Developing the Writing Skill of the University of Technology' Students by using Clustering Technique

The difficulties in writing are considered one of the most significant problems that have an effect on non-native English speakers. This study aims at developing the writing skills by using clustering technique to the University of Technology' students, then making a comparison between students' performance in writing in a per and post-test. A pre-test was made to the students to know their level in writing an essay then a course of study in teaching writing by using clustering technique was delivered to the students then a post-test is taken by students. The study aims at showing the influence using clustering technique in students' performance in writing. So the results have shown that there is a great development in students’ performance in writing after their involvement in the course.

among students presupposes a good understanding of the other skills.
Writing is considered one the most important language skills that students need for their academic success in addition to their personal development (Mukulu et al. 2006:52).Moreover, Rao (2007:45) confirms the role of writing in strengthen students' learning and thinking . According to Ahmed (2010:121) competence in writing has a great influence in students' performance in their academic programs. Furthermore, most learners examinations and assignments are assessed through writing. Besides, being good in English writing enhance the students' ability to be professionals and action researchers later on. But it has been noted mastering writing skills is considered a problem that students face at all levels of the education system.
This study suggests clustering technique as one of the techniques that can be used to improve students' writing ability. Clustering is the way to categorize the ideas and share into a piece of paper by making the connection with the core of the idea. This idea is supported by (DePorter and Hernacki, 1999:181) who confirms that this technique is a creative activity because when creating a clustering, students try to find things related to the topic using a visual scheme or chart and helps the students understand the relationships among the parts of broad topic and develop subtopic.
Clustering requires a brief period of early planning. Meanwhile, Oshima and Hogue (1999:8) say that clustering is brainstorming activity that can be used to create the ideas. Buscemi (2002:14) says that clustering is a good way to turn a extensive subject into a narrow and more manageable topic for a short essay. Also called mapping, and diagramming, it is another effective way to gather information for an essay.
This research was conducted to find out the improvement of students' ability in writing text by using Clustering Technique. The sample of this research was 64 students for two sections were chosen randomly out of four sections from the first undergraduate students in the department of production and metallurgy. 32 students per each group, control and experimental.

Challenges in second language writing
Language learners face many difficulties in writing in a second language. It has been noticed that this skill is considered the most difficult for learners in the academic context (Negari, 2012:61). Myles (2002:36) explains such a case in that different social and cognitive factors have a great role in assessing the underlying reasons behind the difficulties that facing learners in writing. Social factors such as motivation and attitudes have a great influence in writing ( 57 Myles ,2002:82). As stated by (McGroarty 1996:42) learners who act positively towards writing experience success unlike those with negative ones. Teachers should encourage their students in order to read academic texts in addition to working with other acquainted students. So they should engage in the text during the study sessions in order to make a progress. Moreover, the positive comments of teachers have a great influence on students' performance. Another factor that influence students writing is language transfer. Ellis (2003:19) observes that learners tend to depend on their first language when writing or speaking in a second language situation to provide responses. In case of that the structures of the two languages are extremely different, at that point one could expect a generally high recurrence of mistakes to happen in second dialect so the students should understand the difference between their native language the second one.

Writing correct sentences
It is said that a paragraph represents an example of a sandwich in that both the statement of the topic sentence along with the final sentence stand for two layers of bread , enfolding the "meat"the reinforcing statements " (Oshima & Hogue 2007:38).
However, to write these paragraphs, the sentences within the paragraphs must also follow certain rules, some of these rules are: a) Write simple but complete sentences with a subject, a verb, and an object (ibid.:11), e.g. Mary has a lamp. subject verb object. While writing sentences, do not break sentences in two by using periods for commas, e.g. Ahmed was an interesting man. A person who was traveling all over the world, and lived in half a dozen countries. The first spot must be substituted by a comma, in addition the following word should begin with a small letter (Stink1918:8). b) Using the active voice is considered stronger and more direct than using the passive voice, e.g.1) I shall always remember my first visit to Turkey.
2) My first visit to Turkey will always be remembered by me. Sentence 1 is much better than sentence 2 (Stink 1918:20). c) Put statements in positive form omitting needless words from sentences and unnecessary sentences from paragraphs d) Avoid using run-on sentences and comma splices. Run-on and comma splices are similar errors, both happen when you join sentences incorrectly ( Men like to shop quickly, but women like to browse. (Correct sentence) Following these rules will make a written paragraph much better. However, "writing will be concerned not only with correctness of expression but also with the organization of ideas and the production of logically coherent prose" (Long & Richards 1987:263).

