An Analysis Of Recount Text Writing Composition

An Analysis of Recount Text Writing Composition of Tenth Grade Senior High School Students

Putri Rahayu English Education, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Surabaya [email protected]

Abstrak Ketika menyusun sebuah karya tulis, ada beberapa elemen yang harus dipenuhi dengan tujuan supaya dapat menghasilkan sebuah esai yang baik. Hal inipun juga berlaku dalam penulisan teks recount. Oleh karena itu, siswa harus memerhatikan seluruh elemen tersebut karena mereka dapat membantu penulis dalam menyusun sebuah teks yang baik dan dapat dimengerti. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif sebagai metode penelitian. Data diambil dari sepuluh teks recount yang disusun oleh siswa kelas sepuluh sekolah menengah atas. Untuk menganalisi teks, rubrik penilaian untuk teks recount digunakan untuk mengidentifikasi elemen-elemen penulisan yang terdapat didalam teks. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa hampir seluruh siswa mengalami kesulitan dalam mengembangkan dan menyusun ide-ide didalam isi teks recount yang mereka susun. Hasil lain menunjukkan bahwa beberapa siswa gagal dalam meletakkan penjelasan yang sesuai untuk setiap struktur dalam teks recount. Misalnya, siswa meletakkan event sebagai orientation. Tetapi sebagian lainnya telah mengetahui fungsi dari setiap struktur teks recount. Bagaimanapun kebanyakan dari siswa berhasil menggunakan unsur kebahasaan dengan tepat. Kesimpulannya, pekerjaan siswa masih perlu untuk dikembangkan agar dapat menghasilkan karya tulis yang baik terutama untuk teks recount. Oleh karena itu, guru perlu memberikan perhatian lebih pada kelemahan siswa ketika menulis teks recount. Siswa juga perlu untuk mengembangkan pengetahuan mereka dan lebih banyak berlatih dalam menulis khususnya untuk teks recount. Kata Kunci: elemen-elemen menulis, teks recount, kemampuan menulis

Abstract While composing a written work, there are some elements that should be fulfilled in order to produce a good essay. This also happens in recount text writing. Hence, the students have to take consideration on those elements because they can lead the writers to compose a good and an understandable text. This study used qualitative research as the research design. The data were taken from ten writings of recount text composed by tenth grader senior high school students. To analyse the texts, scoring rubric for the recount genre was applied to identify the elements of writing of the texts. The finding shows that most students seemed to have problem in developing and organizing ideas in their recount writing in terms of content. Another finding also shows that some students lack in putting the appropriate explanation for each structures of recount text as it should be. For the example, they put an event in the orientation. But some others are already aware of each function of recount text’s generic structure. However, most of them were succeed in applying the language features appropriately. In conclusion, the students’ work still need to be improved in order to produce a good written product especially in recount text. Hence, the teachers need to pay attention more on the students’ weaknesses while writing recount text. The students also require improving their knowledge and having more practices in writing, especially for recount text. Keywords: elements of writing, recount text, writing

INTRODUCTION language. English has four skills to be mastered by the It cannot be avoided that English language plays a learners; listening, speaking, reading and writing great role in this globalization era. English is known for (Rufinus, et al., 2011). As one of basic skills, writing has years as an international language used by people around been acknowledged as a form of communication people the world as a form of communication in any fields of life use in life. As a result, writing presumed as one of an such as economics, business, media and even education. important skill in language teaching and learning Thus, learning and mastering English is a must for people (Weigle, 2002). nowadays. In Indonesia, English is learned as a foreign

