Available online at Loquen: English Studies Journal

http://jurnal.uinbanten.ac.id/index.php/loquen/index

USING FEEDBACK IN TEACHING WRITING DESCRIPTIVE

TEXT

1NadaRaudhotul Muthoharoh 2Anita

State Islamic University of Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin Banten
1
[email protected]
[email protected]

ABSTRACT, This study is to see the improvement of student’s writing

skill on descriptive text for seventh grade students of SMP 14 Kota Serang
by using peer feedback technique. The subject of this research is the students
of seventh grade of SMP 14 Kota Serang which consist of 30 students.
This research is applied by a quasi-experimental design and quantitative
research method. The instrument used in this research was tests (pre-test
and post-test) which is conducted based on the main problems: 1) How is the
students writing ability on descriptive text at the seventh grade of SMP 14
Kota serang? 2) How is the effectiveness of peer feedback in teaching writing
descriptive text at the seventh grade of SMP 14 Kota serang?
The research finding of the last result showed that “to” from the calculation
is higher than t table both at significance level 5% and 1%. Significance 5%
t observation= 7.14 and t table= 1.67 or 7.14 >1.67 which its significance
1% t observation=7.14 and t table= 2.39 or 7.14 >2.39. In addition, the
result of observations showed that the students more motivated in learning
English, especially for writing subject. Based on the result above, it can be
concluded that peer feedback can be used in teaching writing descriptive
text. The result of this research shows that the students’ writing on
descriptive text who use peer feedback achieve better performance than those
who do not use it.

Key words: writing, descriptive text and peer feedback.

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INTRODUCTION
Writing is one aspect of language skill. Where the ability to speak
consist of 4 aspects; listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Writing skill should be learned by student after listening, speaking
and reading. Writing is the most difficult skill of others because
writing has many important components to analyze such as
content, use of language, organization, vocabulary, spelling,
punctuation, and mechanics. In addition, the ability to set the
framework for ideas in written communication should also be
mastered so we can conclude that writing is not easy. Everyone has
trouble learning to write, especially with many complicated
component processes. Actually, writing can be a great tool to help
students know more about how they think. In short writing is a
complex skill that must be mastered by students. Writing is also one
of the language skill that can be used to express ideas, thoughts, or to
send a message to the reader. It means the writer can express
meaning full writing. Then, the reader can receive the messages from
the writer. In SMP 14 Kota Serang, there are many student’s writing
and one of them is descriptive writing. Descriptive writing is a type
of text that is widely use in everyday life on describing object, places,
people, animal, etc. Descriptive is also an English text to describe
objects of living things that we describe either the appearance or
texture of it.
However, in fact it is difficult to deny that students have
weakness in writing, like in vocabulary, punctuation, structure, etc.
English is a foreign language so that teachers attempt to overcome
those weakness. In this research, the writer eager to discuss that
teachers have to make the effectiveness of teaching writing in the
class and help their students improve their writing skill by a different
process by using peer feedback. Hopefully, this technique not only
can improve students understanding and motivation, but also it can
develop students ideas about the topic discussed. Hence, students
can produce a good composition, organize the ideas, choose the
words, form good sentence and combine them into coherent.

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Nada Raudhotul Muthoharoh & Anita. Using Feedback in Teaching Writing Descriptive Text

