@phdthesis{UNY25657,
          school = {Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta},
            year = {2012},
           month = {May},
          author = {Abid Alif Mudafi},
           title = {THE EFFECT OF THE CLASS BLOG ON THE WRITING SKILLS OF GRADE VIII STUDENTS AT SMP NEGERI 4 PAKEM IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2011/2012},
             url = {http://eprints.uny.ac.id/25657/},
        keywords = {the effect, class blog, writing skills, SMP},
        abstract = {The objective of this research was to investigate whether there was a significant difference in the writing ability between the students who were taught with the class blog and those who were taught without it. 
The research was carried out at SMP Negeri 4 Pakem in August 2011. It was a quasi-experimental study. The population was 120 first semester students of grade eighth. In this research, the sample was selected using the cluster random sampling technique. It consisted of VIIID (30 students) as the control class and VIIIC (30 students) as the experimental class. The data were collected using the writing pre-test and post-test. The data were analyzed using the descriptive technique to find the means and the standard deviations and the inferential technique, i.e. ANCOVA, to test the hypothesis, employing the SPSS 18.0 for the windows program. 
The results of the study show that the students who were taught with the class blog had better writing scores than those who were taught without the class blog. It is supported by the mean of the post-test of the experimental class which was higher than that of the control class (34.63{\ensuremath{>}}32.23). The use of the class blog is more effective than the technique used in the control class. It is supported by the result of the ANCOVA. It shows that the probability value was lower than the significance level of 5\%, 0.007{\ensuremath{<}}0.05. Finally, the research findings imply that the use of the class blog has a significant effect on the students? writing skills.}
}