Abstract:
The objectives of this research are to know the students’ ability in writing descriptive text and to know the students’ problems in writing descriptive text faced by the tenth grade students of SMA N 1 Petanahan in the academic year of 2016/2017.
This research was presented using descriptive qualitative method. In collecting the data, the researcher did some steps. They were preparing the research instrument, consulting the test to the teacher and giving the test to the students. The data was colected on April 19th 2017 at the tenth grade of SMA N 1 Petanahan in the 2016/2017 academic year. The population of this study is the tenth-grade students of SMA N 1 Petanahan in the academic year of 2016/2017, but the researcher took one class (X IPA 3) as the subject. The class consisted of 22 students. To collect the data, the researcher used test as the instrument. In analyzing the result of the test, the researcher used descriptive analysis.
The result of this research shows that the mean score of the students is 65.73. It means that the writing ability of the tenth grade students of SMA N 1 Petanahan is on sufficient level. The percentage of students’ problems in aspect of organization (24%), content (8%), grammar (24%), mechanics (21.33%) and vocabulary (22.66%). Based on the result of the research, it is suggested that the tenth grade students of SMA N 1 Petanahan should be given more explanation and exercise in writing descriptive text.
