Improving the Students’ Skill in Writing Hortatoryexposition Text by Optimizing the Useof Blog

Abstract

Blog is a software application consisting of articles that enable people to record their thoughts and publish those diaries as web pages and usually published chronologically. The features on blog could be optimized to improve student’s skill in writing. This article deals with a classroom action research using blog to encounter students’ skill in writing hortatory exposition text in a high school in Gemolong, Sragen. The data were collected by using qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data was collected through: observation, interview, research diary, photograph, and test. The quantitative data was analyzed by using descriptive statistical analysis. The research findings show that blog can improve students’ skill in writing and class situation. Students’ writing improved in terms of: (1) students could develop their idea; (2) organize their text according to the generic structure into a logical sequencing text; (3) used appropriate vocabulary; (4) wrote sentence grammatically correct; and (5) using correct spelling and punctuation. The improvement in classroom situation indicated by: 1) students visited other blog to get references about the topic; 2) had discussion with their groups or pair about the topic; 3) paid full attention to teacher’s explanation; 4) became critical by commenting each other in their friends writings which posted on their blog; and 5) became more confident about their writing and excited when they posted their writing on blog. The result of the research is expected to be able to give some contributions for other teachers to apply blog as the media in teaching writing.