INVESTIGATING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN PARAPHRASING PARAGRAPHS

This research examined university students’ ability in paraphrasing paragraphs. This descriptive quantitative research took students of the English Education Department of Universitas Riau as samples using cluster random sampling technique. The selected sample was a Class of the English Study Program, Universitas Riau, which consists of 34 students. The data were collected by administering an online test of paraphrasing paragraphs through Google Form. The collected data were analyzed by three raters and the results were calculated and classified by using adaptation guide rubric from Brown (2004). Three aspects of paraphrasing were assessed and analyzed: contents of information, choice of words and writing convention. This study found that the ability of the Students of English Study Program in paraphrasing paragraphs was an unacceptable level, with total points; 11.21 for Content Information aspect, 9.52 for Choice of Words aspect, and 9.75 for Writing Conventions aspect. In order to answer the research question on how bad the ability is, the only clear answer is that all facts that are found within the research are only referring to the ‘crisis’ of paraphrasing ability shown by the university students themselves. This finding showed that the university students’ ability in paraphrasing paragraphs is low, due to the facts that; First, they get a low-level score in all aspects of paraphrasing. Second, they still make many fatal mistakes in every aspect of paraphrasing like; skipping important details in paraphrasing that may lead to misinformation, misusing the vocabulary and diction in creating the words in paraphrasing, and severe problems in the grammar, punctuation, and spelling (writing conventions). Moreover, choice of words seems to be the most difficult aspect for the students since it had the lowest score than other aspects in paraphrasing. This research suggests that English students should be exposed to more practices in their academic writing subject about paraphrasing skills


INTRODUCTION
Paraphrasing is considered as a writing technique about citing others' ideas which need to be accomplished by the students in using expert's ideas to be able to conduct a writing product for academic purposes (Wahyuni Khairunnisa, 2013). It needs critical thinking of the users and a complex way of thinking to avoid mistakes called plagiarism. Paraphrasing is a common technique that is used by writers to write a 'new version' of the writer's work, even if the writer is relying on someone else's work. This technique is used in writing various kinds of text, and for this occasion, paragraphs will be the object.
As Clark and Dugdale (2009) stated, "Writing is an essential skill that allows people to participate fully in today's society and to contribute to the economy", therefore it supported the fact that writing is an important skill that must be mastered by the students. And as students, they have to deal with many academic texts and literature sources all the time in the whole years of their academic years at college. So, they surely know about one of the big problems in writing, Plagiarism. To avoid a writing issue like plagiarism, some writing skills can be used by the students. And among all of the writing skills, the writer chose Paraphrasing as the writing skill that will be discussed.
Some studies have been conducted regarding this topic, such as a study by Gusparia (2017), her study entitled 'Student's Ability in Paraphrasing Paragraphs of English Study Program FKIP UNRI'. The other related research was from Sarair (2019) from Universitas Syiah Kuala who researched the same topic entitled 'Acehnese Students' Skills in Paraphrasing English Texts: A Case Study at Two Universities in Banda Aceh'. That research's objectives are to investigate university students' abilities to paraphrase English texts and to investigate the strategies used by students to help them to paraphrase. It showed that there have been many research that had been conducted by previous researchers and many people are aware that paraphrasing skill is a good topic to be discussed.
Mentioning the situation on the field, based on the researcher's experience, the students in the English Department of Universitas Riau learn about paraphrasing in Academic Reading and Writing Class in the 4 th semester. But previously, they have to take all the required writing classes before they finally can join the Academic Reading and Writing class where they learned intensively about paraphrasing. All writing classes that they should have taken is Writing I Class, Writing II Class and Writing III Class, and soon after that for the students in the Academic Year 2020/2021, they could take Academic Reading and Writing Class in the fourth semester. The process of learning writing itself does not stop until this class, there are still other writing classes to be taken such as Critical Essay Class and Creative Writing Class. It shows how complicated the writing skill is since it always has something new to learn by the students every semester.
In writing class mostly all this time, the students have to deal with a lot of texts due to maintaining their progress of writing skill. And in the process of learning writing itself, there are so many writing skills that have to be mastered by the students, starting from; How to write a sentence, a paragraph, until writing an essay which consists of several paragraphs in it. All students in the English Department of Universitas Riau learn it step by step at every writing class they take every semester. Not to mention when they finally learn about one of the complex writing skills, paraphrasing. In paraphrasing, the students not only have to produce a good quality of writing, but they also have to deliver someone else's idea in their paraphrasing when considering the rules of paraphrasing in it so that they would not get into trouble with the copyright issue, plagiarism. The level of paraphrasing seems to be more complex if we consider this fact.
At last, paraphrasing has many functions in academic writing, specifically for academic situations with all its academic texts. One example is when the students need to write a research paper, they have to read a lot of sources. So that in the process, paraphrasing is needed to use someone else's theory or idea but using the students' own words. To make a good text/passage in writing, a specifically related technique is needed. In this case, that is why the writer is interested in choosing to paraphrase as the writing skill that will be discussed in this whole research to answer the research question, "How (bad/good) is the university students' ability in paraphrasing paragraphs."

