This research proposal examines the effectiveness of using mind maps to help secondary students write literary essays. It hypothesizes that using mind maps can improve students' ability to organize ideas and will lead to higher scores on literary essays. The study will use an experimental design with a treatment group that receives training on using mind maps and a control group. Both groups will take a pre-test and post-test literary essay to measure score gains. A questionnaire will also gather students' perceptions of using mind maps. The study aims to provide evidence on whether mind maps improve literary essay writing and organization of ideas.

1. RESEARCH PROPOSAL
The Use of Mind Map in Writing
Literary Essays
HAZILAWATI BINTI TAMBY ABDULLAH

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
• English literature acts as a medium of enhancing
critical thinking skills and developing independent
readers. Learners of literature component should be
able to give critical responses and multiple
interpretations to the literary text learnt.
• Teachers play an important role to ensure that students
are capable of giving their personal responses to the
literary texts. This is mentioned specifically by the
Malaysian Examination Syndicate (2002) that urge
students to be well-equipped with the necessary skill.

3. • However, according to Rajaram (2008), after almost a decade of
studying literature texts, ‘learners have not adequately acquired a
critical approach towards texts and their interpretations are not
independent enough’. Students are not able to express their
opinions and give critical response when ask to write a response to
literature work.
• In 2010, it was reported that SPM candidates, on the whole, did not
do well in the last question in Paper 1119/2 which required
students to respond to the question based on the novel they had
studied. According to the Malaysian Examination Syndicate in its
‘Kupasan Mutu Jawapan SPM 2010’, candidates showed
weaknesses in responding to the task given and there were
instances of mere narration of the novel read.

4. • ‘Some responses were too shallow, lacking
textual evidence and development. Weaker
candidates just wrote something about the
novel, usually narrating events in the novel
without addressing the task. The responses
lacked textual evidence to support the
viewpoint. Some responses lacked
development’.
(Kupasan Mutu Jawapan SPM 2010)

5. Research Objectives
• To study the effectiveness of using mind map
to help upper secondary students to write
literary essays.
• To identify the effectiveness of using mind
map in terms of ability of organising ideas.

6. Research Questions
• Is there any difference in the gain score of the
experimental group and control group in
writing the literary essay?
• Does the students able to plan and organize
their ideas while writing literary essays when
mind map is used?

7. Research Design and Methodology
• The design of this research is experimental
research
• Consists of qualitative and quantitative approach
• Qualitative research method is used to gather
students’ perceptions in the use of mind map
• Quantitative research method is used to gather
data that will be integrated in numbers and
percentages
• Pre-test & Post-test are used to compare
students’ scores

8. Population and sampling
• Sampling
• All form 5 students (513 students) from SMK
Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh
• Population
• Involved 90 Form 5 students
• Students are of the same streaming level
• Intermediate level of proficiency

9. Instrumentation
• Instruments that will be used to identify the
research questions are:-
 Pre-test
 Post test
 Questionnaire

10. Research Procedure
NO RESEARCH ACTIVITIES ESTIMATED DURATION
1 Pre-test : Students write a literary essay before
the treatment
1 week
2 Marking the literary essay and collecting the
data
3 weeks
3 Treatment stage: Training the students on using
mind map to answer literary essay
8 weeks
4 Post-test: Students write a literary essay after
the treatment stage
1 week
5 Marking the literary essays and collecting the
data
3 weeks
6 Conduct questionnaire 1 week
7 Analysis of data 4 weeks
8 Writing of report 5 weeks
9 Refining report 3 weeks
TOTAL NUMBER OF WEEKS 29 weeks