02. 5701-19477-1-CE.pdf EnJourMe (English Journal of Merdeka): Culture, Language, and Teaching of English Jo urna l ho mep age: http: //ju rna l.u nm e r.ac .id /in dex. php /en jo u rme/ ind ex The graphic organizer’s effect on the students’ writing achievement in argumentative paragraph Moh. Hafidz Prodi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP PGRI Bangkalan, Jl. Soekarno Hatta. No. 52. 69116, Bangkalan, Indonesia mohhafidz@stkippgri-bkl.ac.id ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 14 April 2021 Revised 04 June 2021 Accepted 04 June 2021 Available online 10 July 2021 Keywords: The graphic organizer strategy, argumentative paragraph, writing achievement DOI: 10.26905/enjourme.v6i1.5701 How to cite the article: Hafidz, M. (2021). The graphic organizer’s effect on the students’ writing achievement in argumen- tative paragraph. EnJourMe (En- glish Journal of Merdeka) : Culture, Language, and Teaching of English, 6(1) 11-17. doi:https:// doi.org/10.26905/ enjourme.v6i1.5701 ABSTRACT The Graphic organizer strategy is visually mapped to organize the general into a particular idea in an argumentative paragraph to develop students’ writing scores. The purpose of this research is to enrich theoretical and practical strategies in writing paragraph argumentatively. This research is a quasi-experimental study with a Pretest-post-test non-equivalent group and non-random sampling technique to determine the experimental group consisting of 23 participants and the control group consisting of 23 participants. The expert who validated the test was senior English lecturers. And the researcher used Cronbach’s Alpha to measure the reli- ability, and the result was 0.721 (acceptable). As the result, graphic organizer strat- egy significantly affected the students’ writing achievement in argumentative para- graphs, especially on the organization aspect. Additionally, this strategy also al- lowed them to explore their ideas independently and unconsciously builds some connecting words up. © 2021 EnJourMe. All rights reserved. EnJourMe (English Journal of Merdeka): Culture, Language, and Teaching of English Vol. 6, No, 1, Desember 2021, Page 11–17 1. Introduction Some previous studies on the implementation of graphic organizer strategy have intentionally been conducted to test its effect on writing skills. Statistically, there are various results that researchers academically reported in the points of view research-based. For instance, the graphic organizer effec- tively encouraged a process of selecting, organizing, and integrating cognitively in concluding (Ponce & Mayer, 2014), it can be an effective strategy in argumentative texts in computer-based instruction application (Boykin et al., 2019), and also in narrative texts without technology’s support (Aswita et EnJourMe (English Journal of Merdeka): Culture, Language, and Teaching of English Vol. 6, No. 1, Juli 2021, pp. 11–17 | 12 | al., 2018). In addition, the graphic organization specifically promotes students to be able to distin- guish the main type of each text (Torres, 2015) and influence the students’ writing aspects, namely vocabulary (Dau, 2015), content, and mechanics (Styati & Irawati, 2020). The graphic organizer strategy is a conceptual form of knowledge to manage systematically each part of an idea in a paragraph sequentially (Anggrainy et al., 2016; Pratama et al., 2017) which consists of content, organization, grammar, and mechanics (Styati & Irawati, 2020) in language learning of writing. In this case, a graphic organizer is an intensive attempt or technique to run down the students’ argumentative idea from general information to specific one by structuring a mean, controlling, supporting, and concluding idea (Lasaka et al., 2018). Besides, some factors also sup- port the students’ process of writing argumentative paragraphs including interest, self-confidence, topic, and media (Aswita et al., 2018). It means that graphic organizer aids the students to arrange descriptive and informative knowledge, appropriate technique, particularly map the idea, and ensure the students write a paragraph freely (Anggraini, 2017). Practically, the procedure of graphic organizer strategy is by warming the students’ up to access the previous opinion, outlining it into the real pattern of paragraph structure, drafting the sentences into an outlined paragraph, evaluating each aspect of paragraph by correcting and revising, finishing the submitted texts, and publishing on the site (Pratama et al., 2017). This procedure was digitally conducted in paragraph writing learning by using Learning Moodle System (LMS). Students not only write the paragraph in free writing technique or explore their ideas in written texts, but also uniden- tified academic paragraph (Anggrainy et al., 2016) . In addition, most of the previous researchers investigate the graphic organizer in the descriptive and narrative paragraph. Thus, this current research conducted to know the effectiveness of the graphic organizer strategy in the argumentative paragraph by formulating the research questions “is there any significant effect of graphic organizer strategy on students’ writing achievement in the argumentative paragraph?”