IMPROVING STUDENTS WRITING SKILL IN RECOUNT TEXT

USING FOUR SQUARES WRITING METHOD

(A Classroom Action Research at the Eighth Grade Students of SMP Negeri
23 Surakarta in the Academic Year of 2014/2015)
By:
Anisa Nurulita
Sumardiono

ABSTRACT
The aims of the study are as the following: (1) To find out whether Four
Squares Writing Method can improve the students writing ability at the Eight
Grade Students of SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta in the Academic Year of 2014/2015,
(2) To find out the teaching learning situation when using of Four Squares
Writing Method at the Eight Grade students of SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta in the
Academic Year of 2014/2015.
To reach the objectives of the study, the researcher conducted classroom
action research which was held at SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta. This research was
conducted in January 2015 until March 2015. The subject of the study was grade
VIII B of SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta. There were 23 students in the class which
consist of 12 boys and 11 girls. The researcher carried out 2 cycles of action. Each
cycle consisted of these activities: planning the action, implementing the action,
observing, reflecting and revising the plan. Collecting the data was done using
interview, observation, and test. In analyzing the data, the researcher used a
Qualitative and Quantitative.
Based on the result of the data analysis, it shows that there is a significant
improvement of the students achievement in the pre-test, post-test 1, and post-test
2. The mean score of the students achievement in the pre-test is 64.22. and the
mean score of post-test 1 is 70.80. It shows that there is significance from learning
writing skill in recount text using Four Squares Writing Method. The mean score
of post-test 2 is 78.94. It can be concluded that there is improvement between
post-test 1 and post-test 2. It can also be shown that Four Squares Writing Method
can improve the students writing skill in recount text. Furthermore, Four Squares
Writing Method can change the class situation also better than before
implementing the action.
Based on this finding, it is suggested that Four Squares Writing Method
can be used by the teachers as an alternative method to improve students writing
skill in recount text.

Key words

: Writing skill, Four Squares Writing Method, Classroom

Action Research.
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ABSTRAK
ANISA NURULITA. 12522083. MENINGKATKAN KETRAMPILAN
MENULIS TEKS RECOUNT MENGGUNAKAN METODE MENULIS
FOUR SQUARES (Penelitian Tindakan Kelas pada Siswa Kelas 8 SMP
Negeri 23 Surakarta pada Tahun pelajaran 2014/2015) Skripsi: Pendidikan
Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Slamet
Riyadi.
Tujuan penelitian ini adalah sebagai berikut: (1) untuk mengetahui apakah
Metode menulis Four Squares dapat meningkatkan kemampuan menulis pada
siswa kelas 8 SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta tahun pelajaran 2014/2015, (2) untuk
mengetahui situasi belajar mengajar ketika menggunakan metode menulis Four
Squares pada siswa kelas 8 SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta tahun pelajaran 2014/2015.
Tujuan dari penelitian ini, peneliti melakukan penelitian tindakan kelas
yang dilaksanakan pada bulan Januari 2015 sampai Maret 2015. Subjek dari
penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas VIII B SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta. Dimana ada 23
siswa dikelas yang terdiri dari 12 anak laki-laki dan 11 anak perempuan. Peneliti
menggunakan 2 siklus pada tindakan tersebut. Dimana pada tiap siklus terdiri dari
aktivitas: tindakan perencanaan, penerapan tindakan, pengamatan, refleksi dan
merevisi rencana. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan wawancara, pengamatan,
dan tes. Pada tahapan analisa data, peneliti menggunakan kualitatif dan
kuantitatif.
Berdasarkan hasil dari data analisis, menunjukkan bahwa ada peningkatan
yang signifikan pada prestasi siswa pada pre-test dan post-test 1 dan post-test 2.
Nilai rata-rata prestasi siswa pada pre-test adalah 64,22 dan nilai rata-rata pada
post-test 1 adalah 70,80. Hal tersebut menunjukkan bahwa ada signifikan dari
belajar ketrampilan menulis pada teks recount dengan menggunakan metode
menulis Four Squares. Nilai rata-rata post-test 2 adalah 78,94. Dari hal tersebut
dapat disimpulkan bahwa ada peningkatan diantara post-test 1 dan post-test 2. Hal
lain yang juga bias dilihat adalah metode menulis dengan Four Squares dapat
meningkatkan ketrampilan menulis teks recount. Lebih lagi, metode menulis Four
Squares dapat mengubah situasi kelas menjadi lebih baik dari pada sebelum
tindakan penerapan metode ini dilaksanakan.
Berdasarkan temuan, disarankan bahwa metode menulis dengan
menggunakan Four Squares dapar digunakan oleh para guru sebagai metode
alternatif untuk meningkatkan ketrampilan menulis teks recount.

