Luận văn tốt nghiệp An investigation of common errors

PHAM VAN DONG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES    GRADUATION PAPER Theme: AN INVESTIGATION OF SOME COMMON ERRORS MADE BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN WRITING CAUSE/ EFFECT ESSAYS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR SOLUTIONS Field: English ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received many necessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from my teachers, family and friends This paper could not have been completed without the help, encouragement and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincere gratitude and appreciation First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor - Ms Truong Hoang Lan, M A, who has always been willing to give me valuable advice and suggestions in order that I can complete successfully this study I also would like to take this opportunity to show my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Pham Van Dong University, who have handed me basic knowledge to complete this study I am so thankful to students of two classes 11A2 and 11A3 at Mo Duc No II High School for their whole - heart participation in the study I am equally indebted to my classmates for their suggestions and encouragements in the progress of my study Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for their encouragement and support which played an important role in my graduation paper ABSTRACT The ability to write meaningful sentences, paragraphs or essays which a reader can easily understand is termed as Excellent Writing Skills It is a perfect way to write and express your views on the topic you want to address your audience and listeners Especially, learning how to write a Cause/ Effect English essays is one of the terrible experiences for students in high school, but it is also one of the essential skills for student in the future and the tests such as Ielts, Toeic, Toefl,… The students often make some errors when they try to write a Cause/ Effect English essay So, if the students not attempt to learn the skill of writing at now, they will face difficulties in mastering the skill in their later life This paper aims to express the errors which students often make and suggests some solutions to help student can avoid the mistakes and writing easily Moreover, when student learn how to write a Cause/ Effect essays, they become more capable of analyzing what they read, interpret and think TABLE CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………….i ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………… ii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………….iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………… CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………….1 1.1 Rationale……………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Aims of the study……………………………………………………………….2 1.3 Scope of the Study…………………………………………………………… 1.4 Research Questions…………………………………………………………… 1.5 Methodology…………………………………………………………………… 1.6 Organization of the Study……………………………………………………… CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, almost countries in the world speak English and English can be considered one of the most essential languages for international communication In Vietnam, there are a lot of foreign investors, they establish their own companies in Vietnam They all speak English and of course, they will employ the people who have ability of using English Therefore, English is an important criterion to find a good job in Vietnam It becomes the second language to many people When we learn English, we can widen knowledge about culture, customs, and lifestyle of this country However, it is not easy to learn a foreign language well In order to use English fluently, I think the learners have to pay attention to four skills: reading, writing, Listening and Speaking Of four skills, writing is considered the most difficult to many Different from the rest, writing requires not only the learners to have knowledge of grammar (grammatical structures) but also plentiful source of vocabulary to write a paragraph as well as an essay completely Many learners think that when they can speak well, they will automatically write well However, when they begin writing first sentence, everything is not easy as they expected There are many differences between spoken and written languages So, writing requires much patience and constant practice In all walks of life, people use writing as a basic working skill It is a process, a skill of hard- work and people must perform almost daily As a student, you will have a lot of writing tasks such as: assignments, essays, graduation training report, graduation paper… Therefore, we should think clearly about what to write, how to write in order to have a good writing To my knowledge, there are many factors which help the learners to write an essay successfully During of studying writing skill, especially writing essay, I am very interested in Cause and Effect essay, I realized how important it is and its effects when being used to write a paragraph or essay But due to the limitation of time, the study on how to write a Cause and Effect essay effectively is not introduced clearly in writing subject Students not have chance to understand much about them With the hope that I can study more about Cause and Effect essay deeply and share with everybody the useful knowledge of transition signals Thus, I decided to choose a study on how to write a Cause and Effect essay in writing an English paragraph as my graduation paper 1.2 Aims of the study The study “ Some common errors made by high school in writing Cause/ Effect English essays and suggestion for solutions ”is carried out in order to survey