AN ANALYSIS ON WRITING EXERCISES OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL BOOK ENGLISH IN FOCUS PUBLISHED BY PUSAT PERBUKUAN DEPDIKNAS WITH THE SCHOOL-BASED CURRICULUM

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AN ANALYSIS ON WRITING EXERCISES OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL BOOK COMMUNICATIVE & INTERACTIVE ENGLISH FOR THE YEAR VIII OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PUBLISHED BY YRAMA WIDYAI.Introduction

A.Background of the Study

Language is a universal element in human societies. It has so many interrelationships with various aspects of human life so we must carefully examine the role of language in society if we are even to reach any understanding of the processes of social change which we see in operation around us.

Language is a system which is used by people in their communities to communicate in speech and writing to convey the ideas, thoughts, opinion, and feeling to others. People make interaction and communication in order to fulfill their needs. In other words, language is a means of communication, according to Carrol as cited by Ramelan (1992: 9): Language as a means of communication is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by which human being cooperate and interact.

Based on some statements above, the researcher conclude that language is a main tool to interact, exchanging meaning and communicate with others. Language is simple but it contains many meaning, in other words language is simple but meaningful.

Those different versions of language definition just want to tell us that language is very important thing in life because without language people cannot express their ideas, feeling and showing their purposes, thoughts and minds to other people language is used by people as means of communication. Communication happens almost every day and complex communication activities exist among countries. Each country has its own language.

There are many languages in the world such as German, Dutch, Chinese, English, Indonesian, and so on. English is one of the important International languages. It is an International language used in many countries, throughout the world, including Indonesia. So, it is not surprising that many people try to master it. Today English is the worlds most widely studied foreign language.

There are two languages taught in most schools in Indonesia namely Indonesian and English. Indonesian is taught due to the establishment as our national language since our independences day. It is stated explicitly in our 1945 constitution article 36. Meanwhile English is chosen as the first foreign language to be taught in Indonesian schools for the reason that we recognize the important role to play in the International words (Ramelan, 1992: 2).In the history of Indonesia's education, national education curriculum has experienced many changes, namely in the years 1947, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1975, 1984, 1994, 2004 and the latest is 2006 (Siscka Elvyanti, 2011: 1). The first curriculum has a name Subject Plan 1947 (Rencana Pelajaran 1947). In the year 1952, Indonesia experienced curriculum improvement with the Unravels Subject Plan 1952 (Rencana Pelajaran Terurai 1952). In 1964, Indonesia improved the national education curriculum, which is known as the Education Plan 1964. In Curriculum 1968 has a goal to form a human Pancasila sincere, strong, and healthy physical, enhance skills and acumen physical, moral, moral character, and religious. The curriculum 1975 prepared as a substitute for the curriculum 1968. The basic curriculums 1975 change to the curriculum 1984. The approach of teaching is based on students with students active learning system (Cara Belajar Siswa Aktif, CBSA). Curriculum 1994 created as the completion of curriculum 1984. In 2004 on Regional Autonomy, curriculum developed at this time given the name of Competency-Based Curriculum. In 2006, the government has lead to implement the education curriculum in the form of the level of the education curriculum, the curriculum developed by the operational and implemented in each educational unit. Substantially, the Curriculum Level Education Unit (KTSP).To enable the students to master those language skills, English teacher should provide the teaching materials including the text book, which are appropriate with the curriculum. Communicative & Interactive English for the Grade VIII of Junior High School published by Yrama Widya is the compulsory text book though the curriculum of 2006 curriculum or KTSP.The language skill to be achieved are divided in to two parts of language function, namely, oral and written English as a means of communication. In this case listening and speaking are oral language; reading and writing are written language. However for the students the written one is the most difficult skill of language. Writing is one of difficult subjects at school. So, the teacher must create the subject so that the students can study the subject easily. Besides, the kinds of the text can also be important in teaching English in order to make the writing teaching successful. Writing is one of the language skills that should be thought by English teachers to students not only because it is stated in the curriculum but also because writing is one of the components in English learning. However, teaching writing is difficult and complex, requiring the mastery not only of grammatical and theoretical devices but also conceptual judgment (Heaton, 1995: 138). In addition we face today that writing is very important in all aspects of modern life. The importance of writing can be seen in peoples daily activities in our social life. Brown (2004: 218) state that today, the ability to write has become an indispensable skill in our global literate community. Writing skill, at least at rudimentary levels, is a necessary condition for achieving employment in many walks of like and is simply taken for granted in literate cultures. Considering this fact, people need to be able to write clearly with logical, well developed organization that accomplishes an intended purpose.The teacher should pay attention to the writing exercises in the textbooks they used in the classroom because writing skills is very important. The teacher should examine whether the writing exercises in the textbook could improve the writing skills.B.Problems of Study