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According to Brown (2001:336), writing is a process attention the social function, text structure, and language of thinking. This idea is supported by Nunan features, properly and contextually. (2003:88) which also explains that writing is the The basic competence of English subject for tenth process of thinking to invent ideas, thinking about how graders which related to recount text is explained in 3.7 to express ideas into good writing, and arranging the and 4.7. It is stated in 3.7 that students are expected to be ideas into statement and paragraph clearly. It can be able to differentiate the social function, text structure and concluded that writing is a process of exploring and language features of recount text. In 4.7, the students are developing ideas that the writer have in mind and share to expected to be able to understand and compose recount the readers. In this case, the writer is engaged to convey text by paying attention on its social function, text the ideas which have meaning that the readers are capable structure, and language features. The types of recount text to figure out. used in this competence is factual recount text that is Moreover, in writing there are some points that historical events, while there are four other types of should be concerned by the writer in order to compose a recount texts which are not used in this competence. good writing or an essay. The first are content and The five types mentioned above are personal recount, organization. A good essay should has those two since factual recount, imaginative recount and procedural both of them are the important points in writing. Content recount. The first is personal recount text which retells an is related to the coherency and unity of the text. Thus, activity that the writer has been personally involved in. organization deals with the structures of the text. The The second is factual recount which retells an activity second are writing components. They are language use based on particular of an accident. Historical events is and mechanics. Those are deal with grammar use, word one kind of factual recount text. It has three stages of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing schematic structure, those are orientation, events, and (Jacob, et al. 1981). reorientation. The language feature applied in historical As it is known English is taught in Indonesia from events are specific participant, simple past tense, passive junior high to senior high school. Based on the English voice, action verbs, time connectives, adverbs and syllabus, the students are acquired to be able to write adverbial phrases (Wood and Stubbs, 2000). Generally, some texts one of them is recount texts. According to historical events involve a large number of people rather Hyland (2002), recount text is a text which retelling past than a person. The third is literary recount which retells experiences or what happened by providing sequences of an activity based on an imaginary role. The fourth is events. The purpose of recount text is to entertain or procedural recount which retells a procedure in the past. amuse the readers with the events. The fifth is critical recount which commenting and Based on Permendikbud Tahun 2016 No. 24 lampiran evaluating an issue on its positive and negative aspects 27, the competencies for tenth grades related to the (Barwick, 1999). recount text describe as follows: As can be seen that writing is a complex process, 3.7 membedakan fungsi sosial, struktur teks, dan students may face some problems. Students mostly lack unsur kebahasaan beberapa teks recount lisan dan tulis of confidence in writing (Rafida, 2016). They are dengan memberi dan meminta informasi terkait peristiwa struggling in thinking how they can convey the ideas, bersejarah sesuai dengan konteks penggunaannya. ordering ideas, selecting proper words, using correct 3.7 distinguish the social function, text structure, and grammar, and developing ideas to be good organizational language features of some oral and written recount texts text. by giving and requesting information related to historical Some studies have been conducted in exploring events in accordance with the context-use. students’ recount text composition. Nurohmah (2013), 4.7 teks recount – peristiwa bersejarah found that students are still unable to differentiate the use 4.7 recount text – historical events of grammatical terms such as simple present, past tense, 4.7.1 menangkap makna secara kontekstual terkait irregular verb, regular verb, and prepositional phrase. In fungsi sosial, struktur teks, dan unsur kebahasaan teks another study, Musabbihin (2017) found that students recount lisan dan tulis terkait peristiwa bersejarah mostly faced difficulties in writing aspects such as 4.7.1 comprehending contextually related to social content, organization, words choice/diction and sentence function, text structure and language features of oral and structure. Students thought writing recount text was not written recount text related to historical event easy to write. They thought that generic structure of 4.7.2 menyusun teks recount lisan dan tulis, pendek recount text was difficult to write. In addition, Sadewa dan sederhana, terkait peristiwa bersejarah, dengan (2015) found that students are able to write recount text, memperhatikan fungsi sosial, struktur teks, dan unsur organize the generic structure and use the language kebahasaan, secara benar dan sesuai konteks features of recount text properly. The students are divided 4.7.2 Compose oral and written recount texts, short into three categories; good, average and poor based on and simple, related to historical event, by paying their writing ability.

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All of the previous studies showed that the students questions, the instrument used in this research is recount still face some problems in writing a recount text and text writing assessment. The rubric adopted from Lee some other showed that part of students are able to (2017) is used to analyze the students’ work. This help compose recount text well. But most of those researchers the researcher to analyze and classifying the components commonly used a personal recount text as the topic that of writing found in students’ writing product. the students should write. Mostly, the students were Table 1. Scoring rubric for the recount genre adopted asked to write their holiday experience as one kind of from (Lee, 2017) Needs personal recount text. However, there is rarely found a Elements of Pretty Excellent Average Improve research related to the elements of writing in recount texts Writing Good ment with factual recount text that is historical recounts chosen Conte Cohere Ideas were Ideas are Ideas Ideas as the topic. Since there are some kinds of recount text nt ncy organized clear and were were that should be mastered by the students, each text has logically link up organize organize one to d d different content based on types of recount text itself. another illogicall illogicall Hence, analyzing factual recount text can help the y in y some students to develop their ability in writing different kinds part of recount text. Thus, it becomes the reason of the Unity contains Ideas are Lack in Inapprop researcher to conduct this study related to factual recount well- develope details riate developed d related to details, texts. ideas to the support no focus, Based on the explanation above, the researcher would which topic ideas, irrelevan like to conduct a research in analyzing students’ writing relevant to sometim t to the the topic e off the topic ability in composing recount text in terms of elements of topic writing telling historical events. In order to seek more Organ Orienta A very A Missing Lots of about how good are the students' ability in writing izatio tion clear generall informat missing n/ orientation y clear ion in informat recount text, the research will be analyzing factual Gener , orientati the ion in recount text produced by the students. ic establishin on orientati the Therefore, the research questions for this study are Struct g who was which on orientati ure involved, provides on ‘How is the content of the recount text composed by tenth where and necessar graders of senior high school?, How is the organization of when the y events backgro the recount text composed by tenth graders of senior high happened und school?, How is the language use of the recount text informat composed by tenth graders of senior high school? and ion Events Past Past Some Past How is the mechanics of the recount text composed by events are events events events tenth graders of senior high school?’ sequenced are not in are all in a very generall the right over the clear order y clearly order place; METHOD sequence hard to The research design used in this study is qualitative d figure out a method which chosen to collect the data in order to clear complete the study based on the research questions and sequence objectives of the study mentioned in the previous chapter. Reorie Very Appropri An No ntation appropriat ate ending ending is Ary, et al. (2010) believes that qualitative study deals e and ending is provided with data in the form of words or pictures rather than impressive provided numbers and statistics. This research is descriptive ending – , but it is ending not very research. According to Ary, et al. (2010) descriptive with a appropri research involves describing but not manipulating feeling, a ate variables. This study aims to find out the description of thought, or a students’ ability in writing recount text especially in reflection terms of elements of writing. Through qualitative Langu Past Past tense Tense Quite a Full of descriptive, the researcher analyzed and described the age Tense verbs generall number tense Featur almost y of tense errors real condition of students’ writing product. es/ completely accurate errors In a qualitative research, the researcher included Langu accurate as the instrument for collecting the data. The researcher itself is claimed as the key instrument because only human who is able to read the data (Ary et.,al, 2010). Besides, other instrument is as required in a study. In order to help the researcher to answer each research