Paragraph Writing
A paragraph can be characterized as a gathering of efficient sentences that are characterized by coherence, identified with a single topic and pass on a thought. Each sentence works as a component of a unit to make a general idea or impression .There is presumably that every single piece of writing ought to be sorted out into paragraph. Paragraphs have a wide range of sorts of information (Myles,2002:72) .Any paragraph has a series of summarized examples or a single long illustration of a general point . It may display a portrayal of a place, character, or process; narrate a series of events; think about or differentiate at least two things; characterize things into classes; or depict circumstances and end results. Notwithstanding the sort of data they contain, all sections share unique qualities. A standout amongst the most imperative of these is a topic sentence.
Almost all paragraphs should develop a single controlling idea, which is called the topic sentence, which clearly introduces the subject which belongs to the paragraph. It has many functions such as: ❖ Support the thesis statement of an essay. ❖ Unify the content of a paragraph. ❖ Enhance the order of the sentences. ❖ Give an advice for the reader of the subject to be explained and how it is presented in the paragraph. Moreover, it is important to recognize the structure of any paragraph which are introduction, body, in addition to conclusion. Such a structure can be noticed in any paragraph whether it is contrasting, narrating, comparing, describing, or even analyzing information.

Composition Writing
The composition teacher Miles, J. (1975:61) shows that it is the responsibility of the lecturer to teach writing. According to him good writing is similar to good thinking in that it cannot be taught 'once and for all'. It cannot be dealt with as a swimming which is considered one of the simple skills; indeed even a swimmer need a trainer to be the best. Thinking is shown to be the most difficult ability, and writing is considered to be the evidence of it. So help 59 should be offered to students at their different study levels and stages. Whenever there exists a new point of thought and a new subject matter comes along, the whole abilities of students demand conscious thoroughgoing get used to to the new material and maturity.
It is agreed upon the fact that any speaker of a second-language or dialectic who mastered English spelling, grammar, and sentence structure may still have difficulties in the organization of his ideas and even in writing essays.
Moreover , Putting all the techniques and strategies that have been taught to the second language learner in to practice are considered more difficult because they have to think in English language not in their mother tongue. Furthermore, it is difficult to be a good writer if there is no progress in their ability in their mother tongue, probably it will be impossible to be a perfect writer in any field which is completely strange to them.

Types of paragraph
According to Mark Cornnelli, "everything you write has a goal. Good writing has a clear goalto inform, to entertain, or to persuade" (Cornnelli 2007:23). However, whatever you write, your writing is one of the writing types mentioned below: A -Descriptive paragraph: Where the writer describes a person, a place, an object, or an experience, e.g. Describe your favorite person. B -Narrative writing type: Where the writer narrates an event or a series of events in a chronological order, e.g. Narrate about an unforgettable experience that has happened in your life. (Essential terms are the time order signals: first, second, third, then, next, finally). C -Definition writing type: Where the writer defines a certain term, condition, issue, etc., e.g. Define technology (Essential words are the relative pronouns: who, which, that). D -Comparison and contrast: Where the writer compares and contrasts two or more things writing about the similarities and differences. There are 2 type of organization for compare and contrast writing type: a) point by point organization or b) block organization, e.g. Compare and contrast country life with city life. E -Process writing type: To explain how something occurs or how something is prepared or accomplished, e.g. How to make chocolate cake? (Essential words are time order signals: first, second, third, or first step, second step, next step, final step). F -Division writing type where the ideas are logically subdivided, 60 e.g. Why I don't have a credit card. (Essential words are transitional signals: first, second, furthermore, or on the other hand, for example, in conclusion). G -Classification writing type: Where subjects are classified in different classes or levels, e.g. Ways of protecting the environment (Essential words are: first, second, third …). H -Cause and effect writing type: Where the results of an event are given, e.g. What is the effect of pollution on the Ozone Layer? (Essential words are: since, because, however, furthermore). I -Argument and persuasion writing type: Where an argument is raised to praise readers about a certain opinion, e.g. The production and sale of cigarettes should be made illegal (Essential words are the auxiliaries: will, shall, may …).
Thus in the writing process, the given topic should be taken into Consideration to determine the writing type and the essential words.