Kata Kunci: Ketrampilan Menulis, Metode Menulis Four Squares, Penelitian

Tindakan Kelas.

A. INTRODUCTION
English is a foreign language that should be taught among others in
schools. This is because English can be used in daily life or even for social
or professional purpose. It means that learning a foreign language in
school is an integrated process that the learner should study the four basic
skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. One uses it to understand
our world through listening and reading and to communicate our feeling,
need, and desires through speaking and writing.
Writing is one of productive skills that need a procees and a
component to do it (Harmer, 1991:246). It is very important in teaching
and learning English. Writing involves some language components
(spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation). By mastering English
writing, one can carry out communication with other people in the world,
give ideas, share information and master technological equipments, so one
is easy to know information or news from the world. Based on the
important role of mastering English above, English writing ability is
needed by Indonesian people. It is based on standard form of grammar,
syntax, structure, and vocabulary.
The researcher chooses eighth grade students of Junior High
School in SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta for the location of research. Besides,
there are some problems in learning writing skill. The students were so
difficult to write down their ideas, write grammatical sentence, and were
lack of mastering vocabulary. So, they need much time to do it. The
3

problems also come from their class management. Most of students in this
class were passive and lazy in doing the task and made noisy in the
classroom.
The problems above are caused by two aspects, they are the teacher
and the students. The teacher used a monotonous method in teaching
writing. He often used a lecturing method. He only used students book as
the source of learning and he did not have some methods to teach English.
Therefore, it made the students unmotivated to learn English, uninterested
in English especially in writing activity so the students skill in writing
will be low. Then, the students preferred doing anything else and chatting
to each other to learning English. In this classroom, the teacher must make
different methods to teach writing skill. So, the researcher tries to use four
squares writing method to improve students writing ability.
The successful of the teaching learning process is the use of an
appropriate method. Four squares writing method (FSWM) is one of
techniques which is applied to the teaching of individual paragraph in a
text. It simplifies teaching writing.
Gould and Gould (1999: iv) state that FSWM is designed to be
starting place for writing. So that, it will help the students organize and
brainstorm in beginning the writing process. FSWM is a great way to learn
because it is easy to use and helpful, then it makes students more creative
in writing text or essay. FSWM uses step by step approach that is built
4

around a simple graphic organizer. It makes students easy to write with

good cohesiveness and coherence, and transition words (connectors). So,
the researcher has a strong belief that Four Squares Writing Method can
improve students writing when teaching learning process of class VIII B.
This research aims can be: (1) To find out whether Four Squares
Writing Method can improve the students writing ability at the Eighth
Grade students of SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta in the Academic Year of
2014/2015. (2) To find out the teaching learning situation when using of
Four squares writing method at the Eighth Grade students of SMP Negeri
23 Surakarta in the Academic Year of 2014/2015.

B. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research was conducted at SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta. It is
located on Jl. Kapten Adi Sumarmo, Banjarsari, Surakarta. The research
was conducted in three months from January 2015 to March 2015. This
research included the pre-research, action, and activities after the action.
The subject of the study is the students of class VIII B of SMP
Negeri 23 Surakarta. There are 23 students in the class which consist of 12
boys and 11 girls. The reason of choosing the students of class VIII B of
SMP Negeri 23 Surakarta as the subject of the research is because of their
low in writing skill. Besides, the atmosphere of the teaching learning
process were boring and going monotonous.

