacher can find the appropriate
technique in order to solve the students’
problem in writing. There are several
techniques which can be applied in teaching
writing such as WH-Questions, mind
mapping, guided questions, and clustering
technique. The researcher suggested
clustering technique to be used in teaching
writing descriptive text. According to Langan
(2000, p. 23) Clustering technique is a
writing technique where the writers can
easier to generate and organize their
informations in a visual context. Clustering
also known as diagramming or mapping, it is
another strategy that can be used to generate
material for a paragraph. This method can
help the students to visualize their
informations (Langan, 2000, p. 23). By
stating the topic in a few words in the center
of a blank sheet or paper. Then, as
informations and details occur, the students
need to put the informations in boxes or
circles around the subject and draw lines to
connect the informations to each other and to
the topic. The students can put minor
informations or details in smaller boxes or
circles, and use connecting lines to show how
they relate as well. In clustering, there is no
right or wrong way of clustering. it is a way
to think on paper about how various
informations and details relate to one
another.
A previous research was conducted by
Inal (2015), this research sought the effects
of the clustering technique for improving
2
English descriptive writing turkish speaking
students and their attitudes towards writing.
47 first year university students in Turkey
were involved in the research, and a quasi
experiemental research design was used. A
descriptive analysis was used to analyse the
students response to open ended questions. In
the previous research, the researcher
implemented clustering technique to know
the effects of clustering technique and the
researcher use pre-test and post-test in order
to measure the effectiveness of clustering
technique. Based on the finding, significant
difference was found in the means of
students in the general pre-test and post-test.
This research is differenf from the previous
research because this research was not going
to know the effects of clustering technique in
writing but the researcher wants to improve
students’ writing skill using clustering
technique. The researcher also did the same
treatment for all of the students without
differenciate it.
The second previous research related to
this study was conducted by Suhaeni (2011),
she conducted an experimental research on
the tenth grade students of Senior High
School 1 Weru Sukoharjo to improve
students’ ability in writing analytical
expositions using Clustering Technique.
From the research that she has done, the use
of Clustering Technique can improve
students’ ability in writing analytical
exposition. It can be seen from the students’
test result, there is a significant improvement
in the average score of students. This
research is different from Suhaeni’s research
because in this research the researcher used
CAR principle to conduct this study and the
text used is descriptive text. The researcher
also did not give pre-test and post-test to
students but only some tasks when the
teacher finished his explanation. The tasks
were used to know students’ understanding
of the material that had been taught.
To conduct this research, the researcher
applied Classroom Action Research (CAR).
“Classroom action research is a process in
which participants examine their own
educational practice systematically and
carefully, using the techniques of research”
(Ferrance, 2000, p.1). The researcher chose
Classroom Action Research as the method of
this study because the goal of this method is
to improve teacher own teaching in the
classroom. Based on that statement, the
researcher thinks that CAR is applicable for
the researcher to conduct this research, since
the purpose of this research is to improve
students’ ability in writing descriptive text.
Regarding to the agreement from the
English teacher of tenth grade students of
MAN 2 Pontianak, this research was
conducted to the tenth grade students in class
X MIPA 2 by using classroom action
research as the research design. In this
research, the researcher used clustering
technique to improve students’ ability in
writing descriptive. The researcher hopes this
research can give long term benefits for other
