FINAL PROJECT OF ACADEMIC WRITING

“Improving Students’ Writing Skills Through Twitter”

LECTURER : FITRAWATI, S.S, M.Pd

BY :

Ayu Pramesti Buwono

20018109

K2 – 2020

PENDIDIKAN BAHASA INGGRIS

 Writing is always important in learning English. This is due to the connection of writing
with grammatical, where the proper arrangement of words is the most important element in
English. That argument be supported by the journal of writing strategies used, writing is reputed
as an creation of text convinced in one low-level such as transcription skills, and on the other side,
high-level settled thinking processess (Berninger et al., 2002 in Komariyah, 2013). Writing is an
alternative way to express students' thoughts, feelings, and ideas in any language. However, this
ability is one of the challenging abilities because good writing is seen from the effort and how long
it takes students to write something (Pek et al., 2019 in Espinoza-Celi & Pintado, 2020). Based on
the statements, it can be say that writing is an activity to explain all the main thoughts of the author
based on the provisions and aspects so that the reader can understand what was written.
In technological advancements, writing skills can be developed in various ways, one of
which is through social media applications. However, not all applications can be used to improve
writing skills. According to the author in journal ‘Improving Students’ Writing Skill Through
Twitter’ twitter is a very effective application to improve students' writing skills. Twitter is a
website that can be used to send messages, links, and even photos and videos called ‘tweets`. This
application allows students to build relationships with strangers and write their ideas without
knowing who has read it (Juniardi & Utami, 2018). However, twitter has provisions in writing
tweets. According to Allam et al., (2017), each post must not contain more than 140 words. It
makes students have to be more strict and are expected to filter information or ideas before writing
(Allam et al., 2017 in Espinoza-Celi & Pintado, 2020).
Twitter has many benefits for students. Other than develop ideas freely, students can
improve their vocabulary because there are internet users who from various countries (Espinoza-
Celi & Pintado, 2020). It will make students communicate in English easily, even their grammar
skills can be better because they will be corrected by other internet users pleasurably. If this method
works well for students, it is certain that the presence of Twitter can help students to develop
knowledge and share with aim of learning and practicing the material from the teacher (Romadhon
et al., 2020). Not only for students, this method also help teacher to share the link of material and
checking out students’ tweet or writing on Twitter (Septiani & Nirmala, 2020).
This application is very multifunctional, making it easier for teachers and students to do learning,
especially writing.
 On the other side, a few students’ find it difficult to commit to doing daily interactions on Twitter
because they are required to use the right choice of words. This statement is supported by Blattner
and Dalola (2018), study that High Intermediate ESL students’ are surrounded by the right word,
anyhow they should write the tweet that easy to understand, so that the readers can find the tweet
according to personified hashtags, and tweet’s background (Thandevaraj et al., 2021). As stated in
the previous paragraph, Twitter has provisions so that students will be difficult to choose the right
words, but got helped with the hashtags. However, these difficulties must be present in all
applications, not only Twitter. So the success of learning depends on teachers and students and the
way they organized the learning to be productive and efficient.

