Problems in Writing Spoof Texts

A spoof tells a story with a humorous twist or an unpredictable and usually funny ending. It is usually a story that could have happened in the past which has a social function to entertain and give a moral message to the readers/listeners. This research used a mix method to find out students’ problems in writing spoofs, especially in text organization and language features. The results are expected to be useful for teachers and for students faced with writing a spoof. The population for this study was the third year students at a high school in Padang and two classes were selected by using a stratified cluster random sample technique. The researcher used a writing task as the research instrument to obtain the data. The results show that more than 50% of the students in the sample had problems in writing a spoof. It can be suggested that writing comprehension and characteristic of texts should be taught in various techniques and strategies so that the students are able to understand and apply them in a good writing.


Background to the Problem
Writing is one of the language skills in which one can express one's ideas in written form. This skill is taught to high school students so they can learn to write sentences that are correct and can arrange them into good paragraphs. Therefore, the students need to master grammar, vocabulary, organization, and mechanics to write a good text. According to Meyers (2005), as cited in Qurrotaa'yun (2012, p. 22), writing is an action, a process of discovering and organizing our ideas, putting them on paper, As Qiyi (1993, p. 30) says there are several difficulties that cause students to have problems to write English effectively. This researcher predicts that problems may be caused by various aspects. The first is that the students may not understand the form of a spoof well. The second is the lack of opportunities to use English, due to English being a foreign language, not used in daily communications. The third is that students may not get enough practice in writing a spoof, so they may make mistakes since the students are not familiar with the structure for writing a spoof and are not able to find suitable words and arrange sentences well.
Hence, the problem in this research was formulated to answer this question: "What are the problems that students have in writing a spoof?" Moreover, the objective of this research was to describe the students' problems in writing a spoof. Specifically the purposes of this research were to describe the students' problems dealing with text organization in writing a spoof, and to describe the problems that students have in dealing with the language features for writing a spoof.