METHODOLOGY
This research used quantitative descriptive analysis that has only one variable. According to Cresswell (2013), research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze the data. Research design is such an essential part of research since it explains how to analyze and identify the subject of the research. Muijs (2004) describes that quantitative research is essentially about collecting numerical data to explain a particular phenomenon. Gay (2000) declares that descriptive research is research that determines and describes the way things are involving collecting numerical data to test hypothesis or answer question about the current subject of the study. Therefore, according to Hossein (2015), the goal of descriptive research is to describe a phenomenon and its characteristics. In the case of this research, the goal is to explain how bad/good the quality of students' ability in paraphrasing paragraphs.
Meanwhile, Arikunto (2006) declares that the sample is part of the population that must be representative of a population. There were 34 students of the English Study Program FKIP Universitas Riau involved in the present study as a sample by using cluster random sampling. The sample was decided by using a lottery. The instrument was adapted from Ebrahim Tahassoni (2019). The instrument contains 4 paragraphs in total. The data needed in this research are the answers to the paraphrasing test. Before the data are collected, the students have learned about paraphrasing from the Academic Reading and Writing Class in their fourth semester. Due to the social distancing policy, the test of the study was collected online. The announcement and instruction were sent in the group of WhatsApp and the paraphrasing test and answer sheets were collected in Google Form. In analysis, the data were scored by three raters. Every answer that was given in the research would be checked and scored. After collecting the data from the test, the student's scores were rated by three qualified raters who fulfilled the pre-determined qualifications; they should have at least a master's degree in English and high IELTS scores (minimum 6) and have good credibility. The score was calculated and categorized by using the adaptation of guide rubric with some adjustment, belongs to Brown (2004): To know the level of students' ability in paraphrasing, the students' ability was classified by looking at the average score from three raters and the final score/the average score from three raters can be categorized based on Brown's classification. According to the previous table, there are 5 categories of score level. Based on the criteria, for both the raters and researcher, it is used as the certain criteria from each of the three aspects in paraphrasing to know how good the students' ability in paraphrasing paragraphs. In the end, after the numerical data were collected, the analysis was done by calculating the average score from three raters and categorized their ability according to Brown's classification.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Each rater has analyzed the students' writing test and the total points from the raters determined the students' ability in paraphrasing. There were 3 components of paraphrasing to be scored: content information, choice of words, and writing conventions, as Brown (2004) has mentioned. 34 students were the respondents and did the test. The item types were scored as Brown's theory with 5 classifications: Excellent, Good, Adequate, Unacceptable, Not college-level work. assessing the aspect of content information. It informed that the participants' ability can be categorized in Unacceptable level. Therefore, a sample was taken to analyze how bad the test was done by the participants:

Student 3 (I)
studying the news is a good idea in learning in high school as long as the news is good and supports the learning.

(II)
Futhermore studying globlal news make high school students will more understand about the world and also be able to analyze happened problems for example the story about political polemic. (III) besides that some news that contain elements of violence can influence students in learning news for example about ISIS. (IV) I believe that learning news is a good thing in secondary education but they must be able to choose news. they must avoid news that contains elements of violence and news that does not support learning.

