ANALYSIS STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN WRITING GENERIC

STRUCTURE OF DISCUSSION TEXT

Rizka Rahmadona Mukhtar1), Suharni, M.Pd2), Yendra, S.S., M.Hum3)
1
)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang , Jalan Gajah Mada Gunung Pangilun
rizkarahmadona15@gmail.com
2
)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang, Jalan Gajah Mada Gunung Pangilun
nenikuchi@ymail.com
3
)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang, Jalan Gajah Mada Gunung Pangilun
yendra_brutus@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
This research had background knowledge that there were students who had low ability in writing
discussion text in SMA N 2 Pariaman. Purpuse of the research was to know the students’ problem in writing
generic structures of discussion text. In this research, the researcher analyzed students’ problem in writing
generic structures of discussion text. There are three generic structures of discussion text, such as: general issue,
arguments for, arguments againts, and recommendation. This was qualitative research. Source of data in this
research was students’ written about discussion text in second grade students at SMA N 2 Pariaman. Document
of the research is students’ written. In collecting the data, the number of the documents that had collected were
27. Based on the data that had analyzed, it was known that there were 21 students’ had problem in writing
general statement. The students did not explain about the issue clearly and did not persuade the readers.
Furthermore, there were 20 students had problem in writing argument for. The students did not use reference in
giving responses toward the issue. Then, there were 22 students also did the same thing in argument againts.
Finally, there were 20 students had problem in writing recommendation. The students did not give statement or
next step that has explained in argument for and argument againts. Based on the data that have gotten, most of
students had problem in writing generic structures of discussion text.
Penelitian ini dilatar belakangi oleh lemahnya kemampuan siswa dalam menulis teks diskusi di
SMA Negeri 2 Pariaman. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui masalah siswa dalam menulis generic
structure teks diskusi. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti manganalisa masalah siswa dalam menulis generic structure
teks diskusi. Ada tiga generic structure teks diskusi yaitu:general statement, argument for, argument againt and
recommendation. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif. Sumber data penelitian adalah hasil tulisan siswa
mengenai teks diskusi yang ditulis oleh siswa kelas dua belas di SMA Negeri 2 Pariaman. Hasil tulisan siswa
berupa latihan. Dalam pengambilan data, jumlah dokumen yang dikumpulkan sebanyak 27 siswa. Dari data yang
diperoleh pada saat setelah peneliti melakukan analisa, diketahui bahwa masalah siswa dalam menulis generic
structure teks diskusi pada siswa kelas dua belas di SMA Negeri 2 Pariaman adalah pada generic structure
general statement 21 siswa dari 27 siswa memiliki masalah, siswa tidak menjelaskan dengan jelas tentang
masalah yang akan dibahas, teks nya juga kurang menarik tidak bisa memprovokasi pembaca untuk membaca,
dan siswa tidak memberikan sudut pandang yang seimbang tentang teks yang akan dibahas. Pada argument for
20 siswa dari 27 siswa memiliki masalah, tanggapan yang dibuat tidak berdasarkan sumber acuan atau rujukan.
Pada argument for 22 siswa dari 27 siswa memiliki masalah, tanggapan yang dibuat tidak berdasarkan sumber
acuan atau rujukan. Dari segi recommendation 20 siswa dari 27 siswa memiliki masalah, siswa tidak
memberikan paparan atau tindak lanjut sebagaiman telah dijelaskan pada argument for dan argument againts.
Bardasarkan data yang didapat oleh peneliti selama penelitian, peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa lebih dari setengah
dari siswa kelas tiga di SMAN 2 pariaman mempunyai masalah di generic structure teks diskusi.