Therefore, the writer formatted the technique to improve and

develop students’ writing skill.
Actually, peer feedback has many different names such us; peer
review, peer response, peer editing and peer evaluation. Indeed, all
of it has one goal and purpose. The clear definition of Peer feedback is
a strategy to improve the quality of written assignments and foster
discussion. While, Peer Review is evaluation student’s by assessing
other student’s performance. Peer Response is a form of collaborative
learning which writers to respond to one another’s work to develop
their writing. And the last is Peer Editing that can give the impression
to students on their job is simply copyedit and proofread only.
When students have finished their writing, teacher will instruct
one student to read and respond the drafts of written assignments.
Students then have the opportunity to make prior revisions to submit
the assignment to the instructor. Peer feedback also is a practice in
language education which is given by one student to others. Peer
feedback is used in writing classes of both first language and second
language to provide students more opportunities to learn from each
other. The instructor has two or more than two students work
together to check each other’s work and give comment to the peer
partner.
Sayyed states that peer feedback is considered as an important
dominant tool in enhancing the process of learning English writing. It
also is regarded as a social activity. The writer chooses peer feedback
to correct language learning because according to this research it is a
good and relevant technique to make the writing more efficient,
interesting, and give a positive impact on the English language
proficiency.
.
1. Definition of Writing
One of language skill in English is writing. Writing is important to be
studied because it is considered as the productive skill with the
process of using symbols (alphabet, punctuation, and spaces) to
communicate the thoughts to be a good sentences on a paragraph. In

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simple way, Byrne in Agus Imran Mashadi states that “Writing is the
act of forming the graphic symbols such as letter and number, which
are arranged in certain rules into meaningful words, sentences, and
paragraphs and so on.
However, writing is not only about process of using symbols,
yet it is also about using them to show and communicate an ideas of
the writer’s own to a readers. Based on Caroline T. Linse that writing
is a combination of process and product. The process refers to the act
of gathering ideas and working that is presented in a manner which
is polished and comprehensible to a readers. Moreover, Gordon
Taylor also stated that most people define writing is an extremely
difficult task if they are trying to grapple in their language with new
ideas and new ways, so it become an agonizing experience for them
which doesn’t necessarily get easier with the passages of the time and
accumulation of experience.
Therefore, writing is complex activity, which it is also how to
write correctly in the term of spelling, diction of vocabulary selection,
and grammar, then a purpose of the messages will be delivered to a
reader. Penny Mckay stated that “Writing is a complex activity
requiring children to think about a number of factors simultaneously,
for example, the formation of letters or characters, vocabulary,
grammar and punctuation, layout, organization and selection of
appropriate content for the intended audience.

2. Teaching Writing
Brown states that as the member of literate community, people need
to learn how to write. In writing learning, the teachers need to give
special treatment in order to facilitate the students in learning
process. The teacher should give more attention to the students in the
process of writing since writing can also be considered as a
discovering process. The guidance from the teacher is necessary for
students on several steps in the writing process.
Teaching writing to students of English as a foreign language
include reinforcement, language development, learning style, and

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Nada Raudhotul Muthoharoh & Anita. Using Feedback in Teaching Writing Descriptive Text

most importantly in a skill on their own. When teaching writing, the

teacher guided students to give their ideas on their own so that they
can write it and develop their language so teacher used peer feedback
correction to give reinforcement to students from the other students.
Often, even the most fluent writers in their own language need
time to generate ideas and to plan what they are going to write. If
teacher going to ask them anything more substantial, he has to give
them opportunities to think and express their ideas.

3. Process of Writing
Caroline T. Linse said that the process of teaching writing consist
of five basic stages and added one by Harmer they are prewriting,
writing, responding, revising, editing and publishing. For each stage,
various learning activities can support the learning specific writing
skill are suggested.
a. Prewriting
For every piece of writing there is always a preview activity. Since
its function is to stimulate students’ ideas and give an
opportunities to think what they are going to write.
b. Writing
After have done prewriting, the next stage is to get thoughts and
ideas down on paper. The students need to know that at this point
in the writing processes, they can write down any idea related to
the topic. The ideas can be rearranged, added to, and edited later
on. Some students may get silly and write things that they think
are funny but completely unrelated to the topic. They needed to be
reminded that what they write must be related to the chosen topic.
c. Responding
Peer students are respond other’s writing which has a purpose in
the successful implementation of using peer feedback on writing
process. Responding intervenes between writing and revising, it
can be oral or in writing.