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age Adverb Very Generall Sometim No based on four writing aspects. Since those aspects are Use s and appropriat y good e adverb also include in the research questions that should be Adverb e and use expressi of place ial accurate adverb ons to and time answered. The four aspects are content, organization, Phrases use adverb of place link up expressi language use and mechanics. of place and time events ons to and time expressi link up In order to answer the questions, the researcher expression ons to events analyzed the data based on three stages that Ary, et al. s to link link up (2010) suggest as follows: up events events 1. Familiarizing and Organizing Action Action Mostly Some Action Verbs verbs use action verbs are In this stage, the researcher tried to recognize the data almost action verbs not through reading and reread the documents. The students’ appropriat verbs are provided work taken by the researcher as the data since it was ely use provided needed to answer the research question. The researcher Specifi Appropriat Commo Number No also organized the text based on the topic that should be c ely put all nly s of participa Particip the provide participa nt stated written by the students, that is historical events. ant participant the nt are 2. Coding and Reducing to state the participa limitedly In this stage, the researcher categorizes the students’ one who nt stated was writing composition in order to ease the process of involved analyzing and interpreting the data. The students’ works Mech Spellin Correct Making Many Spelling were labelled on each part of the text which identified as anics g spelling in error in errors in errors in most of spelling spelling most of four elements of writing. This process purposed to reduce words, no but words words unnecessary data that were not used in the study. errors. common ly 3. Interpreting and Representing spelling In this last stage, the researcher needs to give clear are explanation toward the result of analysis. The researcher appropri ate. assessed whether their composition was written correctly Capital Capital Occasio Frequent No or not based on its elements of writing. Then, the ization letter are nally errors in capitals researcher interpreted the result of the data were analyzed put almost errors of capital at all properly. capitaliz letter in description. ation Punctu Punctuatio Some Frequent Domina FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ation ns are problem errors in nt errors precisely s in using in using This stage reports the findings of research which have used. using punctuat punctuat been collected through analyzing the students’ writing punctuat ion ion ion composition to answer the following research question. Paragra Organized Occasio Frequent No The researcher chose a class out of four classes of tenth phing into nally error in paragrap grade as an object of the study. Here are the results of number of errors of paragrap hing students’ recount text analyzing are explained below. paragraph, paragrap hing focused on hing Students Writing in Terms of Content a single In terms of content in recount text writing, most of ideas of the students seem facing problem in developing their writing recount into good flow of the story. They lacks in giving details which supporting their main ideas. This can be seen from In the beginning of the research, the researcher the examples of the students writing presented below. had asking permission to the English teacher of the As the example in data 1, with the title General school as the first stage to conduct the research. Then, the Offensive of March 1949, the student failed in composing researcher and the English teacher both discussed about the story with good content. This happened because the the recount text learning which was going to teach by the student did not compose the story incoherent and seems teacher to the class. After that, the teacher gave the task lack in unity. As the examples below, in the first line of for the students to compose a recount text based on the the story the student wrote, topic that is historical recount. Then the teacher collected “The Dutch launched a military offensive on 19 the students work in order to help the researcher to get the December 1948 which it termed Operation Crow.” . data. After the researcher got the data, the researcher Generally, the topic of the story was put in the first analyzed the documents based on its elements of writing paragraph. It should be in line with the title of the text. As to answer the research questions. The researcher analyzed the examples above, in line 1, there is only a sentence the data by using writing rubric adopted from Lee (2017). written by the student. She did not give some supporting In the process of scoring, the researcher analyzed the data ideas to explore more about the topic itself. The sentence