The research questions of this study can be formulated as follows:

1. Are the writing exercises presented in Communicative & Interactive English for the Grade VIII of Junior High School published by Yrama Widya relevant to the 2006 curriculum?

2.Are the directions of the relevant writing exercises presented in Communicative & Interactive English for the Grade VIII of Junior High School published by Yrama Widya clear?3.Do the writing exercises relevant to the curriculum presented in Communicative &Interactive English for the Grade VIII of Junior High School published by Yrama Widya present the examples?4. What are the types of writing (guided or free writing) used in the writing exercises relevant to the curriculum presented in Communicative & Interactive English for the Grade VIII of Junior High School published by Yrama Widya?

C.The Objectives of the Study

Referring to the statement of the problems above, the objectives of this study are trying to find out:

1. To analyze the relevancy of the writing exercises in the textbook and the 2006 curriculum.

2. To know whether the writing exercises relevant to the curriculum presented in the textbook have clear direction or not.

3. To know whether the writing exercises relevant to the curriculum presented in the textbook present examples or not.

4. To know the types of writing (guided or free writing) used in writing exercises relevant to the curriculum presented in the textbook.D.Limitation of the StudySince there are many books used at the SMP level, so the researcher limits the study on one book only that is Communicative & Interactive English for the Grade VIII of Junior High School published by Yrama Widya as the compulsory book for the eight year student of SMP. The study is focused on the writing exercises in textbook in terms of its relevancy to the curriculum, clear direction, presence of example, and type of writing.E.Significances of the StudyAfter conducting the research, the researcher hope that:1.Teacher will select the English textbook with good writing exercises relevant to the curriculum before using in the classroom2. English teacher will give more additional exercises in order to make the students master writing skill.

3. English teacher will construct writing to have more variation writing exercises to improve the students motivation in writing.

4. English textbook authors will present the writing material with good exercises relevant to the curriculum.

II.Review of Related LiteratureIn this part, I will present the theories that are used in conducting research. Such as learning English in Junior High School, general concept of writing, the concept of English writing in the 2006 curriculum for Junior High School students year VIII, the description of Communicative & Interactive English for the year VIII of Junior High School book published by Yrama Widya, and the last is Type of Analysis.A.Learning English in Junior High School

In 2006 English curriculum or School Based Curriculum (KTSP) for English subject of SD/MI, SMP/MTS, SMA/MA (2006: 277), it is stated that Language has a central role in students intellectual, social and emotional improvement. It is a support of successful in learning all of the subjects. Hopefully, language learning could help the students to recognize themselves, their culture, and the other peoples culture. Besides that, language learning also help the students are able to express their idea, feeling, and participate in the society, even find and use their analytic skill and imaginative.English is a means of communication, both spoken and written. Communication is to comprehend and express the information, mind, feeling, and develop of knowledge, technology, and culture. Communication ability is defined a discourse ability that is the ability to comprehend and create a spoken and written text that applied in four language skills. Those are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These four skills are used to respond or create a discourse in the society. Because of this, English is used to improve those skills in order to make the students are able to communicate in certain English literacy.

According to Suraya (2010: 14), learning English in junior high schools is targeted to foster the learners to achieve the functional level of spoken and written communication which relates to daily life matters. Referring to the content standard (Depdiknas, 2006) said that the aim of learning English is in order to be able to communicate, either spoken or written in several language circumstances manifested in some genres or model texts. The role of model text can be clearly seen through the scope of English subject, as stated in the school based curriculum (2007), which covers:1.Discourse competence, that is the competence to understand and/or produce texts, both speaking and written, which is realized in the four language skills to achieve the informational literacy. 2.Interpreting and producing various short functional texts and monologues of various genres: procedure, descriptive, recount, narrative, report, news-item, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion, review, public speaking. 3.Supporting competencies: linguistic competence, socio-cultural competence, and strategic competence (School Based Curriculum, 2007:308).

