IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY BY USING
LIST, INQUIRE, NOTE CASE STUDY
AT AKADEMI ANALIS KESEHATAN MUHAMADIYAH
MAKASSAR
Fitri Arniati1)
1)

Akademi Analis Kesehatan Muhammadiyah Makassar
Alamat Korespondensi: fitriarniati168@gmail.com

Abstract
This research aimed at findings out whether or not the students were able to improve their writing
strategy and whether the students able to use List, Inquire and Note Strategy in writing or not.
This research used a pre – experimental method with one group pre – test and post – test design.
The population was the second grade students of Analkes Muhammdiyah Makassar. The sample
were 24 students by using purposive sampling by taking one class . The data was analyzed into
precentage, mean score analysis and value of t – test. The result of the data analysis showed that
the students’ writing achievement, in pre – test was X1 = 54,6 and post – test X2 = 71,1. The result
of the t – test value was (24,19) is greater than the t – table value was (2,601) this indicates that
the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted. There is
significant difference of the students’ writing achievement before and after presenting materials
by using LINK strategy. Based on the findings and discussions of the research the writer
concludes that using List, Inquire, Note, Strategy can improve the ability of the students of
Analkes Muhammadiyah in writing.
Keywords : Improve, Strategy, Writing

BACKGROUND
There are four skills in learning
English as the second language. They are
listening, speaking, reading and writing.
All of the skills are important and each
supposes the other to improve one’s
mastery of language. The writer does not
discuss all language skill but the limits to
discuss especially in writing. The students
were difficult to express their idea and
their thought when they were required to
write text. And the teacher had problem
related to the teaching and learning of
writing.
Basically, writing means produce
message written language (Bram in
Masdjamiah (2000). It involves an active
process to organize and formulated the
ideas on the paper so that the reader can
follow the writer’s messages as well as in
oral form. But we should know that
writing requires in accurate and practical
grammar, word choice and spelling,
punctuation and vocabulary. Writing is
thinking on paper. Thinking is mood at

work finding facts, seeing relationship,
testing the truth of term, reaching
conclusion, forming, and opinion. In this
way, our mind produces language a huge
variety of ideas and the facts that support
than are the materials, which go into any
piece writing (Meyer, 1992). Writing
means to produce a message into written
language. It involves an active process to
organize and formulate the ideas on the
paper so that the reader can follow the
writer’s messages. Writing is one of the
four language skills that play important
role in human communication. It is used
to communicate with other people states
that writing has been involved in societies
as a result of cultural change creating
communication needs which cannot be
met by spoken language.
Writing is a productive skills (Harmer in
Masdjamiah, 2000) which involves
though and emotion. It is a media of
communication through writing message
can be existed for a long time. Byrne
(1984: 1) states that writing wasclearly

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32

much more than the production of symbol
as speech is more than the production of
sounds. The symbols have been arranged
according to form certain conventions, to
form word and word have to be arranged
to form sentences. However, we do not
write just one sentences or a number of
sentences arranged in particular order and
linked together in certain ways. Writing
involves the according of message of
some kind; that is to translate throughout
into language.
Writing a composition means we
compose meaning of something that we
want to tell through written material.
Writing is a major tool for learning
Largan in Masdjamiah (2000) says that
writing is a skill that anyone can learn
with practice. When we write, we give full
shape to our thought and then put into
written form.
Based on the on statements by some
sources above we can conclude that
writing is productive skills involves
though and mind as the graphic recitation
of language that is composed of many
languages.
Vaughan & Estes (1986) describes those
teaching tips of List, Inqure, and know
strategy are as follows:
a) List
Select a word or idea that is central to
the upcoming lesson, write it on the
board, and ask students to brainstorm
and list associated words or ideas from
their background knowledge. Allow
three minutes for them to complete this
step. Next, have students identify one
of the ideas from their list and note
them on the board. If time permits,
have students provide an additional
word.
b) Inquire
The teacher requires the students find
out as much as they can about the list
items by interviewing each other and
encourage the students to inquire about
the item on the list. During this stage
students may ask other students for
classification, elaboration or examples.
At this step, resist the temptation to
explain list items yourself.

c) Note
Give students one minute to list
everything they now can think of that
is related to the central idea. Then, the
teacher requires the students to make
paragraph base on the topic by
developing their idea that they can get
from the list item.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Instrument of the Research
The instrument was used to
collecting data was written test, for pretest and post-test. The pre-test was used to
measure the basic ability of students in
writing. The post-test was used to measure
the ability of the students after giving the
treatment based on the List, Inquire, Note.

