I.

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Problem

In English language, there are four skills to be mastered, they are: listening,

speaking, reading, and writing. Beside that, there are components of English such

as: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation. Writing is one of language skill which is

important to be learnt. One important skill that should be achieved in Senior High

School is writing. Writing is one of the skills that must be learned.

According to Harmer (2006, p. 79-80) writing is an activity that is as

important as other activities, the people must learn how to communicate their

ideas to make the reader understanding the meaning information ideas and

comprehended to communicate. According to Nunan (2003, p. 88) said that

writing is something that gives ideas and expresses writing so that it is interesting

for the reader.

The problem with students is when they are faced with thinking about an idea

in written form. and that makes students confused in determining the type of topic

to be discussed. According to Brown (2001, p. 15) proposes five major aspects of

writing that have to be required by a writer in producing a written text namely

content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. The common

problems appear in writing genres at least five areas: they are problems in content,

organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics.

The first problem is content. There are many students who still have

difficulties to produce an effective paragraph. It is because they have limited

knowledge to develop a topic and have difficulties to express their idea in writing

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form. The second is organizing. An effective paragraph of text is to understand

easily. The ideas contained in genre of texts can be organized in many different

ways. The students still ignore the organization pattern in writing, they can not

make a good writing. Their writing is also difficult to understand.

The third vocabulary. Students have difficulty in vocabulary which makes it

difficult for students to convey their ideas. and also students sometimes write with

inappropriate words and make their writing difficult to understand. The students

still can not apply a rules of grammar properly. Many of them still have

difficulties on it. The fifth is mechanic. Mechanic word is referred to punctuation,

spelling, and capitalization as well as guidelines to use them in sentences. A good

writer makesa paragraph easy to read, and that will attract more readers, some

students still make errors on it.

Writing is one of the important skill, that must be mastered by students and in

SMA N 02 North Lampung study about it. Writing as one of skill that be taught

by teacher of English at school in there. Beside that, writing is complicated

activities which need of knowledge about what we are going to write. Writing is

very important for the students because they can express their ideas, feeling,

knowledge experiences by writing.

The researcher have a relate to the topic discussed. The researcher also does

the preliminary research activities, at SMA N 02 Kotabumi North Lampung, to

conduct observation, and then interview with English teacher, on Monday,

January 24, 2022.

The researcher conducted her first observation at SMA N 02 Kotabumi, at

tenth grade. From the data, the researcher has found some problems faced, by the
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students in writing class. First, from students side, some students have lack of

writing skill. It happened because in the learning process, some students lazy and

feel afraid to make mistake, they do not care and do not pay attention when the

teacher explained the lesson, they have less opportunity to focus on study. But,

there are also some students who are diligent, caring, and focused when learning

descriptive text.

Then, students are various or random, there are students who are quick to

respond, there are students who are slow to respond to lessons. Actually, all

students are able to receive descriptive text lessons, only back to the students

themselves, there are students who are lazy, and there are also those who are

dilligent. If students who are diligent are all capable, but if students are lazy there

are some who are less able to master the material. If there are obstacles, it seems

that there are no special obstacles.

Teacher uses a learning strategy, the teaching learning process, because of

condition Covid-19 pandemic, students are divided into two shifts A and B.

Students learn in various ways, some are through video, face to face, Google,

Google class room, Zoom, WA, voice message, there are many ways to learn.

The teacher teaching and learning descriptive text to students. Descriptive

text is a text, describes a person, animal or thing. It can also be used to attract,

motivate, inform, and entertain the students. The generic structure of descriptive

text are identification and description. Identification means identify of the object

or thing to be described. Description means give the information about the

characteristics of the object, such as psychological characteristics of behavior,

physical appearance, and others specifically.

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Then, considering the explanation above, the researcher is interested in

analyzing the students’ ability in writing Descriptive Text. This research is

entitled, “The Students’ Difficulties in Writing Descriptive Text at the Tenth

Grade of SMA N 02 Kotabumi North Lampung academic year 2022/2023.”

1.2 Focus of the Problem

In this study, researcher focus on The Students’ Difficulties in Writing

Descriptive Text at the Tenth Grade of SMA N 02 Kotabumi North Lampung

academic year 2022/2023.

