Syntax Literate: Jurnal
Ilmiah Indonesia p–ISSN: 2541-0849 e-ISSN: 2548-1398
Vol. 7, No. 12, Desember
2022
AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’
PROBLEMS IN WRITING ESSAYS
Wahyuni Rahmi, Clarry Sada, Dwi Riyanti
Universitas Tanjungpura
Email: [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
This research aimed to describe the problems sixth-semester English students face in writing essays and determine the factors that cause the problems. This research was designed to be qualitative, with a descriptive study as the methodology. The subject of this researcher was the twenty students in the sixth semester of the English language education study program, faculty of teacher training and education, Universitas Tanjungpura in the academic year 2022/2023, taken as the sample of the research by using the purposive sampling. Document analysis, qualitative surveys, and interviews were used to get the data. Tools of data collection used were documents, open-ended questionnaires, and interviews. The findings revealed that students had problems writing essays, especially with organization, mechanics, grammar, and vocabulary. Besides, it was also found that the factors caused the problems in writing essays were lack of knowledge, loss of motivation and practice, "writer's block," lack of ability to find related information and facts, lack of ability in word choices and vocabulary mastery, and unsupportive environment.
Kata kunci: Essay Writing; Students’ Problems; Descriptive Study
Introduction
In English teaching-learning activities, writing
is one of the English skills that should be mastered by English language
learners. Writing is considered one of the indicators of the student's success
in learning English. According to Hyland (2022)., writing is vital to teaching
and learning activities in higher education, which is a way for students to
create and demonstrate their understanding of their courses. Writing helps
students improve their communication and critical thinking skills. Writing
improves students' ability to communicate and refine their ideas to others.
On the other hand, during education, a student's
task is to complete a predetermined course. Usually, when completing these
courses, students are given assignments in the form of essays, proposals, or
even final assignments. Students are required to be able to develop good and
correct writing skills.
According to Rezeki (2017), students' writing skills require producing
texts with good consistency and coherence following grammatical and syntactical
rules and writing mechanisms. Therefore, students' academic writing skills are
one of the parameters that determine the success of their studies.
In the English
Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education,
Universitas Tanjungpura, especially for undergraduate
students, one of the skills related to writing must be mastered by students,
namely skills in compiling scientific descriptive studies within the scope of
education. In this case, essay writing is one course that requires students to
complete their studies. The essay is an important part of creating academic
writing. In this current situation, many students, especially those in the
university, need help writing their academic papers, like essays.
In addition, many students nowadays,
particularly those in universities, need help to write properly about academic
papers such as essays. The truth is that academic writing skills are important.
Based on preliminary research conducted with several students at Universitas Tanjungpura, the researcher discovered that when students
were writing essays, they encountered problems that caused the writing to fall
short of the student's expectations. It has been stated that only sometimes, in
writing, the results are positive. Students recognize the importance of
academic writing skills. Students need help writing basic sentences of writing,
such as those used in essays (Ayana et al., 2020).
Some previous studies have conducted similar
research. The primary research was conducted by Faizah et al. (2022). The
findings of the research showed that students had problems writing essays.
Those problems are related to finding and developing ideas, the mechanics of
writing and citation, grammar use, writing conventions, finding appropriate
vocabulary, and problems in the coherence and cohesiveness of the text. Another
research by Alfaruqy et al. (2022) also had done
similar research with the previous research above. In this research, the
findings showed that students had errors in faulty sentences consisting of the
basic sentence structures, errors in using correct grammar, errors in
mechanics, errors in vocabulary, and errors in the context of format.
Although there has been research on essays, as
shown in previous research conducted by Faizah et al. (2022), which focused on
problems in essay writing in general, and also research conducted by Alfaruqy et al. (2022), there is still little information
about argumentative essays faced by students, such as those at Universitas Tanjungpura. Therefore, to fill this gap, the researcher
conducted research at Universitas Tanjungpura to
expand previous research findings. In line with the statement above, the researcher
intended to investigate whether the use of Webtoon could answer two research
questions as follows: 1) What are the problems faced by sixth-semester English
students in writing argumentative essays? Furthermore, 2) What factors cause
problems in writing argumentative essays for sixth-semester English students?
Research
Method
The researcher conducted a qualitative research
approach with a descriptive research design as a research methodology because,
in this method, the things studied were related to events experienced by the
subject of the study. According to Creswell & Creswell (2018, p. 41),
“Qualitative research is an approach for exploring and understanding the
meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem.”