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d. Revising
At this stage, the students review their writing on the basis of
feedback in responding stage. They revise their writing which is
corrected from their peer to see how effectively they have to
communicate their meaning to the reader.
e. Editing
Students have a hard time accepting that editing is necessary.
Editing is a final process of writing before publish it whereby
students must be check their writing.
f. Publishing
After a piece of writing has been edited, it is ready to be published.
Publishing refers to putting the writing in a final finished format
where it can be shared with others. Publishing can be a great
motivator for students.
In addition, teacher will implies peer feedback in teaching
process, that teacher suggests one student to correct and respond
other students writing so that students may to revise and edit their
writings. Using this process, peer students will help them to be
better writers. Like Harmer said that peer response may provide a
welcome alternative to the teacher’s feedback, as well as offering a
fresh perspective on the writing.

4. Writing Assessment
Language learners, in order to effectively improve their language
ability, they should be able to see how themselves learn the language.
It means that evaluation is needed as the mean to see how far and
how effective their learning process. This kind of technique of having
the evaluation toward the learning process is usually named as
assessment.
Based on Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching,
assessment can be defined as the systemic approach in collecting
information of the learners or the learning process. This information
is used as the source to see whether the students have developed or

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succeeded their learning or not. Besides that, this information can

also show whether the learning process is successful or not.
Assessment can be conducted through several sources. Test,
questionnaires, interview, observation, are the common sources for
the assessment. Through those things, information can be gained as
to control and to evaluate the learning process.
Brown defines assessment by revealing the difference between
the test and the assessment. Although to test and to assess are usually
misunderstood as the same term, they are technically different. Test
is used to measure a person’s knowledge, ability, or performance in a
given domain. Meanwhile, assessment is an ongoing process which
encompasses a wider domain. Hence, test is subset of assessment.
Assessment allows the teachers or the learners to evaluate the
learning process. This evaluation requires the information as the data
and assessment provides the information. Hence, assessment helps
the teachers and the learners to improve their learning process so that
the learners can develop their language ability.

5. Definition of Descriptive Writing

Descriptive or description writing is a type of text that is widely use
in everyday life on describing object, places, people, animal, etc.
Descriptive is also an English text to describe objects of living things
that we describe either the appearance or texture of it. Based on John
Schacter, Ph. D states that descriptive writing describes a person,
places, or thing in a way that enables the reader to visualize it. This
type of writing is characterized by a sensory details, precise
language, comparison, strong verbs, and hyperbola.
Furthermore, in a book Students’ Writer it states that
“Description adds an important dimension to our lives because it
moves our emotional and expands our experience by taking us to
place we might not otherwise known much about”. Sometime, we
did not notice that we always find descriptions in our everyday lives.
For instance, in mass media, we can easily read an article or news
that describes about popular issues or when we had a bad experience

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and we tell about it to our friends in much detail, they will feel it too.
But, if we slightly talked about our vacation to someone, perhaps he
or she would not get the whole picture.

6. Definition of Peer Feedback

According to Richards and Schmidt “Peer feedback is also peer
review or peer editing, that can be defined as an activity of the
students receiving feedback from other students”. Peer feedback is
usually conducted in pairs. The students receive their friends’ work
and then review it and give comment on it.
Moreover, Hossein Kashef states that peer feedback is referred
to under different names such as peer response, peer review, peer
editing, and peer evaluation. Peer feedback is viewed as an important
aspect of writing instruction. Several studies indicated that peer
feedback is effective. Peer feedback use in writing classes to provide
students more opportunities to learn from each other’s. However,
Hogeveen adds that sometimes the studies did not focus on the
specific of peer feedback that made it effective.
Meanwhile, peer feedback is cardinal to the improvement of
student’s learning because it allows students to construct knowledge
through social sharing and interaction.