From that elaboration, the researcher can conclude that genre or model text plays essential role in the developing of students mastery of language. It enables students to use language in context, to achieve the purpose of communication. Therefore, English curriculum in KTSP is specified into Text-Based Curriculum (TBC) which focused in the text as the orientation of learning language, not only in isolated sentences.

Based on Hammond et al (1992: 09-11), literacy consists of performative, functional, informational, and epistemic. In performative level, people are able to read, write, listen, and speak with the used symbol. In functional level, people are able to use language in daily life, for examples reading a newspaper, manually or by direction. In informational level, people are able to access knowledge with language skills. In epistemic level, people are able to express their knowledge into the target language.According to KTSP for English subject of SD/MI, SMP/MTS, SMA/MA (2006: 277), learning English in Junior High School have the target, that is to make the students are able to reach the functional level. It means SMP graduate should be able to achieve functional level for communication, spoken and written language for problem solving in daily life. The curriculum is also intended to develop skills of communication that is the skills of understanding and/or creating spoken and/or written text which are realized in four language skills: listening, speaking, writing, and reading, in order to be able to communicate fluently and to make discourse in certain level of literacy.Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that the objectives of the 2006 English Curriculum for SMP are preparing the students to compete in the global society by way of developing their communicative competence, spoken and written, and to understand the relationship between language and culture.

B.General Concept of Writing

1.Definition of WritingWriting is not simply a matter of putting words together. Writing is a continuous process of thinking and organizing. Rethinking and reorganizing (Boarman, 2002:11). Written text has a number of conventions which separate it out from speaking. Apart from differences in grammar and vocabulary, there are issues of letter, word, and text formation, manifested by handwriting, spelling, and layout punctuation. Nagaraj (1996: 134) states unlike listening and speaking, writing is not something which is natural to human. It is a skill, which has been developed, in civilized society to pass on knowledge or messages.Based on Alice Oshima & Ann Hogue (1997: 02), writing is a progressive activity. This means that when you first write something down, you have already been thinking about what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. Then after you have finished writing, you read over what you have written and make changes and corrections. Therefore, writing is never a one step action, it is a process that has several steps.Oshima (1993:3) says, It is important to note that writing is a process, not a product. This means that a piece of writing whether is a composition for your chemistry class is never complete; that is it is always possible to review and revise, and review and revise again. From the statement writing can be imagined as a cyclic process that needs some steps before coming to the final product. Along with Oshima, Calderonello and Edwards (1997:5) consider writing as a recursive process. Writer behaves recursively that is a writer must often double block while writing-altering content, making changes, making changes in organization and wording, rethinking a text at every level in order to communicate their thesis and intention to the reader.Meyers (2005:2) states that writing is an action, a process of discovering and organizing ideas, putting them on paper, reshaping, and revising them. It means that in order to create a quality work of writing, the writers need to use all their thoughts and knowledge. In other words, the writers have to be creative in generating and organizing their ideas into meaningful written text. Harmer (2004: 86) in How to Teach Writing states that writing is a process that what we write is often heavily influenced by the constraints of genres, and then these elements have to be present in learning activities. Therefore, in the curriculum of English subject genre takes an important role in the development of students linguistic competence.According to Dvorak, as cited in Kern (2001:177), both first and second language writing involve essentially similar processes, but that second language writing involve complexified by the additional of new resources and norms. Learning the structural elements of the language, new rhetorical conventions and perhaps even new uses of writing does not replace, but is added to what one already knows about writing from ones native language. It means that teaching writing is not an easy task so that teachers have to apply some techniques or guidelines to be success- i.e. the curriculum. By knowing the curriculum, English teachers are to manage the teaching and learning process to reach the basic competences or objectives of teaching English especially writing skills.Based on the definition above, the researcher conclude that writing is a means of communication where written form is used to express the writer's purpose based on his or her experience. A writer expresses his or her ideas, experiences, thoughts, and feeling through writing for a specific purpose. Writing is not as simple as putting or making letters on a paper or other media. Writing needs a process from planning until presenting the text. By doing writing, someone is able to express her/his thoughts, organize them into logical order, and share them to other people. Writing is the difficult subject to learn. Because this skill is not only exploring our ideas or feelings in a written text but also the learner has to master the writing process well. So, it is very important to learn. People wont get writing skill without learning. For those who begin to write especially in the initial stages, writing is confusing. So, the learner needs lots of training and exercises how to express their own ideas. By doing so, the learner makes writing in a habit. 2. Principles to Teach WritingMany students think that writing is the most difficult skill to master. The difficulty is not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating the idea into readable text. In writing, they also need to consider the grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and so on. Almost all human beings grow up speaking their first language (and sometimes their second or third) as a matter of course, writing has to be learned and taught. Harmer (2004:3) states that spoken language, for a child, is acquired naturally as a result of being exposed to it, whereas the ability to write has to be consciously learned. Hyland (2002:78) adds:

Fundamentally, writing is learned, rather than taught, and the teachers best methods are flexibility and support. This means responding to the specific instructional context, particularly the age, first language and experience of the students, their writing purposes, and their target writing communities, and providing extensive encouragement in the form of meaningful contexts, peer involvement, prior texts, useful feedback and guidance in the writing process.

Harmer (2004:11) suggests that teachers need to concentrate on their students process of writing, and there are a number of strategies we need to consider:

a.The way we get students to plan.

Before getting students to write we can encourage them to think about what they are going to write.

b.The way we encourage them to draft, reflect, and revise.

One way of encouraging drafting, reflection, and revision is to have students involved in collaborative writing. A pair or group of students working together on a piece of writing can respond to each others ideas, making suggestions for changes, and so contributing to the success of the finished product.

c.The way we respond to our students writing.

It is not just teachers who can respond to students writing. It is often useful to have students look at work done by their peers and respond in their own way. Such peer response may provide a welcome alternative to the teachers feedback, as well as offering a fresh perspective on the writing.

d.The process trap

Teachers should consider the time allotment in teaching. One of the problems of process writing is that it takes time. Over-planning can take up too much time and, sometimes, restrict spontaneity and creativity.

Richards and Renandya (2010: 306) also suggests ten steps in planning a writing class. The first is ascertaining goals and institutional constraints. Secondly, teachers have to decide on theoretical principles. After that, teachers have to plan content and weighing the elements. The fifth is drawing up a syllabus. The next are selecting materials, preparing activities and roles, choosing types and methods of feedback, evaluating the course, and the last is reflecting the teaching experience. Teaching writing is a complex process. A teacher should consider the communicative competence. Canale (1983: 5) stated a definition of communicative competence, communicative competence was understood as the underlying systems of knowledge and skill required for communication (e.g. knowledge of vocabulary and skill in using the sociolinguistics conventions for a given language). In addition, Canale also outlines four major components of communicative competence stated below. a.Grammatical competence: including knowledge of vocabulary, rules of word and sentence formation, linguistic semantics, pronunciation and spelling.b.Sociolinguistic competence: including rules of appropriateness of both meanings (allowable messages) and grammatical forms in different sociolinguistic contexts.c.Discourse competence: the knowledge required to combine forms and meanings to achieve unified spoken or written texts. d.Strategic competence: knowledge of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called upon to compensate for limitations in one or more of the other areas of communicative competence.

A teacher should also consider the teaching learning cycle for writing. Hyland gives a teaching-learning process based on Feezs cycle. The cycle informs the planning of classroom activities by showing the process of learning a genre as a series of linked stages that provide the support needed to move learners toward a critical understanding of texts (Hyland, 2004: 128). The key stages are:

a.Developing the context. At this stage, students are introduced to the social context of the genre to explore the general cultural context in which the genre is used, the social purpose it achieves, and the immediate context of the situation. This allows students to bring their own experiences to the learning process and attempts to create an understanding of the following questions:

1)What is the text about? 2)What purposes does it serve?