Analysis:
First, according to this participant's answer sheet, the researcher compared it with the original paragraphs (see Appendix), and finally concluded that this participant missed/skipped so many details as the content information. Second, this paraphrased version seems to be shorter than the original version, and it can be counted as a mistake, since it seems to be more like summarizing than paraphrasing. Third, there were also many participants who had long paraphrase versions and not skipped details like this, but most of it, after the researcher did quick review from their answer sheets because the researcher could not analyze it one by one, their mistakes were commonly in the usage of inappropriate vocabulary so that the details were not following the original content information. That can be a problem since it could lead to misinformation, and it might be a reasonable reason of their low score in this aspect even though they had almost similar long in paraphrasing.
Furthermore, this kind of model answer is suitable with the Unacceptable level score, in which the criteria are; Shaky or minimally information, severe problem with the original content. Therefore, the researcher finally came into conclusion that the raters score already reflected what is on the participants' answer sheets. At last, with all these mistakes in the Content Information aspect, the researcher found that the raters' score already reflecting the ability of the students in paraphrasing skill which could be viewed from this aspect perspective.  The table above was the score from three raters in assessing the aspect of choice of words.

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Choice of words is about the diction that the students used in developing their own paraphrasing. This aspect is about how the students develop the original idea but purely with their own language style or their own words (vocabulary). Thus, this aspect proposed to see how far their ability in using words fluently to create a new version of an idea based on the original one.

Sample of Students' Answers:
Students 8 (I) Today, getting to know about the information from extraordinary components of the world is integral to many people. It has been cautioned that the assessment of such news need to come to be a excessive faculty challenge even though some assume this would waste faculty time. I assume this is a extraordinary thought provided that inappropriate information are filtered out and there is adequate time for other essential subjects.
(II) On the other hand, reviewing international news can help high college students enhance their general knowledge in areas like geography and cultures. This is because the news comes from round the world and regularly present vast important points about specific areas and their features, which capability college students would per chance obtain a better grasp of the world. It additionally appears that analyzing the news can advance the students' ability to analyze sophisticated conditions due to the fact when they follow a story, say, about a political rift between two countries, they can examine how it develops or escalates, how the parties concerned act and what its penalties are.
(III) On the other hand, there are some issues with studying global news in high schools. The violence portrayed in many of today's news stories could affect students' conduct. For instance, almost every newspaper and news website these days is filled with images and stories of the ISIS executions in Iraq and Syria, which are likely to make youngsters feel insecure or make unreasonable judgements about any Arab friends they might have.
(IV) Lastly, I believe it is clever for secondary faculty students to study world news at college as it can also develop their customary expertise and capacity to understand the world. However, they should keep away from violent news stories, and there need to be adequate time left for extra vital subjects. meaning is not relevant with the details/ content information. Therefore, even though there are a lot of students who replaced many words from the original version like this, most of them had problems in choosing the right words/ vocabulary on purpose to make it suitable with the details/ content information.

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On the other side, this kind of participant replaced quite many varieties of words from the original version, but the problem seems worst in phrases. If we viewed from the choice of words/how they chose the word; vocabulary, mostly they only changed those vocabularies with synonyms, and not making the variety in the phrases and wording. According to Dung (2010), in order to point out the idea which linked the topic most, restructured the order of original ideas in paraphrasing is needed. Therefore, most of the wording is the same with the original version, and it leads to patchwriting matter.
Next, in the worst case of this research, if they were caught up to commit plagiarism, it could not be avoided that it will affect how the raters assess their works, since the two of three raters found some of them had similar answer each other. For example, this student was caught up to have almost the same answer with student 13 with only 1 word in difference. (See Appendix). As the result, this participant got low score from most of the raters regardless they had already replacing quite many words from the original version.
Furthermore, with all these mistakes in the Choice of Words aspect, the researcher found that the raters' scores have already reflected the ability of the students in paraphrasing skill which could be viewed from this aspect perspective. (I) Learning about news has been suggested subject but some people think it waste time. In my opinion it would be better if it is filtered out and there is a time for other subject (II)Besides, the student can improve their knowlegde through global news and the student could gain a better understanding about the world. Study about news makes student developes the ability to analyze sophisticated situation.