The method of this research was Classroom Action Research

(CAR). Stephen (in Hopkins, 2008:48) defines Action research is a form
of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social including
educational situation in order to improve the rationality and justice of (a)
their own social or educational practices; (b) their understanding of these
practices and; (c) the situations in which the practice are carried out.
In the classroom action research, the techniques of collecting the
data were tests, observation, interview, questionnaires and documents
(photographs, field notes and students answer sheets). The result of the
use of four squares writing method can be seen in writing test. The
observation is being done by the researcher as the observer.
The procedure of Action Research, the researcher took two cycles.
Each cycle used six steps, they are: identifying the problem, implementing
the action, observing, reflecting, and revising the plan.
The researcher used two kinds of technique of analyzing data. They
were qualitative and quantitative:
a. Qualitative Data Analysis
In the classroom action research, the techniques of collecting
the data were tests and non-tests (observation, interview, documents).
The result of the use of role play can be seen in speaking test. The
observation is being done by the researcher as the observer.
The researcher uses Interactive Model by Miles and Huberman
(1994:10): (1) Data Reduction: the process of selecting, focusing,
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and simplifying data that appear in written-up field notes or

transcriptions such as writing summaries, coding, making cluster or
writing memos. The data reduction / transforming process continues
after fieldwork until a final report is completed. (2) Data Display:
Generically, a display is an organized, compressed, assembly of
information that permits conclusion drawing and action. As with data
reduction, the creation and use of display is not separate from
analysis. It is a part of analysis and the most usually using narrative
form in order to make the verification. (3) Conclusion Drawing and
Verification: From the start of data collection, the quantitative
analysis is beginning to decide what things mean is nothing
regularities, patterns, explanations, possible configuration, causal
flow, and prepositions. This step is very important to be done in order
to get good research conclusion.

Data
Collection

Data Display

Data
Reduction

Conclusion:
Drawing / Verification

Illustration of Interactive Model Cycle Miles and Huberman (1994:10)

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b. Quantitative Data Analysis

Then to analyze data in quantitative method, the researcher used
descriptive statistics to describe the main features of a collection of
data. The aim is to quantitatively summarize a data set, rather than
being used to support inferential statements about the population. The
researcher used the mean score of every test that contains pre-test, and
post-test. These are to observe whether there are significant
differences between the students achievement before and after the
action. It can be calculated with the formula:
_

x
N

y
N

Explanation:
x

= The sum of students score before the action

= The sum of students score after the action

= Means of pre-test score

= Means of post-test score

= Number of sample (students)

C. RESULT OF THE STUDY

This research was conducted by using a classroom action research, it
consisted of two cycles. It was conducted in class VIII B of SMP Negeri
23 Surakarta in 2014/2015 academic year. During the action, the
researcher, Anisa Nurulita (AN) was helped by Mr. Ahmad Yani, S.Pd,
M.Pd.I (AY) as the collaborator. This research was conducted in January
2015 until March 2015.
Before conducting the study, the researcher conducted the pre test
which was held on Thursday February 12, 2015. There was one test item
in the form of instruction to write a recount text. The students consisted of
23 students. The mean score of students pre-test was 64.22. It was low,
because the minimal score of SMP N 23 Surakarta is 70.
In the first cycle, there were four meetings. Three meetings were for
learning process then one meeting was for post-test 1. The first meeting
was conducted on Wednesday, February 18, 2015. The second meeting
was conducted Wednesday, February 25, 2015. Then, third meeting was
conducted Thursday, February 26, 2015. After observing and reflecting
the action, the researcher found several strengths and weaknesses. The
strengths were: (1) There was an enrichment of students attention in
learning. There were changes from students behavior in teaching and
learning process. (2) There was enrichment of students achievement.
They just made fewer mistakes in writing main idea, choosing the
vocabularies, writing grammatical sentences so that the texts had good
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content and mechanics. It can be seen that the mean score of the students
result was 70.80. It improved 6.58 from pre-test. The final reports that
every student was very creative, attractive, and interested in making
recount text using FSWM. The weaknesses were: (1) Although the
students were more enthusiastic but there were some students who were
still passive in the classroom. (2) The students were still confused to
arrange the sequences of the sentences in each four square tables.
From the reflection of cycle one, the researcher was not satisfying
with the result. So, the researcher held cycle two to repair the result. The
first meeting held on Thursday, March 12, 2015 and the second meeting
held on Thursday, March 19, 2015. After observing and reflecting the
action, The researcher found that there were some improvements in the
cycle two. They were as follow: (1) The students attention and motivation
in teaching and learning process increased. (2) Most students were active
in learning process. The students who kept silent before implementing the
action, they now looked more active in answering the researchers
question confidently. (3) The researcher could manage the class better than
the first cycle. The students who often made noisy could be controlled. (4)
The students could do the task easier and they looked confidently. The
students achievement also increased. Four squares writing method could
improve the students writing skill in recount text. The students could
write the recount text using grammatical sentences and they mastered the
vocabulary well. This fact was proved by the increasing of mean score of
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the second post-test. The students reached 78.94 and it was better than the
previous test which they reached in the first post-test 70.80.

