This study is concerned with the comparison analysis on students’ writing skill using two different methods at the tenth grade of senior high school. The objectives of this research are to investigate: (1) whether there is significant difference in writing skill between students taught by using Mind Mapping and those taught by using Direct Instructional Method; and (2) which group of students has better writing skill, the grouptaught by using Mind Mapping or students taught byusing Direct Instructional Method.
This research was conducted at a senior high school in Karanganyar. The population of the research was tenth grade students. The samples were 35 students from experimental group and 36 students from control group. The technique used in collecting the sample was cluster random sampling. The instrument used to collect the data was essay test. Data were analyzed by using t-test formula.
The result of data computation shows that t obtained (to) = 2.8548 is higher than t table (69; 0.05) = 1.9949. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference in writing skill between students taught by using Mind Mapping and students taught by using Direct Instructional Method. The mean score of experimental group is 85.157, while the mean score of control group is 81.681. It can be concluded that Mind Mapping is more effective than Direct Instructional Method to teach writing.

Keywords: Direct Instructional Method, Mind Mapping, Writing Skill