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only stated about the Dutch military offensive happened “On the morning of 23 November 1945 Indonesian in 19 December 1948 without giving further information troops began firing on Allied troops stationed in about its relation with General Offensive of 1 March Ambarawa.” 1949. This shows that the student failed in connecting the From data 3, it can be seen that the content of the ideas of the story. As a result, the story becomes story was well composed. Data 3 has coherency and incoherent. unity. The whole story only tells about the topic itself. It On the next paragraph, the student began it with the was developed well into paragraphs. On each paragraph, event that happened a day after the writer put details of the story which also in line with the Dutch military offensive. another paragraph. The story begins with the introduction “By the following day it had conquered the city of about the topic itself. Then continued with the events Yogyakarta, the location of the temporary Republican happened as the beginning of the battle of Ambarawa. It capital.” also closed well in telling the ending part of the battle. “By the and of December, all major Republican held With this arrangement, it is easy for the readers to figure cities in Java and Sumatra were in Dutch hands.” out the story. Then, it suddenly jumped into the event happened in Table 2. Summary Table of Students Writing in the end of December. This shows that the story does not Terms of Content have smooth flow. The student also put all of the events Text Title Content that she wants to tell on the second paragraph. This make Data General The student lack in giving details that the story does not have unity since the topics were put 1 Offensive of 1 support the main ideas being March 1949 discussed in the story. It also lacks in together without any separation for each topic. ideas organizing. There are several From the examples above, it is clear that the student ideas explained in the same did not develop well content of the story. There was no paragraph. That makes the story less coherence. further exploration on each part of the story. In the Data Rengasdengklok The whole story did not tell about the middle of the story, the student put the events illogically. 2 title which usually being the main topic discussed. There no further This shows that the student still failed in composing the explanation about the correlation story with good coherency and unity. between the tittle and the story. In the other hand, some students also succeed in Data The Battle of The student has already put details on 3 Ambarawa the whole story. It also has coherency composing content of their story which has coherency and unity. However, there was still and unity. As the example in data 3 entitled The Battle of found that the student missed in Ambarawa. giving details on a paragraph. Data Bandung as Sea This story has coherency from the “The Battle of Ambarawa was a battle between the 4 of Fire beginning to the second paragraph. recently created Indonesian Army and the British Army But the problem comes in the last part that occurred between 20 October and 15 December of events to the end of the story. The student did not provide details about 1945 in Ambarawa, Indonesia.” how an event has done. This make the To begin the story, the writer of data 2 gave a brief storyline jumped. and clear introduction to the readers. It tells about the Data Trisakti Events The ideas of the story were clearly 5 explained and discussed in different main topic of the story which explained the title itself. paragraphs. Each of them were given This shows that the first paragraph has coherency with details which purposed to support the the title. main ideas. Data The November Actually the story has coherency. “On 20 October 1945, Allied troops under the 6 10 However, it still needs to be command of Brigadier Bethel landed in Semarang to explained by giving more details on the events in order to make the story disarm Japanese troops.” clearer and more understandable. In this paragraph, the writer exposed the first event Data The Battle of The story was not well developed in which became the beginning of the main topic. The 7 Surabaya the middle part of the essay. There should be more details to explain the paragraph has a unity since it only tells about the arrival sequence of events of the story. of Allies troops and their agreement with the Governor of Data Battle of The whole story still need to be Central Java. 8 Surabaya improved by giving details on each paragraph. From the result, the story As the continuation the writer tells about the only tells about the highlight of that Indonesian troops’ action toward Allies. This paragraph event. There is no details regarding to also still connected with the third paragraph. But, there how the battle began and ended. Data The Battle of The story still lack in details in each are some missing details in the last part of the paragraph. 9 Surabaya paragraph especially for the body part There are no enough details to tell the event happened on of the story. There should be more that moment. details provided by the student while explaining the main topic that being discussed.

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Data Proclamation of The student provided some “The offensive was anoral and Reorientation 10 Indonesian unnecessary details in his recount. diplomatic success, inspiring The writer put a summary of Independence This make the story sometime out of demoralized troops all around the whole text as the last part to topic in several part of it. Indonesia, as well as proving to end her recount text. This is From the result above, it can be concluded that most the United Nasions that the good since a summary can be Indonesian army still existed chosen as one way to tell the of students still lack in developing their ideas while and were capable of fighting.” writing. Many of them failed in giving details which can reorientation. The writer also focused on the General support the ideas. The students also having problem in Offensive only in ended the arranging their points into writing that has unity and story. coherency. However, other students have already fulfilled the details so that make the writing has unity and The other example is taken from data 2. In this coherency. recount text, the writer has been organized the structure of recount text in inappropriate order. Students Writing in Terms of Organization Table 4. Organization of Data 2 In terms of text organization, the students have Text Generic Structure already put the three parts of recount text those are Rengasdengklok Title orientation, events, and reorientation. They also put an Orientation explanation based on the recount text structure. “On August 14, 1945 Japan As stated before that in the Unfortunately, some student did not develop each parts of surrended unconditionally to beginning of recount text, there her essay well. As the example in data 1 which explained the Allies. The news was kept is an orientation which includes below. secret by the Japanese army to background information of the Indonesia, but Sutan Syahrir, story. The writer of data 2 did Table 3. Organization of Data 1 the youth of Indonesia, knew it not put such information about Text of student’s writing Generic Structure of Student’s through the BBC Radio the main topic that is Writing Broadcast in London August Rengasdengklok event. The 15,1945. At the same time, writer put the trigger moments General Offensive of March 1, Title Ir.Soekarno and Drs. Moh to declare the independence 1949 Hatta returned to the Indonesia directly in the beginning of the “The Dutch launched a Orientation from Saigon, Vietnam.” story which also have a role as military offensive on 19 part of the event. There should Orientation of recount text December 1948 which it be more explanations about should tell the background termed Operation Crow.” what Rengasdengklok event is, information such as who was its settings and who was (See Appendix) involved, when, where, and involved in that event. what that is needed so that the readers understand about the “On August 15, at 8 p.m., Events under the leadership of Chairul whole story. The writer only The events were organized Saleh, younger groups and put a sentence which did not logically. It can be seen from older groups gathered in the enough to tell the readers about the examples that the event of the storyline. She did not backroom Bacteorologi young and old group was Laboratory which located in explain those information in the developed and explained on the beginning of her writing. There Jalan Pegangsaan Timur next paragraph. is no information about what number 13, Jakarta”. the General Offensive is, where and where it happened, etc. “Because there was a different “By the following day it had Events opinion between older groups conqured the city of In the events, the writer also and younger groups, younger Yogyakarta, the location of the still lacks in exposing the groups brought Soekarno and temporary Republican moments of the offensive. The Hatta to Rengasdengklok in capital.” moments after the Dutch early morning of August 16, offensive until the general 1945”. offensive happened did not “By the and of December, all “After had a long discussion, Reorientation explore yet in good major Republican held cities in Soekarno was willing to arrangement. The story was The writer also still lacked in Java and Sumatra were in declare it after returning to closing the story. The writer did Dutch hands.” jumping from one event to Jakarta.” another since there is no not clearly end the story so that separation on each events that it seems there was no reorientation in this essay. The “On March 1, 1949 at 6 am, the writer wants to tell. This writer did not explore what was Republican forces launched makes the story does not have going to declare after Soekarno March 1 General Offensive.” good chronological order as the events should be arranged. The and Hatta were picked from writer put all the events in one Rengasdengklok. paragraph only. The writer of data 2 seems confuse with the structures of recount text. This can be seen from her writing that only contain of events. There are no such orientation to begin the story and reorientation which close and sum up

