The Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text Through Outdoor Activity at Palopo Cokroaminoto University

This research deals with the students’ ability in writing descriptive text through outdoor learning activity at the sixth semester of English language education study program of Palopo Cokroaminoto University. The population of this research is the sixth semester students of English language education study program in Palopo Cokroaminoto University. The total number of population was 100 students. The researcher applied the purposive sampling technique and there is 30 students as sample. Writing test is the instrument of this research. Based on the findings and discussion in the previous chapter, the researcher concludes the students’ ability in writing descriptive text through outdoor learning activity is good. It can be proven by the students’ mean score is 78 and it is categorized good.


Introduction
English has been using all over the world and also it is used as the medium of communication to convey information. Therefore, it makes people especially for Indonesian learners have to learn and master English.
However, learn English is not easy and there are four skills in English that has to be mastered by student. Besides speaking, listening and reading, writing becomes the most important skill because through writing, the student can share the ideas, opinion to the others and has a lot of time to think about what they want convey through writing.
By writing, the students can produce good writing because they have a lot of Juwita Crestiani M : The Students' Ability In Writing Descriptive Text through Outdoor Activity At Palopo Cokroaminoto University time to think and acquire ideas but in fact mastering writing especially finding idea is not easy and need to think hardly. Harmer in Imran (2011:10) defines writing is a productive skill which involves though and emotion. It is a medium of communication.
Writing cannot be mastered at one but it needs practice. The practice may include imitating or copying words and sentences from the giving ideas or expressing free ideas based on the writers' knowledge, experience and point of view. Meanwhile, Lindblom in Imran (2011:10) states that writing as a way of learning to focus our mind on important matters and learning about them. By writing activity, a person can find the solution of difficult problem, master the fact and even by writing a person can also communicate through the way that is impossible.
In addition, Byrne in Hisasmaria (2012:11) states that writing is an activity to produce a sequence of sentence arranged in a particular order and linked together in certain ways. When people write, they use graphic symbols, which are letters or combinations of letters that relate to the sounds they make when they speak. Furthermore, he states that writing involves the encoding of message. Writing can be defined as communicative act, a way of sharing observation, information, though, or ideas with ourselves and others.
A lot of problem make students cannot master writing. They still confuse and also lack of interest and motivation in writing, so they difficult acquire ideas and produce good writing. So, they are still very low in writing. According to Donovan in Karim (2013:24) there are some characteristics of good writing, they are: Clarity and focus: in good writing, everything makes sense and reader does not get lost or have to read passages to figure out what is going on. Focused writing sticks with the plot or core idea without running off on too many tangents. Organization: a well-organized piece of writing is not only clear; it is presented in a way that is logical and aesthetically pleasing. Language (word choice): we writers can never underestimate or fail to appreciate our most valuable tools-words. Good writing includes smart word choices and well-crafted sentences. Grammar and style: many writers would wish this one away, but for a piece of writing to be considered good (let alone great), it has to follow the rules of grammar (and break those rules only when there is a good reason). Credibility or believability: nothing says bad writing like getting the facts wrong or misrepresenting oneself. In fiction, the story must be believable (even if it's impossible), and in nonfiction, accurate research can make or break a writer.
The low students' ability in writing caused by the method or strategy that make them bored and there is no good preparation in teaching so the condition and situation cannot create good atmosphere in the class. It is a result of observation that has been done at Palopo Cokroaminoto University when the researcher was doing teaching process in their class. Therefore, it should be find out a good way to solve this problem.
Beside solve the problem, a teacher should attention the writing process. According to Bouden in Karim (2013:25) before you write a single word you must: set ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548 your objective, assess your readership, decide what information you will need, prepare your skeletal framework, test and revise your skeletal framework.
According to Hormazabal in Imran (2011:13) argues that writing process represents a shift in emphasis in teaching writing from the product of writing activities (the finished text) to ways in which text can be developed: from concern with questions such as 'what have you written?' 'What grade is it worth?' to 'how will you write it?' 'how can it be improved?'. In addition, according to Widodo in Imran (2011:13) points out a series of activities in writing. They are pre-writing, drafting, responding, revising and editing, assessing, and post-writing.
From the case above, it needs a trick to make them interest and can produce good writing. Outdoor strategy is one of strategy that was offered by lecturer to overcome these problems faced by the students at the sixth semester of English language education study program.
Outdoor Learning is a broad term that includes: outdoor play in the early years, school grounds projects, environmental education, recreational and adventure activities, personal and social development programmers, expeditions, team building, leadership training, management development, education. Not only does Outdoor Learning happen in the natural environments where participants can see, hear, touch, and smell the real thing. Vera (2012:18) Teaching the students in outdoor classroom has important meaning very wide. In fact, this is not available in the classroom. Activity to learn outside the classroom to inspire students teaching and learning process.
After the students were learned by this strategy, the researcher is interested to know the students' ability. Thus, the researcher conducted this research which entittled The Students' Ability in Writing Descriptive Text through Outdoor Activity at Palopo Cokroaminoto University. Descriptive paragraph is paragraph which expresses or describes place, thing and person in such vivid detail that the readers can easily visualize the described place, thing and person, or can feel that they involve in the experience ( Hermawan in the web).
The objective of the research is to find out the students' ability in writing persuasive text through outdoor activity at Palopo Cokroaminoto University.

Method
This research applied quantitative method. It aimed to know the students ability in writing descriptive text through outdoor learning strategy. The total number of population was 100 students of the sixth semester of English education study program. Purposive sampling technique is used in this research because the sample was the students who had joined in outdoor learning activity. Therefore, the total number of sample was 30 students. Writing test is the instrument of this research. .

Juwita Crestiani M :
The Students' Ability In Writing Descriptive Text through Outdoor Activity At

Results
The result of this study are elaborated and discussed based on the data collected through writing test.
The result of students' writing on the table 1 above shows that there are 1 student acquired score 70, there are 8 students acquired score 75. There are 9 students acquired score 76, there are 5 students acquired 80, there are 2 students acquired 85 and there are 2 students acquired 90. So, the mean score of the students' result in writing is 78. It means that the students' ability in writing descriptive text through outdoor learning activity.
The researcher gave more motivation to the students in order to be active in learning process and did not get bored during learning process. The motivation could stimulate and influence the students to study hard.
Besides that, the researcher gave more explanation about writing and giving guidance to the students about how to produce a good composition through outdoor learning activity.
The researcher also gave more chance to students in order to they could write easily in a good composition because they wrote composition by using longer times. While the researcher gave assignment to students, the researcher always observed students' activity. The researcher also gave chance to students to give comments or question.
Through outdoor learning activity, students did not difficult to understand the material and find idea because it can make students easier to receive the material. Outdoor learning activity also makes them enjoyable in learning.
Besides that, the students' participation in learning writing through outdoor learning activity had good response. It can be seen by the students' spirit and motivation in learning and feedback from the students about the material. So, students active in learning process.
Outdoor learning activity also could help the students better able to get ideas, retain, remember, recall important information and made connection one idea with the other ideas.
Based on the previous before, the students' ability in writing descriptive text through outdoor learning activity is good. It can be proven by the students' mean score is 78 and it is categorized good.

Conclusion
Based on the findings and discussion in the previous chapter, the researcher concludes the students' ability in writing persuasive text through outdoor learning activity is good. It can be proven by the students' mean score is 78 and it is categorized good.