people, especially for teacher who has
students which have problem in writing
descriptive text.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The design of this study descriptive text about tourism place. The test
Action Research (CAR). According to Burns
(1999, p.24) “classroom action research is an
action research which is carried out at the
classroom aimed to improve learning practice
quality”. It means, the implementation of
classroom action research is enable to give
improvement the quality of teaching and
learning process in the classroom.
The researcher cho
Action Research to conduct this study,
because Classroom Action Research is one of
the effective ways to improve teaching and
learning activity. It can diagnose and solve
the problems that happen in teaching-
learning process.The researcher uses
Classroom Action Research principle to
collect the data. According to Bell and
Aldridge (2014, p. 37) there are four
common stages of CAR, they are; planning
stage, acting stage, observing stage, and
reflecting stage.
The student participants in this research
was the tenth grade students of MAN 2
Pontianak, class X MIPA 2 which is
3
consisted of 38 students. Based on the pre-
observation, the researcher found that
students of X MIPA 2 have difficulties in
writing descriptive text, especially in
developing and organizing their
informations. The teacher participant in this
research was the English teacher of MAN 2
Pontianak. His name is Drs. Moh
Makinuddin, M.Pd, he had been teaching
English for about 20 years. He taught English
in the tenth grade.
There are two techniques of data
collection that was applied in this research,
they were observation and measurement in
order to support the data of research.
Observation was used to monitor the
students’ activities during teaching and
learning process. The purpose of this
technique was to know students’ respond
when they were given explanation, they
response to the material, their problems and
difficulties in learning material. The
researcher also measured students’
achievement for each cycle by using written
test which students were asked to write a
was used to measure the students’
achievement after being taught through
clustering technique.
The researcher applied three tools of
data collection to collect the data. They were
observation checklist, field note, and test.
Observation checklist was used to observe
teacher and students act in conducting
clustering technique in the classroom activity
in form of checklist table. In the obsevation
checklist, the researcher provided a number
of activities in observation checklist that
should be done by the teacher which act as a
teacher during acting stage and those
activities must be carried out by students
during the learning process. The reseacher
used field note to record the important events
in every meeting during teaching and
learning process. It includes the situation in
the classroom during teaching and learning
process and students’ interaction and activity
during composing descriptive text using
clustering technique. The researcher noted
any important activities that were happened
during acting stage in the field note. The
teacher gave written test to the students
which is focused on writing descriptive text
about popular place. The result of this test
was students’ descriptive text. The purpose
of the test was to measure the students’
ability in writing descriptive text. The teacher
asked students to write a descriptive text
using clustering technique.
In conducting this research, the
researcher analyzed the data into qualitative
data and quantitative data. For qualitative
data, the researcher analyzed the data by
following three steps in analyzing qualitative
data as stated by Best and Kahn (2006, p.
270): Organizing the data, description, and
interpretation.The researcher also analyzed
the data in form of quantitative data. The data
get from students’ writing test. In analyzing
the data related to the students’ test of writing
ability, the researcher used analytical scoring
rubric adapted from Weigle (2002, p.116).
There are five components presented in the
analytical scoring rubric for writing, i.e.,
content, organization, vocabulary, language
use, and mechanics. Since this research was
focused on students’ writing rganization, so
the researcher was assessed writing
organization.

