Keywords: writing skill, descriptive paragraph, mind mapping strategy.

Writing is one of the English skills that must be learned and carried out by the students of any level
of education. Mind mapping is one of the techniques in teaching writing that is used in generating ideas by
using circles of words.The objective of this study is to find out whether there is any significant improvement
on students’ achievement in writing descriptive paragraph between students who are taught by using mind
mapping strategy and those who are taught without using mind mapping strategy at the tenth grade of SMA
Negeri 11 Banjarmasin.
The research employs quasi-experimental design. In collecting the data, observation and
achievement test are used. Analysis data is done manually, the researcher is used t-test to prove the
hypothesis which is to see the differences of writing skills to the both of experimental class and control
class so that the improvement in the students’ writing skills can be seen.
Findings of the research shows that there is a significant improvement of students achievement in
writing descriptive paragraph between students who are taught by using mind mapping strategy and those
who are taught without using mind mapping strategy.
Based on the research result that is found in this research, it is suggested to the teacher to continue
mind mapping strategy in teaching writing, it also can be used to improve students’ ability in reading or
speaking, for the students it is suggested to use mind mapping strategy to develop their vocabulary.