1.3 Formulation of the Problem

Based on the background of the problem, the researcher would like to state the

problem as follow :

1. What are the types of difficulties of the students in writing descriptive text at

the tenth grade of SMAN 02 Kotabumi North Lampung academic year

2022/2023?

2. What is the dominant difficulty that students encounter in writing descriptive

text at the tenth grade of SMAN 02 Kotabumi North Lampung academic year

2022/2023?

1.4 Objectives of the Research

Based on the statements of the problems which were written above, the

objectives of the research are as follow :

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1. To investigate the difficulties that students encounter in writing descriptive text

at the tenth grade of SMAN 02 Kotabumi North Lampung academic year

2022/2023.

2. To investigate the dominant difficulty that students encounter in

writing descriptive text at the tenth grade of SMAN 02 Kotabumi North

Lampung academic year 2022/2023 .

1.5 Usage of the Research

This research can be useful as follows:

1. Theoretically,

This benefit is expected for future student knowledge, and can also be used to

develop students' writing skills.

2. The Practically,

a. For the teachers

This research can give solution or information for teacher to increase students

competence in writing skill especially in descriptive text.

b. For the students

This study can arrange and can make a descriptive text well based on the standard

of writing.

c. For next researcher

The research could be used as an additional references for other next researcher

who need to conduct the research with similar.

 II. THEORY REVIEW

2.1 Concept of Writing Ability

Writing is a skill in English that everyone should learn. Writing can also

provide ideas, ideas, opinions and things to communicate in written form. Writing

is also an activity that focuses on written sentences. According to Harmer (2007,

p. 33) writing is to explain ideas into a good paragraph.

Writing is the result of thinking, compiling and having procedures that must

be applied. Brown (2003, p. 335) explains that writing is a writer's process of

conveying ideas into a paragraph and its purpose is to communicate to the public

through writing.

Writing is a form of writing for communication, and conveying and expressing

one's feelings through writing. writing skills are information, ideas or feelings of a

person in written form and the activity of stringing words together to become a

sentence so that it is easy to understand.

2.1.1 Process of Writing

There are three stages of writing activity. The first stage is pre-writing, the

second stage is writing and the third stage is revising. all stages are tailored to the

needs. According to Tompkins and Hokinson in Andriyani (2017, p.14) there are

several stages in writing, namely:

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1. Pre-write

In this activity, this stage is important for writers because it serves as a

warm-up before starting to write. Pre-writing must also be done by students in

finding ideas or topics to be discussed in writing. According to Rohmah in

Andriyani (2017, p. 15) explains that in the pre-writing stage using an exploration

to find a subject.

2. Draft

At this stage, the writer begins to embody and develop his ideas. The author

focuses on getting ideas. Activities at this stage, the author begins to prepare all

thoughts that are more real and clear, the author focuses all ideas to start an

activity in writing.

3. Revise

In this stage the activities are revising errors in writing, namely adding

words or subtracting words, deleting words and replacing sentences, deleting

paragraphs and so on.

4. Editing

In this stage, the author focuses on editing the writing. the author edits by

looking at spelling or other errors, namely capital letters, punctuation, sentence

structure and so on. Linse (2005, p. 102) says that writers read other people's

writings or students make sure there are no errors in content or grammar and

spelling errors so that others can understand them.

5. Publishing

In this stage the writer put their writing in the final finishing format and

share to the appropriate audience. When you are writing, you must follow the
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all of the process. Each of the process related each other. You must follow the

first until the last of the writing process. Not only that, to make your writing is

better, you should give attention to the six elements of writing namely:

a. Create Interesting Ideas, ideas are the result of the author's work and

thoughts to start the topic in writing

b. Logical And Effective, in making ideas you have to think about things that

are logical and effective so that the reader can find out something in the story

c. Feelings, feelings are a way of conveying to someone when they read the

contents of the writing

d. Good Words, in writing, you should use good and appropriate writing so that

you can enjoy reading

e. Expressive, are sentences that make readers easy to understand and feel fun

when reading

f. Correct And Communicative Conventions, conventions are matters of

agreement in using punctuation, spelling, grammar and others as well as

making writing easy to read.