the attitudes of high school students, especially the students at Mo Duc No II High School for the intelligent in learning writing skill The study provides learners with the theoretical background of writing, such as the theory of academic writing, essay and especially, the theory of Cause and Effect essay It also points out the common mistakes facing the learners in the process of writing Case and Effect essay and gives some advices and specific exercises to help English learners improve writing Cause and Effect effectively 1.3 Scope of the study Cause and Effect essay is used in every types of discourse, such as speaking, reading, listening and especially in writing However, due to the limitation of time, of knowledge and materials, I can only focus on theory of Cause and Effect essay, types of errors which students often make and methods to help students write the essay effectively 1.3 Research questions: The issues to be discussed in this study are summarized in the following research questions: How students understand about Cause/ Effect English essay? What is the solution to help students write Cause/ Effect English essay effectively? 1.5 Methodology To fulfill the above aims, qualitative and quantitative method was chosen for the study All comments, remarks, assumptions and conclusion of the study were based on the data and analysis Data collections for analysis in this study were gained through the following the survey questionnaires resources The questionnaire was designed just for students However, sometimes interviews were also applied if the author found that the answer of lowered were not clear enough 1.6 Organization of the Study This paper presented in five chapters They are: Chapter is Introduction in which the author provides information about the rationale of the study, states the aims of the study, specifies the scope of the study, research questions, research methodology as well as organization of the study Chapter II (Literature Review) provides the previous study, the theoretical foundation of teaching listening through English song Chapter III (Methods and Procedures) mentions methods and procedures including the research methods and procedures, data collection, data analysis, reliability and validity Chapter IV (Findings and Discussions) elaborates the procedures of the study in order to give clear answers to the study questions that have been proposed before The findings and discussions presented based on the data that analyzed and they are related to the theoretical background in chapter two Chapter V (Conclusion and Implications) presents the conclusion of this study, the implications for teaching and learning, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study CHAPTER2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of Previous Studies 2.1.1 Effect of English Teaching Writing on Learner’s Attitudes The way writing is taught has a significant impact on students' attitudes towards this crucial language skill Therefore, beliefs are always changing about how to teach/learn writing There have been little efforts to identify student's attitudes towards writing in a foreign language for general as well as academic purposes The correlation between students' attitudes towards learning a language is deeply related to their performance, Mathewson (1994) and Masgoret & Gardner (2003) Karahan (2007) postulated that when students have positive attitudes towards a language, the gain positive orientations towards that language and increases their achievement or proficiency Brown (2009) supported these findings when he mentioned that such positive orientations increase learners' self confidence and self-esteem According to Dornyei and Csizer (2002), having positive attitude results in learning a foreign language easily; it facilitates the process while negative attitude hinders learning and; consequently, acts as an obstacle against it Therefore, attitudes, negative, natural, and/or positive, decide, to a large extent, students' success or failure in their endeavors to learn not only a language but also other topics This means that positive attitude plays a vital role and determines the learners' attitudes towards the language being processed In other words, maintaining positive or negative attitudes towards a language is likely to result in difficulty or ease of learning The connection between students' attitude and writing has gained little attention The attitude towards writing, as a whole, has a significant impact on achievement; it either enhances it or hinders it Graham et al(2005) stated that writing attitude is "an affective disposition involving how the act of writing makes the author feels, ranging from happy to unhappy" (p 518) Yet, not all students incline to have positive attitudes towards writing; they may show negative ones Putting it another way, some students refrain from writing and show unwillingness towards the skill Daly and Miller (1975) defined writing apprehension as "a general avoidance of writing and of situations perceived by the individual to potentially require some amount of writing accompanied by the potential for evaluation of that writing." Such apprehension results mainly from a writer having low self-esteem Gungle and Taylor (1989) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between writing apprehension and a focus on the form rather than on the content They also examined the relationship between writing attitudes and students' willingness to register in other advanced writing courses They found negative attitudes towards studying other advanced writing course, but the researchers did not find any relationship between the students' attitudes and content of their writing Masny and Foxall (1992) maintained that