Furthermore, "descriptive research focused on providing an accurate
description or picture of the status or characteristics of a situation or
phenomenon" (Johnson & Christensen, 2014, p. 407). This means that the
study being researched only focuses on the research topic. On the other hand,
according to Nassaji (2015), descriptive research is
a method used. This method aims to draw and classify the phenomenon being
researched.
The researcher chose to use descriptive research
because the researcher wanted to find out and analyze the problems in writing
essays that happened to the students in the sixth semester in Universitas Tanjungpura Pontianak, especially those in the English
Language Education Study Program. Then, this research was also used to describe
the factors that cause the problems in their essay writing. In conducting this
research, the researcher selected participants by using purposive sampling.
"Purposive sampling is all cases that mean some criteria that would be
useful for quality assurance" (Creswell, 2014, p. 209). This research
included twenty students in the sixth semester of the English language
education study program, faculty of teacher training and education, Universitas
Tanjungpura.
In the data collection phase, the researcher
collected data through document analysis, followed by a qualitative survey, and
ended with the interviews. "Document analysis can be written or text-based
artifacts (textbooks, novels, journals, meeting minutes, logs, announcements,
policy statements, newspapers, transcripts, birth certificates, marriage
records, budgets, letters, e-mail messages, etc." (Ary
et al.,2014, p. 445). The researcher started the research by conducting
document analysis in the form of students' essays writing to classify what
problems they found in the writing they made. The topic of the essays
predetermined by the researcher was "Online Learning Should Be Used in
Teaching and Learning Activities." All students were given the same title,
aiming to observe and analyze students' understanding of the given topic.
The researcher continued with conducting the
qualitative survey. According to Jones et al. (2013), the survey is used in
research data by collecting information from large groups. This research used
an open-ended questionnaire in a qualitative survey to generate long-form
written/typed responses. This questionnaire aimed to learn more, in other
words, to cross-check students' writings previously written by them. The
questionnaire was distributed online through Google Forms to students who
previously agreed to become research participants, namely those who were asked
to write essays. The results of this open-ended questionnaire were written
responses from students containing their opinions and experiences regarding the
questions asked.
The research continued with an interview with
the students who were chosen as research participants. According to Gay et al.
(2012, p. 386), "An interview is a purposeful interaction in which one
person obtains information from another." The researcher used
semi-structured interviews in this study. In practice, the researcher conducted
interviews in stages, each tailored to a different class of students. Each
student had an estimated 15 - 20 minutes for the interview. Throughout the
process, the researcher submitted questions that students must answer based on
their circumstances when writing essays.
The researcher first gathered a sample of
students who had participated in a qualitative survey for this interview. The
researcher needed more information to clarify the statements made by students
in the qualitative survey. As a result, the researcher conducted interviews to
learn more about students' difficulties when writing essays and the factors
that contributed to them.
In the analyzing phase, the researcher used
initial names to replace the participants' real names when analyzing the data.
This was done to protect the participants' confidentiality and to keep them
safe from unwanted things in the future. Furthermore, the researcher analyzed
the data using data from Creswell in 2014. To conduct the analysis, the
researcher just adopted four of six steps of the data analysis proposed by
Creswell (2014), namely; 1) Organizing and preparing the data for analysis, 2)
Reading or looking at all the data, 3) Advancing how the description and themes
represented in the qualitative narrative, and 4) Interpreting qualitative
research.
The data analysis process began with gathering
all the research findings from document analysis obtained from students' essay
writing and qualitative surveys using open-ended questionnaires and interviews.
Then, the researcher continued reading and writing the entire data transcript,
which included students' writing, their responses in a qualitative survey using
an open-ended questionnaire, and their explanations during the interviews.
Furthermore, the researcher conducted the discussion by replacing the names of
students who became participants with initials.
Furthermore, the data was supplemented with information
derived from various responses analyzed from students' qualitative survey
responses and interviews conducted using an open-ended questionnaire and a list
of interview questions. Moreover, it concluded with the researcher's
interpretation of the research, which was the researcher's opinion because the
findings were related to the problem being studied, which is the problem found
in the process of students' essay writing and the factors causing those problems.
The researcher was flexible in conveying personal, research-based, and action
meanings as the final results of data analysis.
