An Analysis of Eighth Grade Students' Collaborative Writing of Narrative Text

Writing is considered one of the most challenging language skills to master,
particularly in producing narrative texts. This study aimed to analyze the quality of
eighth-grade students' narrative writing produced through collaborative writing and
to describe the problems students faced during the process. Employing a descriptive
qualitative design, this research involved 29 eighth-grade students at SMPS
Muhammadiyah 1 Medan. Data were collected through document analysis and
interviews, with text quality assessed using the ESL Composition Profile by Jacobs
et al. (1981), which evaluates five writing aspects: content, organization, vocabulary,
language use, and mechanics. To analyze the data, the interactive model by Miles,
Huberman, and Saldaña (2014) was utilized, comprising data condensation, data
display, and conclusion drawing. The findings revealed that the overall quality of
students’ narrative writing was categorized as Good to Average, with language use
demonstrating the strongest performance. However, students encountered several
challenges during the collaborative writing process, including limited vocabulary,
grammatical difficulties, low self-confidence, conformity to avoid conflict, unequal
task distribution, poor time management, and passive group members.