students' attitudes to and performance in writing depend on their academic achievement They found that students with high academic achievement have positive attitudes towards writing than those with low achievement Furthermore, the researchers found that students were interested in form rather than content, and that students with writing apprehension were unlikely to take other advanced writing courses Aikman (1985) argued that negative attitudes to writing are manifested in a delaying completing written assignments or homework It results from lack of confidence, teaching practices, classroom atmosphere, and first language interference mainly translation The feedback that students normally get from instructors has a significant role on their attitudes towards writing not only in their first language but also in the second language Silva and Brice, 2004; Hedgcock, 2005; Lee, 2008 Ferris (1995) and Montgomery and baker (2007) stated that learners get tremendous insights about the feedback they receive from instructors; these learners are usually looked at, by teachers, as active contributors according to Hyland (2006) and Lantolf and Paylenko (2001) That is, of course, because they review their teachers' notes about the writing These notes are mostly considered helpful and useful in identifying their mistakes and points of weakness The impact of such feedback depends greatly on its forms and objectives, let alone its source Students who give their peers feedback were found to develop more in writing skills than those who receive it (Lundstrom and Baker, 2009) Attitudes are envisaged differently by scholars They are deeply related to preferences, likes and dislikes Bem,(1979) certain tendencies towards things Eagly and Chaiken, 1993); readiness or ideas that influence someone to behave or think in a particular way Triandis, 1971; Travers, 1973 and they are "mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive and dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related" Allport, (1935) Teaching methods and learning strategies play an important role in defining teachers' as well as students' attitudes towards writing Cohen and Brooks – Carson, 2001; Casanave 2002; Griffiths, 2007; Fenghua and Hongxin, 2010, Griffiths, (2007) indicated that teachers encourage positive learning techniques used by their students during writing classes Cheng et al (1999) carried out a study to investigate the relationship between classroom tension and writing tension They suggested that classroom anxiety and writing anxiety are "two related yet relatively distinguishable anxiety constructs" Gilmore (2009) that writing in the first language is not welcome by most students and that writing in a second or even a foreign language is more terrifying than that in the mother tongue Kobayyashi and Rinnert (2008) found that students employ first language rules when they write in another language; language skills and writing techniques are transferred across languages Some students tend to think in the first language when they begin to write in another language Cohen and Brooks – Carson (2001) conducted a study to see whether thinking through the first language and even writing out a text first in that language may result in good writing in the second language The researchers found that writing directly in the second language works better under time pressure In another study, Wang and Wen (2002) confirmed that writing in a second language is a bilingual act As far as Palestinian students are concerned, Hamad (201)6 conducted a study to examine Palestinian university students' essay writing and the various obstacles they face The researcher's study sample consisted of 60 university students who were asked to sit for an essay writing test and then respond to an open-question questionnaire Three English writing instructors were interviewed by the researcher to collect data The study findings show that students lack adequate linguistic knowledge, cohesion, and academic style; they also adopt word for word translation when they write In another study, Hammad (2014) investigated the effect of one of teacher written corrective feedback types (direct feedback) on the performance of a sample of Palestinian EFL university female students in essay writing The sample of the study consisted of 60 participants who were divided into two groups The experimental group received direct feedback over a 9-week period, while the control group received no-feedback at all Two essay tests were administered The study found that while teacher direct written corrective feedback enhanced high achievers' performance in a new piece of writing, it did not improve middle and low achievers' performance Hammad (2013) tried to investigate Palestinian EFL university-level students' writing strategies, assess their writing performance, and examine the relationship between English writing performance and their writing strategies The researcher administered a self-developed questionnaire, prepared an English essay test to 66 Palestinian university-level students and conducted semi-structured interviews with students selected from the study sample The study concluded that the participants did not exhibit a satisfactory level of strategy use when writing in English, and there was a strong positive correlation between the participants' use of English writing strategies and their EFL writing performance Abu Shawish and Abdelraheem (2010) carried out a study to identify the reasons why students who study English at three Palestinian universities feel anxious and stressed while they write The study found that students' sex and academic level were not significant variables in the students' estimates of the causes of writing apprehension Besides, students' belonging