How to assess writing :
There is no doubt that writing has an effect on the brain of persons in which many messages would be sent to different receivers or readers whether there is a previous knowledge about those receivers or not. In Educational settings, writing has more value in educational setting that speaking because of its standardized nature. So as stated by Weigle (2002:45) the fluency with the skill of composing can be viewed as more imperative against the fluency with talking. This expertise makes less informative stress in contrast to talking (Grabowski, 1996:23). Furthermore, students should have the ability of composing within various genres. Reppen (2002:47) argues that this skill can be an essential one to L1 students and a essential obligation to L2students.
Conventional examples of composing concentrated on intellectual viewpoint more than the culture and society aspects of the current expertise. i.e. instructing maximums and standards of content associations had been viewed as the standard around then. Emig in the late 1960s noticed that the linear steps were not applied just like being instructed according to conventional examples by those who write. (Kroll,1990 :87). Repetitive method characterizes writing skill more precisely than direct approach. Thusly, researchers and instructors started to consider composing to be "a demonstration that happens inside a specific situation, which achieves a specific reason, it can be fittingly molded for its target group" (Hamp-Lyons & Kroll, 1997: 8). In this period the society and culture standards of writing had been considered.

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In order to assess writing, the goals must be known firstly, and then the missions have to be assigned later depending upon the goals. Brown (2004:123) puts a precise classification of various kinds of writing founded on certain common goals. Those types are imitative, intensive, responsive and extensive. A details description of each can be stated as follows: 1.Imitative: Some types of imitative are fundamental objectives of writing letters, vocabularies, and so small statements . 2.Intensive (controlled): the main aim of it is to create sound vocabularies within situation and right characteristics of grammar in statement. In this type there are two important fundamental elements .structure can be greatly significant against sense and situation. 3.Responsive: Here the writer has a clear idea of the grammatical statement-level, in addition he/she be much dealing with the discourse. Structure is considered crucial within the discourse, while the sense as well as the contextual situation must be highlighted. Short explanations, brief statements, outlines, as well as understanding of diagrams and charts represent cases of responsive composition errands. 4.Extensive: In this kind the main purpose of the writers are the organization of the ideas in a logical way, they utilized diversity of grammatical plus meaningful structures. Writing researches as well as papers can be given as few probable missions in type of writing.

Ideas Connection in Writing
There should be an organizational structure in any piece of writing, i.e. there is a connection between paragraphs and between sentences. However, this is done by using pronouns, repetition of words and the use of transition words: First: Pronouns (he/she/they/this/that/these/those) . The use of a pronoun is so important to refer to a noun from the previous sentence. Second: Repeated words/ideas. Writers try to use the same word or a synonym in the next sentence. Third: Transition words: Such words state the relationship between two sentences. Examples are first, first of all, to begin with ,in addition, furthermore, also, moreover, more importantly, what's worse, finally, most of all, most importantly ,nevertheless, on the other hand ,consequently, as a result , finally, etc. (Whitaker , 2009:37)

