Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui efektivitas penggunaan teknik pengelompokan dalam menulis teks deskriptif bagi siswa kelas delapan smp muhammadiyah 1 tarakan tahun akademik 2013/2014. metode penelitian ini adalah quasi experimental. sampel diambil dengan menggunakan total sampling. ada dua kelas yang diambil sebagai sampel dalam penelitian ini. kelas eksperimen diajarkan menggunakan clustering technique sedangkan kelas kontrol diajarkan dengan conventional teaching. instrumen penelitian ini adalah tes menulis. data yang dianalisis adalah data nilai hasil pretest dan posttest dari kelas ekperimen dan kelas control. dalam menganalisis data, peneliti menggunakan sampel independent t -test dengan spss 16.0 hasil dari penelitian menunjukkan bahwa nilai rata-rata kelas eksperimen adalah 82,61 dan nilai rata-rata kelas kontrol adalah 71,85. dari hasil perbandingan tersebut, sudah jelas bahwa gain dari dua skor adalah 10,76 poin. tidak hanya hasil dari sample t-test independent pada tingkat signifikansi 0,05, tetapi juga nilai t-tabel dan t-test. nilai t-table adalah 1,6779 dan t- tet 4,320. hal ini menunjukkan bahwa t-test lebih tinggi daripada nilai t-tabel (4.320> 1,6779). dengan kata lain, hipotesis nol (h0) ditolak dan hipotesis alternatif (ha) diterima. hasil analisis data membuktikan bahwa hasil pengajaran menggunakan clustering technique lebih tinggi dibandingkan tanpa menggunakan clustering technique. peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa siswa yang diajarkan menggunakan clustering technique efektif daripada siswa yang diajar tanpa menggunakan teknik pengelompokan di kelas viii smp muhammadiyah 1 tarakan.

This study aimed at finding out the effectiveness of using clustering technique in teaching writing descriptive text for eight grade students of smp muhammadiyah 1 tarakan in academic years 2013/2014. the method of the study was quasi experimental. the samples were taken by using total sampling. there were two classes as the samples of this research. the experimental class was taught by using clustering technique and control class was taught by conventional technique. the instrument of the study was writing test. the analyzed data was from the score data pretest and posttest of the experimental class and control class. in analyzing the data, the researcher used independent sample t-test with spss 16.0 the results of the study showed that the mean score of the experimental class was 82.61 and the mean score of the control class was 71.85. from the results of this comparison, it was clear that the gain of the two scores was 10.76 points. not only the results of the independent sample t-test at the 0.05 level, but also the value of t-table and t-test. t-table value was 1.6779 and t-test 4,320. this indicates that the t-test was higher than the value of t-table (4.320> 1.6779). in other words, the null hypothesis (h0) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (ha) was accepted. the results of the analysis data results prove that teaching using clustering technique of is higher than without using a clustering technique. the researcher concluded that students who were taught by using clustering technique was effective than the students who were taught by using conventional teaching at the eighth grade of smp muhammadiyah 1 tarakan.