. The hypothesis testing is the alternative hypothesis (Ha) that the graphic organizer strategy significantly affects students’ writing achievement in the argumentative paragraph, which means Ha is accepted. Contrastly, the null hypothesis (Ho) that the graphic organizer strategy does not significantly affect students’ writing achievement in the argumentative paragraph, means Ho is rejected. 2. Method In this research, the researcher used quantitative research to find out the significant differences between participants who used a graphic organizer strategy and those who had free writing in writing an argumentative paragraph. The population was 123 students. The researcher used a non-random sampling technique to determine the experimental group consisting of 23 participants and the con- trol group consisting 23 of participants. The researchers selected whole groups using convenience sampling or available samples to be taught (Fraenkel et al., 1993). This research used a quasi-experi- mental with Pretest-post-test non-equivalent group design (Cohen et al., 2007). In this type, pre-tests were given before treatment to know the real ability of the two groups. The treatment was given to The Graphic Organizer’s Effect on the Students’ Writing Achievement in Argumentative Paragraph Moh. Hafidz | 13 | the experimental group by using graphic organizer strategy as the independent variable, then the control group used freewriting to train participants’ writing skills. The last, both groups were also tested after conducting the treatment. Additionally, the test was only one question which distributed to participants by making an argumentative paragraph by using the graphic organizer strategy and it takes 50 minutes to complete the test, then researcher analyzed the data from the pre and post-test score, the scoring rubric of writing skills developed by Oshima and Hogue (2007). Table.1. writing rubric Aspect Maximum Score Format – 5 Points There is a title. 1 The title is centered. 1 The first line is indented. 1 There are margins on both sides. 1 The paragraph is double-spaced. 1 Total 5 Punctuation and Mechanics-5 points There is a period after every sentence. 1 Capital letters are used correctly. 1 The spelling is correct. 1 Commas are used correctly. 2 Total 5 Content-20 points The paragraph fits the assignment. 5 The paragraph is interesting to read. 5 The paragraph shows that the writer used care and thought. 10 Total 20 Organization-35 points The paragraph begins with a topic sentence that has both a topic and a controlling idea 10 The paragraph contains several specific and factual supporting sentences that explain or prove the topic sentence, including at least one example. 20 The paragraph ends with an appropriate concluding sentence. 5 Total 35 Grammar and Sentence Structure-35 points Estimate a grammar and sentence structure score 35 Total 35 Grand Total 100 The expert who validate the test are senior English lecturer which focus on language assess- ments. And the researcher used SPSS 23 to measure the reliability by using Cronbach’s Alpha which the result was 0,721 (acceptable). EnJourMe (English Journal of Merdeka): Culture, Language, and Teaching of English Vol. 6, No. 1, Juli 2021, pp. 11–17 | 14 | 3. Results and discussion This study statistically explains the results of collecting data through descriptive statistics, the test of normality, paired sample statistics and paired sample t-test to answer the research question. Table. 2. Descriptive Statistics The lowest score of student’s pre-test in experimental class was 33 and the highest was 58 which the mean was 45.52 and standard deviation was 6.775. For the students’ post-test score, the lowest was 62 and the higheest one was 81 which its mean was 69.17 and standard deviation was 5.158. In controll group, student’s free writing score in pre-test score was 34 as the lowest and the highest was 57 which its mean is 44. 09 and standard deviation is 6.735. And the post-test score was 55 the lowest and the highest one was 81 which its mean was 65.13 and standard deviation was 6.483. Table.3 Tests of Normality N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Pre-test Experimental 23 33 58 45.52 6.775 Post-test Experimental 23 62 81 69.17 5.158 Pre-test Control 23 34 57 44.09 6.735 Post-test Control 23 55 81 65.13 6.483 Valid N (listwise) 23 Class Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig. Stude nts' Achiev ement Pre-test Experimental (GO) .124 23 .200* .970 23 .699 Post-test Experimental (GO) .098 23 .200* .959 23 .449 Pre-test Control (FW) .102 23 .200* .960 23 .473 Post-test Control (FW) .151 23 .192 .961 23 .486 *. This is a lower bound of the true significance. a. Lilliefors Significance Correction The statistical result of Kolmogorov- Smirnov proved that the significance (sig.) value of both pre and post-test in graphic organizer tests are .200 and .192 in post-test of free writing. it means that the significance value is higher than the probability value or standard of statistics value (> 0.05). As a result, the tests are normally distributed and uses paired sample t-test and independent t-test to analyze this research. The Graphic Organizer’s Effect on the Students’ Writing Achievement in Argumentative Paragraph Moh. Hafidz | 15 | Table. 