Key Words: Component of writing, Discussion Text, Generic structure of discussion text, Writing,

INTRODUCTION implied in the daily activity and also in the school. In

the daily activities, the writing skill will be implied as
The communication can be done by using indirect communication to transfer imformation so
writing. The communication by writing will be that the reader is interested and is excited about

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paying attention to read. In the college, the writing
skill is a goal of learning english on non-orally
developing language where they know how to deliver
and organize ideas orderly. Then, the students will
imply this skill to convey their idea, opinion and
felling into a paper in a sentence or paragraph form.
Furthermore, writing process is a challenge
for the students in teaching-learning process because
the students should know the parts of writing process
itself. The parts of writing process are sharing ideas,
organizing ideas, and constructing the ideas into
written text. It is supported by Nation (2009, p.114),
“there are several writing processes are considering
the goals of the writer, having a model of the reader,
gathering ideas, organizing ideas, turning ideas into
written text, reviewing what has been written, and
editing.” If the students do not understand about the
part of writing processes, so their text will not be
structured. In this case, the students have to
understand about the parts of writing process and
how to organize their ideas to make their writing to
be unity and coherence.
Moreover, in teaching Senior High School
students, writing has the goals which are going to be
reached. These goals are conducted by the
Department of Education and Culture in School
Based Curriculum KTSP 2006. Referring to the
curriculum KTSP 2006, the goals of writing skill are
the students are able to analyze the social function,
text structure and language feature of the text and
write the text by the genre and the topic given in text
narrative, report, analytical exposition text and
discussion text.
Specially in discussion text, this a kind of
texts provide two contrastive arguments about the
topic and allows reader to have two contrastive
viewpoints. Reader will not be persuaded to be at one
side before informed about another side. According
to Hyland (2009, p.4), “discussion text examines
more than one stance of an issue.” Different view
points are investigated before a decision or
concluding statement is presented. The writer should
pay attention with generic structure of discussion
text, like general statement introducing the issue to be
discussed (orientation), points supporting and
opposing the general statement and judgment or
decision.
Based on researcher’s pre observation at
SMAN 2 Pariaman the genre learned by third grade
students, the researcher found that the students able
writing discussion text but the students can not
classify whichever general statement of discussion
text, it was observed from the teaching learning
process. There is cause of the problem, such as the
students are less understand about generic structure
of discussion text. For example, the teacher asks the
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students to write a discussion text. During the process
writing of the text, the students get some difficulties
in determining the generic structure. There are parts
of generic structure; general statement, argument for
and argument againts and recommendation. The
students write the generic structure incorrectly.
Based on students task, the students less
understand in generic structure, in generic structure
of discussion text there are general statement,
argument for, argument againts, and
recommendation, In the students task about
discussion text the students does not write general
statetment with a statement or question and not
serves the purpose of introducing the reader to the
author’s points of view, and in the text does not
giving equal weight to both sides to be discussed.
The text should has statement or question and serves
the purpose of introducing the reader to the author’s
points of view, and in the text giving equal weight to
both sides to be discussed. Like: you know comic?
Did you ever read comic before? Comic is an art
form that uses no moving pictures are arranged in
such a way so as to form the fabric of the story.
Reading comic is intertaiment for children because
children at a young age is still effected by their
imaginary world, comic can make reader creative
because with reading the comic can develop of
reader imagine, story in the comic can be imaginary
for the children, imagine about their future will be
like character in the comic which he/she read. But
read comic has some positive and negative impact,
such as: And in argument for and argument againts
the student does not write details contains of the
response not based on several sources. The students
should write details contains of the response not
based on several sources, like: But based on some
quote in internet comic has so many negative impact
for the reader such as comic can make the children
be lazy to study, because children’s time spend to
read the comic, the children has not time to study and
help their parents. comic like a neccesity life that
must be met. So that the children willing if not to buy
snack just for a comic.
In this research, before the researcher talks
about discussion text, the researcher should talk
about writing first. Sokolik in Linse and Nunan (
2005 : 98) states that writing is a combination of the