So, it can be concluded that, the writing process of students was encouraged

to improve and practice students to use the writing process stages when they write

to arrange into a good paragraph. After developing an idea, the researcher or

student draws the idea by writing it down on paper as a rough concept. After that,

revise the rough draft, edit and correct the rough draft into good and correct

writing whose process involves checking grammar and share it with others. The

final step is share to the appropriate audience.

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2.1.2 Writing Ability

There are four skills that must be possessed, namely speaking, listening,

reading and writing. This writing skill is a skill that uses the mind to be written in

written form. Hyland (2003, p. 9) says that the definition of writing is like a

grammar lesson and strengthens language patterns through sentence formation,

this ability will produce well-structured sentences.

Writing is quite complex knowledge, students continue to look for real

ideas in order to achieve them into a paragraph, that is what students must have.

writing is one of the most important because, to convey information through

writing. The process of writing is much influenced by genre, elements or themes.

Based on the conclusion, writing is a process in conveying ideas, ideas,

opinions into written form. and its purpose is to convey information to others in

written form.

2.1.3 General principles of writing

According to Westwood's Sausa (2004, p. 110), writing problems can be

addressed in three ways at the individual level. These common approaches to writing

problems are not mutually exclusive and should be used together in most classroom

situations to overcome or avoid difficulties.

1. By accommodating students. For example, by giving students an enlarged pen

holder or grip by using a word processor instead of writing with a pen. Allow more time

to complete the task. Allows printing of manuscripts instead of cursive. Encourage

students to dictate to the scribe.

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2. Change task requirements. For example, reduce the font size. Task: Change the

type of task (fill in a blank or multiple-choice exercise instead of an essay). To give

students more direct help and guidance during the lesson.

3. By solving the difficulty of writing: through accurate instruction, explicit

instruction, modeling, imitation, and practice of instruction. Teach the use of effective

writing strategies. Provide correction feedback.

Based on some principles above, it can be concluded that writing ability

giving students motivation to write, as much as possible. Then comprehension of

writing, and students can understand what they are writing.

2.1.4 The Purpose of Writing

The purpose of writing is to provide ideas, give messages so that they are

conveyed to the reader. The specific purpose of writing is the need for a writer to

provide information to the general public. It can be concluded that the purpose of

writing is to provide ideas and please the reader. according to Cholipah (2014, p.

54) there are 4 purposes in writing, namely:

1. to provide information, one of the important things in the purpose of writing is

to provide factual information and concrete evidence

2. explanation, explanation is included in the purpose of writing because

explanation is retelling to others. For example, when writing, you want to explain

a topic or content of writing to others

3. As an experience, the purpose of writing is so that the reader knows the

experiences of other people and knows the thoughts of others.

4. To persuade, the purpose of writing is to express opinions in detail to the

reader, take action and convey ideas.

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According to Hartin in Syarifuddin (2012, p. 11) writing has the following

objectives:

A. Assignment: writing because someone else ordered it

b. altruistic : entertaining the reader

c. persuasive: convincing the reader

d. information: convey to the reader

e. creative : artistic value

f. self-expression: introduction of the author to the reader

g. problem solving: conveying, explaining, presenting ideas to the reader

So it can be concluded that, there are many purposes of writing. However,

the main purpose of writing is to convey ideas so that they can be read by readers

2.1.5 Writing Difficulties

Students' difficulties in writing because of students' abilities that

do not develop because of their difficulties in learning English. Students also find

it difficult to find ideas and topics they will write about, and students are confused

in making stories because of lack of vocabulary.

Writing is not a natural action, and the brain is not pre-programmed to

develop written language skills, just as oral language appears to be pre-programmed. For

this reason, direct written instructions are usually required to prevent problems.

Westwood Sousa (2004, p.108). Students also do not know how to make good

correlations from one sentence to the next, or from paragraph to paragraph, and their lack

of confidence in their writing skills.

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Students who are struggling often find it very difficult to learn to write clearly and

effectively. According to Graham & Harris of Grin et al. (2006, p. 98), the difficulty of

writing can be the result of three main factors.

1. Lack of mastery of text writing skills, a common mistake in spelling, case sensitivity,

and punctuation.

2. Lack of knowledge about the technical content of the script being written, or the

customs and peculiarities of various writing genres.

3. Lack of effective strategies when planning or revising the text.

So, it can be concluded that writing difficulties and students' lack of writing

skills, can cause students to not be optimal in writing. Problems of writing that

writing is a difficult skill, because it requires a high ability in choosing words and

sentences.

