Key words: Four Square Writing Method, Descriptive texts, and Students’
improvement.
The background of this research was based on the phenomenon that many
students had difficulties in writing. On the researcher’s observation during three
months in PPL II, many students needed more guidance when they were expected
to produce a simple writing. They even did not know how to create a simple
sentence when they were so confused of the grammar and vocabularies that they
should use related to the lesson.
The main objective of this study was to improve students’ writing after
being taught through using the method. The method of this research was
classroom action research. The researcher used the second grade students of
SMPN 15 Banjarmasin as the samples. That class consisted of 30 students.
There were two cycles in this research. Before conducting the cycle, the
pre-test was conducted to measure students’ ability in writing. In the first cycle,
students were asked to write a simple composition about their school. They were
also taught about how to create a simple nominal sentence. While in the second
cycle, the researcher asked them to write about the best person in their life. They
were expected to be able to develop their composition by their own creativity. The
instruments that were used to collect the data were test and observation check list.
The result of the tests showed that the students’ score in pre-cycle test was
48.82. In the first cycle, they got score 66.05. It had not reached 70 as the passing
iv
grade score. While in the second cycle, they were successful to get 72.95. The
implementation of this method as teaching aid to improve students’ writing skill
in descriptive text was successful and effective. It could be seen by their scores’
improvement.