3)Who produced the text, and who for (what is the intended audience)?4)What choices does the writer have in formats, vocabulary, topics, etc.? etc.

b.Modeling. It involves teachers and learners discussing and exploring the stages of the genre and its key grammatical and rhetorical features. The purpose here is to focus students on features of the genre. Representative samples of the target genre are analyzed, compared, and manipulated in order to sensitize students to generic structure, alert them to the fact that writing differs across genres, and equip them with the resources needed to produce quality pieces of writing.c.Joint Negotiation. At this stage of the cycle, teachers and learners work together to construct whole examples of the genre, with the teacher gradually reducing his or her contribution as learners gain greater control over their writing. While joint construction is normally done as a whole-class activity, it can also provide opportunities for more able students to work together in groups while teacher works with those who need more help.d.Independent Construction. The purpose of this stage in the cycle is for students to apply what they have learned and write a text independently while the teacher looks on and gives advice from the sidelines. Engaging in an entire writing process gives learners the experience of an independent performance in which they combine knowledge of content, process, language, context and genre. At the same time, it provides teachers with a means of determining whether students have achieved a required level of competency in the genre.e.Comparing Texts. This final stage of the teaching-learning cycle provides opportunities for students to investigate how the genre they have been studying is related to other texts that occur in the same or similar context

Besides considering the key stages of teaching learning, some aspects of writing should be considered by an English teacher when she/he teaches writing an English text. Boardman and Frydenberg (2002: 180) mentions five aspects of good writing. They are content or ideas, organization, grammar or structure, word choice or word form, and mechanics.

a.Content or Ideas

The first aspect of good writing is content or ideas. A written text should have excellent support, unity and completeness in its content. Unity means that a paragraph discusses one and only one main idea from beginning to end and every supporting sentence must directly explain or prove the main idea (Oshima and Hogue 2006: 18).

b.Organization

The second aspect of good writing is organization. A written text with good organization is a text which has clear introductory paragraph, well-organized body paragraphs, and concluding paragraph. It should also have coherence and cohesion.

c.Grammar

Grammar is the rules about how words change their form and combine with other words to make sentences (The Third Edition of Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary). Garot and Wignel (1994: 2) state that grammar is a theory of language, of how language is put together and how it works. Frodesen (2001: 238) states that when selecting texts and grammatical points for analysis, the following considerations may serve as guidelines (a) The grammatical features should be appropriate for students developmental stages. (b) The grammatical features should reflect students writing needs for the course of for future writing. (c) When possible, assigned course readings should be sources of text analysis so that grammar focus is integrated with other prewriting activities. (d) The lessons should generally be kept brief, especially for less advanced writers. (e) The instructor may want to enhance the texts by underlining or bolding certain elements, especially those that are not very salient for some learners.

d.Word Choice or Word Form Many researchers now advocate that learners should initially be taught a large productive vocabulary of at least two thousand high frequency words. Students should learn very large vocabularies when they first start to acquire a language (Decarrico 2001: 287). Decarrico (2001: 288) also advices new words should not be presented in isolation and should not be learned by simple rote memorization. It is important that new vocabulary items be presented in contexts rich enough to provide clues to meaning and that students be given multiple exposure to items they should learn.

Exercises and activities include learning words in word association lists, focusing on highlighted words in texts, and playing vocabulary games. More recently, computer programs that include the sounds of the words as well as illustrative pictures provide opportunity for practice with a variety of contexts, both written and spoken. There are some vocabulary learning strategies, such as guessing meaning from context, mnemonic devices, vocabulary notebooks, etc (Decarrico 2001: 290).

e.Mechanics

A good written text should have good written mechanics too. Mechanics refer to letter recognition, letter discrimination, word recognition, and basic rules of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, as well as recognition of whole sentences and paragraphs (Olshtain 2001: 208).

If the students write written texts with good written mechanics, the written texts will be more understandable to read. As a result, students need practicing a lot to be able to write with good written mechanics and an English teacher should be patient when teaching this aspect. Olshtain (2001: 211) claims in order to develop and use more demanding writing activities in the classroom, teachers need to develop a detailed set of specifications which will enable both teachers and students to cope successfully with the tasks. Such a set of specifications should include the following:

1)Task Description: to present students with the goal of the task and its importance. There are many tasks which can be used, such as matching tasks, practical writing tasks, emotive writing tasks, etc.2)Content Description: to present students with possible content areas that might be relevant to the task.3)Audience Description: to guide students in developing an understanding of the intended audience, their background, needs, and expectations.4)Format Cues: to help students in planning the overall organizational structure of the written product. 5)Linguistic Cues: to help students make use of certain grammatical structures and vocabulary choices.6)Spelling and Punctuation Cues: to help students focus their attention on spelling rules which they have learned and eventually on the need to use the dictionary for checking accuracy of spelling, and to guide students to use acceptable punctuation and capitalization conventions.