The coherence evaluation for writing
The majority of investigative scoring plans for composing incorporate descriptors regarding talk-level highlights of composing, for example, coherence. For instance, great written work ought to be "efficient", show "consistent sequencing" and be "firm" (Jacobs et 62 al., 1981 cited in Weigle 2002: 116), ought to possess "a reasonable movement of thoughts all around connected" (Anderson, N. D .quoted in Hughes, 2003: 103), and ought to give "obvious and steady proof of the capacity, (sic) to deliver composed coherent in addition to strong talk" (UCLES/RSA documentation within Communication expertise cited in Weir, 1990: 172).
Then again, low quality written work might be " too fragmentary to the point that understanding the planned correspondence an be essentially unimaginable" (describing Cohesion, TEEP Attribute Writing Scales cited in Weir, 1990: 69). These investigative descriptors expect to build the unwavering quality of making scores, whether rater preparing has been given or not (Weir, 1990). Whereas the motivation behind utilizing aforementioned descriptors can be laudable, the impacts of them on unwavering quality cannot be understood for a couple causes. Initially, the highlights portrayed, for example, regardless of whether a bit of composing is efficient or not, might need non objective understandings with markers respect.
Furthermore, the descriptions might prompt perplexity. For instance, from an language viewpoint, the portrayal of low quality coherence according to aforementioned TEEP scale could really appear to depict rationality as opposed to union. These perplexities and absence of lucidity might lead to unwavering quality issues, it is worthwhile to check carefully at what precisely is implied by coherence, the element of composing which is the focal point of the current study.
coherence is regularly appeared differently in relation to cohesion, as the latter represents "the common association of segments of surface content" (Bell, 1991: 165), though the first alludes to the less unmistakable methods for interfacing talk that cannot be plain and which dwell in the ways individuals interpret writings instead of these writings (Yule, 1996:41). At that point, cohesion can be conceivable to extent to specific components in a writing as giving cohesion, accordingly, cohesion is a moderately target nature of talk.
Coherence, then again, stands for "non-objective and evaluations concerning, it might fluctuate from person to person who reads" (Hoey, 1991: 12). For assessing the writing, this subjective perspective implies that scores allotted for coherence can probably be inconsistent. In this way it appears that this is a case for which we might desire to grant degrees for coherence because it is an important element of discourse, however, any relegated degrees would be gotten out of subjective understandings.
Despite the fact that coherence is non-objective, Hoey 1991: 266) likewise expresses that a "mind-boggling accord" of supposition regarding to the level of rationality of normally happening discourse would be accomplished. This announcement provide us with trust that many sensibly dependable strategy for scoring coherence can be achievable, in spite of its characteristic non-objectivity. To discover this strategy, it is worth to swing to previous researches regarding discourse analysis and inspect those techniques much of the time utilized to examine coherence in discourses.

CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE a. Definition
Technique is the implementation that takes place in a classroom. It's like particular tricks, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective Richard and Rodgers, 1986 p. 15.
Clustering is group of thing that we put close together or two from a close group.( H. Manser 1995 ,p.190).The purpose of brainstorming is to produce as many as ideas as possible.
Brainstorming is a process of focusing on particular idea and writing the result. Clustering technique can help the students generate ideas.(Alice Oshima 1981, p.9) It is very important to know how to use clustering, so that it can be used well. To make clustering, a topic should be written by drawing a circle around the topic. This is center or core circle. Then writing whatever ideas come into mind of the circle around it. More cluster associated with the activities aimed at a group of people. This technique is associated with determining the place and time to achieve a goal that is helpful to divide and set targets. Cluster is a technique that is made by the data analysis shaping, sorting our specializes in specific target based group, type.(Frans M. Royan, 2004 p. 82)

The Step of Using Clustering
Clustering is a way of generating and connecting ideas visually. The teacher will use it in the early stages of planning an essay in order to find subtopics in a topic or to organize information. Here are the steps of clustering.( Barbara F. Clouse2005 ,pp. 24-26) • The student take a sheet of paper and write his main topic in the middle of a sheet of paper and circle it. • Then he write ideas relating to that topic around it, circle them, and connect them to the central circle. Write them quickly, then he moves into another space, write some more down, and move to another blank and he just keep moving around and writing. • He write down ideas, example, facts, or other details relating to each idea, and join them to the appropriate circles.
• Repeat. As the student write and circle new words and phrase, draw lines back to the last words, the central word, or other words that seem connected. • The student will keep going until he can think nothing else relating to his topic. Then, see a set of cluster that have done, if one particular circle of the clustering is enough to begin a draft, he can cluster again to expand the branches and or he also can cross out the words and phrase that seem irrelevant, and begin to impose some order by clustering and begin to made his first draft in writing.