Nature of Writing
Writing is a language skill to express our ideas or provide information to another in written form. It is a tool of communication and it is important to be included in teaching English. Rohman (2002, p. 7) explains that writing is usually described as a process, something which shows continuous change in time like growth in organic nature. It is supported by Sutanto (2007, p. 1) who states that writing is a process of expressing ideas or thoughts in words to others in written form. Writing can be very enjoyable as long as we have the ideas and the means to do it. Besides writing is one of the four main skills in English and it can enlarge one's perceptions and clarify one's thoughts. Besides that, Heaton (1989), as cited in Leguminosa (2006, p. 7), has said that writing skills are a complex cognitive activity and something difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devises but also of conceptual and judgmental elements.
In the process of writing, Oshima and Hogue (2007, p. 16) explain that there are roughly four steps. The first is create ideas, the second is organize the ideas, the third is write a rough draft and in the fourth and final step is edit and make revisions. It can be said that writing is a kind of thinking process. The close relationship between writing and thinking processes makes writing a valuable part of any language course. With regard to the students, writing can help them because (1) they are encouraged to use grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary they have learnt, (2) they are dealing with written language, beyond what they have learnt to speak, and (3) they are involved in the effort of expressing ideas, and the constant use of eyes and brain. Tompkins (2004), as cited in Nasir (2013, p. 28), says that the writing process resembles a road map, through which the students, actions and thoughts can be monitored from the beginning till the end. He further says that a stage in this process can be skipped and returned to later on but it cannot be skipped altogether. In order to make the students think creatively, they should be given the opportunity to see the world through windows and observe it and then they can write creatively without any fear.
Based on the explanations above, the researcher concludes that writing is an important medium for self-expression in a language and it can help the writer to think critically. Despite it seems that writing is not an easy task, thus someone will be able to write well if they know grammar well (language features), possess strategy and vocabulary and collocation, are familiar with spelling, punctuation, coherence, and cohesion. In addition, to improve writing skills one needs to do many exercises to become accustomed to using every aspect of ESL. Oshima and Hogue (2007, p. 3) explain that a paragraph is a group of related statements that a writer develops about a subject. The first sentence usually states the specific point, or idea of the topic. The rest of the sentences in the paragraph usually support that point. Besides that, Oshima and Hogue (2006, pp. 18-21) also explain that a good paragraph has some important elements, they are unity and coherence. a) Unity Oshima and Hogue (2006) stated that a paragraph has unity if it concerns only with one main idea. The main idea is the central thought of the paragraph which is commonly expressed in a topic sentence. The position of the topic sentence may be at the beginning or the end or in the middle of the paragraph. Sometimes, it is implied or it is not directly stated. It could be in the researcher's mind but it is not written down. It can be concluded that in writing a paragraph we should have a single topic and a main idea that holds the sentences together. b) Coherence Oshima and Hogue (2006) further say that coherence means that a paragraph is easy to read and understand because the supporting sentences are in a logical order and the ideas are connected by appropriate transition signals (words and/or punctuation). In order to have coherence in writing, the movement from one sentence to the next (and in longer essays, from one paragraph to the next) must be logical and smooth. Furthermore, a paragraph uses transition signals to show how one idea is related to the next. The second way to achieve coherence is to arrange the sentences in a logical order. In a paragraph, a writer arranges the details in a logical relationship in order that the readers can understand the text easily. Besides that, the skill of writing is also an important ability to express what someone has read or heard in a spoken form. This ability can be used to express ideas, opinions or feelings in written form. Al-Wasilah (2001, p. 24) suggests that, firstly, writing skills should be developed through practice in writing. Teachers tend to lecture students about spelling, word formation, vocabulary, grammar, and theories of writing; thus ignoring the practice of writing. Secondly, writing instruction should provide students with writing competence, which includes the ability to produce writing acceptable for the intended audience. Finally, it is not enough to practice writing only in the class because if it is done only in the class, it contributes almost nothing to the build-up of writing skills. This is supported by Hammond (1987), as cited in Andriani (2002, p. 7), who said that an analysis of the generic structure of learners' writing provides valuable insight to what make good and poor writing. Therefore, it can be conclude that writing is an opportunity to convey ideas and to communicate ideas to other people, but writing is not a simple process, it is hard word. Booth (2007, p. 2) states that writing through genre or text is considered to be deeply subjective. In addition, Hartono (2005), as cited in Putra (2012, p. 10), explains that a text is a unit of meaning which is coherent and appropriate for its context. Furthermore a spoof is a text which tells a potentially factual story that has happened in the past with an unpredictable and funny ending. Its social function is to entertain and share the story. The purpose of a spoof is to tell about an event with a humorous twist. Moreover, the story usually has a moral message for the readers. Sudarwati and Grace (2007, p. 178) state that a spoof has a generic structure/text organization and language features. Dealing with text organization, Djuharie (2007, p. 43) explains as follows: a) Orientation: orientation appears as an introductory part of the text. It will guide the readers to show what kind of a text that he will be reading and it is also the beginning of the story. b) Events: events are included as part of the text that recite the events that happened in the story usually in chronological order. c) Twist: the twist is a part of text near the end of the story that tells about something that was unpredictable that make the readers smile and laugh. This is the funniest part of the story. According to Sudarwati and Grace (2007, p 178), a spoof text has the following language features: 1) Noun: deals with people, animals or certain things in the text. in the garden, two days ago, etc.). 5) Simple past tense: simple past tense deals with activities that happened in the past, and uses verbs in the past form.

Examples of Spoof
Based on the explanation above, here are two examples of spoofs. The first one, taken from Djuharie (2007, p. 45), is set out below:

Nasreddin's Coat
One day Nasreddin was invited to a dinner party. He went to the party wearing his old clothes.
When he arrived at the party, nobody looked at him and nobody gave him a seat. He was given no food at the party so he went home and changed his clothes.
He put on his best clothes. He wore his newest coat and went back to the party again. The host at once got up and came to meet him. The host offered him a seat at the best table and ordered servants to bring him the best food.
Nasreddin sat down and took off his coat. He put his coat on the table and said, "Eat the food, Coat!" The hosts and guests were very surprised and asked Nasreddin, "What are you doing?" Nasreddin replied calmly; "When I came here in my old clothes, nobody looked at me. Then I went home and put on my best clothes. I came back wearing my newest coat and you gave me all the best food and drink. So, you gave food to my coat instead of me". After hearing Nasreddin's answer, the host and the guests just shook their heads.
Generic Structure/Text Organization Analysis: Orientation : One day, Nasreddin was invited to a dinner party. He went to the party in his old clothes (paragraph 1). Event 1 : Nobody gave him a seat or any food so he went home (paragraph 2). Event 2 : He went back to the party wearing his best clothes and his newest coat (paragraph 3). Event 3 : He was asked to sit at the best table and the best food was ordered for him (paragraph 3). Twist : The hosts and the guests are very surprised when he asks his coat to eat the good food served to him (paragraph 4).
The second example as below is also taken from Djuharie (2007, p 45):