Writing Conventions
(III) On the other hand, the issues in global news such as the violence portrayed affects student's conduct. For example, the images and stories about ISIS execution in iraq and syiria makes the students feel insecure or make missunderstand about arab friends.
(IV) Finally, It study global news is good for secondary school students to develope their knowledge about the world. However, the news should filtered out.
Analysis:   From this paraphrased version of the sample student, it showed that the students did bad job in the Writing Conventions aspect; started from mistakes in using the right grammar, punctuation, and spelling in their paraphrasing. And this fact is the same with/has already reflected the criteria of Unacceptable level score itself.
From the grammar perspective, the student commonly did bad job in using the right verb form (forget to place -s for singular subject and vice versa), mistake in adding article, unsuitable in preposition, until mistakes in plural/singular form.
Next, from the spelling perspective, the student commonly still misspelling the words from the expected correct form of the words. From the punctuation perspective, the student commonly missed the commas and full stops at the places where they should be placed.
At last, with all these mistakes in the Writing Conventions aspect, the researcher found that the raters' score has already reflected the ability of the students in paraphrasing skill which could be viewed from this aspect perspective. The previous tables are the summary of the whole results from 3 raters for each of the three aspects of paraphrasing. The criteria of the level score in each aspect of the writing paraphrasing test are showed in the table 10.
To answer the research question of this research, according to the data from Table 9 and 10, it can be concluded that in general, for all three aspects in paraphrasing the students' ability in paraphrasing can be categorized as Unacceptable level score from the other two raters. But at the end, the average score of the students in the paraphrasing test for Content Information aspect was 11,21 , average score for the aspect of Choice of word was 9,52 , and Writing Conventions was 9,75. It means that the ability of the students in English Study Program of FKIP Universitas Riau can be categorized as Unacceptable level score for all three aspects in paraphrasing according to Brown (2004).
According to the finding and data analysis provided in the previous section, the researcher has answered the research question related to the students' ability in paraphrasing paragraphs, the students commonly fail to paraphrase in a good way. It can be seen that the ability of the students in paraphrasing paragraphs is classified into Unacceptable level and the aspect of paraphrasing that the students commonly failed was Choice of Words aspect which got total average score 9,52 from three raters.
Based on the result of this research, the average score from all raters with score category as Unacceptable level score indicated that the students still have many troubles in their paraphrasing. It was reflected from the mistakes and troubles that the researcher found during the analysis part, and it strengthened the fact that they really had Unacceptable level for paraphrasing skill.
Furthermore, it was revealed from the previous samples of the 3 students' answer sheets that had been analyzed before that the students still did many mistakes in paraphrasing. First to be discussed from the analysis of the 3 samples before is the Content Information aspect. The most common mistakes that the researcher found was; it seems like the students tended to skip details from the original paragraphs, which in that way, the paraphrasing seems to be shorter and looked like summary than paraphrase. On the other hand, if the length of the paraphrasing seems to be almost similar with the original paragraphs, the researcher could say that their common mistakes in this way is the inappropriate use of vocabulary that actually should be discussed in Choice of Words aspect, but, this also can be linked to Content Information aspect for the reason that it is also affecting the quality of the details (Content Information) from the original paragraphs itself if the usage of the words is not suitable with the original context, which could lead to misinformation. In that way, the researcher finally considered how the participants could get low scores for this aspect since the situation is suitable with the criteria of Unacceptable level score; shaky or minimally information, severe problem with the original content (for Unacceptable level).
From the aspect of Choice of Words, the researcher found many problems in their answer sheets for this aspect, like; The researcher assumed that some of the students might be still did not understand how to do the test, or they were really still lack of paraphrasing knowledge, since most of them just copy paste the original paragraphs, then replaced only few vocabularies/words in it with their own. From the perspective of each of the three raters, the level from two raters were shown to be unacceptable and an adequate level revealed by another rater. In the choice of words aspect, it indicates that the students still have problems in using their own words to make sentences and create the writing based on the original ideas.
Last paraphrasing aspect to be discussed is Writing Conventions aspect. From the perspective of each of the three raters, the level from two raters were shown as Unacceptable level and Adequate level revealed by the other rater. In the writing convention aspect, the unacceptable score level indicates that there are numerous serious grammar problems; serious problems with punctuation format and unacceptable spelling. It indicates that the students as the participants are still troubling with the writing rules/conventions in developing paraphrasing. The researcher has checked thoroughly the participants' answer sheets, and the researcher did short analysis from it. The researcher refer to the scores that are given by the raters and match it with the criteria of the score, and found that there are mistakes did by the students like using the wrong grammar, technical mistakes like not putting punctuation in the right place, and even misspelling some words which is a great mistakes in English field where losing even only one word can change the meaning. Once again, the researcher could see the problems in the use of writing conventions like what the raters believed and showed through the score they gave.
By looking at the phenomena above, the researcher summarizes that the ability of the students in paraphrasing paragraphs is in Unacceptable category, and with this level, they still make some mistakes in the process of conducting the paraphrasing. In order to answer the research question on how bad the ability is, the only one clear answer is that all facts that are found within the research are only referring to the 'crisis' of paraphrasing ability, showed by the university students themselves. This finding showed that the university students' ability in paraphrasing paragraphs are still in low level, due to the facts that; First, they get low level score in all aspects of paraphrasing. Second, they still make many mistakes in every aspects of paraphrasing like; skipping important details in paraphrasing that may lead to misinformation, misusing the vocabulary and diction in creating the words in the paraphrasing, and having severe problems in the grammar, punctuation, and spelling (writing conventions). Moreover, choice of words seems to be the most difficult aspect for the students since it had the lowest score from raters than other aspects in paraphrasing.
At the end, there are some interpretations that can be concluded beyond the data which are about why the students' ability is on an unacceptable level. First, the students might have already learnt about paraphrasing in academic reading and writing class, but because their understanding about this writing skill seems to be not fully enough / not well understood by the students, it causes the students still lack of the knowledge of paraphrasing skill. This interpretation is consistent with Wahyuni Khairunnisa (2013) where in the research showed Furthermore, the students might have the unacceptable score level in this test because the students only know very limited vocabulary. As the result for this weakness, the students tended to replace only the words without changing the wording, therefore it can also be assumed that maybe some of them only know that paraphrasing should only about changing the words into their own words without changing the structure. This assumption and the research findings itself were likely support Frodesen (2002), who said that, "'Students' lack of vocabulary caused the paraphrase contained different meaning as they might misinterpreted the text and used a synonym which was not contain an approximate equivalence meaning".