2.1.6 Teaching and Learning Writing

Before conducting teaching and learning writing, the teacher should know

well about some factors which influence students ability in teaching and learning

writing process. Some factors that influence students ability in writing are their

level, age, and interest. Three of them give big positive contribution for students

in following teaching and learning writing process. Students level and students

age are essential factor which take an essential part when the teacher determines

and decides the appropriate task that relate to the students ability in writing.

Meanwhile, the students interest also gives important contribution for the

students to get interest to the material in their lesson and follow the teacher

instruction in teaching and learning writing. It means that by having interest with
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the lesson, students will take a part for getting an opportunity to create choices

about their writing topic.

According to Brown (2007, p. 346-348) there are six principles in teaching

writing which can help the teacher to determine the best method in teaching

writing in a classroom. The first, integrate practices of good writers. The next,

balance process and product. After that, account for cultural/literary backgrounds.

The fourth, connect reading and writing. And then provide as much authentic

writing as possible. The last one is framing your technique in terms of prewriting,

drafting and revising stages.

So, it means that all of principles of writing above, should be involved in

teaching and learning writing process. It is because by following and paying

attention into these principles. It will determine the writing result of the students

after joining teaching and learning writing process.

2.1.7 Assessing Writing

In the evaluation of writing, there are elements to be assessed. There are

several aspects that need to be explained in order to measure a student's writing ability.

according to Brown (2004, p. 135) says that writing has 5 types, namely organization,

content, grammar, vocabulary and mechanics.

1. Content, in this case explain in it, namely the content, discussion, evaluation,

conclusions that are clear, specific and interrelated

2. Structure, discusses how paragraphs are well structured or not, explaining must

be clear and neatly arranged

3. Vocabulary, students must master words properly and correctly according to

their function in order to convey information correctly.

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4. Grammar

Students use effective complex sentence contractions and make few mistakes in

applying grammar.

5. Mechanics

Mechanics is the use of graphical rules of language. It refers to the

appearance of the words, how they are written or placed on paper.Mechanic is the

discussion this time is writing language on the appearance of words, which

regulates spelling, use of capital letters and punctuation. The following are some

punctuation marks, namely: the use of periods (.), question marks (?), exclamation

points (!), commas (,), colons (:), semicolons (;), brackets (()), signs brackets ([]),

quotation marks (' ), hyphen (-), hyphen (_), double quotation mark (“ ”), and

single quotation mark („ ). Spelling must be in writing so that it is easy for others

to read and understand.

Based on the definition above, researchers conclude that writing

assessments include content, composition, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. It is not

possible to separate all components to create good text. Therefore, in order to write good

sentences, students need to master all the components.

2.1.8 Types of Text

In writing, there are types of writing and their characteristics. Students must

have the ability to write. According to Anderson (2003, p. 3-5) the types of

writing are poetic, dramatic, narrative, response, discussion, explanation,

exposition, information report, procedure and so on:

1. Cheat

Telling something pristiwa with a plot that is not easy to guess. The structure is:

A. Orientation : a beautiful view

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B. Event : tell something that happened

2. Recount

Experience in the past and retold, the structure is:

A. Orientation : character introduction

B. Event : follow the story step by step

C. Re-orientation : end of story

3. Report

Tells the real thing, namely the surrounding environment and natural phenomena,

the structure is:

General classification : describes a general phenomenon

Description : describes something in detail according to the topic

4. Analytical exposition

Persuade the reader to hear something about a case. Generic structure:

A. Thesis : introduction to content

B. Argument : order of things

C. Re-orientation : closing

5. News items

To provide information about events to the reader, the generic structure is:

A. Events : short story

B. Background of events : describing events

C. Source: comments from other readers and writers

6. Anecdote

Share happiness with others about funny things, the structure is:

A. Abstract : telling an event

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B. Orientation : giving direction

C. Crisis : convey the incident

D. Reaction : crisis

E. Coda : evaluation in events

7. Narration

Is a story or stories, its generic structure:

A. Orientation : character introduction

B. Evaluation : about the situation

C. Complications : crisis

D. Resolution : end of the crisis

E. Re-orientation : if any

8. Procedure

Steps to do something. Generic structure:

A. Purpose : by command

B. Material : with tools

C. Steps : command

9. Description

Contains the plot, namely characters and places. Generic structure:

A. Identification : describe the phenomenon

B. Description : convey information about an object

10. Hortatory exposition

Give confidence to the reader about something. Generic structure:

A. Thesis : the problem in the spotlight

B. Argument : opinion that contains worry

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C. Recommendation : what might happen

11. Explanation

Process of explaining natural phenomena. Generic structure:

A. Position as a reader

B. Structured explanation

12. Discussion

Express opinions from several points of view. Generic structure:

A. Problem : problem statement

B. Argument : explanation

C. Conclusion : closing

13. Review

Reviewing the arts at an event. Generic structure:

A. Orientation : background text that contains information

B. Interpretive recount : statement in closing

C. Evaluation : planning in brief

D. Evaluative summation: appraisal

It can be concluded, there are 13 types of writing that have been described and

explained above. That's some of the many types of writing

2.2 Descriptive Text

In school students have studied descriptive text. According to the researcher,

descriptive text is an english lesson that discusses explaining and describing

places or objects, living things, nature.

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According to mukarto (2007, p. 140) states that descriptive text is to describe

something. A good explanation is a picture of a word: readers can draw things, places,

or people in their minds. Descriptive text is sensory and conveys what something looks,

feels, smells, tastes, and hears. Writing descriptive means describing something,

placeor people in order to lead the reader feel writing itself. According to Schacter

(2007, p. 15), descriptive text describes a person, place, or thing so that the reader can

understand the explanation. Descriptions are used to describe a particular object /

object, location, or person. The descriptive text is actually different from other types of

text. According to Nunan (2003, p. 88) says that writing is an activity that must be

factual. And descriptive text is a text that describes something so it is necessary to

learn to write descriptive text in a more interesting way

Based on the definition of descriptive text above, we can conclude that descriptive

text is one of the English genres that describe a particular person, place, or object to write

as the physical appearance and characteristics of an object.

a. Generic Structure

Structure is the arrangement and planning in starting a writing, which has

identification and description. Before writing a descriptive text, students need to

learn the general structure of the descriptive text. The general structure of a

descriptive text is an introduction (identifying the phenomenon to be described), a

description or content (explaining a part, quality, characteristic), and a conclusion.

The general structure is the genre in the writing of the text. That

distinguishes other texts. Descriptive text including identification and description.

According to djuharie (2007, p.24) some general structures in descriptive texts.

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1. Identification

In this case an introduction to the subject and explain something to the

reader. For example from objects, animals, public places, plants etc.

2. Description

In this case, it consists of many paragraphs that begin with a topic. Each

paragraph describes and goes into detail about the subject. E.g. Physique,

qualities, general personality, ideas and characteristics

3. Conclusion (Optional)

In this case discussing the conclusion of the topic which means ending the text or closing.

The most important part is identification and description.

Based on the above definition, researchers conclude that the general structure is

descriptive : identification, description, and conclusion (optional). In the

identification that introduce particular person, thing, or place. Description it is

describes the parts, the qualities, and the characteristic of phenomenon. The

researcher can describe about habit, behavior, shape or feature of person, thing,

place or animal. Then, conclusion can be added or not added.

b. The Grammatical Features of English Descriptive Text

1. Language Features of Descriptive text

Descriptive text have language features. Based on the manual "Easy English

Learning" (2007, p. 6), the description has several elements, which are the

characteristics of the general structure and language. Linguistic features of descriptive

text such as:

a. Use a simple gift. Examples: glass, eat, sing, lie, swim.

b. Use of adjectives. Example: Two strong legs, sharp white fangs.

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c. Relational Use the verb . Example: My Favorite is my cell phone because is important

to me.

d. Use of thought verbs. Example: I think it's a smart animal. Example: Use of action

verbs. Example: A new kitten bites his shoes.

f. Use of mental verbs. Example: She felt unhappy and she liked to dance.

g. Use of connecting verbs. Example: is, are, has, have.

h. Use of hour noun phrases.