4 Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 Pre-test Experimental 45.52 23 6.775 1.413 Post-test Experimental 69.17 23 5.158 1.076 Pair 2 Pre-test Control 44.09 23 6.735 1.404 Post-test Control 65.13 23 6.483 1.352 The data presents the result of the level of significant effect of graphic organizer technique on students’ writing skill in the argumentative paragraph which the mean of the pre-test is 45.52 and the post-test 69.17. Thus, the level of significant effect of graphic organizer technique on students’ writ- ing skill in the argumentative paragraph is 23.65. Table. 5 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Std. Deviati on Std. Error Mean 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Pair 1 Pre-test Experimental - Post-test Experimental -23,652 5,015 1,046 -25,821 -21,484 - 22,620 22 ,000 Pair 2 Pre-test Control - Post-test Control -21,043 5,076 1,059 -23,239 -18,848 - 19,880 22 ,000 The result of paired sample t-test explains that the significance (2 tailed) value is .000 which is lower than .5. It can be conclude that there is a different mean between the pre-test and post-test score of graphic organizer technique on students’ writing skill in argumentative paragraph and also in free writing technique. 4. Discussion The result of paired sample t-test points out that the graphic organizer strategy increased the students’ writing skill in argumentative paragraph especially on organization aspects of writing. It is statistically proven after conducting a treatment in an experimental class, the mean of post-test score is higher than the mean of pre-test score. The effectiveness of graphic organizer as effective as the previous research that the implemention of teaching increases students’ vocabulary, mechanics and content (Aswita et al., 2018; Boykin et al., 2019; Ponce & Mayer, 2014; Styati & Irawati, 2020; Torres, 2015). The implementation of graphic organizer also well applied based on the procedure which en- courages the students to think independently, outline the line on each paragraph such as a main idea, EnJourMe (English Journal of Merdeka): Culture, Language, and Teaching of English Vol. 6, No. 1, Juli 2021, pp. 11–17 | 16 | controlling idea, supporting idea, and concluding idea (Lasaka et al., 2018), revising the incorrect word, sentences, and grammar, and submiting on LMS (Anggraini, 2017; Pratama et al., 2017). In addition, it also motivates the students to write an argumentative paragraph because it is new strat- egy to direct their idea to academic writing (Anggrainy et al., 2016) . In line to this, studies mention the use of an interesting strategy proved to be increased students’ achievement and motivation (such as Lailiyah & Setiyaningsih, 2020; Lutviana & Mafulah, 2018; Shaumiwaty, 2020). In conclusion, the researcher identified the chronological words to connect between one paragraph to the next ones which support the coherence of the whole texts. 3. Conclusion and Suggestions The graphic organizer strategy is an effective teaching strategy in improving students’ writing achievement of an argumentative paragraphs. The most influenced aspect of writing is organization of main idea, supporting idea, and concluding idea. Other than that, it is also unconsciously relates to the paragraph with the connecting words, such as the first, the second, therefor, and addition. It also stimulates students to be more interested and challenged to explore their idea in writing para- graph argumentatively. As suggestions, the reesearcher suggests for the future researchers or practitio- ners to determine a specific topic and generic structure of paragraph before conducting graphic orga- nizer strategy and using qualitative research design to gain more detail description of graphic orga- nizer strategy. References Anggraini, D. (2017). The Effect Of Applying Web Graphic Organizer On The Students’ Achievement In Writing Descriptie Text. Anggrainy, S., Diem, C. D., Vianty, M., & Sugandi, B. (2016). The Effect of Graphic Organizers, Guided Writing Strategies, and Reading Levels on the Writing Achievement of The Fourth Semester Students of PGMI Program at IAIN Raden Intan Lampung. Sriwijaya University Learning and Education International Conference, 2(1), 1029–1052. Aswita, D., Ramadhan, S., & Taufik, T. (2018). Development of Teaching Material for Narrative Writing Using Graphic Organizer Type Circle Organizer in Elementary School. 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