Examining the Composition Writing Competency of Pup Laboratory High School Grade Seven Students for Improving Teaching Writing Methodologies

This study will evaluate the composition writing competency of the Grade 7 students of PUP Laboratory high school towards the improvement of the teaching writing methodology/ies. This focused on the following: teaching writing method/s used in the classroom by the writing teacher/s; execution the writing methods; level of composition writing competency of the PUP Laboratory High School grade seven students; and common errors PUP Laboratory high school grade seven students committed in composition writing. This study utilized the descriptive method of research using the quantitativequalitative approach. The respondents of this study were the PUP-LHS Grade Eight (8) students of school year 2013-2014.A composition writing test was used in this study. The compositions were written using two styles such as: Free Writing Style and Guided Writing Style and were checked by the three (3) commissioned evaluators who are all seasoned English teachers. Also, the grade eight English teacher was interviewed regarding her method in teaching writing. The gathered data were computed to determine the extent of the respondents/participants in complying with the requirements of the activity and to test their competence in composition writing. The findings revealed that the only teaching writing method used in the classroom is the combination of Process and Genre Methods. Moreover, the level of composition writing competency of the PUP Laboratory High School seniors in Free and Guided/Instructional Writing Styles in terms of: Content is Very Good to Good; Thesis Statement is Very Good to Good; Organization is Very Good to Good; and Language Use and Editing is Very Good to Good. However, in terms of the common errors, PUP Laboratory high school grade seven students committed in composition writing in terms of Content; Thesis statement; Organization; and Language Use and Editing, findings revealed that: the compositions' content was less substantiated and some details were irrelevant. However, the voice of the writer is either evident or very evident; the compositions’ thesis statement was limited; the compositions' organization lacked the use of cohesive/transitional devices and the introduction or conclusion was either undeveloped or missing; and the compositions' language use and editing had a good but limited range of vocabulary and few mechanical errors and ungrammatical items.

In terms of the improvement of the teaching writing approaches, it should focus on the weakest points such as Thesis Statement, and Organization. The development of the thesis statement must be carefully taught among students because in most of the compositions, this element is missing. Likewise, the use of cohesive/transitional devices must also be established among the students. This would help students in showing relationships among details. Based on the findings, the following conclusions were derived: in terms of the teaching writing method/s used in the classroom, the combination of Process and Genre Methods is used, the execution is in contrast with its identified procedure; in terms of the extent teachers use the Methods in teaching writing, the English teacher used the combination of Process and Genre Methods every time she asked the students to write reflection paper about the given literary text; in terms of the level of composition writing competency of the PUP Laboratory high school seniors in Free and Guided/Instructional Writing Styles in terms of: Content; Thesis Statement; Organization; and Language Use and Editing, the researcher concluded that in both styles the participants/respondents were evaluated as Very Good to Good in all areas namely: Content, Thesis Statement, Organization, Language Use, and Editing; in terms of the common errors, PUP Laboratory high school grade seven students committed in composition writing in terms of Content; Thesis statement; Organization; and Language Use and Editing, the researcher concluded that the content was not substantiated; the thesis Statement was undeveloped or missing; the organization had a limited use of cohesive/transitional devices and undeveloped or missing introduction or conclusion; and the language use and editing had good but limited vocabulary and some mechanical errors and ungrammatical items.

As regards the teaching writing method/s, the writing teacher should focus on the weakest points of the learners which were classified in this study. The weakest points are Thesis statement and Organization. The improvement of the methods must be on the development of the thesis statement and techniques on how to organize the points or details presented in the composition. Moreover, Content, and Language Use and Editing must also be included because there are some points in these criteria that need attention. Based on the drawn conclusions, the researcher endorses some ways for the Grade 7 students of Polytechnic University of the Philippines Laboratory high School achieve Excellent to Very Good competency mark and some are on the improvement of the teaching writing methodology/ies.