Students' Ability in Writing Descriptive Text at First Grade of SMPIT Al-Khair Barabai

Abstract

This study focused on the analysis of students’ writing descriptive text. It aimed to know the students’ ability in writing descriptive text. This research used descriptive quantitative method. The population of this research was the students of first grade at SMPIT Al-Khair Barabai. There were 50 students. The researcher used total population sampling technique. So, the sample of this research was all the students in the first grade of SMPIT Al-Khair Barabai. The researcher used writing test as the instrument of this research. Based on the result, it showed that there were 6 students (13%) in very good category, 14 students (30%) in the good category, 15 students (33%) in fair category, and 11 students (24%) in poor category. It could be seen that the average score for writing descriptive test is 66.01. This was categorized into fair. It was also indicated that the students’ problem in writing descriptive text were mainly in organization, grammar, and mechanics. Many students were still unable to produce descriptive text independently. In order to increase students’ interest in studying Engish, the teacher must be able to come up with interesting and effective teaching strategies. It is also suggested for the students to practice more and enrich their vocabulary in order to improve their ability to write the descriptive text by choosing appropriate words.