Figure 1 An example of clustering Section Two Practical Section ( Procedure and Methodology) 1. Criteria Followed in the Assessment of the pre and post-test
The criteria which is followed by instructors to correct the writing section is implemented according to five (grammar, punctuation, cohesion, relevance, spelling) , then the essay is divided into three parts that are marked as it is explained in the

Procedures
The following procedures are undertaken: 1. A sample of the study is randomly selected from first undergraduate students. 2. Selecting an experimental design which is the randomized control group pre-test post-test design. 3. A pre-post tests will be conducted and administrated to both groups. 4. Data will be statistically treated and results are then discussed. 5. Discussion and conclusion.
64 students for two sections were chosen randomly out of four sections from the first undergraduate students in the department of production and metallurgy . 32 students per each group . The two groups are measured on the independent variables, which are clustering technique. The scores on the post-test are then compared. If the experimental group's scores are found out to be significantly different from those of the control one, the difference is attributed to the independent variable which is the clustering technique.
The experimental group is the group that is taught the material with the use of the suggested clustering technique, whereas the control group is the group that is taught without using the technique.
Those students of both groups have to pass the exam . A pre-test and post-test was done to them . At the beginning of the semester a pre-test was administrated to both the experimental and control group which is one questions about writing a paragraph and was selected according to the researcher experience in teaching to be suitable to all students to check students general knowledge, (Neighbors are the people who live near us. In your opinion, what are the qualities of a good neighbor? ) , then the students of the experimental group were taught English language with the use of clustering technique then a post-test was administrated also to both groups which is one question ( write about junk food ). The total time for them in both pre and post-test is 1 hour . The total score of both tests is 100. The pre-test was conducted in the first week of the study, while the post-test was administered in the twelfth week. The students of the experimental group are supposed to make a diagram on junk food and write down the clustering. Results were collected and evaluated in order to achieve the aim of this study .
The experimental design that is used is a randomized control group pre-test post-test design.

Samples and data collection
The experimental and control group undertake the pre-test. Data was collected for equalization .Then a course of three months was delivered according to a lesson plan . The post-test which is used to measure students achievement after the experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted strategy. "This is true especially in research, when experimental and control classes are given the same educational goals and the same material but use different techniques to achieve them" (Harris1969:3) The courses are delivered in the Halls of Production and metallurgy Department -University of Technology.
At the end of the experiment, the data which has been obtained from the post-test, has been analyzed to determine whether or not there are significant differences between the experimental group mean scores and the control group ones according to clustering technique which is mentioned before . So the current paper comes to the following findings: 1. According to the age of students, the researcher found that there is no statistically significant differences among the students of both the experimental and control groups, since the mean score of the control. Group is 18.562 and its SD is 0.708 , while that of the exp. Group is 18.75 and its SD is 0.640. The computed t -value is 0.859 which is found out to be lower than the tabulated t-value which 2.000 when the level of significance is 0.05 and the degree of freedom is 62 (see Table 2).

2.
The pre-test , table 2 signifies that there are no statistically significant differences among the students of both the experimental and control groups, since the mean of the con. Group is 78.625and its SD is 7.8, while that of the exp. group is 78.25 and its SD is 6.6.
The computed t -value is 0.850 which is found out to be lower than the tabulated t-value which is 2.000 and the level of significance is 0.05 and the degree of freedom is 62 (see table 3). 3. The mean scores of experimental and control groups in the baccalaureate examination is 81.218 and 78.125 respectively, the computed t-test value was 0.888 and is lower than the tabulated tvalue which is 2.00 when the level of significance is 0.05 and the degree of freedom is 62, which indicates no significant difference between both of the groups (see Table 4). 4. The post-test , the mean score is found to be 79.593 for the experimental group and 76.531 76.531for the control group. Consequently, it is clear that there are statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group in the scores of the post-test. This signifies that the achievement of students of the experimental group is significantly higher than the control group on the mean score of the post-test(see table 5).    Table 5 The T-Value for the students' Achievement in the Post-Test

Group
No .

Conclusion
Students at all levels are required to write essays and compositions both in class and in final exams, and these are normally marked and judged by their teachers on the basis of their proficiency, accuracy and quality.
This papers aims at showing whether applying a course with the use of clustering could improve and develop the students' writing skills or no. According to the findings of the current paper , it has been recognized that the lecture, teacher demonstration and the cooperation of students to build a diagram on the subject by using clustering are considered the most common methods used in teaching writing skill in second language. So there is no doubt that the method of teaching the teacher use in the class has a great influence on the writing skills of students .So there is a great development in students' performance in writing skills after using clustering method because students collect ideas on the proposed subject and this will make the writing proses easier .