Results And Discussion
The problems
faced by the sixth-semester of English students in writing essays
This part was intended to discover
and describe the students' problems in writing essays. The researcher analyzed
the data based on the research questions that had been formulated. The
researcher used document analysis on students' essay writing to answer the
first research questions, supplemented by data from an open-ended questionnaire
and interviews. The researcher discovered that students frequently experience
problems when writing essays are problems related to organization, mechanics,
grammar, and vocabulary after analyzing the data.
Organization was one of the problems found in
students' essay writing. This was related to how the structure of the essay was
written by students in their essays. The problems were in the form of the
structure of the essay, including the introductory paragraph (including topic
and thesis statements), body paragraphs (supporting sentences), and concluding
sentences. As an example, the researcher took two essays writing written by
students that were written by CV and ARS.
The essay written by CV had an inappropriate
structure, namely between the introductory paragraph, the body paragraph, and
also the concluding paragraph. The first paragraph of the essay had no thesis
statement in it. While the second until the fifth paragraphs needed to be
clearer to be indicated as the body paragraphs. Those paragraphs did not show
clear supporting sentences, including the evidence. It also happened to the
last paragraph, which was supposed to be the concluding paragraph, but CV needed
to clarify the statement.
In addition, for the essay written by ARS, the
arguments presented were unclear, especially in the body paragraphs. In the
body paragraphs, reading what ARS wanted to convey concerning the discussed
topic was rather difficult. Besides, ARS also combined the body paragraphs into
one, which should have been better separated into three parts. Aside from
analyzing the problems related to the organization in students' essays through
document analysis, the researcher also analyzed the problem through open-ended
questionnaires and interviews. Some students stated in the questionnaire and
interviews that they needed organizational help as stated by one of the
students in the following excerpt.
The problems that I have when I write essays are
the difficulties to find the evidence supporting my statement, the unity, and
coherence between one sentence to another. Besides that, I also have problems
such as lack of ideas, lack of imagination in writing, and also lack of sources
that can be used as references.
(Interview with
Er).
As indicated by the excerpts from Er, and also
based on some of the students' essays writing, they supported that the students
had problems related to the organization.
The next problem
discovered in students' essay writing was the problem related to the mechanics.
The problems of mechanics discovered in students' essays writing were related
to capitalization and punctuation. As an example, the researcher took three essays
writing written by students that were written by Ii,
BYB, and YN. In the essay written by Ii, it was found
that some of the first letters of the first words used in the sentences did not
use the capital letter. As it was known, the first letter of the first word in
a sentence must use a capital letter. The same problem is also found in the
essay written by BYB. In the essay by BYB,some
of the sentences still need to use capital letters for the first words of the
sentences.
Moreover, the essay by YN was an example of an
essay with a punctuation-related problem. The researcher found that there are
some of the sentences missed the punctuation mark comma (,). In addition, from
the open-ended questionnaire and interviews, it was found that students had
problems related to mechanics, especially the use of punctuation. One of the
students said, “Sometimes, when writing, I found it difficult to use correct
punctuation. It is because when I don’t use the correct punctuation, then it can
make the essay I made do not clear enough.” (Interview with UAAM). As indicated
by the excerpts from UAAM, and also based on some of the students' essays
writing, they supported that the students had problems related to mechanics.
Another problem found in students' essays was
the problems related to grammar. The researcher took some examples of students'
writing to prove that there were grammar-related problems. The examples were
taken from RAPE, VJ, and Er. In the essay written by RAPE, there were
ungrammatically sentences. RAPE used the incorrect form of the verb
"become," which was supposed to be “becomes” as it was followed by
the subject "it." it was also found that RAPE had the incorrect verb
"other advantages," which was supposed to be "another
advantage." A similar problem was also found in the essay made by VJ,
which was the use of the word “become” that was supposed to be “became” because
it was followed by the word "has," as it was indicated that the verb
used was stood for present perfect tense.
On the other hand, Er
also had some ungrammatical words in the essay. In the essay written by Er, it
was missed the use of a possessive form of the pronoun "it," which
was written in the text as "it is flexibility," which was supposed to
be "its flexibility." Another ungrammatical word was the word
"learner," which was supposed to be "learners," as it was
followed by the word "have." Moreover, Er
had a problem with the use of “an internet connection” after the word
"have," which is supposed to be "the internet connections,"
as it was prescribed how the words should be used. Furthermore, it also found
that Er had an ungrammatical word,
"benefits," which was supposed to be "benefit," as it was
followed by the word "another."
