The Success Factors that Impact the Quality of Students’ Persuasive Essays
Faktor-faktor Kejayaan yang Mempengaruhi Kualiti Karangan Persuasif Pelajar
Keywords:
Persuasive Writing, Secondary School Students, ESLAbstract
This paper attempts to look at possible factors that influence the poor persuasive writing of students. A sample of 150 students from three different secondary schools in the Klang area was selected for this study. The students were instructed to write essays and fill out a questionnaire pertaining to factors and criteria they believe influence their persuasive writing quality. In addition, an English teacher from each school was interviewed to gather extra data. The results reveal that while most of the students can perform fairly well, they still need improvement as their total average score is quite low. The students’ ability to write persuasive essays can be influenced by the amount of their ‘general knowledge’, ‘reading’ and the activities that prove to be beneficial in developing their persuasive writing skills. The interviews with the teachers also support this as the students need to read more to improve their general knowledge so they can develop better content in their essays.
Kajian ini meneliti faktor-faktor yang boleh mempengaruhi penulisan persuasive pelajar-pelajar. Sample sebanyah 150 pelajar dari tiga buah sekolah menengah dalam kawasan Klang telah dipilih untuk kajian ini. Pelajar-pelajar diarahkan untuk menulis esei dan mengisi kertas soal selidik mengenai faktor dan kriteria yang mereka percayai mempengaruhi kualiti penulisan mereka. Di samping itu, seorang guru Bahasa Inggeris dari setiap sekolah juge ditemu ramah untuk mengumpul maklumat tambahan. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa sebilangan besar pelajar mempunyai prestasi yang baik tetapi mereka masih boleh meningkatkan kemahiran mereka kerana nisbah markak kesuluruhan mereka amat rendah. Keupayaan pelajar untuk menulis karangan persuasive dipengaruhi oleh ‘pengetahuan’ umum, ‘membaca’ dan aktiviti yang berfaedah untuk mengembangkan kemahiran penulisan persuasive mereka. Temu ramah dengan guru juga menyokong kesimpalan ini kerana pelajar perlu lebih banyak membca untuk meningkatkan pengetahuan umum mereka supaya mereka boleh menulis isi kandungan yang lebuh bagus dalam karangan mereka.
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