2. Vocabulary

The writing vocabulary contains all the words you can use in writing. The word written in

many does not occur frequently in that language , writers generally use a limited

number of words when communicating. According to Hadfield (2008, p. 45), the

vocabulary can be divided into two types of vocabulary.

a. Productive (Active) Vocabulary is words , is possible to are self-generated.

b. The passive vocabulary (passive voice) is a word that they understand but never

produce.

3. Mechanics Mechanics is the use of graphical rules of language. It refers to the

appearance of the words, how they are written or placed on paper. The mechanism in

writing is bound by capital letters. According to Nordquist (2011, p. 1) says

that the mechanism has punctuation and spelling. Punctuation marks used to

organize text and clarify writing. Punctuation or spelling is important in writing

because it helps to understand the author's ideas. Both things must be accurate.

By using punctuation marks, it will be clear and easy to understand, whereas if

the spelling is wrong, the meaning will be different. So it can be concluded that

both have an important role for the author.

Therefore, descriptive text describes something in detail. And

characteristics there are identification and description. The conclusion is that only
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options can be used, maybe not. Identification is identifying something to be

described, then description is describing, explaining the part that needs to be

described.

Based on definition above, the writer concludes that the grammatical features

of descriptive text are: language features, vocabulary, and mechanic. Language

feature descriptive like: noun, simple present tense, adjective, and etc. Vocabulary

in the descriptive text. Then in the mechanics, at least there are three components

should be used, that are spelling, punctuations, and capitalization. Using spelling

and punctuation in writing descriptive text is very important. It is needed to get

the right meaning, it also help the student to be able write comprehensibly and to

make easier in writing it.

c. Kinds of Descriptive Text

According to Mukarto ( 2007, p. 140 ) says that descriptive text is a kind of

text to describe something. As you know, descriptive text is text that describes

something, such as a person, place, or thing. Therefore, it usually takes three forms.

1. People's description.People are different, and writing a person's description is also

different. You're probably already familiar with some complex issues, as you're often

asked "what to do and how to do it". The answer can be an ID card, an impression, or a

sketch of the character, depending on the situation.

a. ID You can provide an ID, but you'll want to go further. Identification is primarily used

in official records and documents, with only specific statistics (height, weight, age),

visible features (hair, skin, eye color), and recognizable features (scars, bruise). It will be

configured.
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b. Impressions In contrast to identification, impressions do not identify people, but

convey their overall impression. Although many details may be missing, the author gives

a general sense of the subject with some wide strokes. Impressions are usually less

complete and less informative than identification, but they are more effective at capturing

the salient and distinctive features of an individual

c. Character image A more complete description of people is usually called a character

sketch. They are also called profiles, literary portraits, and biographical sketches. As the

name implies, a character sketch represents a person's character, or at least its main

personality trait. In doing so, it may include identification and impression, but it does not

just tell what people look or look like: it shows what they look like. Character sketches

can be revolved around types rather than individuals to reveal characteristics shared by

members of groups such as: Examples: Campus Jock, Cheerleader, Art Student, Religious

Fanatic, TV Fan.

2. Description of location .

When describing a place such as a room, what do you need to explain first? City wall?

Floor (Yuka? Unlike time-series paragraphs, there is no fixed pattern for placing

sentences in descriptive paragraphs. You don't have to start in one area and move to

another. Nevertheless, the statement should not be placed unplanned. The description

should be structured so that the reader can clearly imagine the scene being described. To

make the paragraph more interesting, you can add a keynote that expresses your attitude

and impression of the place being described. The placement of the description details

depends on the subject and purpose.

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3. Explanation of things

In order to write an explanation for something, the writer needs to have a good idea of

what should be explained. We also use appropriate nouns and effective verbs to make our

topic interesting and descriptive to both our readers and us.

a. In addition to entering specific details and idioms in the usage description for the

appropriate noun , you can also include some appropriate nouns.

b. Using Effective Verb

We know Important verbs are stories from 444 to , but effective verbs are Also, add a lot

to the description. The author uses verbs to make the explanation more specific, accurate,

and interesting.

Based on definition above, the researcher concludes that the kinds

of descriptive text are: description of people, description of places, and

description of things. In the kinds of descriptive text, the student can describe

their environment, how beautiful the scene around them. Then, they can describe

animal in their around, like cat, goat, lion, etc. Descriptive text can also describe

the physical color of the skin, eyes, body that can describe itself. Descriptive text

also tells something that feels, smells, looks and sounds. And students can

describe something like that.