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the story. She put everything in events which having roles details well. But significance as both an introduction and closing in her story. information there of the about when should be events to Table 5. Summary Table of Students Writing in Terms of the event more the nation. Organization happened. details given in Organization some part Text Title Reorientatio of it. Orientation Events n Data The Battle There is The first The student 7 of information event was gave good Data General The student The events The last Surabaya about the explained reorientatio 1 Offensive failed in were told in part of the background of in the same n since it of 1 giving a paragraph story did the story. paragraph provides a March background only along not tell how However it as the closing 1949 information with the those events directly orientation about how needed to orientation ended. explained placed. the events introduce the and There is no about the There is no ended. story. reorientatio further events in the separation n. There is explanation same between no about its paragraph. orientation separation significance and event. of ideas to the Data Battle of There is no The events As the which nation. 8 Surabaya explanation were reorientatio should about when provided in n, the explained the story the story. student by giving happened, But only gave some where the the first explanation details on story takes event told about the it. place and why about the significance Data Rengasde The story The events There is no the story main topic of the story. 2 ngklok directly were reorientatio happened of the story. however, opened by an organized n that The second there is no event. There is logically. closed the event did much no explanation The student whole story. not explain details about put details It ended about it and about how background on them. with an seems out the story information of event. of topic was ended the story. Data The Battle The The event There is no Data The Battle There is some The events The story 9 of orientation did only reorientatio 3 of background were well was closed Surabaya not tell about provided a n found in Ambaraw information organized. by giving the part of the story. a provided in But the an background events The last the student still explanation information without paragraph orientation. lack in about how needed to giving more did not tell But the giving the battle introduce the sequences about how student needs details in ended. story. of events. the story to give more order to ended or the details about link up one significance why the battle to another of the story. happened. events. Data Proclamat There some The events The Data Bandung The student The events As a 10 ion of unnecessary were reorientatio 4 as Sea of gives some were closing, the Indonesia details explained n still needs Fire background written in student put n provides in the the ideas in to be information of details but a good Independe orientation. details. explained in the story the writer ended as the nce The students details. clearly in the failed in reorientatio should give There is no first linking the n. background much paragraph. first and the information details second about the main about how events. topic only. the story Data Trisakti There is no The events The closed. 5 Events explanation were in line orientation As can be seen from the table of summary above, the about the and given did not background details. explain how students are already aware of the structures of recount information of the story text. However, some of them still confuse with the the story. ended. It still function of each structure. They failed in giving explained appropriate explanation for the structures. about the event. Data The There is Some The Students’ Writing in Terms of Language Use 6 November background events are orientation Based on the result below, all of the students are able 10 information already summarizes to apply the language features of recount text properly. about the provided the whole story. But and story. It This shows that the students are already aware of the there is no organized provides the

