THE ANALYSIS OF EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT AT SMP NEGERI 13 MEDAN

The objective of this study was to determine the students' ability in producing
recount texts as well as the difficulties they faced. The descriptive qualitative
method was the approach taken in this study. Purposive sampling was used to
choose 20 eighth-grade students from SMP Negeri 13 Medan for use as the
sample participants in this study. Questionnaires and writing tests given to
students are two of the research's instruments. In order to analyze the data, the
researcher found faults in the test essays written by the students and categorized
them using the (Jacobs et al., 1981) assessment rubric. The scores were then
entered into the (Cohen, 1994) writing score table. The results showed that, with
an average score of 69,5 , students recount text writing abilities fell into the good
level category. However, the data's conclusion indicated that students had certain
difficult when producing recount text essays. The results of the research showed
that students were classified as fair to poor because they made the majority of
mistakes in content (20,15%) and organization (13,45%). The reasons for these
problems include students lack of not understanding about the topic and order of
idea and sentences to deliver a wellwritten form paragraph. Therefore, in order to
address these problems, teachers should give students more opportunities to
practice writing and develop strategies, media, and learning methods which focus
on content and organization will enhance their writing skills, especially when it
comes to writing recount texts. Students' proficiency in these areas still needs to
be improved.