to academic institution affected their estimates of the causes and remedies of writing apprehension They also found that high achievers in writing were more apprehensive than low ones Abu Jarad (2008) investigated the way Palestinian university students (intermediate and advanced) feel towards peer feedback in EFL writing courses Twenty-five intermediate university students and twenty-one advanced students were asked to respond to a questionnaire that measures attitudes towards feedback; the researcher found that these students improved in maintaining the mechanics of writing, content, and organization; they also approved peer feedback to the extent that it started to be used at higher levels English can be taught and learned for pure academic purposes where students are taught, usually in a higher education setting, to use the language appropriately for study English for Academic Purposes (EAP) helps students improve their language skills in listening, speaking, reading, grammar, and vocabulary development In addition, students are introduced to a new way of teaching, test taking, note taking, academic vocabulary usage, and research and library skills EAP has been shown to effectively prepare students in terms of language for undergraduate programs in college and university level Jordan (1997)argues that EAP is “concerned with those communication skills in English which are required for study purposes in formal education systems” This field can be divided into two branches: English for specific purposes and English for general Academic purposes such as academic writing One of the for writing courses offered by An-Najah University is set for academic purposes; it is the Technical Writing course Writing and research is also like to be considered as a course which focuses on writing for academic purposes 2.1.2 Writing in the English class: The Key to Improve the Vietnamese eleventh grader as a Foreign Language Learners’ Productive Writing Skill The number of country scientific community including both English language students and other major university students who would like to attend the IELTS and TOEFL courses is on the rise dramatically Investigating the report of the test results of different candidates can easily witness the conspicuous weakness of language learners in writing skill It is obvious that part of these problems originate from the perplexing nature of writing skill itself Other problems are the result of the teaching approach of this skill that is of a traditional structure of teacher-student interaction One researcher, for instance, believes that teacher-student feedback cannot be free from bias, thus the procedure must be corrected positively Considering the notion of "affective filter", one can assume that peer correction can lead to more efficient results because of lack of destructive effects of questioning and answering Therefore, the researcher believes that considering the limitations of evaluation and reformation of problems in the form of teacher-student and the advantages of application of student-student approach, this approach can be a step forward in the attainment of education objectives of productive writing skill Freeman (2000) states that when learning is based on cooperation, language learners look for helpful results for themselves and their peers In the 2000s, researchers like Zeng (2006), Kamimura (2006), Jiao (2007), and Hirose (2009) investigate the impact of peer feedback in L2 writing classroom and they note that peer feedback offers many ways to improve students' writing Caulk quoted Rollinson (2005) as saying that “teachers’ feedback is general while students’ is more specific” Peer feedback, since it allows students to make negotiation of their strength and weakness (Williams, 1957) where the students can make negotiation of ideas, comments, corrections, and suggestions (Jiao, 2007; Kamimura, 2006; Zeng, 2006), provides opportunities for the students to be better in writing, and also reading Peer feedback generates positive impact if the students are ready and welltrained and prepared by the teacher (Williams, 1957) It can be assumed that peer feedback failure is caused by ignoring this aspect, preparation When the students are asked to write with sense "to be read" by authentic audience (peers), their writing is better than when they are asked to write to be read by teacher (Clark, 2003) Rollinson (2005) states that peer feedback also trains students to be critical readers on their own writing 2.2 Theoretical Background 2.2.1 Theories of Writing Skill 2.2.1.1 Writing Skill Definition A language is used for many kinds of purposes Thus, it has many functions as well Furthermore, there are two macro skills of a language; they are receptive and productive skills Writing skill is one of the productive skills that should be mastered in using a language It is because writing skill has significances in improving a communicative competence of learning the language Students learn and acquire language through both written and spoken ways so that they can improve their communicative competence In the process of communication, ideally students know the rules on how to communicate to others, how to get information, and how to communicate about the language itself When the students understand the knowledge of the language, it means that they have a language competence In line with this, Brown (2000: 31) states the definition of a language competence as “one’s underlying knowledge of system of a language - its rules of grammar, its vocabulary, and all the pieces of language and how those pieces fit together” Furthermore, Bachman (1990: 87) divides the language competence into two parts: organization competence and pragmatic competence Organization