7. Implementing peer feedback on writing

According to Ferris there are several steps in the implementation of
peer feedback. They are:
a. Utilize peer feedback consistently.
In utilizing peer feedback consistently, the teachers should
determine that peer feedback will be used in the class.
b. Explain the benefits of peer feedback to students.
Students sometimes don’t feel comfortable with their peer
comment since they might think that their peers are less competent
though they love peer feedback technique. Hence, the teacher
should assure them with this technique. Besides that, the teacher
can give the students freedom to say how this technique can match

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Nada Raudhotul Muthoharoh & Anita. Using Feedback in Teaching Writing Descriptive Text

their interests, and then they will get more enthusiastic toward the
technique.
c. Prepare students carefully for peer response.
In this step, the students are not only expected to be able to look
for the feedback but also to give useful feedback to their peers.

8. Procedure of Peer Feedback

Writing with peer response is assumed to be beneficial for the
teaching of writing. The readers commenting on text that supposed to
help writers to go through the complex writing process. Young
writers become aware of the needs of their readers and develop goal
and audience orientation when writing texts. And the reader also
gives the motivation to write meaningful text and discussing it with
peers to help the writer develops and realizes the purpose of their
text.
a. Identifying the text.
The peer review should be identifies the text and gives positive
feedback on it.
b. Describing the text.
The writer explains the main ideas of the text and how it is
organized. How are the lead, the body, and the end related.
c. Asking question about the text.
Asking question about the text wording. How be explicit about
what seen to be problems.
d. Suggesting points to revise.
Giving suggestion to improve the text and discussing what wish
the text had said or what it might have said, even the information
or the structure sentence.

METHOD

This research is concerned with writing activity by peer feedback.

The research method utilize in this study is an experimental method.

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Experimental method is a procedure of testing a hypothesis by

setting up a situation in which the strength of relationship between
variables can be tested.
The writer uses quasi experiment research (pre-test and post-test
non-equivalent group design) to conduct the study. It has two group
the first group obtain treatment, while the second group is control.
This research took place at SMP 14 serang. The location is on Jl.
Kagungan No. 7, Serang, Banten. This research carried out on
January 2018, about one month. The first week is for pre-test, the
second until third is for treatment and the last week is for post-test.
The writer chose two classes as a sample from the second grade class.
Class VIII E consist of 30 students as experimental class and class VIII
F consist of 30 students as a controlled class. The writer used two
kinds of instruments to collect the data. The instruments divided into
two types: test and non-test. While the non-test consisted of
observation sheet, interview, and document. The test consisted of:

The students write a descriptive

Pre-test Essay paragraph consist of identification
and description of each term in the
spaces

The students write a descriptive

Post-test Essay paragraph consist of identification
and description of each term in the
spaces

The writer observed around January 2018 of the first grade at SMP
14 Serang and the writer observed about the learning process of class
VIII E and VIII F. Test is a method of measuring person’s ability or
knowledge in a given domain. To get data of students’ writing
comprehension, the researcher carries out pre-test before giving
treatment and post-test after treatment. The forms of the test are:

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Nada Raudhotul Muthoharoh & Anita. Using Feedback in Teaching Writing Descriptive Text

Pre-test Post-test

Item Score
Organization: Introduction And Description 20
Logical development of ideas: Content 20
Grammar 20
Punctuation, spelling and mechanics 20
Style and Quality of expression 20
Total 100

The research needed documentation to know about the school

situation and students. Documentation includes observation sheet,
work plans, and answer sheet of pre-test and post-test. The data were
analyzed by using T-test formula. This formula is used to determine
the significance difference between pre-test and post-test. Then the
result of calculation of the t-test value consulted to value table. If the
obtained value is lower than t-table of 0.05 alpha levels, it means
there is significance achievement in writing descriptive text by
applying Peer Feedback. To analyze the data the researcher will
apply the following steps;
a. Collecting the score of pre-test and post-test by using table
b. The writer look for the average of students Pre-test and Post-
test score to know the influence of Peer Feedback in teaching
writing descriptive text.