ITEMS ANSWERS %
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
disagree Agree
Twitter is a great platform to be used for 0 0 15 60 25
language learning.
Twitter motivates students to write 0 5 15 55 25
better.
The use of Twitter should be exposed 5 0 20 45 30
for in- class and outside classroom
activities.
Twitter can 0 10 25 60 5
improve students' academic
performance.
Teacher should encourage students to 0 0 15 50 35
use social media to improve their
writing and other skills.
(Thandevaraj et al., 2021)
 The table above is used to measure respondents’ review about using Twitter to improve
students’ writing skills. The review starts from the respondents who strongly agree to strongly
disagree over the items. Item 1 indicate that percentage (25%) of the respondents who strongly
agree that Twitter is a great platform to be used for language learning, while 60% who agree with
that. Only 15% respondents who neutral. Then there is no respondent who disagree and strongly
disagree about item 1. Item 2 shows about Twitter motivates students to write better. There are
25% respondents who strongly agree with that, while 55% agree. It contains 15% respondents who
neutral and only 5% who disagree. There is no respondent who strongly disagree about that. Item
3 discusses if the use of Twitter should be exposed for in class and outside classroom activities. It
shows that 30% respondents who strongly agree, whereas 45% agree with that. That is any 15%
respondents who choosing neutral instead of disagree. So the percentage (0%) shows that disagree
while 5% strongly disagree.
Item 4 possess significance that only 5% respondents who strongly agree about Twitter
can improve students’ academic performance. And the highest percentage is 60% respondents who
agree with that, while 25% neutral. Then 10% respondents who disagree of this item, and there is
no respondent who strongly disagree. The last but not least, it discusses about teacher should
encourage students to use social media to improve their writing and other skills. Its 35% of
respondents strongly agree and 50% of respondents agree about that statement. Followed by 15%
respondents who neutral, however, there is no respondent neither disagree or strongly disagree
with this item (Thandevaraj et al., 2021). According to the table above, it is said that the
respondents agree that Twitter is the best application to improve students’ writing skills. With the
rapid development of technology, the learning methods should be in accordance to technology too.
This is proved to be useful not only for students, but also for teachers.
The efficiency of learning through Twitter has also been proven from several studies. The
first is twitter experiment done by Cindy Qadri Azizah in 2021, from Universitas Negeri Raden
Intan Lampung. The author from the journal “The Influence of Using Twitter Application Towards
Students’ Writing Ability in Descriptive Text at the Second Semester of the Tenth Grade of MAN
1 Pringsewu in Academic Year 2020/2021” trying to solve students’ writing problems by using
the online learning method through the Twitter application. Because according to the author,
Twitter is the best application to do this experiment. With interesting features, the learning system
is not boring. Then the author combines the use of Twitter application with the previous teacher’s
technique. The result of this research is before using Twitter, students’ writing process was low.
However, from several tests that the author conducted experiments using Twitter, students became
active in commenting and posting tweets using English (QADRI AZIZAH, 2021).
In the advancement of technology, there are many ways to improve students’ writing
skills in agreeably way. Twitter is very effective for students to practice their skills. By write
captions, tweets, even comment on a tweet, the longer their writing skills will get better. The results
of study show that students can do various writing assignments on Twitter. As example, when
students have doubts about the grammar they use when writing, they can check grammar in the
search bar, they also write freely without knowing who has seen their tweet (Thandevaraj et al.,
2021). In addition, teachers must also guide students in practicing their abilities. Because on social
media students cannot get specific criteria in writing, they can only practice. Therefore, the role of
the teacher is also very important in improving students’ writing skills.
From the many studies that have been conducted, it can be concluded that students’
writing skills increase when using Twitter as a learning medium. With the features provided,
students become more enthusiastic, even active in writing and interacting with other Twitter users.
This is the fastest and most efficient way, although Twitter has a word limit of 450 words, of
course, student must be able to choose the right words so that students’ writing and vocabulary
skills can to be improve.
References

Espinoza-Celi, V., & Pintado, C. M. (2020). Using Twitter To Enhance Writing Skill With Senior
High School Students: a Case Study. Teaching English with Technology, 20(5), 108–124.
Juniardi, Y., & Utami, R. (2018). Improving Students’ Writing Skill Through Twitter. Tenth
Conference on English Studies, March, 1–6.
Komariyah, D. N. (2013). Writing Strategies Used. 1(1991), 2013–2015.
QADRI AZIZAH, C. (2021). STUDENTS ’ WRITING ABILITY IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT AT
EIGHTH Arrange by. The Influence of Using Twitter Application Towards Students’ Writing
Ability in Descriptive Text At the Second Semester of the Tenth Grade of Man 1 Pringsewu
in Academic Year 2020/2021.
Romadhon, L. R., Indriani, E. D., & Setiawan, K. N. (2020). Writing Short Stories Using Twitter
as a Media for Student’s Writing Skills. ETERNAL (English Teaching Journal), 11(1), 50–
62. https://doi.org/10.26877/eternal.v11i1.6065
Septiani, P., & Nirmala, D. (2020). Using Twitter for Students Learning in Now Era.
Culturalistics: Journal of Cultural, Literary, and Linguistic Studies, 1, 33–40.
Thandevaraj, E. J., Gani, N. A. N., Hashim, H. U., Yunus, M. M., & Hashim, H. (2021). Using
Twitter to Enhance Writing Skills among ESL Undergraduates: A Casual Learning Approach.
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(12), 293–
306. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v11-i12/11766