2.3 Previous Related Research

In this research, it will be focused on the “The Students’ Difficulties in

Writing Descriptive Text at the Tenth Grade of SMA N 02 Kotabumi North

Lampung academic year 2022/2023..” The researcher found some previous related

researches conducted by the previous research.

The first related study is a thesis from Rahmadiyah (2020) that mention the

case study entitled, “A Study on Student’s Writing Ability in Descriptive Text at

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Tenth Grade of State Vocational High School 1 Pangkalan Lesung. This research

study addresses student difficulties in writing explanatory text. Information from the

survey shows that it is difficult for students to write descriptive text in high school. The

average student has a hard time writing descriptive text using vocabulary.

The second related study is a thesis from Marlina Surya Indriani (2017) that

mention the case study entitled, “ Grammatical Errors in Writing a Descriptive

Text by Tenth Grade Students of SMA NEGERI 16 MEDAN.” This research

study about, the grammatical errors in writing descriptive text. The information of

analysis, that the kinds of error made by the students in using tenses. There are

errors made by the students although it is the same percentage with the using of

verb tense but it less in frequency.

The last related study is a thesis from Liliana Harahap (2018) that mention the

case study entitled, “An Analysis of Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text

at The Tenth Grade of Senior High School 1 Tambang”. This research study

about, the analysis of the writing ability by using case study method. The results

showed that students representing middle and high school achievers had

excellent , and student was good at writing descriptive text.

Based on the above, researchers are motivated to conduct a type analysis

survey used by students' writing abilities. Researchers described the student in a

descriptive text using the qualitative approach. This study aimed to find students'

ability to write explanatory texts. The survey was conducted in the 10th grade of

SMAN02 Kotabumi North Lampung in the 2022/2023 academic year.

 III. RESEARCH METHODS

3.1 Research Methods

In this chapter, the researcher attempted to use qualitative

research.Sugiyono (2019, p. 18) Qualitative research methods are research methods

based on the philosophy of positiveism, used to study the state of natural objects (rather

than experiments), researchers are the key, and data collection techniques are

triangulation (coupling), The analysis performed by the data is inductive / qualitative, and

the results of the qualitative research further emphasize the importance of generalization.

In addition, there are several aspects to consider when choosing the right research

approach. These different aspects are the researcher's assumptions, the design and method

of the study, and the nature of the problem of the study. Based on this, some aspects of

this study have been identified as qualitative approaches. Perreault & McCarthy (2006, p.

176) Explain that a qualitative survey is a type of survey aimed at a thorough and open

survey of information on various responses.

This research tries to get people to share their thoughts on a topic

without giving them much guidance or direction. The research process includes new

questions and procedures, data normally collected from participants' environments, data

analysis guided from the details of common problems, and researchers interpreting the

meaning of the data. It will be. Researchers get data from school observations and

interviews.

3.2 Place of the Research

This research will conduct at SMA N 02 Kotabumi North Lampung. This school

is located at Prokimalstreet, SawoJajar, Kotabumi North Lampung. This research

32
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will do at the students writing skill, at the tenth grade of SMA N 02 Kotabumi

North Lampung, as place to do research because it has been good school, and then

this school also has good accreditation in Kotabumi North Lampung.

3.3 Data Source

Data source in this research are students in writing skill, The participants are

tenth grade students at SMA N 02 Kotabumi North Lampung. Based on class in

the school, researcherresearching tenth grade IPA 1. Tenth grade IPA 1, consists

of 12 male students, and 22 female students. In this class, the grades and abilities

of the students are higher than other classes.Even though, there are still students

who have difficulty in writing descriptive text.

To get the data source, the researcher will choose the students who got low

score of writing. From 32 students, consist 10 students who got low score.The

researcher will analyze students who get low scores, who have difficulty in

writing descriptive text. Therefore, researcher will get information about the

students difficulties in writing descriptive text

3.4 Research Instruments

Research instrument is a tool that researchers use to collect data

through measurements. One of the hallmarks of qualitative research is the method used

to collect and analyze data. ary et al (2010, p. 430) states that there are three ways to

collect data used in qualitative studies: observation, question, and document or artifact

analysis. In this survey, investigators use two tools: interviews and documentation.