competence is ability to comprehend and form correct sentences, understand meaning of sentences and pour theses sentences into a text Based on this statement, it can be concluded that writing is one part of the competencies The definitions of writing are variously stated by some experts According to Rivers (1981: 294), writing is conveying information or expression of original ideas in a consecutive way in the new language Brown, (2001: 336) also claimed that writing is a thinking process Furthermore, he states that writing can be planned and given with an unlimited number of revisions before its release In addition, Elbow (1973) in Brown (2001: 336) also says that writing is a two-step process The first process is figuring out the meaning and the second process is putting the meaning into language Writing represents what we think It is because the writing process reflects things, which stay in the mind Students who are reluctant to write things down often suffer for this activity The students find difficulties when they start looking for some reasons to write and producing written sentences Another definition of writing skill is also defined by Urquhart and Mclver and also Harmer Urquhart and Mclver (2005: 5-6) state that writing is a recursive process, which means students revise throughout the process, frequently moving back and forth among the stages Then, students should learn strategies for invention and discovery, and teachers should help students generate content and discover a purpose Also, it is stated that readers, purpose, and occasion define all types of writing and effective writing fulfills the writer’s intention and meets the readers’ needs It means that writing is a complex process and it seems reasonable to expect, then, that the teaching of writing is complex as well Moreover, Harmer (2004) states that writing encourages students to focus on accurate language use It is because students consider the language use when the students engage in their writing process This activity will provoke language development because the students resolve problems what writing puts in students’ minds Based on the definitions above, a definition of writing skill can be obtained Writing is a productive process done through some stages Firstly, exploring and transmitting ideas, thought and feeling into written form Secondly, conducting a number of revising process to carry out a grammatically and orderly texts The writing productions are in the forms of readable texts which should be meaningful to everyone who read the writing Furthermore, based on those definitions, it can be stated that writing skill is a complex activity in producing a qualified writing The complex activity consists of stages as the steps in writing To improve students’ writing skill, the teaching and learning process of writing needs to be done well with developed input and effective activities As a result, teachers need to consider the teaching of writing skill well based on their student’s needs, ability and capacity 2.2.1.2 Writing Skill in Teaching Foreign Language 2.2.1.2.1 The Importance of Listening Skill In Teaching Foreign Language Writing is considered the most important skills of English language When compared to the other skills, writing seems to be the most difficult skill for the ELLs as it involves many things in it The ELLs find listening and reading are the easiest skills whereas they find speaking and writing are more difficult ones as they are productive skills The learners have to work hard in acquiring these two skills as they need more practice Hence the teachers have to think of alternative methods to teach these skills Writing skill has undergone many developments and changes in the recent years In this regard, Harmer (2007: 1) says, “Human activity of writing is a fairly recent development in the evolution of men and women … some of the earliest writing found so far dates from about 5,500 years ago” In the early ages, people did not write anything to convey any message, but they used to draw different methods and paintings to represent different things which were connected to their daily lives Hence, they conveyed their messages in the form of figures, images and pictures In this context, Yule states, “Human beings started to write some 20,000 to 25,000 years ago” In the development process of writing, it developed from picture-writing (pictograms) to idea-writing (ideograms) and then to word-writing (logograms) Then, the word-based writing system was purely followed by the Sumerians The alphabet was introduced in the Sinaitic word by replacing the pictographs between the period of 1700 and 1500 B.C After the invention of the ink in 2697 by TienLcheu, the Chinese philosopher and the invention of the paper in 1200 B.C in China, writing became quite common 2.2.1.2.2 The difficulties of Listening Skill in Teaching Foreign Language Writing in a foreign or second language is a courageous experience especially for students whose native language is not of the same origin as the target language Native language speaking students learning English is a good example here These students are faced with the school curriculum that includes the four main skills of English language Among these skills, they find writing skill the most difficult one and face many problems while composing simple short paragraphs Writing in general is the least lovable skill to the rural students and this can be contributed to the fact that successful learning of the writing skill depends on the success learners have with the learning of other skills Normal teaching programs adopt the natural order of listening, speaking, reading and writing in their teaching schedule Even though writing comes as the last skill, because it is