Effectiveness of Clustering in Enhancing Essay Writing: Study on Riau University Students, Study notes of English

Download Effectiveness of Clustering in Enhancing Essay Writing: Study on Riau University Students and more Study notes English in PDF only on Docsity! Proceeding of The 1st UR International Conference on Educational Sciences ISBN : 978-979-792-774-5 459 The Application of Clustering Technique in Teaching Essay Writing to the Students of English Study Program of Riau University Rumiri Aruan Riau University, Riau, Indonesia ABSTRACT This study aimed to improve the learning process in essay writing by applying clustering techniques. There were29 students as the subject of this study. The design of the research was One Group Pretest- Posttest. The results of pre - test showed that the students’ ability in essay writing was low, only 6.89% of students got good grade, 51.72% got average and, 41.37% of students got low. After applying the clustering technique plus feedback, the learning outcomes was very significant. The percentage of students who obtained excellent score was13.79%, 72.41% was in the good category, 13.79% in the enough category, and no more students got less or failed category. This result showed that the clustering technique plus feedback is worth considering to use in learning writing. Keywords: Essay, Clustering Technique, Feedback, Learning Outcomes Introduction The variety of instructional models offered by the expert of learning methods, has made the learning implementation more effective, creative, innovative and fun. Meanwhile, effective learning implementation is always demanded from lecturers. Based on the results of previous research showed, that writing still demands the creativity of lecturer in the learning process, guiding the students to produce paragraph or essay academically. Writing or deciphering what is thought, believed, understood about one thing is not easy. For some non-English students, expressing ideas, even expressing topics that have been determined by either lecturer or students themselves in paragraph or essay form is still the most difficult. The observations made on previous writing studies showed that students still need motivation and stimulus to produce a paragraph or essay. Unlike other language skills, writing skills learning requires a stimulus that enables students to write well and correctly, according to academic writing demands, to produce a paragraph or essay. Stimulus in question can be obtained from students themselves, lecturers, partners, discussion groups, as well as on the learning process undertaken. In the previous learning process, the lecturers were not fully motivated the students to write well and correctly. As for the implementation of the stimulus that is done in essay writing, there are several stages to produce good essay: pre writing stage, focusing ideas stage, evaluating, structuring, and editing phase. Proceeding of The 1st UR International Conference on Educational Sciences ISBN : 978-979-792-774-5 460 In the pre-writing stage, there will be brainstorming, planning, generating ideas, questioning, discussion and debate. In the stage of focusing ideas there will be fast writing, group compositions, and changing viewpoints.While the last stage is the stage of evaluating, structuring and editing. Of these three stages, the prewriting stage is a stage that desperately needs a stimulus to do, because in this stage students begin to think about the idea, as well as plotting the idea into a written text, breaking down the idea into complete and meaningful written text. Beginning with brainstorming to write the initial idea, can be done with clustering technique. Clustering technique is a prewriting technique that allows students to explore ideas in the form of words or phrases, in which words or phrases are visualized in the form of small circles on a given topic. Students will give the idea freely, without thinking of the standard grammar on the topic of words or phrases as much as they can. The next step is to eliminate the word or phrase, so that the word or phrase that lives is a word or phrase that is closely related to the existing topic. This clustering technique is very helpful in guiding students to write text, which in writing students are required to develop each paragraph well. The development of good paragraphs will not work if prewriting is not done well. Considering that argumentative essay is a difficult essay category, then in prewriting stage it is deemed necessary to provide feedback before reaching the essay writing stage. Literature Review In writing skills, the writer should be able to express the expression of feelings, intentions or ideas into writing. Writing also requires a process or stages in practice, in order to produce good and correct writing. According to Coulmas (2003), there are six meanings of writing, namely: (1) a system of recording language by means of visible or tactile marks; (2) the activity of putting such a system to use; (3) the result of such activity, a text; (4) the particular form of such a result, the style script such as block letter writing; (5) artistic composition; (6) a professional occupation. Meanwhile Nowacek (2011) stated that writing is very important. Nowacek states that : Writing is the primary basis upon which your work, learning, and your intellect will be judged-in college, in the workplace, and in the community; Writing expresses who you are as a person; Writing is portable and permanent. It makes your thinking visible; Writing helps you move easily among facts, inferences, and opinions without getting confused and without confusing your reader Writing promotes your ability to pose worthwhile questions; Writing fosters your ability to explain a complex position to readers, and to yourself; Writing helps others give you feedback; Writing helps you refine your ideas when you give others feedback; Writing requires that you anticipate your readers' needs. Your ability to do so demonstrates your intellectual flexibility and maturity; Writing ideas down preserves them so that you can reflect upon them later; Writing out your ideas permits you to evaluate the adequacy of your argument; Writing stimulates you to extend a line of thought beyond your first impressions or gut responses; Writing helps you understand how truth is established in a given discipline; Writing is an essential job skill. Proceeding of The 1st UR International Conference on Educational Sciences ISBN : 978-979-792-774-5 463 Consequently, it is used to supply this criterion, in the way that the result of the clustering will suit their needs. (www.homedei.polimi.it/matteucc/ clustering/ tutorial.html). Based on the above statements it can be concluded that clustering techniques coupled with the giving of feedback helps stimulate / generate ideas and design the idea into writing the type of essay