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language features used while composing a recount text. on it. form and given by For example, the writer of data 4 put the specific action the verbs student. participant in his story. properly. “This is done to prevent the Allies and the Dutch But there was found NICA Soldier using Bandung as a strategic military some headquarters in the war of independence of Indonesia” errors in Another example, in data 3 the writer put the correct changing present tense for recount text that is past tense. form to “The Battle of Ambarawa was a battle between the form. recently created Indonesian Army and the British Army D Band The The The Numbers at ung participant student settings of time that occurred between 20 October and 15 December a as s of the already (time and connective 1945 in Ambarawa, Indonesia.” 4 Sea story were applied place) s were The students also give time connectives to their story of already past tense, were found in Fire mentioned passive already the story. in order to link the events. This can be seen from data 1. on it. form and given by “By the following day it had conquered the city of action the Yogyakarta, the location of the temporary Republican verbs student. properly. capital.” But there In the other hand, there also found few errors in terms was found some of past tense. As the example taken from data 4, the errors in writer wrote “burn” which it should be changed into past changing form then become “burnt” present form to “Within seven hours, about 200.000 resident of form. Bandung burn their homes, leaving the city to the D Trisa The The The Time mountains in the south of Bandung.” at kti participant student settings connective a Even s of the already (time and s were Table 6. Summary Table of Students Writing in Terms of 5 ts story were applied place) found in Language Use already past tense, were the story. mentioned passive already Language Use on it. form and given by T Past Tense action the Action Adverbs Time e Title Specific verbs student. Verbs Adverbial Connectiv xt Participant properly. Passive Phrases es But there Form was found D Gene the story The Informati Time some at ral provides student on about connective errors in a Offe participant already the s were changing 1 nsive s on it applied settings found in present of 1 past tense, (time and the story. form to Marc passive place) form. h form and were D The The The The Time 1949 action already at Nov participant student settings connective verbs given by a emb s of the already (time and s were properly. the 6 er 10 story were applied place) found in But there student. already past tense, were the story. was found mentioned passive already some on it. form and given by errors in action the changing verbs student. present properly. form to But there past form. was found D Reng The The The Time some at asde participant student settings connective errors in a ngkl s of the applied (time and s were changing 2 ok story were the past place) found in present already tense, were the story. form to mentioned passive already form. on it. form and given by D The The The The Time action the at Battl participant student settings connective verbs student. a e of s of the already (time and s were properly. 7 Sura story were applied place) found in D The The The The Time baya already past tense, were the story. at Battl participant student settings connective mentioned passive already a e of s of the already (time and s were on it. form and given by 3 Amb story were applied place) found in action the araw already past tense, were the story. verbs student. a mentioned passive already

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properly. “In areas sorrounding Yogyakarta and Surakarta, But there Republican forces refused to surrender and continued to was found some wage.” errors in “The offensive was amoral and diplomatic sucess, changing present inspiring demoralized trops all around Indonesia.” form to In addition, most of students also succeed in using form. capitalization. Only a student seems having difficulties in D Battl The The Few Time at e of participant student settings connective using capital letter. This example is taken from data 4, a Sura s of the already (time and s were which mostly have problem in capitalization. The 8 baya story were applied place) found in students did not put the capital letter for the name of already past tense, were the story. mentioned passive given by month, place and to begin a sentence. For that reason, the on it. form and the student got average for capitalization. action student. “British troops as part of the Brigade MacDonald verbs properly. arrived in Bandung on october 12, 1945.” D The The The Few Time at Battl participant student settings connective “on the night of 24 November 1945, TKR and the a e of s of the already (time and s were 9 Sura story were applied place) found in people’s militia launched attacks on British troops baya already past tense, were the story. positions in the north, including hotel human and hotel mentioned passive given by on it. form and the preanger which they use as a headquarters.” action student. verbs properly. But there was found some Table 7. Summary Table of Students Writing in Terms of errors in changing Mechanics present Mechanics Tex form to Title Capitaliz Punctuati Paragraphin t Spelling form. ation on g D Procl The The The Time at amat participant student settings connective Dat General Many no punctuati the story a ion s of the already (time and s were a 1 Offensi words capitaliza on were written in a 1 of story were applied place) found in ve of 1 spelling tion put paragraph 0 Indo already past tense, were the story. March errors errors appropri only nesia mentioned passive already 1949 found in found in ately n on it. form and given by the story the story Inde action the Dat Rengas no no punctuati the story pend verbs student. a 2 dengklo words capitaliza on were separated ence properly. k spelling tion put into But there error errors appropri paragraphs was found found found in ately some the story errors in changing Dat The few Few punctuati the story present a 3 Battle words capitaliza on were separated form to of spelling tion put into form. Ambara error errors appropri paragraphs wa found found in ately In term of language use, the students have applied the the story language features of recount text appropriately. They Dat Bandun no many punctuati the story used the right form of tense and other language features a 4 g as Sea words capitaliza on were separated in their writing. of Fire spelling tion put into error errors appropri paragraphs found found in ately the story Students Writing in Terms of Mechanics In terms of mechanics, a student made many errors in Dat Trisakti no No punctuati the story word spelling. For instance, in data 1, the student often a 5 Events words capitaliza on were separated made errors in word spelling. But the rest of the students spelling tion put into error errors appropri paragraphs were success in word spelling. However there also found found found in ately few errors on it. the story “By the and of December, all major Republican held Dat The few Few punctuati the story cities in Java and Sumatra were in Dutch hands.” a 6 Novem words capitaliza on were separated ber 10 spelling tion put into error errors appropri paragraphs found in

