A Descriptive Study on the Grade VIII Students’ Ability in Using Punctuation and Capitalization in Descriptive Paragraph Writing at SMPN 13 Jember.

Abstract

The use of punctuation and capitalization in writing is important, because it make the readers understand the meaning of paragraph correctly. Therefore, it is important for the students to master them. This study is quantitative research on the students’ ability in using punctuation and capitalization in descriptive paragraph writing at the grade VIII of SMPN 13 Jember. The problem of the study is “How is the students’ ability in using punctuation and capitalization in descriptive paragraph writing at the grade VIII of SMPN 13 Jember?” The research objective was to describe the students’ ability in using punctuation and capitalization in descriptive paragraph writing especially on the use capitalization, full stop, comma, and quotation mark. In determining the number of participants, the cluster random sampling was applied after knowing the populations were homogenous. The number of participants was 42 students (Class B). To collect the data, interview, documentation, and test were used. The observation was conducted three times; first, consulting to the English teacher concern with the teaching technique, second was interrupting the number of the grade VIII participant, third was asking to the English teacher about the problem faced by the students in learning English especially in teaching punctuation and capitalization. The objective test in the form of completion was used to collect the primary data dealing with the students’ ability in using punctuation and capitalization in descriptive paragraph writing in the form of scores. Interview and documentation were used to obtain the supporting data. The collecting primary data were analyzed quantitatively by using percentage formula. The results of data analysis were described to answer the research problem. In details, the students’ ability in using punctuation and capitalization in descriptive paragraph writing in the category of poor was six students (14,29%) participants, good was 12 students (28,57%) participants, excellent was six students (14,29%) participants, and fair was eighteen students (42,85%) participants. Therefore, it is suggested that, the students’ ability in using punctuation and capitalization in descriptive paragraph writing needs to be improved by giving poor and fair students remedial teaching and giving enrichment material to the good and excellent students.