Besides, the researcher also got similar
problems related to grammar from students' statements in the questionnaires and
interviews. Students had explained about it in the questionnaire and also
interviews. Two of the students said that “I have problems in grammar and
getting stuck because I'm always thinking about what to write from Indonesian
to English.” (Interview with FA) and “When writing the essay, I find it
difficult to use appropriate grammar writing an essay.” (Interview with RJ). As
indicated by the excerpts from FA and RJ, and also based on some of the
students' essay writing, they supported that the students had problems related
to grammar.
The last problem found in students' essay
writing was related to vocabulary. It was related to the use of pronouns. The
researcher took one example of students' essay writing, with the most prominent
problems seen being related to vocabulary in the form of using appropriate
words or pronouns written by GZ. In the essay written by GZ, in almost every
paragraph, there was a sentence that used first-person pronouns such as
"I, we, you, me," which should not be recommended for use in essay
writing. Those expressions were unrecommended because using those in an essay
could make the writing wordy, make the writer appear less confident in the
presented ideas, and give the essay an informal tone.
Furthermore, from the analysis through
open-ended questionnaires and interviews, some students stated that they had
problems related to vocabulary. Two students, ARS and MM, stated that they face
vocabulary-related problems when writing essays as shown in the following
excerpts.
The problems I experience are usually a lack of
ideas; vocabulary is not yet sufficient. It is a problem for me when choosing
suitable and not convoluted words is also difficult for me. Those require a lot
of time to think to choose the right words.
(Interview with
ARS)
It is a problem when writing. I feel hard to
connect the ideas in my writing. besides that, I'm also lacking in using formal
vocabulary in writing essays.
(Interview with
MM).
As indicated by the excerpts from ARS and MM,
and also based on documents being analyzed that were students' essay writing,
they supported that the students had problems related to vocabulary.
The factors that cause problems in writing
essays to the sixth semester of English students
This section was intended to find out and
describe the answers to the second research question related to the factors
that cause students to have problems in writing essays. The researcher analyzed
by using the results of the interview. The types of questions asked during the
interview sessions required students to respond with answers accompanied by
explanations. This was due to the researcher asking two questions during the
interviews, which the students responded to by providing information about the
factors that caused their difficulty in writing essays. According to the
interviews, some factors cause student essay writing problems.
The first factor was the students' understanding
of the topic covered in the essay. Factors related to students' knowledge and
understanding of the topics caused students to procrastinate. Furthermore,
their lack of knowledge of a topic discussed could be caused by a lack of
motivation and a lack of practice in writing the essay itself. These stated CV:
"For me, the factor that causes the problem in my writing is lacking
knowledge about the topic I want to investigate or I do not familiar with
it." (Interview with CV). That statement was also supported by RAPE, who
said that "It happens because I lack motivation in writing, I have a habit
of procrastinating the writing, and lack of practice in writing essays."
(Interview with RAPE). According to the excerpts from CV and RAPE, the
students' difficulties in writing essays were caused by a lack of knowledge,
including a lack of motivation, a lack of practice, and a procrastination
habit.
Students ' inability to think was another factor
contributing to writing essays' problems. As a result, their writing needs to
be completed or meet their expectations. These were stated by two students
during the interview session, Ii and GZ. Ii said, “The cause I have problems writing essays is
negative thinking. Before I made essay writing, I would think, "I think
that is difficult to do." And it made me lazy to do it early."
(Interview with Ii). Moreover, GZ stated that “In my
opinion, the factor causing the problem is the writer's block. It makes me feel
like I need some break from the writing that I do." (Interview with GZ).
According to the excerpts from Ii and GZ, they
supported the idea that the student's problems in writing essays could be due
to students inability to think clearly, also known as
writer's block.
In addition, a lack of ability to find
information became another factor that caused students to have problems in
writing essays. Students explained that when they had a new topic being
discussed, sometimes they needed help finding information that was accurate,
relevant, and reliable. This was stated by one of the students in the interview
session, namely FA. FA said, “The factors that cause problems in writing essays
are the lack of looking for references that can be used to make arguments and
looking for valid facts or evidence that can support my essay writing.”
(Interview with FA). As indicated by the excerpt from FA, students supported
that the lack of finding related information could cause problems in writing
essays.
The next factor that caused students problems in
writing essays was the need for more ability in word choices and vocabulary.