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found the story ately On the other hand, other students also succeed in organizing good content. As the example, in data 3, the Dat The few no punctuati the story writer put her ideas with good arrangement. The ideas a 7 Battle words capitaliza on were separated were well-developed and contained details needed for the of spelling tion put into Surabay error errors appropri paragraphs story. It was organized logically and discussed the same a found found in ately main idea which connected one another. However, in the the story middle of the story, the events was missing somewhat. Dat Battle no Few punctuati the story This happened because the writer failed in giving enough a 8 of words capitaliza on were separated Surabay spelling tion put into details in that paragraph. a error errors appropri paragraphs found found in ately the story Students’ Writing in Terms of Organization In writing, organization also becomes important since Dat The Few no punctuati the story a 9 Battle words capitaliza on were separated it leads the writer to the structures of the whole text. Each of spelling tion put into type of text genres has certain organization which Surabay error errors appropri paragraphs different one to another. According to Anderson and a found found in ately the story Anderson (2003), recount text consists of three parts of Dat Proclam few no punctuati the story structure those are orientation, record of events, and a ation of words capitaliza on were separated reorientation. 10 Indones spelling tion put into As can be seen from the students result in term of ian error errors appropri paragraphs Indepen found found in ately organization, some of them still having problem with the dence the story structures of recount text. As the example, data 1, the organization needs to be explained in more details in Based on the table summary above, most of students order to fulfill the criteria for each structure. An are aware of the mechanics in writing. They used orientation should explain the background information appropriate spelling, capitalization, punctuation and that is needed to understand the text such as who was paragraphing in their story. However, some of them still involved, what, where and when the story happened having problems on those mechanics. They tend to make (Anderson and Anderson, 2003). This does not happened errors in word spelling and some of them are lack in in data 1. The writer only put a sentence which marked as paragraphing their writing. an orientation of the story. There is no such information

that should be fulfilled in an orientation as explained Discussion before. Another example is taken from data 2, the writer In this part, the result of research discussed based on also did not put background information on the the underlying theory used by the researcher. There are orientation. The writer directly tells the first event rather four results of research questions, which are discussed in than an orientation. below. On the other hand, some students have already Students’ Writing in Terms of Content composed the orientation based on its definition. As the As one of the elements of writing, content of the story example in data 3, the writer put background information becomes very important since it roles as a main character about the story that is needed in the orientation. She in a story. According to Oshima and Hogue (1998), the explained about who was involved, when and where the good content should have good flow in and also events happened. coherence. This supports that in writing should has good The second point that should be discussed is about details in order to create good flow of story. record of events in the story. It should be chronologically From the result above, students still have difficulties arranged and includes detail explanation about the in term of content. Most of them lack in giving details to orientation (Anderson and Anderson, 2003). Mostly the support their main ideas. As the example in data 1 the students understand about this concept. They retell events student lacks of giving details in her story. In the first part in chronological order. For example, in data 2, the student of the story, the writer did not put much details needed to arranged the events in good order. Each event connected explain the story. This may lead the readers to get one to another. The student also put enough explanation confused because they hardly figure out the story. In and details to tell the events of the story. “event” part (See. Appendix), the writer also put several The last thing should be discussed in term of events in the same paragraph. This make the readers got organization is reorientation. It is needed to close the confuse because a paragraph should focus on a single story by giving how the story was ended and its idea. As result, the story becomes illogical, incoherent significance to the nation. From the result, there were and does not have unity on it since it was not explained found that most of the students already put the the ideas one by one. reorientation to end their story. Another finding also

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showed that only two students who did not provide the making no errors in words spelling. There were no found orientation of their story. missing alphabets or incorrect words spelling. This also Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded happened for data 4 which also making no errors in word that the students were able to write the generic structures spelling. of recount text. However, they need to be aware of each The second point is about capitalization. A capital function of them on the text in order to produce good letter is used to begin the first word of a sentence, names recount text. of people, names of specific places, names of days and months, names of specific group of people also names of Students’ Writing in Terms of Language Use specific structures (Oshima and Hogue, 1998). From the In writing, language use cannot be separated from the result, students are also making errors in capitalization. text since it deals with the grammar of the sentences in As the example in data 4, the student frequently makes the story. For that reason, language use becomes one of errors with the use of capital letter. The student failed in the important point should be discussed. In this case, using capital letter for the names of month, specific place, language use deals with language features used in the and specific structure or building. text. The third point is about punctuation. It is needed to Recount text has several language features that should assist the readers while reading the story. Mostly, the be used by the writer while composing a piece of recount students are aware of this notion. There were few errors writing. There are specific participant, past tense, action found in punctuation. verbs, passive, time connectives, adverbs and adverbial The last point is about paragraphing. In writing, phrases (Wood and Stubbs, 2000). Since recount text is paragraphing become important since it deals with retelling what was happened in past, the story should be paragraph arrangement. The whole text should be written written in past form. It can be in form of simple past and into paragraphs in order to avoid the readers to get passive past. Based on the result, students are applied the confused. As can be seen from the result, data 1 is the past form in their recount properly. This shows that the example of no paragraphing essay. This happened students already aware of it. because the writer wrote the whole text into paragraph Another point is about specific participant. In recount only. This can be the reason for the readers to get confuse text, a participant is needed to tell who was involved in since the ideas were not explained in different the story. For this point, all of students are already paragraphs. Another result found that other students include the participant of their story. The students have already wrote the text into separated paragraphs. For already put the participants involved in the story. instance, in data 3 the student put the ideas of the story Action verbs also being one of points discussed in into several paragraph. On each paragraph, the ideas were language use. From the result, the students are focused and developed well. appropriately used action verbs in past form. The next point that should be discussed are adverb of time and CONCLUSION place. Those are needed to show the settings of the According to the analysis from the previous data, it recount text. The students are mostly used them properly. can be said that the students still confused while writing This happened because they mention the two historical recount text. This occurred because several circumstances to complete their story in order to be more errors were found on the basic elements of recount text. understandable by the readers. The results of analysis were concluded as below: Last, time connectives also become one of language 1. The students are generally still having difficulties in features that should be used in recount text. The use of composing a good content in their recount text. They are time connectives is purposed to connect the events of a lack in organizing and developing ideas they want to recount. As it can be seen from the result, most of present. They provided insufficient details to support students are already used kinds of time connectives in their main topic. However, other students are already put their essay. such details information that enough to support the topic itself. Students’ Writing in Terms of Mechanics 2. Students also failed in organizing the structure of There are four points discussed in this term. The first recount text. They lack in giving details on each one is about the spelling. From the result, mostly students structures. The students already know about the three are making errors on it. The difference is only about the parts of recount text but they failed in filling each recount frequency of making those errors. As the example, data 1 generic structure with the appropriate explanation. It was has many errors in words spelling. The student failed in found that a student put an event as an orientation of giving complete spelling of words. There were found recount text. On the other hand, some students have many missing alphabets in words. Then, there were also organized their recount text based on its generic structure found in the result that in data 2, the student almost