process and product. The process refers to the act of
gathering idea and working with them until they are
presented in a manner that is polished and
comprehensible to reader. It means that writing
consist of two sequences: process and product.
Process is a step to become a writing form that will
be present to the reader. Then, product signs a result
from writing process that can be read. Then, Leo
(2007, p.1) defines, “writing as a process of
expressing ideas or thoughts in words should be done
at the writer’s leisure.” The good idea will be
elaborated in good sentences if the writer feels enjoy.
It means that the process of expressing ideas or
thoughts to be a good writing should be done when
he/she feels enjoyable and comfortable. Finally, the
researcher concludes that writing is combining of
process and product, a process to express the idea of
a topic in paragraphs.
Moreover, writing involves the encoding
of a message, the writer translates that their thoughts
into language. This is a reason for the writer to be
focused in writing by some components. Furhermore,
Baker (2011, p.5) states three components of writing
that consist of:
a. Grammatical skill is the ability to construct
meaningful sentences. It is the ability to
arrange the sentence to be more meaningful.
b. Composional skill is the ability how the writer
compose their ideas in writing.
c. Domain knowledge is a component of writing
skill that allows the writer to appreciate the
perfective of the user.
From some quotatios have been remark, the
researcher assumes that there are some components
consist of three points. First, Grammatical skill is
ability to construct meaningful sentences. It is the
ability to arrange the sentence to be more meaningful.
Second, compositional skill as ability to organize
words to produce ideas in writing. Third, domain
knowledge as to suggest that ignorance of the subject
domain is an asset, that allows them to appreciate the
perspective of the user.
Now, the researcher talks about discussion
text. Discussion is a text which presents a
problematic discourse. This problem will
be discussed from different points of view. It
presents pro and contra opinion on certain issue. In
this text, the writer will give an argument about a
issue, the issue of the text which will discuss should
have pro and contra to be discussed.
As stated by Astuti (2006, p.81),
“discussion is a text which presents a problematic
discourse.” The problem is discussed from different
viewpoints. The discussion is commonly found in
philosophical, historic, and social text. It means that
discussion text is a text that talks about a problem
that viewed from two different angles and usually
found in philosophical, historic, and social text. In
addition, discussion text has generic structures.
According to Barwick (1999, p.93),
“srtucture of discussion text consist of three parts,
such as: an introductory statement of position
supplying necessary background information,
argument for and argument againts and supporting
evidence, recommendation or conclusion.” First,
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statement of posistion, a discussion begin with a brief
introduction discribing the situation, this introduction
has a statement or question and serves the purpose of
introducing the reader of listener to the author’s point
of view or thesis. Often it is recognised that there are
points of view. Second, the next view paragraph
elaborate the arguments for and againts the issue, this
should be based on researching books, the internet,
surveying and interviewing people, the evidence and
opinion should support the statements, the number of
arguments varies according to the writer’s desire and
the content, the argument can be structured in
different ways. Each paragraph should be clearly
structured with a topic sentence supported by details.
Third, recomendation or conclusion, the
discussion ends by presenting a personal points of
view before concluding, the recommendation or
conclusion sometimes sum up both side the argument
if they are fairly balanced, or can recommend one
argument over the other if the evidence is
overwhelming. It means that, generic structure of
discussion text there are three part like general
statement, which the text introduce the issue will be
discussed, in the general statement text serves to the
reader authors’ point of view, either in the form of
questions or statements which the purpose is
introduce the issue. Second, argument for and
argument againts, which the text serves two different
point of view, this text based on several sources
which the purpose convincing to the reader the truth
of the statement of the text, the text support with
supporting details so that it more clear to read, and
two different ways in arrange. Third,
recommendation which the conclution of the issue,
the author give recommendation and judgment based
on text which discussed before, the author give
statement support to one side which overwhelming.
RESEARCH METHOD
In this research, researcher used qualitative
research. In conducting research, the researcher
needed a research design. The research design in this
research was content or document analysis. Ary et
all (2010, p. 457) mention, “content analysis is
applied to written or visual materials for the purpose
of identifying specified characteristics of the
material.” The data of document was the students’
writing task that given by the teacher at third grade
students of SMA Negeri 2 Pariaman. In third grade
had six classes: three IPA and three IPS.The
researcher took 20% from total of the students