We Don't Subscribe to Any Newspaper
Jack was a university student. He studied history. At the end of the year, his history professor failed him in his examinations and he was told to leave the university.
The next day, Jack's father went to see the professor. He urged the professor to let Jack continue his studies the following year. "He's a good boy," said Jack father, "and if you give him a chance this time, I'm sure he will improve a lot next year." "No, no! That's quite impossible!" replied the professor, "Do you know, last month I asked him when Napoleon died? And he could not answer it." "Please, sir, give him another chance," said Jack's father, "you see, we don't subscribe to any newspapers in our house, so none of us even knew that Napoleon was ill." Generic structure/Text Organization Analysis: Orientation : Jack was a university history student (paragraph 1). Event 1 : Jack's history professor failed him in his examinations (paragraph 2). Event 2 : Jack's father went to see the professor (paragraph 3). Event 3 : Jack's professor tells him one reason why Jack failed (paragraph 4). Twist : Jack' father said that they don't subscribe to any newspapers in their house, so none of them even knew that Napoleon was ill (see paragraph 5).
From those two examples of spoof texts, it can be seen that the generic structure (also known as text organization) of the texts consist of orientation, a number of events and then an ending with a humorous twist in the story.

RESEARCH METHOD
This research was a kind of descriptive research. It had only one variable that was the problems that students had in writing a spoof. According to Gay (2009, p. 9), descriptive research involves collecting data to test a hypothesis or to answer a research question concerning the current status of the subject of the research. The population of this research was the third year students at SMAN (high school) 7 Padang who were being taught to write a spoof in the second year. The total student population was 378, grouped into nine classes. The class sizes are shown in Table 1.  From Table 1, it can be seen that the population is in two different streams: IPA and IPS. The number of students in IPA, 214 was more than those in IPS, 164. Since the total population was quite large (378 students), the researcher selected a sample by using Stratified Cluster Random Sampling. According to Lunsford (1999), Stratified Cluster Random Sampling is a method by which subjects are grouped or classed according to strata (IPA vs. IPS), subjects would be recruited randomly for each subgroup, and, each sub-group would have some form of differentiation. According to Gay (2009, p. 114) for descriptive research, a sample of 10% of the population is considered a minimum. The researcher decided to take two classes as a sample based on stratified cluster random sampling. This is usually used in situations where the population is naturally grouped in units (Wiersma, 1995, p. 292).
Based on a discussion with the English teacher, it was found that the sample was homogeneous, the students whose major was IPA were homogeneous in terms of teaching materials and their level of English ability, and the students whose major was IPS were also homogeneous in terms of teaching materials and their level of English ability. But the English ability of the students in the IPA stream was slightly higher than those doing IPS. The English grade of the students whose major was IPA was 7.68 and the English grade of the students whose major was IPS was 7.33.
In this research, the researchers used a writing task as the instrument to collect the data. The researcher asked the students to write a spoof text in one hour (60 minutes). To make sure the students understand the instruction of task or not, the researchers tried the task on a group not part of the samples. This was done to find out whether the students could understand the instructions or not and whether the time allocation was sufficient or not.
Besides that, the data for this research was obtained in two forms: qualitative and quantitative. Thus it was a mixed method, and the data represented the students' comprehension of a spoof text in English. The qualitative data was concerned with a description of the problems that the students had in writing a spoof. This was obtained from the students' interview. Meanwhile, the quantitative data was obtained from the writing test done by the students. It can be seen how many students could write spoof text correctly. To know how many students had a problem in writing a spoof, the researchers calculated each component of the problem from a table that had a checklist of indicators. Next, the researchers made a percentage for each component of the problem. The percentages were calculated using the formula from Sudijono (2012, p. 43) as follows: P = N F x 100 % Where: P = Percentage of problem's item N = Total number of respondents F = Frequency To determine the validity of the task, the researchers used the content validity. A task is valid if it measures what it is supposed to measure. Arikunto (2006, p. 67) states that one of the types of task is validity (content validity). This means that the task was constructed based on the curriculum, syllabus and teaching materials. To minimize subjectivity, the researchers employed two assessors to analyze the writing done by the students who were assigned to write a spoof.
To indicate whether the students had problems in writing spoof or not, the researchers made some criteria, as follows: 1) We can say the students have a problem in text organization, if there is a poor relationship between the orientation, the events, and the twist. Some students were still confused with the text organizations for writing a spoof. They did not yet understand the system for writing a spoof. 2) We can say the students have the a problem with language features, if there is lack of mastery of nouns, action verbs, connectives, adverbs of time and place, and in using the simple past tense. In this case, if they make systematic errors or make more than two mistakes of the same type. 3) We can say that the students have a problem with text organization and language features in writing a spoof if the number of students who had problems was more than 50% of the total students in the sample. The researchers also made a check list of indicators as shown in Table 2. Then a check was made for each problem that was found in the writing from each student and was then classified into the criteria seen in Table 2 above.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
The result of this research found that most of the students had problems in writing a spoof. After their writing tasks were checked, the researcher found that their ability in writing spoof texts were very low. It is proved from the data which showed that more than 50 (fifty) of them did not understand the kind of text organization and language features of spoof text. Therefore, it can be said that they had a problem in writing a spoof (see Table 3).  Table 3 showed that almost all of the students had problems in writing a spoof with 52 students (68%) had a problem with text organization whilst 24 (32%) had no problem. With language features, 72 students (95%) had problems and only 4 (5%) had no problem with missing words. It can be said that their ability was far from expectations since there were more than 50% of them got low scores and failed in writing spoof texts. In addition, based on the writing test given to the students, it was found that they had very low comprehension of writing skills and did not really understand about spoof texts. In other words, even though they had been learning about spoof and another text types, it cannot guarantee their ability in comprehending texts. As a result, their achievement in writing spoof texts becomes low and unsatisfied.
The ability to write a text is important to master by learners. As Meyers (2005) said that writing is an action, a process of discovering and organizing our ideas, putting them on paper, reshaping and revising them. Therefore, in writing students are expected to be able to enrich their views about the topic that they want to write about, to improve their writing techniques. It is clear that someone will be considered as a good writer if she/ he can understand and comprehend all the content of the text.