Some students stated that when writing, they found it hard to choose the
correct words to use in their essays. In addition, some of them also explained
that they needed to be mastering the vocabulary better, which caused them to
have problems writing essays. BYB and M, two of the students interviewed, had
made statements related to the factors that caused the problems in their essay writing:
a lack of ability to choose word choices and vocabulary as indicated in the
following excerpts:
I think the factors causing the problems are
lack of ability in creating ideas, lack of vocabulary and lack of grammar.
(Interview with
BYB).
I think the factor causing the problem in my
writing is because my word choice is not very good. So, it seems that the idea
I want to convey is already quite good, supported by facts, but because the
word choice is not that good, that makes me unsatisfied with what I'm writing
about.
(Interview with M).
As indicated by the excerpts from BYB and M,
they supported that the students' problems in writing essays could be caused by
the lack of ability to choose word choices and vocabulary.
Last but not least, there was also another
factor found in the interview sessions related to the factor causing students'
problems in writing essays. During the interview, a student, Er,
said that the environment could be a factor causing problems in writing essays.
The student said that when trying to write, a good environment was needed. This
was because when writing, sometimes there were people around who could
interfere with writing activities, so the writing could have been better.
"Individual, like maybe I have another problem, so I can't focus on
writing. And then the environment, when I write, I should be focused. However,
sometimes it is hard because my friend like playing music, doing something
noisy." (Interview with Er). According to the excerpt by Er, the students
supported that it could be said that an un-surrounding environment can also
cause problems in writing essays.
This research aimed to find out and describe the
problems in students' essay writing and the factors causing those problems. The
research was done with twenty students in the sixth semester of the English
language education study program, faculty of teacher training and education,
Universitas Tanjungpura, in the academic year
2022/2023 as the sample of the research. As is explained in the results
section, the researcher found there are two main findings that researchers
obtained from the interviews done with the students. For this discussion
section, it will explain those two main findings.
One of the problems students face when writing
essays is a problem related to organization. The analysis discovered that the
organization problem was related to how the structure of the essay was written.
It was related to the structure of the introductory paragraph (including topic
and thesis statements), body paragraphs (supporting sentences), and concluding
sentences. The finding of this research is in line with the previous study
conducted by Cekiso et al. (2016), which found that
students struggled to write introductions, developed coherent paragraphs, and
write conclusions. Students' essays revealed that their introductions needed to
adhere to academic writing standards.
This is also in
line with the study conducted by Ashrafiany et al.
(2020), who found that students needed to gain knowledge of the subject to
determine the topic of the essay. They struggled to find topics and organize or
compile essays because they must determine the topic and the information used
in the essay. Therefore, the organization becomes one of the problems students
experience when writing essays.
The next problem was related to mechanics. The
problems were related to capitalization and punctuation in their writing. For
capitalization, it was found that some students did not use the appropriate
words at the beginning of the sentences. Meanwhile, for the punctuation, there
still needed to be the use of punctuation in their essay. This finding is in
line with the previous research conducted by Rahmatunisa
(2014), which found that students had problems putting correct punctuation,
making it a problem faced by EFL students. This is because writing not only
expresses ideas but also organizes words.
Another problem was discovered in students'
writing, which was the problem with grammar. Some of the essays written by
students had ungrammatically sentencesAsidees from
that, from the open-ended questionnaire and interview, students assumed it was
a struggle to use correct grammar in their essay writing. Some students stated
that they needed help dealing with grammar when writing an essay. They stated
that they needed clarification about which tenses to use in each essay
paragraph.
This research finding aligns with the previous
research by Bukit (2020), who found that students made tense mistakes when
making sentences. They need to pay more attention to how to use the tenses when
writing. This caused misinformation to be channeled through the writing they
made. Moreover, similar previous research by Toba et al. (2019) also explained
that errors found in students' work were subject-verb agreement, tenses,
pronouns, auxiliary verbs, plural forms, -s/-es, and -ed forms. This means that
grammar problems are also found in writing essays.
Moreover, vocabulary-related problem is also
found in students' writing. When doing the analysis, the research found that
some students use first-person pronouns, which should not be used in essays. If
the vocabulary used needed to be clearer, then it could make the essay became
unreadable. Excerpts by the students also showed that when writing essays, they
were unsure which vocabulary to use for their essays to be good and appear more
scientific. This was because they were less accustomed to using vocabulary that
can be described as more scientific.