amount. Thus, the total of participants was 27
students. The researcher used simple random
sampling to choose the participant.
 Then to help the researcher in doing
analyzed the document, the researcher used form or
document checklist as an instrument. The form used
to guide researcher in ordering to keep the data would
be collected relevant to the topic investigated. In
collecting the data, the researcher used analysis of
document analysis with document checklist.
In getting the data in the field, the
researcher done some steps. First, the researcher gone
to SMA Negeri 2 Pariaman to give the letter of the
research recommendation from STKIP and
educational department Pariaman and then met with
English teacher that taught in third grade SMA
Negeri 2 Pariaman. Second, the researcher asked
students’ writing document to the teacher. The last
researcher analyzed the data.
After collecting the data, the researcher
analyzed all the data. The data analysis in this
research was conduct based on the technique of
analyzing qualitative data by Gay and Airasian
(2000, p.239) state “in analyzing the data of
descriptive had to follow these phase reading/
memoing, describing, classifying and interpreting.”
RESEARCH FINDINGS
From the data analysis above, the researcher
had interpretation about all of the data from the
finding of Students’ Problems in Writing Generic
Structure of Discussion Text. The researcher found
many students did not write general statement as
clearly and interested, has not a statement or purpose
the introducing the reader to read the details and it
was not gave equal weight to both sides to be
discussed. It meant that the students had problems in
writing general statement of discussion text. They did
not know about general statement. In argument for
and argument against of discussion text, the students
did not write details contais of the response based on
sources and public response support. The evidence
and opinion were not supported the statement. Each
paragraph was not be clearly structured with a topic
sentence supported by details. It meant that the
students had problems in writing argument for
discussion text. And in recommendation the students
did not write how to the conclude the text. The
students could not recommend one argument over the
other if the evidence was overwhelming. Concluding
section of discussion was not be eithr a judgment. It
was not supported to one sides of the discussion. It
was not be based on the points raised in the
discussion. It means that the students had problems in
writing recommendation of discussion text.
Thus, more than a half students’ did not
write the general statement, argument for, argument
againts and recommendation correctly. It could be
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said the students did not understand in writing the
generic structure of discussion text. In this research
the researcher got the data from document of
students’ exercise about writing discussion text
written by third grade students in SMAN 2 Pariaman.
The document which consists of 27 students’
exercises were taken to find out what were the
students’ problems in writing generic structure of
discussion text.
In general, the third year students’ SMA
Negeri 2 Pariaman had problems in writing generic
structure of discussion text. For more details, it
would be shown in the table below:
Table.1. The Frequencies of Students’Problems
Classificati Frequency
on
General Argum Argument Recom
Stateme ent for againts menda
nt tion
Had 21 20 22 20
Problems
Had No 6 7 5 7
Problems
CONCLUSION
Based on students’ writing discussion text,
the researcher finds that the students has problem in
writing generic structure of discussion text. In
general statement, the students’ writing did not write
general statement as clearly and interested. It has not
a statement or purpose the introducing the reader to
read the details, and it do not give equal weight to
both sides to be discussed. In argument for and
argument againts, the student did not write details
contais of the response based on sources and public
response support. The evidence and opinion are not
support the statement, and each paragraph is not be
clearly structured with a topic sentence supported by
details. In recommendation, the students can not
recommend one argument over the other if the
evidence is overwhelming. Conclude section of
discussion not be either a judgment, not support to
one sides of the discussion, and not be based on the
points raise in the discussion.
Briefly, the student do not understand about
generic structure of discussion text. Thus, the student
shall be more noticed in writing generic structure of
discussion text. The students learn more about
general statement, argument for and argument
againts, and recommendation. The researcher
concludes that the students at third grade in SMA
Negeri 2 Pariaman had problems in writing generic
structure of discussion text.
SUGGESTION

Consider of the result of the research, first, the

problem in writing generic structure , the researcher
suggest that the teachers give more exercises to the
student in writing generic structure of discussion text.
Second, for the students, they shall more learn about
generic structure of discussion. All of the problems
elaborate above can not be solve without the
cooperation between teachers and students. The
willingness from the students and the help and
support from teachers will help to solve student’s
problems in writing, especially writing discussion
text.

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