Procedure of Collecting Data
The procedure in collecting data in
this research were :
Pre Test
As a pre-test, the students were given a
writing test to know the ability of the
students in writing.
Treatment
After giving pre-test, the researcher
gave treatment for the students in three
meetings.
Post-Test
After
giving
the
treatment,
researcher gave post-test to the students.
The test was same as researcher gave in
pre-test. The post-test was given to find
out the result after giving treatment.
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Writing test in descriptive test was
given before treatment. It was conducted
in order to investigate the initial
achievement in writing ability of students.
This pre-test was given one time meeting
before the researcher set up the post-test.
The result of the test then used as the
initial reflection of study; therefore the
researcher could give treatment that
considerably effective in solving the
problems faced in writing ability.
The result of this research deals
with the description of students writing
ability based on the five elements of

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33

writing, they are content, organization,
vocabulary , language use, mechanics and
rate percentage of students, pre-test and
post-test scores, the mean scores, t-test
value, and the hypothesis testing.
The researcher collected the data by
using pre-test and post-test. a pre-test was
given before the students having
treatments. It aimed at finding out the
students’ prior writing ability. After the
students having treatment, they were
given a post-test. It aimed at finding out
the students’ writing achievement.
The results of pre-test and post-test
were compared to know whether or not
there was a significance achievement of
the students’ writing ability. In pre-test the

researcher provided the students one free
writing in descriptive test. The students
were asked to write a descriptive test by
List, Inquire, Note in 90 minutes.
During the pre-test was given, the
situation in the class. Most students found
many difficulties in writing descriptive
test. Students still used dictionary in
looking for a right word, and students also
had problem in punctuation. After having
treatment, the students’ difficulties could
be minimized. It was known after the
researcher had conducted the post-test.
The followings are the tables of the
students result both in pre-test and posttest.

Table 1. The total row score of students’ pre-test (X1) and post test (X2), gain or
difference with the matched pairs (D), and the square of the gain (𝑫𝟐 )
Name of the Students
Y.A.A.L
K.S.K
M.R.B
M.R.L
A.O.A.M
J.A
G.K.S
I.R.D.A
F.X.L.K
A.P.F.A
M.B.B
E.L.R
B.T.S
Y.D.B.H
M.R.H
P.D.B
Y.S.D
I.R.D
S.H
A.L.R
T.I.P
L.L.H
S.A.K
R.D.T
N=24

Pre-test
(X1)
51
55
54
48
47
60
52
59
48
51
54
54
60
42
59
68
54
52
55
55
62
52
66
54
∑X1=1312

Post-test
(X2)
68
72
70
68
69
73
70
73
60
72
70
70
72
61
71
87
72
70
68
64
78
72
86
71
∑X2=1707

Gain (D)
(X2-X1)
17
17
16
20
22
13
18
14
12
21
16
16
12
19
12
19
18
18
13
9
16
20
20
17
∑D=395

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D2
289
289
256
400
484
169
324
196
144
441
256
256
144
361
144
361
324
324
169
81
256
400
400
289
𝑫𝟐 =6757

34

Based on the table 1. above, the
total score of pre-test (∑ 𝑋1) was 1312
and the total raw of post-test (∑ 𝑋2) was
1707. The gain or the difference between
the match pair (∑ 𝐷) was 395 and the
square of gain(𝐷 2 ) was 6757. The
minimum gain (D) of students’ score was
0 and the maximum score of gain (D) was
100.
CONCLUSION
Based on the results of data
analysis and findings in the previous, it
can be concluded that:
1. The results between the pre-test and
the post-test of students who were
taught writing List, Inquire, Note
through
descriptive
text
was
significant, where the mean score of
students’ writing in pre-test were 54,6
classified as poor to fair score and the
mean score of students’ writing in
post-test were 71,1 classified as
average to good score.
2. The use of List, Inquire, Note, Know
Strategy can improve the students’
writing ability of the eleventh grade
students of Analkes Muhammadiyah
before being taught List, Inquire, Note
through descriptive text method, the
students’ achievement in writing was
classified as poor to fair X 1 = 54,6
It could be seen from the table in
appendix that there was none student
(0%) got very good to excellent score,
there was 1 student (4,2%) got average
to good score, there were 21 students
(87,5%) got poor to fair score, and
there were 2 students (8,3%) got very
poor score.
3. The student’s achievement in writing
was classified as average to good score
were X 2 = 71,1 . There were 2
students (8,3%) got very good to
excellent score, there were 19 students
(79,2%) got average to good score,
there were 3 students (12,5%) got poor
to fair score, there was none students
(0%) got very poor score. It means that
List, Inquire, Note through descriptive
text was effective in improving the
students’ writing ability.

(

(

)

)

4. Based on the result of data above the
researcher concluded that, “using List,
Inquire, Note effectively improve
students’ writing ability”
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