3. Principle to Measure Writing Skill

4. Teaching Writing Based on 2006 CurriculumAccording to School Based Curriculum (2007:1) the 2006 Curriculum or KTSP is the operational curriculum made and done by each unit of education. KTSP is arranged based on the students potential development needs for now and for the future with the consideration of the local and national interests, and the global requirements with the spirit of Management on the basis of the school (MBS) (2007:4).The main goal in reforming the curriculum is to increase the quality of education. The standard achievement should have the capabilities, knowledge and manners that can be useful for the next, either when they apply for a job or when they want to continue their studies. Thus, the main focus of English teaching in 2006 curriculum is to develop students ability to communicate in the context of discourse competence that is the ability to express written and oral which are realized in four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

a.Listening: understanding various meanings (interpersonal, ideational, textual) in various interactional spoken texts and monologue especially in form of descriptive, narrative, recount, procedure, report, and anecdote.b.Speaking: telling various meanings (interpersonal, ideational, textual) in various interactional spoken texts and monologue especially in form of descriptive, narrative, recount, procedure, report, and anecdote text.c. Reading: understanding various meanings (interpersonal, ideational, textual) in various interactional written texts and monologue especially in form of descriptive, narrative, recount, procedure, report, and anecdote.d. Writing: expressing various meanings (interpersonal, ideational, textual) using rhetorical development of various written text in especially in form of descriptive, narrative, recount, procedure, report, and anecdote.

Writing is one way to communicate with other people besides speaking, reading, and listening. The word writing seems to be very easy and simple to understand. However, it cannot be ignored when a student write a paragraph, he/she should write not only semantically correct but he/she should also use correct grammar.Teaching writing is not an easy task so that teachers have to apply some techniques or guidelines to be success i.e. the curriculum. By knowing the curriculum, English teachers are to manage the teaching and learning processes to reach the basic competences or objectives of teaching English especially writing skills.Based on the 2006 curriculum, the eighth grade students have to master basic competences of writing skill, such as:

a. Students are able to complete a short essay in form of descriptive text.b. Students are able to complete a short essay in form of recount text.c. Students are able to arrange jumbled sentences into a good paragraph in form of descriptive text.d.Students are able to arrange jumbled sentences into a good paragraph in form of recount text.

e. Students are able to create a simple text in form of descriptive text.f. Students are able to create a simple text in form of recount text.D.The Description of COMMUNICATIVE & INTERACTIVE ENGLISH for the Year VIII of Junior High School

The researcher used the compulsory textbook used in the year VIII of SMP that is COMMUNICATIVE & INTERACTIVE ENGLISH published by Yrama widya. Based on the Otong Setiawans book (2007: 05), this Communicative & Interactive English book, Competence and content based Approach for the Eighth Grade of Junior High School is a compulsory book that refers to the KTSP Curriculum that consider the students as the most important point to be the main character in the teaching and learning process so that the students are involved completely in inquiry learning situation where the students have to explore and create their idea and give their innovation in learning process.This book is created for the class activity and many various learning situation in order to make the students are in direct involved in language interaction. So, the students will get many experiences and English Language Comprehensive in their life. In this book, English teacher is placed as a facilitator, guidance and counselor for the students.E.Type of Analysis

Best (1981: 221-222) states that there are two types of analysis. They are: 1.Descriptive analysis

Descriptive analysis limits generalization to the particular group of individual/data observed. No conclusions are extended beyond this group and any similarity to those outside the group cannot be assumed. It means that the result of analyzing data by using descriptive analysis is completely based on the data analyzed without any influence from other data. 2.Inferential analysis

Inferential analysis involves the process of sampling, and the selection of a small group that is assumed to be related to a larger group from which it is drawn. It can be said that the conclusion about population of this analysis is based upon observations of samples.