Students' Problems in Text Organizations
Writing a spoof requires text organization. There were three aspects that the students had to write: orientation, the events and the twist. Based on the data from the writing tasks, the percentages with problems in text organization are shown in Table 4. Most students had no problems with orientation and events. The students can write orientation well even though there were some students who still had problems. It was supported by the fact that there were only 12 students who had problems in writing orientation of spoof texts. Besides that, they also had no problems in writing events of spoof texts. The students can write the events well even though there were some students who still had problems. It was supported by the fact that there were only 19 students who had problems in writing events of spoof text. Nonetheless, they had problems with the twist. Based on the test given, most of the students were confused to write humorous or unpredictable of spoof texts. It can identify the problems faced by the students in writing spoofs thoroughly the mistakes they conducted in their writing. Furthermore, the data showed that most of the students write texts inappropriately in spoof texts, this shows that they have problems in comprehending the joke at the end of the story. It is concluded the students have problems in writing the twists of spoof text if the humour was not predictable.
Based on the results of students' writing, it proves that their competence in writing spoof texts is still low. They did not really understand characteristic of spoof text, and they also have a lot of English vocabulary. For that reason, they are not able to extent the opinion and communicate their ideas in writing the spoof text. Besides that, some of the students cannot differentiate the form or the styles in writing spoof text. It is clear that the students can be categorised still have problem in writing spoof.

