Students’ Difficulties in Writing Report Text at Grade IX of SMP Negeri 5 Tanjungbalai

Abstract

This paper is about the students' difficulties in writing report text. Report text means a text which can be written out with descriptive technique. The elements of report text are generic structure and significant lexicogrammatical features.The methodology used in this paperwas qualitative research. It iwas used to identify the generic structure and the significant lexicogrammatical features which were conducted in student's writing report text. Thesubjects were the students of the IX-1 class of SMP N 5Tanjungbalai. The data were collectedby the observation. Then, they were analyzed by identifying, and classifying the generic structure and lexicogrammatical features of students' writing. The researcher found out that the students in the IX-1class still had the problems in writing significant lexicogrammatical features. However, they were able to write generic structure.They haddifficulty in determining the tense and the attribute of a topicin report text. In short, the students of the IX-1 class did not know how to write the report text well. The researcher suggests the teachers to take the main role in explaining the report text by usingthe genericstructure and significant lexicogrammatical featuresmaking the students easier to understand.