Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text at Eighth Grade of SMP TD Pardede Foundation Medan

Abstract

This research was aimed to know the eighth grade students of junior  high  school’s  ability  in  writing  descriptive  text  at  SMP  TD Pardede Foundation Medan. The design of the research was descriptive quantitative. The object of this research was the score of 23 students in their descriptive text assignment. The method that was used consists of writing assignments, collecting data, and analyzing the data by putting them  in  certain  categories.  The  students  were  asked  to  write  a descriptive text about someone or something that they like on a piece of paper  with  the  requirement  of  three  paragraphs  in  minimum.  The technique  that  was  used  for  analyzing  the  collected  data  was  divided into four steps: reading the result of the students’ assignment, analyzing the aspects of the descriptive text, determining the score of each student, and making a conclusion based on the result of the data. The data was classified  by  calculating  the  average  ability,  forming  categories  of 
scores,  and  calculating  the  percentage  of  each  category.  The result of this study showed that the majority of students’ ability in writing  descriptive  text  at  the  eighth  grade  of  SMP  TD  Pardede Foundation  Medan  was  average.  From  the  total  of  23  students  that participated  in  the  research,  2  students  were  classified  into  poor category, 13 students were classified to average category, and 8 students were classified to good category. The most common mistakes that were faced by students are mechanism and vocabulary .