necessary in daily academic life Students are expected to learn how to and logically using appropriate language and style, life will be difficult for them not only at school but in adult life, too (Neville, 1988) “Writing gives the opportunity to the students to be adventurous with the language, to take the risk and to go further 2002) The teachers of English language who teach in high schools are aware of the difficulties involved in the process of learning how to master the different types of writing tasks and how to produce fairly they attempt writing in English The awareness of who the audience is and for what purpose the task is being done can help writing and help become successful writers Telugu- speaking High School students lack the control over their writing in English because they are in the process of gaining data as much as possible from the teacher in the early stages of learning a foreign language Even the teachers of English need guidance while writing 2.2.1.3 The Evaluation of Teaching Writing Skill On the teaching of writing, an evaluation should be done to measure or to know the students’ ability in writing The effectiveness of a learning process of writing skill can be measured through an evaluation activity According to Brown (2001: 357), the categories for evaluating writing are: 1) Content It includes thesis statement, related ideas, development of ideas, and development of ideas through personal experience, illustration, facts, and opinions 2) Organization It includes the effectiveness of introduction, logical sequence of ideas, conclusion and appropriate length 3) Discourse It includes topic sentences, paragraph unity, transitions, discourse markers, cohesion, rhetorical conventions, reference, fluency, economy, variation 4) Syntax 5) Vocabulary 6) Mechanics It includes spelling, punctuation, and citation of references, neatness and appearance The theory of categories for evaluating writing above is used by the researcher to assess the students’ narrative and recount writings The writing test is based on the blueprint which is attached and the scoring of the students’ writings is based on the writing scoring type which is suggested by Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel, and Hughey’s (1981) in Brown (2004: 246) Table 1: Composition for Scoring Writing (Jacobs et al 1981) SCORE CONTENT LEVEL 30-27 26-22 21-17 16-13 ORGANIZATION 20-18 17-14 13-10 CRITERIA EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: knowledgeable, substantive, thorough development of ideas, relevant to assigned topic GOOD TO AVERAGE: some knowledge of subject, adequate range, limited development of ideas, mostly relevant to topic, but lacks detail FAIR TO POOR: limited knowledge of subject, little substance, inadequate development of ideas VERY POOR: does not show knowledge of subject, non-substantive, not pertinent, or not enough to evaluate EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: fluent expression, ideas clearly stated/supported, succinct, well-organized, logical sequencing, cohesive GOOD TO AVERAGE: somewhat choppy, loosely organized but main ideas stand out, limited support, logical but incomplete sequencing FAIR TO POOR: non-fluent, ideas confused or disconnected, lacks logical sequencing and development 9-7 VOCABULARY 20-18 17-14 13-10 9-7 LANGUAGE USE 25-22 21-18 17-11 10-5 MECHANICS VERY POOR: does not communicate, no organization, not enough to evaluate EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: sophisticated range, effective word/idiom choice and usage, word form mastery, appropriate register GOOD TO AVERAGE: adequate range, occasional errors of word/idiom form, choice, usage but meaning not obscured FAIR TO POOR: limited range, frequent errors of word/idiom, choice, usage, meaning confused or obscured VERY POOR: essentially translation, little knowledge of English vocabulary EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: effective complex constructions, few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, preposition GOOD TO AVERAGE: effective but simple construction, minor problems in complex constructions, several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, preposition but meaning seldom obscured FAIR TO POOR: major problems in simple/complex constructions, frequent errors of negation, agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, preposition and/or fragment, runons, deletions, meaning confused or obscured VERY POOR: virtually no mastery of sentence construction rules, dominated by errors, does not communicate, or not enough to evaluate EXCELLENT TO VERY GOOD: demonstrate mastery of convention, few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing GOOD TO AVERAGE: occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing but meaning obscured FAIR TO POOR: frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, poor handwriting, meaning confused or obscured VERY POOR: no mastery of conventions, dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, handwriting illegible, or not enough to evaluate Based on the scoring rubric above, it can be known that the range of each level is not in the same range Haswell (2007) states that the scoring rubric in Jacobs et all 1981 encourages an evaluation of student proficiency that is complex, perhaps recording a high accomplishment in content, but low in mechanics—a complexity that befits writers who often show uneven writing skills in a second language In this scoring rubric, it seems to contrast with holistic scoring methods, which erase this possible unevenness of writing accomplishments in reporting a single score In addition, he states that the limited number of traits allows comparison of group rating behavior, perhaps contrasting the