From the two types of analysis above, the researcher choose the descriptive analysis since the aim of the investigation is to analyze the writing exercises of Communicative & Interactive English For The Grade VIII of Junior High School book Published ByYrama Widya.III.Research MethodologyA.Research Design

This research is a qualitative research. The researcher used the descriptive method in which the data were analyzed and the analysis result was formed descriptively or as phenomenon, not investigating the numerals or about the inter-variable relationship. Nawawi (1993: 63) points out that descriptive method is a solving-procedure which is searched by describing/drawing the condition of the investigating subject/object (i.e.: someone, institution, community, etc) at present time according to the visible facts or as the way it is. This study, therefore, is an effort to solve problems by comparing the similarities and the differences found in the symptoms, measuring the symptoms found, and so on. In other words, the descriptive method is steps to objectively represent the symptoms existed in the research problems. Nawawi (1993: 64) also explains that the descriptive method should focus on the following characteristics:

(1) Focusing on the current or the actual problems, and

(2)Describing facts about the problems using the rational adequate interpretation.

By using this method, the researcher takes some steps such as observing, collecting, documenting and analyzing the data, and finally drawing a conclusion. In obtaining the purpose above, the writer applies descriptive qualitative method in carrying out his research. It is in order to describe, analysis, and interpretation on the writing exercises of Communicative & Interactive English For The Grade VIII of Junior High School Published ByYrama Widya.B.Data Source

The data source of this research is the writing exercises that are presented in the Communicative & Interactive English for the Grade VIII of Junior High School book Published byYrama Widya and the objective of writing exercises in 2006 curriculum for the eighth grade students.C.Object of the Study

In this study, the researcher choose a book untitled Communicative & Interactive English 2006 for the Grade VIII of Junior High School Published by Yrama Widya, as the object of the study. He wanted to know the relevance of writing exercises in the textbook and the curriculum in terms of clear direction, presence of examples, and the type of writing (guided and free writing).D.Technique of Data Collection

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relevance of writing exercises in Communicative & Interactive English for the Grade VIII of Junior High School book Published by Yrama Widya and the 2006 curriculum or KTSP in terms of clear direction, presence of examples, and type of writing, the researcher applied some steps in collecting data. They are reading book, collecting the writing exercises and then analyzing the writing exercises.E.Technique of Data Analysis

In analyzing the data, I used a qualitative data analysis. I take four steps of analyzing. They are: selecting, comparing, categorizing and interpreting.

1.Selecting the data

The researcher selected the data by choosing all kinds of writing exercises in every unit of Communicative & Interactive English For The Grade VIII of Junior High School book Published byYrama Widya.

2.Comparing the data

The researcher compared the writing exercises in the textbook and the writing skills demanded by the curriculum. Then, he take the writing exercises which are in line with the curriculum. 3.Categorizing the data

In categorizing the data, the researcher prepared a table to classify the writing exercises in terms of its relevance, clear direction, presence of examples, and type of writing (guided and free writing).In doing the table, he gave check ( ) in the right column. This symbol shows whether the writing exercises is relevant or irrelevant to the writing skills demanded by the 2006 Curriculum or not, it has clear or unclear direction, it has an example or not, and it is guided or free writing. The criteria are as follows:

a.Relevance

1)It is relevant to the curriculum if all six basics competences of writing skill demanded by the curriculum are included in the writing exercises of the textbook.2)It is irrelevant if one or more writing skills demanded are not included in the writing exercises of the textbook.

b.Clear Direction

1)It is clear if the writing exercises in the textbook have all three characteristics of clear direction (brief, simple to understand, and free from possible ambiguities).2)It is unclear if the writing exercises in the textbook have less than three characteristics of clear direction (brief, simple to understand, and free from possible ambiguities).

c.Presence of examples

The presence of examples is to compensate for unclear exercises.

d.Type of Writing

The researcher divided the type of writing into two categories. They are guided and free writing. It is guided if it is completed with clues, guidelines, etc. In other words, the text is used for students as guidelines in answering the questions. And it is free if the exercises could be done freely (without clues or guidelines). For example making free paragraphs. 4.Interpreting

Finally, the researcher analyzed the data by giving such interpretation of writing exercises in the textbook whether they are relevant to the curriculum or not.BIBLIOGRAPHYBest, W. John. 1981. Education in Research. New York: Prentice Hall Incorporation.

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