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well. Each part of them was explained and well REFERENCES developed. Ary, D., Jacobs, L., C., & Sorensen, C. (2010). 3. Generally students have applied the language features Introduction to Research in Education. of recount text properly. It seen from the result of Wadsworth, USA: Cengage Learning. analysis that the students are already aware of those kinds Barwick, John. (1999). Targeting Text Upper Level: of language features that should be fulfilled while Recount, Procedure, Explanation. [Online]. th composing a recount text. They applied past tense, action Sydney: Blake Education. [Accessed 25 July 2018]. verbs, adverbs, participant, and time connectives Blackwell, James. Understanding the Structure of Texts. properly. However, in some writing products, there were Polyglossia Volume 24, March 2013. found that students failed in changing the past form of Brown, D. H. (2000). Principles of Language Learning words. And Teaching. (4th e.d.). New York: Pearson 4. As the part of mechanics, students are commonly Education Company making errors. Word spelling is one of their problem. Frey, L., Botan, C., & Kreps, G. (1999). Investigating Besides, paragraphing and capitalization also become Communication: An Introduction to Research Methods.(2nd ed.) Boston: Allyn & Bacon. their problem. It was found that the student did not Gerot, L. and Wignell, P. (1995). Making Sense of present the recount text into paragraphs as it should be. In Functional Grammar. Australia: An addition, the students also failed in differentiate the use of Introductory Workbook. capital letter on their recount. Harmer, Jeremy. (2004). How to Teach Writing. England: Pearson Education Limited SUGGESTION Harris, A., Ansyar, Mohd., Radjab, D. (2014). An Analysis Of Students’ Difficulties In Writing Based on the results, the researcher gives suggestions Recount Text At Tenth Grade Of SMAN 1 to the students and teachers. The suggestions are Sungai Limau. English Education Program, State purposed to make the students have a good understanding University of Padang. about writing historical recount text in order to compose Hyland, Ken (2003). Second Language Writing. New better recount writing in the future. Also as an advice for York: Cambridge University Press. the teachers to be aware of the students ability in writing Hyland, Ken. (2002). Teaching and Researching historical recount. Writing: Second Edition. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited 1. For the students Lee, Icy. (2017). Classroom Writing Assessment and As can be seen from the result, students still need to Feedback in L2 School Contexts. Springer Nature have more practice in writing especially for recount text. Singapore Pte Ltd. They have to be more understand about the basic points Nurohmah, Iin. (2013). An Analysis of Students’ that should be fulfilled while writing recount text. Recount Text by Using Systemic Functional 2. For the teachers Grammar. Indonesia University of Education. Bandung. As it explained previously, the researcher Oshima, Alice. & Hogue, Ann. (1998). Writing suggests that the teachers need to pay attention on the Academic English. Longman. students’ writing ability especially for recount text. The Raimes, Ann, & Miller-Cochran, Susan K. (2013). Keys results show that the students failed in organizing the for Writers (7th Ed.). Wadsworth. basic point of recount. The students seem to have Ramli, Doni. (2013). An Analysis On Students’ Errors In problem in understanding the ideas development and Writing Recount Text. Tanjung Pura University. generic structures of recount text. To overcome this Pontianak Sadewa, Bagus C. (2015). The Analysis of Recount Text problems, the teachers should give more practice and Written By Tenth Graders of SMAN 2 Blitar. provide various kinds of recount text in order to make the State University of Surabaya. Surabaya. students get used to them. Therefore, the teachers also Wood, Katrina. & Stubbs, Sue. (2000). Targeting Text need to help the students in explaining about the how Information: Recount, Information Report, & they should organize and outline the ideas into good Explanation. [Online]. Sydney. Blake Education. th writing. In brief, the teacher also need to find more [Accessed 25 July 2018]. interesting method to explain about historical recount Yulia, A. Rufinus, et al. (2011). Improving Recount Text Writing Ability By Guided Question Word while teaching and learning process happen. Questions. FKIP Tanjung University.

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