way native and non-native people evaluate ESL essays The scaling of traits and subtraits allows study of rater reliability along with the development of training methods that produce high interrater reliability To assess the students’ writings of recount and narrative, the researcher refers to the writing scoring rubric above It is because the composition covers the five aspects or categories (content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics) of writing and provides a clear scoring rubric to assess each writing aspect In addition, the level for each category is different because each category has certain points with certain ranges In assessing the students writing, the researcher considers each point for each aspect or category of the students’ writing by referring to the criteria column of the scoring rubric above The final score of the students’ writing is the sum of those five aspects points for writing 2.2.1.4 Types of Writing Activities Types of writing activities to perform writing should be based on the students’ level and capacity According to Brown (2001: 343), there are five major categories of classroom writing performance: 1) Imitative, or writing down This type is at the beginning level of learning to write Students will simply write down English letter, words, and possibly sentences in order to learn the conventions of the orthographic code 2) Intensive, or controlled This intensive writing typically appears in controlled, written grammar exercises This type of writing does not allow much creativity on the part of the writer A controlled writing is to present in which the students have to alter a given structure through out 3) Self-writing The most salient instance of this category in classroom is note-taking by the students Diary or journal writing also falls into this category 4) Display writing For all language students, short answer exercises, essay examinations and research reports will involve an element of display One of the academic skills of ESL students that they need to master is a whole array of display writing techniques 5) Real Writing Some classroom writing aims at the genuine communication of messages to an audience in need of those messages According to the theories above, the teaching of writing skill should be well constructed Those types of writing activities that will be applied in teaching writing are based on the students’ level and capacity Also, the writing practices, including writing paragraphs or simple essays should be based on the standards of competence and the basic competencies Those efforts above should be done well to improve the students’ writing skill Writing processes always deal with texts as the products Feez, (2002: 4) states that creating texts requires making choices about the words that are used and how it can be put together She also states that there are various kinds of texts called text type According to Feez (2002: 85-86), the families of text type are: 1) Exchanges a) Simple exchanges is relating to information and goods and services b) Complex or problematic exchanges c) Casual conversation 2) Forms a) Simple formatted texts b) Complex formatted texts 3) Procedures a) Instruction b) Procedures c) Protocols 4) Information Texts a) Descriptions b) Explanations c) Reports d) Directives 5) Story Texts a) Narratives b) Recounts 6) Persuasive Texts a) Opinion texts b) Exposition c) Discussion According to the standard of competence and the basic competencies of students at the second grade of Junior High School, the students are expected to write a narrative and a recount text orderly and grammatically To produce qualified narrative and recount writings, the students need to be stimulated in expressing ideas and to be guided in their writing process Besides, they also need to be supported by providing them qualified and understandable inputs 2.2.2 An overview on Cause and Effect essay 2.2.2.1 The Definition of Cause and Effect essay The cause and effect essay explains why or how some event happened, and what resulted from the event This type of essay is a study of the relationship between two or more events or experiences The essay could discuss both causes and effects, or it could simply address one or the other A cause essay usually discusses the reasons why something happened An effect essay discusses what happens after a specific event or circumstance According to Boardman, A.C.& Frydenberg, J (2001), a cause and effect essay deals with explaining, examining or exposing two events or actions ( which could be thought of as topics) and how each has an effect on the other and/or the results of these events or actions Topic always has a number of possible causes and effects Example: Marriage and happiness – When marriage is the cause, most people assume that the effect is happiness However, what if the marriage was arranged, or was the result of a pregnancy, or done out of pure convenience? Would the cause and effect follow a logical sequence? Or could the cause be happiness and marriage the effect? 2.2.2.2 Structure of Cause and Effect Essay As aforementioned, cause and effect writing gives reasons and explanations for events, conditions, or behaviors The following is a common structure of a cause and effect essay 2.2.2.2.1 Introduction: a, Introduction Hook: introduces the causes/effects Background information helps the readers understand the causes and effects It can give historical information Thesis statement showing a relation between causes and effects b,Body Body paragraph (cause1/effect1) Topic sentence Supporting details Body paragraph (cause 2/effect2) Topic sentence Supporting details Body paragraph (cause 3/effect 3) Topic sentence Supporting details c, Conclusion Restatement/Summary Final comment