Table 1. Writing Scoring Rubric

Components of Scores Characteristics

writing
Information 4  knowledgable
 substantive
 through development of text
 relevant to assigned topic
3  some knowledge of subject
 adequate range
 limited development of text
 mostly relevant to topic, but lacks detail
2  limited knowledge of subject
 little substance
 inadequate development of topic
1  does not show knowledge of subject
 non-substansive
 not pertinent
 or not enough to evaluate
Organization 4  fluent expression
 informations clearly stated/supported
 succinct
 well-organized
 logical sequencing
 cohesive
3  somewhat choppy
 loosely organized but main informations stand
out
 limited support
 logical but incomplete sequencing
2  non-fluent

4
  informations confused or disconnedted
 lacks logical sequencing and development
1  does not communicate
 no organization
 or not enough to evaluate

The researcher used the following formula to

get the mean of students’ writing score
within

one cycle:

Figure 2. Mean Score Formula

The researcher provides the qualification of

students’ mean score adapted from Heaton
(1988, p.145):

Table 3. Criteria for Students’ Score

Range
Qualification
80-100 Good to excellent
60-79 Average to good
50-59 Poor to average
0-49 Poor

5
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Findings
Based on the observation and
analysis of the students’ score in
writing descriptive text, it was found
that students’ writing skill in
descriptive text had improved by
using clustering technique as the
medium of teaching. Clustering
technique solved students’ problem
in developing their information
through writing the information and
explore the supporting information
that is related to the subject.
Clustering technique also improved
students’ skill in organizing the
information through seeing the
diagram of clustering technique.
The exploration information of clustering
technique improved students’ writing skill in
developing information. By exploring the
information, it can help the students in
finding the relation each information.
Students can easier to describe the
information that is related with the main
information and subject. In this research, the
English teacher asked students to explore
their information as many as possible but the
supporting information should be related
with the subject and main information.
Table 4. The percentage of students’ information of the text from the first cycle to the
third cycle.
Cycle 1 Cycle 2
84% 88%
The diagram of clustering technique
improved students’ writing skill in
organizing information. Students could
organize their information well by seeing the
diagram. Diagram can visualize the students
information and help the students to compose
a text in chronological order. In this research,
the researcher made a task for students to
complete the information of the text. They
only need to choose the right information that
has relation to the subject. After they
6
In every meeting, the teacher
always introduced clustering
technique as the teaching medium for
learning writing in the present
information stage. He showed the
example of clustering and after that
he asked students to note some
important information. After
showing the diagram, the teacher
asked students to explore the
information together under teacher
instruction. In the first cycle, the
teacher taught students how to
explore their information using
clustering technique. He wrote the
subject or the title of the text in the
middle of whiteboard and circle the
title. After that, he asked students to
mention the main information of the
topic. After all the main information
had been mentioned, the teacher
asked students to mention the
supporting information for each main
information. This activity also
applied in the second and third cycle.
The students’ information of the text
percentage from the first cycle to the
third cycle was showed below as
follow:
Cycle 3
92%
completing the task, they are asked to make a
descriptive text based on the information that
has been completed by them.
The diagram of clustering technique
helped students to organize the information
of the text. Teacher taught the students how
to write a text based on the information that
has been completed by them. By writing
those information into chronological order,
students can write a desctiptive easily
because they already know what they are
going to write and they know the order of organization of the text percentage from the
information that they must to write, so that first cycle to third cycle was showed below
their writing is controlled. The students’ as follow:

Table 5. The percentage of students’ organization of the text from the first cycle to
the third cycle.

Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3

56% 68% 70%

information. It was proven by the students’

Discussion mean score for organization of the text in the
In conducting this research,
first
thee
cycle
researcher
was about 56%, then increased in the
totally conducted three cycles until the second cycle become 68% and got improvement
researcher felt satisfied to the result. The in the third cycle become 70%. The
researcher applied classroom action research as progressions that happened on this study existed
the method of this study, where each cycle had because of the treatment that the teacher did
four stages to be applied such as planning stage, during teaching and learning process for three
acting stage, observing stage and reflecting cycles. This research also shows the same result
stage. All the acting stages were done in one as the two previous researchs conducted by Inal
meeting (2x40 minutes). In this study, the and Suhaeni where this technique can improve
researcher did collaboration with the English students’ writing skill. They applied clustering
technique as the teaching medium for writing in
teacher of class X MIPA II, the researcher acted some activities related to the students’
as the collaborator and observer to the activity problems.
during teaching and learning process was
applied, while the teacher acted as the teacher to CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
teach the students writing skill in descriptive Conclusion
text using clustering technique by following the Based on the research findings, it was found
lesson plan which already prepared by the that students’ writing problems namely
researcher and was agreed by the teacher. The information of the text and organization of the
students showed progression for the score and text at the tenth grade students in class X MIPA
their behavior during teaching and learning II Pontianak had been solved from the first
process from the first cycle to the third cycle. cycle to the third cycle. Those problems were
Accordingly, Conelly (2007, p.51) mentions solved by applying clustering technique as the
some benefits of clustering technique and he teaching and learning writing medium in some
says that exploring information can help activities related to information of the the text
students find the relation for each information. and organization of the text.
It was shown in the last cycle, the students’ The students’ information of the text was
information of the text showed a satisfied result enhanced through the exploration of information
from the previous cycles. It increased from on clustering technique. The exploration of
cycle to cycle from 84% in the first cycle, information helped the students to develop and
increased become 88% in the second cycle, and explore the information of the text. The students
then become 92% for the third cycle. Almost all just need to write the information and
the students passed the test for information of supporting information which has relation to the
the text. Furthermore, Conelly also mentions subject of the text. The teacher introduced the
that clustering technique can help students to students how to write a descriptive by using
organize the idea or information into paragraph. clustering technique. The teacher taught the
It is because the diagram of clustering technique students how to write the information and find
can help the students to visualize the the relation between main iinformation,

7
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