D. DISCUSSION
In this section, the researcher wanted to discuss the students
improvement in writing skill and class situation.
The first cycle was about teaching and learning process and the
assessments. In this activity, the researcher taught writing recount text by
using four squares writing method. Then, the researcher gave the
evaluation test for the first cycle. The test result was 70.80. It can be
concluded that the average of the students in post-test 1 increased and the
first cycle was successful enough. In the first cycle, the researcher
analyzed that some students still had difficulty in writing recount text.
They still had difficulty in writing the sentences sequentially and lack of
vocabularies. Based on these problems, the teacher conducted cycle 2 in
order to improve the students writing recount text.

The second cycle, the students could improve their vocabularies in

writing sentences and could write sentences sequentially by themselves
based on the picture series given. In the students writing activity, the
researcher guided them in writing recount text using four squares writing
method and picture series. Based on the observation, the researcher
noticed that most of the students felt easier to write and they did not use
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long time to write recount text using four squares writing method. It was
because they could arrange the sentences sequentially by using picture
series that had been given by the researcher. They could develop their
writing based on pictures and felt interested in writing sentences. So, their
writing result was better than before. It becomes 78.94. The analysis above
shows that the mean score of the students writing result in post-test 2 was
better than post-test 1. It means that the students writing results were
good. The improvement was really good.
The classroom situation during teaching learning process improved
after the application of FSWM in the English class. It could be seen from
the first time in applying FSWM in writing activity. By using FSWM, the
students became interested and enjoyed in learning process. FSWM also
changed the students perception that writing text, especially in recount
text was difficult. Moreover, they were interested to follow writing
activity. So, all students could focus and gave more attention to the
researcher. There was also no passive student in the class. They were
involved in writing recount using FSWM. Then, after conducting this
research, the students became more enthusiastic and looked easier in
writing recount text using FSWM.

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E. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

a. Conclusion
Based on the result of the research carried out in VIII B at SMP
Negeri 23 Surakarta in the Academic Year of 2014/2015, it can be
concluded that four squares writing method is to improve the students
writing recount text. It refers to the following information:
1. Four Squares Writing Method can improve the students
writing ability. There are also progressions of students writing
ability. The ability in writing recount text improved after being
taught by using four squares writing method. The students could
write recount text easily without consuming more time because
they were arranging and writing recount text based on the four
square tables given. They were also able to write all generic
structures of recount text like orientation, sequences of event and
reorientation. It was shown by the score of pre-test and each cycle.
Based on calculation result after getting all of the treatment using
Four

Squares

Writing

Method,

there

was

significant

improvement in mean score of pre-test, post-test 1, and post-test 2.

The mean score of pre-test was 64.22 and it improved into 70.80
in post-test 1, and also improved into 78.94 in the final post-test.
2. The teaching learning situation when using Four Squares
Writing Method run well. The observation shows that the students
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became interested and enjoyed in learning process learning writing

recount text using FSWM. FSWM also changed the students
perception that writing text, especially recount text is difficult.
Moreover, they were interested to follow writing activity. So, all
students could focus and gave more attention to the researcher.
b. Suggestion
Based on the conclusions and implications above, the researcher
gives some suggestion as follows:
1. For the teacher
It is important that the teacher uses of Four Squares Writing
Method (FSWM) sometimes as an alternative method in teaching
writing skill. The use of this method will always give the students
motivated and new condition. Hopefully, it can motivate the
students and make them interested in writing texts.
2. For the students
It is very important in learning process, do not be shy to express
ideas especially in writing. They also must pay attention, be quiet,
and seriously when the teaching learning is going on.
3. For the next researcher
Hopefully, there will be an improvement for the next study. The
researcher hopes that the other researchers can use it as a reference
to conduct their research on the same field. It is really possible that
there is another more effective way to teach writing skill.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gould, Judith S and Evan J Gould. 1999. Writing Method For Grade
7-9. Carthage: Teaching and Learning Company.
Harmer, Jeremy. 1991. The Practice of English Language Teaching.
England: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.
Hopkins, David. 2008. A Teachers Guide to Classroom Research
Fourth Edition. England: Open University Press.
Miles, B. Mathew and Hubberman, A. Michael. 1994. Qualitative
Data Analysis Second Edition. California: Sage Publications
Inc.

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