Students' Problem in Language Features
There were five language features that the students had to use: nouns, action verbs, connectives, adverbs of time and place, and the use of verbs in simple past tense. Likewise, to say whether the students had problems or not in language features of writing spoof texts, there was an indicator that was used by the researchers. The researchers determined that the students had problems in writing a spoof text and aspects of problems in writing a spoof text if the percentage of the problem is ≥ 50%. The results showed that after analysing the data in general, it was found that some of the students had problems in language features of writing a spoof text. Table 5 illustrates the problems.  Table 5 shows that a few students had problems with nouns and most had no problems with adverbs. A majority of them had problems with action verbs and connectives, and nearly all had problems with using the simple past tense of verbs in writing a spoof. They cannot differentiate the function between simple past tense and simple present tense. Most of them used simple present tense in writing a spoof text. It was supported by the fact that there were 59 students who had problems in using simple past tense of writing spoof text.
An example of a spoof from one of the students with problems with text organization follows below:

Strongmen
In the village, lived a strongmen, his name was Renggi, he lived in the carrage, he worked in the field.
One days, he worked in the field, when he work, he got accident and to failed in the field Finally, all the body him to move mud and the body as dawn and he be comedian as person. Figure 1. A spoof from one of the students with problems with text organization.
In Figure 1, there was no unity and coherence among the orientation, the events, and the twist. In the orientation sentence, the text did not give the reader an idea of what kind of text they will read. In the events part, the text does not clearly set out the event that had happened i.e. failed (sic) not fell down -in the field. And there was no twist in the story. It was clear that this student had problems dealing with text organization, word choice, spelling and writing, let alone trying to write a spoof.
Another example of writing with the language feature problems is as in Figure 2.

Green, Pink, and Yellow
In the school, the teacher was touch about color. The teacher give some exercises, "who can make a sentences about color? The color green, pink, and yellow".
Willy, the smart student answer, "a beautiful girl working in the green grass, wearing pink t-shirt and yellow shoes". "Your good student Willy!" said the teacher, "anything else? Anyone to give some answer?" The teacher give the question to Herios. Herios said, " when I was watched TV I heard the telephone is ringing, Green, Green, Green, finally I Pink up to telephone and said, Yellow who is the speaking there?" teacher said, "hey Herios, you so stupid get up and stand in from of the class".

Figure 2.
A spoof from a student with language feature problems.
In Figure 2, there were no problems with nouns and adverbs of time and place. But there were problems with action verbs, connectives, and the use of the simple past. The student used the wrong tense for the action verbs, thus "give" should have been "gave". In this story some connectives were not appropriate with the sequence of events, like "finally" should be "then". And the student wrote sentences with the wrong verb and tense, thus "the teacher was touch about color" should have been "the teacher was teaching about color". Thus, this student had problems dealing with language features.
It was clear that most students did not really understand the concept of writing a spoof as can be seen from the examples above. It was hard for them to create the twist that can make a reader laughs and feels that the spoof is funny. Furthermore, the students were still confused as to how to use action verbs, connectives, adverbs of time and place, and how to use the appropriate form of the verb in the simple past tense. It appears that writing a spoof was difficult for them to do.
The problems above meant that the students were unable to write spoofs with a factual type of story that had happened in the past with an unpredictable and funny ending and possibly also with a social function to entertain readers by sharing a story. It appears that the writing skills required complex and difficult missing word (noun) to teach, requiring training and mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devises but also of conceptual and judgmental elements.

Conclusion
Based on the number of students and based on the criteria for students who had problems as already discussed earlier, the writers concluded that most of the students had problem in writing spoof. The number of students who had problems dealing with language features was greater than the number who had problems dealing with text organization. A majority (67%) of students did not know how to make a good twist. Another 61% of students did not understand how to use action verbs. About 54% had problems with connectives and 78% had problems using the simple past tense.

Implication
Based on the discussion of this research, it can be said that writing comprehension and characteristic of texts should be taught in various techniques and strategies so that the students are able to understand and apply them in writing. Besides that, giving feedback and discussing together with the students can help them evaluate and recap the lesson.

Suggestions
The results of this research show that students had problems in text organization and language features when writing a spoof. The writers suggest that they should motivate themselves when studying English to improve their understanding about the concept of writing a spoof, and should do more exercises in writing spoofs. They should pay more attention to master the twist in the story, the action verbs, connectives, and past tense needed when writing a spoof and they should study hard to increase their knowledge to be able to create a good spoof.
Furthermore, English teachers should encourage their students to practice writing to develop their writing skills especially for writing a spoof. The teachers should also pay attention to ensure their students understand how to create a twist, how to use action verbs, connectives, and the use of the simple past tense. Finally, it is suggested to do further research to find the causes of the problems that students have in writing a spoof.