Developing Paragraph Writing Ability Focusing on its Components among Students Taking the Communication Skills Course1

Abstract

The objective ofthisresearch a rticle was to present study results onability, development of paragraphwritingability,and to compare ability in paragraph writin focusingonitscomponentsamongstudentstaking Communication Skillscourse between before and after they had conducted self-evaluation using an evaluation form on paragraph writing foreach component based on the authentic assessment concept.O’Malley andPierce’s analytical scoring rubricwas employed; the levels of evaluation in the rubric were classified as 1=to be improved, 2=passed, 3=good, and 4=very good.

The study found that before the use of self-evaluation using an evaluation form which was an analytical scoring rubric as authentic assessment, in terms of components of the paragraph, the quality of work of most students taking the Communication Skillscourse in paragraph writing was at level 1: to be improved. In terms of paragraph coherence, and linguistic features, the quality of work of most students was at level 3: good.  After the use of self-evaluation using an evaluation form which was an analytical scoring rubric as authentic assessment, the levels of quality of work of most students in all three aspects of paragraph writing: components of the paragraph, paragraph coherence, and linguistic features were at level 4: very good.  When comparing the ability in paragraph writing in terms of components of the paragraph before and after self-evaluation using an evaluation form which was an analytical scoring rubric as authentic assessment, it was found that the development of ability of most students taking the Communication Skillscoursewas significantly improved at the level .01.