1. Interview

Researchers use interviews as a tool to carry out this research. Interviews are conducted

to ask students how difficult it is to write a descriptive text, and collecting a second piece
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of information is about how difficult it is for a student to write a descriptive text.

Interviews are conducted in the form of unresolved questions

●The specification interview guideline of students’ difficulties in writing

descriptive text can be seen in table below:

TABLE 1
SPECIFICATION INTERVIEW GUIDELINES

No Aspect Indicator No of
Intervie
w
1 Lack of proficiency in Which is frequent errors in 1,2,3
the text production spelling, the use of upper and
skills lower case, and punctuation

2 Lack of knowledge Related to the subject content 4,5,6

of the script to be written or of
theconventions and
characteristics of different
writing genres

3 Lack of effective In planning or revising text 7,8,9

strategies
Source :Graham & Harris in Glynn et al (2006)

2. Documentation

Documents are communicable materials such as text, audio, video, CDs, and

DVDs, and these tools can be used to explain the attributes of an Object system or

method in some way. The documentation supports the result of the student's writing

ability in the descriptive text. The documentation provides the results of qualitative

research. In this study, researchers use textual documents. In other words, create a student

answer sheet.

3.5 Data Collecting Techniques

a. Interview

The method usedby researcher is the interview method. This method can be used

through a personal interview. Face-to-face interviews are people commonly known as

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interviewers who ask questions in face-to-face contact with others..By interview then

researcher will know more in depth things aboutparticipants in interpreting

situations and phenomena that occurwhere this cannot be found through

observation.

The researcher made an interview to English teacher of SMA N 02 Kotabumi. The

topic of interview is how about students writing difficulties in descriptive text in

this school, and for gathering information it is about the caused of

studentsdifficulty in writing descriptive text.

b. Documentation

Documents are communicable materials such as text, audio, video, CDs, and DVDs,

and these tools can be used to explain the attributes of an Object system or method in

some way. The documentation supports the result of the student's writing ability in the

descriptive text. The documentation provides the results of qualitative research. In this

study, researchers use textual documents. In other words, create a student answer sheet.

3.6 Data Analysis Techniques

In this study, the researcher collects the data from teacher and students at SMA N

02Kotabumi North Lampungacademic year 2022/2023. It uses qualitative data

analysis. Data analysis is a process that needs to be performed systematically when

organizing data to make it easier for researchers to present their research results to others.

Before you can analyze the data, you need to process it so that it can be converted into

information. When working with data, you need to perform several steps, such as:

a. Analysis of Interviews

Interviews with English teacher and students, to support the result of students’

writing skill.The researcher gives all of the information obtained to focuses on

specific problems.
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b. Data Reduction

In thisstage, where here researcher obtain data a large numberof fields for

which researcher need to reduce or summarize, select the main things and focus

on important things.

c. Display

The step of analyzing the data, the researcher presents the data in the form of a

brief

description or chart. Then after that the researcher conducts a verification or

conclusion.In addition , the researcher used interview with the teacher and student

to know about TheStudents’ Difficultiesin Writing Descriptive Text at theTenth

Gradeof SMAN 02 Kotabumi North Lampung academic year 2022/2023.

d. Conclusion and verification

Researchers plot the data after explanation and interpretation of the data, and

throughout the study as a result of the interpretation. Researchers interpret the

recorded data and draw conclusions. Researchers draw conclusions or validations

based on what they find from step-by-step analysis. Data analysis is already

provided to get a proper and clear representation of the description. The result of

the study is an analysis of the descriptive study of the student's ability to write

descriptive texts.

3.7 Plan of Testing Validity and Reliability of the Data

The effectiveness and reliability of the equipment is essential to conducting the

investigation, as the equipment used must be valid and reliable before it can be used to

collect data in the investigation. When answering the validity of research data,

researchers need to know if the data is valid. Researchers used triangulation techniques to
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determine the reliability of the data by using different techniques to check the data from

the same source.

If the data received is clear, it can be considered valid. Researchers use questions to

retrieve data from teachers and then interview teachers who teach writing skills to

enhance the data to capture information about the student's ability to write and understand

descriptive text. After that, the researcher will conduct a triangulation of techniques

to confirm, the results of interview and interview for teacher who supporting

writing skill subjects.