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FINDINGS
The result is presented in the following graphics:

Graphic 1
Graphic of Experimental Class

Graphic 2
Graphic of Control Class

Graphic 3
Comparisons’ score of Experimental Class and Control Class

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Nada Raudhotul Muthoharoh & Anita. Using Feedback in Teaching Writing Descriptive Text

After got the data, the writer compared it with tt both in degree of
significance 5% and 1%; therefore based on “t” table that there is 58.
With df as number 58 is got “t” table as follow: At significance level
5%: = 1.67 and at significance level 1%: = 2.39. The writer compared
to that if > ; is accepted and is rejected. If < , it means that is accepted
and is rejected.
Based on the data, the value of (t observation) is higher than (t
tabel) from significance 5% t observation= 7.14 t table= 1.67 or t
observation 7.14 >1.67 and significance 1% t observation=7.14 t table=
2.39 or t observation 7.14 >2.39, because “to” that the writer got from
the calculation is higher than t table both at significance level 5% and
1%, so the hypothesis alternative ( ) is accepted and ( ) is rejected.
From the interpretation above, the writer said the use of peer
feedback in teaching writing descriptive text could be better and
more effective to make easy for students writing descriptive text
rather than direct instruction or traditional method. This could be
seen after comparing the score of pre-test (before using peer
feedback) and post-test (after using peer feedback).
Based on the data obtained from experiment and control class among
the average scores, and t observation, the writer summarizes that

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teaching writing using peer feedback has significant influence toward

students’ descriptive text.

DISCUSSION
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Peer Feedback
Every technique, strategy or method in the learning process must
have advantages and disadvantages. The teacher must know the
advantages and disadvantages of the technique in order to choose
which one fits and matches the material to be taught.
According to many expert that peer feedback has many advantages.
Peer feedback encourages student to participate in the classroom
activity and make them less passively teacher-dependent. It is plays a
pivotal role in “increased engagement and time spent on-task,
immediacy and individualization of help, goal specification,
explaining, prevention of information processing overload,
promoting, modelling, and reinforcement”. Moreover, Peer feedback
can lead less writing apprehension and more confidence as well as
establish a social context for writing. More importantly, the practice
of this technique allows student to receive more individual comment
as well as giving reviewers the opportunity to practice and develop
different language skills.
The writer has previously discussed the advantages of using peer
feedback in teaching writing activity. However, it also has many
disadvantages.
According to Mariette that peer feedback only focused on product
rather than the processes of writing. Many students in L2 contexts
focused on sentence-level errors (local errors) rather than on the
comment and ideas (global errors).
The researcher still uses this technique although has some
disadvantages because the advantages more role in improving
students’ writing skill.

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Nada Raudhotul Muthoharoh & Anita. Using Feedback in Teaching Writing Descriptive Text

CONCLUSSIONS
From all of paper statement above, the writer can take the conclusion
as follows:
a. From the result of pre-test and post-test between experiment and
control class, the writer knows that students’ writing ability on
descriptive text by using peer feedback is better than who does not
use it. It can be seen from the average score. The lowest score of
experiment class in pre-test is 23 and the highest score is 82. So in
post-test the lowest score is 45 and the highest score is 93. The
lowest score of control class in pre-test is 25 and the highest is 73.
While, in the post-test the lowest score is 30 and the highest score
is 86.
b. From the result of analysis above, the writer showed that there is a
significance difference between the pre-test and post-test when the
study is conducted either using peer feedback or not. The writer
compared it with tt, the value of (t observation) is higher than (t
tabel). From significance 5% t observation= 7.14 t table= 1.67 or t
observation 7.14 >1.67 and significance 1% t observation=7.14 t
table= 2.39 or t observation 7.14 > 2.39. The writer go that “to”
from the calculation is higher than t table both at significance level
5% and 1% so the hypothesis alternative ( ) is accepted and ( ) is
rejected.

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