AN ANALYSIS ON THE ABILITY OF USING CAPITALIZATION AND PUNCTUATION IN PARAGRAPH WRITING OF THE GRADE EIGHT STUDENTS AT MTS ASHRI JEMBER IN THE 2010/2011 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Writing is one of the English skills that the students need to master. Through writing, we can communicate and share our ideas to other people around the world. To make a good writing, the aspects of writing that must be considered are content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Capitalization and punctuation belong to mechanic components. Capitalization and punctuation cannot be neglected in writing. If capitalization and punctuation marks in writing are not properly used, the readers may have difficulties to understand the writing. This study was a descriptive research in the ability of using capitalization and punctuation in paragraph writing of the Grade Eight Students at MTs Ashri Jember in the 2010/2011 Academic Year. The results of the research were explained descriptively. In determining the respondents, population research was applied because the number of the respondents was 65. The primary data were collected by using test. The results of the data analysis were described to answer the research problem. Then, it was analyzed by percentage formula. There are four steps to analyze the data : 1) scoring the respondents’ answer sheet, 2) finding out the percentage, 3) classifying the respondents’ score level, 4) interpreting the respondents’ score level. Moreover, the supporting data were taken by interview and documentation. The research result showed that the eight year students’ ability in using capitalization in paragraph writing in the category of excellent was gained by 18 students or 27.69%, good was gained by 21 students or 32.31%, fair was gained by 15 students or 23.08%, poor was gained by 11 students or 16.92%, and there was no one in the failed category. The students’ ability in using punctuation paragraph writing in the category of excellent was gained by 6 students or 9.23%, good was gained by 6 students or 9.23%, fair was gained by 14 students or 21.54%, poor was gained by 27 students or 41.54%, and failed was gained by 12 students or 18.46%. Therefore, it is recommended to give more exercises about the use capitalization and punctuation. By having more excercise about the use of capitalization and punctuation, the students may have more time to improve their ability in using capitalization and punctuation. The teacher also suggested to give feedback to the students’ writing dealing with capitalization and punctuation, so the students will not make the same mistakes in writing English next time.