CONCLUSIONS
After analyzing the students' ability in paraphrasing paragraphs and considering the three criteria used to score a paraphrasing test, it is found that the students' ability in paraphrasing is in unacceptable ability level, and this level is applicable for all three aspects of paraphrasing in this research. As for mean scores from each aspect are; 11,21 points for Content Information aspect, 9,52 points for Choice of Words aspect, and 9,75 points for Writing Conventions. In order to answer the research question on how bad the ability is, the only one clear answer is that all facts that are found within the research are only referring to the 'crisis' of paraphrasing ability, showed by the university students themselves. This finding showed that the university students' ability in paraphrasing paragraphs are still in low level, due to the facts that; First, they get low level score in all aspects of paraphrasing. Second, they still make many fatal mistakes in every aspects of paraphrasing like; skipping important details in paraphrasing that may lead to misinformation, misusing the vocabulary and diction in creating the words in the paraphrasing, and having severe problems in the grammar, punctuation, and spelling (writing conventions). Moreover, choice of words seems to be the most difficult aspect for the students since it had the lowest score from raters than other aspects in paraphrasing.
Overall, it can be concluded that the participants' ability in paraphrasing is bad, and referring on how bad it is, it can be categorized by Brown in unacceptable level, considering those mistakes that the participants did in their paraphrasing, and their level which are the 6 th semester students in college, as they have already learned paraphrasing in academic reading and writing class at the fourth semester.