targeted / selected. The type of essay targeted in this research is argumentative essay type. Argumentative essay is an essay type that requires investigation of selected topics, proving by collecting data where the author briefly exposes it. Fitzpatrick (2005) states that, in writing argumentative essay you have to persuade your audience to consider your point of view, even if they may disagree with it. This requires some care and skill: You need to show respect for opposing points of view, you must choose vocabulary carefully, and above all, you must write clearly and logically. That is, the author of the argumentative essay should be able to convince the reader with what he describes even if the reader does not agree with the arguments proposed by the author. Fitzpatrick further argues that putting forward a logical argument begins with defining and limiting the topics to be discussed. In this case there are four things that proposed Fitzpatrick, namely: (1) Define the topic. Some topics require definition; (2) Limit the topic. Some argumentative topics Require limiting; (3) Analyze the topic. Before you decide upon a point of view, you should analyze the issue thoroughly. Most argumentative topics have two points of view, for and against, and can be stated as yes / no question; (4) Write a thesis statement. The thesis statement of an argumentative essay must contain an opinion. In this study, in addition to the application of clustering techniques, the provision of feedback is the focus that support the clustering technique. According to Keh (1990), feedback is input in the form of comments, suggestions, and information provided by the reader to the author to revise his writings. Through the feedback given, the author will improve the writing to avoid misleading, or make the reader confused with not supporting the topic with a good idea of supporting ideas, organizing less logical essays, ideas that are still less developed, and the use of grammatical or less appropriate word election. To see the student progress in argumentative writing, done by applying Grading Rubric, which was presented by Arizona Western College as shown in Table 1.below: Tabel Grading Rubric: Argumentative Research Essay. Points (poss. 25 per section) Focus  Thesis is stated in specific, clear terms and maintained throughout essay.  Paragraphs are unified by a main idea and cohere as distinct units.  Topic sentences are used to maintain focus.  Author limits the content to a manageable scope. 25 Development/ Support  Points are developed and “tied-in” with the essay’s thesis.  Points are supported with specific examples.  Ideas are “fleshed out” fully. 25 Proceeding of The 1st UR International Conference on Educational Sciences ISBN : 978-979-792-774-5 464  Necessary context is provided for reader comprehension.  Source materials are integrated effectively and meaningfully into the author’s argument. Organization/ Structure  A clear principle of organization is employed and maintained throughout essay.  Essay is structured in manner that maximizes the overall purpose and effect.  Effective transitions connect separate ideas and events. 25 Style/ Conventions  Essay is free of sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences.  Verb tense is consistent throughout.  Pronouns refer to clear antecedents and are used correctly in terms of person, case, and number.  Most sentences are constructed in active voice.  Sentences are clear and concise, avoiding unnecessary wordiness.  Essay adheres to standard written English.  Essay meets prescribed requirements, including word count and outside source requirements.  MLA format is employed correctly for in-text citations and works cited list. 25 Methodology The research subjects were students who took writing course in odd semester of 2015/2016 which amounted to 29 students. The study was conducted for one semester (6 months). This study uses learning tools consisting of RPP, Instructional Materials, and Learning Media, taken from several learning sources, such as books and internet. The design of this study using experimental design, namely One Group Pretest-Posttest Design as it shown in the following table. Pretest Treatment Posttest T1 X T2 The implementation of the procedure is as follows: (1) Implement Pretest, to measure learning outcomes prior to application of clustering techniques. (2) Applying clustering techniques to Argumentative Essay Writing in 8 x meetings as follows: • Lecturers provide handouts and a full explanation of the Argumentative Essay. • The lecturer explains the clustering technique. • Lecturers provide topics to students. • Lecturers divide students into groups • Lecturers give each group a chance to discuss the topic. • Lecturers give feedback to each group or individual, to create thesis statement and introductory paragragraph. • After the student understands the feedback given, the lecturer gives individual students the opportunity to Proceeding of The 1st UR International Conference on Educational Sciences ISBN : 978-979-792-774-5 465 continue writing an argumentative essay. (3) After the application of clustering technique will be subject to T2, ie Posttest, to measure learning outcomes after subject to treatment. (4) Comparing T1 and T2 to determine the differences that arise, if they exist, as a result of the application of treatment to students. (5) T1 and T2 are implemented by using Grading rubric for argumentative essay writing. (6) Applying statistical tests, in this case t test, to see if there are significant differences in value gains, after application of clustering techniques. The Result and Discussion The Pre-test is done before the application of clustering technique implemented. The Pretest aimed to see students' early ability to write essays. Pre-test results showed that the initial writing ability of the essay was still low, even though the students have received the first writing and writing II courses before. The problems that can beseen in the results of this pretest were the writing of the thesis statement, topic development and organizing paragraphs. While in the Grammar and Mechanic have already good, although it still needs to be improved. The students’ percentage in the pretest can be seen as: 6.89% was in good score, 51.72% was in enough score, 41.37 was in less score. The elements of students weaknesses in essay writing can be seen in the graph, which corresponds to the elements of the proposed by Arizona Western College as follows: Information: F = Thesis is stated in specific, clear terms and maintained throughout the essay, etc. D = Points are developed and "tied-in" with the essay's thesis, etc. O = A clear principle of organization is employed and maintained throughout the essay, etc. C = Essay is free of sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences, etc. T = Total score obtained by the student.