The finding of this research is in line with
research conducted by Ariyanti & Fitriana (2017), who found that some students used
nonacademic words in their essays, such as "thing," which was not
considered academic or scientific word diction. Furthermore, as it is well
known that mastery of vocabulary is essential in essay writing, this can help
writing become more expressive. According to the current findings and previous
research, some problems arise for students when writing essays. The problems
are divided into four categories: organization, mechanics (punctuation and
capitalization), grammar, and vocabulary. Students assumed that if these
problems arose while they were writing essays, the results of their essays
writing would suffer as a result.
The researcher used interviews to find those
factors related to the next findings of this research, which is about the
factors that cause students' problems in writing essays. One of the factors
that influenced the occurrence of problems in writing essays by students was
the need for more knowledge, less motivation, and less practice in writing
essays. This caused students to procrastinate on work or assignments. When
students do this in their essays, it can lead them to less-than-optimal
writing, especially regarding organization. Due to conditions in students who
lose enthusiasm to do something, enrich themselves with essay writing
exercises, and achieve specific goals, this can impact the essay writing
process being worked on. This research finding is in line with the previous research
conducted by Fareed et al. (2016), which showed that undergraduate students'
problems with writing activities were influenced by a lack of reading and
writing practice, low motivation, and a lack of ideas. As a result, their
writings produce less than optimal results.
The next factor that causes problems in
students' essay writing is the inability to think clearly. In this case,
students writing essays experienced writer's block as a result of difficulties
encountered during the writing process. The difficulties could manifest as a
lack of clarity of thought and organization, a lack of focus and inspiration,
overthinking the topic, and other similar disorders. Those factors can be said
as the factors that cause students' problems in writing, especially the
problems related to mechanics and grammar. This is in line with the research
conducted by Sari (2018), which found that students needed help to write their
ideas because the features of the Indonesian language differ greatly from those
of English.
In addition, students' problems in writing
essays were also caused by needing more ability to find information that was
accurate, relevant, and reliable to the topic. In this case, if the conditions
mentioned earlier occur to students, the results obtained from their writing
are affected, especially made them had problems
related to the organization. If the writer has difficulty finding information
to support his argument, it will affect the essay being written, particularly
for readers. The finding of this research is similar to the previous research
conducted by Nenotek et al. (2022), which described
that students' problems in writing essays included aspects of content such as
thesis statements, developing ideas related to personal experience,
illustrations, facts, opinions, and descriptions of use/cause, comparison/contrast.
Besides, other factors also affect student
problems in writing student essays, namely, a lack of ability to choose words
and master vocabulary. Students who wrote essays, in this case, stated that
they spent a significant amount of time thinking about the words to use in
their essays, which made them feel that their ability in word choices and
mastering vocabulary was lacking. When they make such statements, their lack of
vocabulary is a contributing factor to the problem related to vocabulary
itself. This aligns with the previous research conducted by Febriani
(2022), who found that students needed more vocabulary mastery and choosing the
right words to use in writing essays.
Moreover, the un-surrounding environment (such
as noisy and unconducive conditions) also affected students' problems in
writing essays. When students are in an environment that is not conducive to
writing, such as a place that is too noisy or has too many people, their
writing will suffer. This allows students to have problems in writing,
especially those related to organization, mechanics, grammar, and vocabulary.
The finding of this research is similar to the previous research done by Budjalemba & Listyani (2020),
which found that a non-conducive environment, such as inappropriate time and
class settings, and rigid regulations in academic writing are all factors that
contribute to students' writing problems.
Conclusion
In summary, there are two main findings that the
researcher obtained from doing this research. When writing essays, students
experience problems in the organization, which affects the sentence structure
of essays, which makes their writing in-coherent. In addition, students also
faced other problems related to mechanics, such as punctuation and
capitalization problems in writing essays. Sometimes, they could have used the
capital letters of each first word in the sentences, and the words were
miswritten. Besides, students needed help with the grammar used in essay
writing. They also needed help using vocabulary, such as using words that could
cause an informal tone in the essays, which affected sentence production.
Furthermore, students also pointed out the
factors that caused students problems in writing essays. The factors were the
lack of motivation and practice in writing essays. This caused students to
procrastinate on work or assignments, which affected them to have problems
related to the organization. Writer's block also became another factor causing
problems related to mechanics and grammar in writing essays. Whichit caused students who were working on essay writing
activities to be unable to continue what they had written, or they were said to
be stuck at a certain point in the story being worked on. Students also
explained that they needed more ability to find accurate, relevant, and
reliable information.
Besides that, the lack of ability to choose
words and master vocabulary also affected students' writing and made them have
problems in the form of vocabulary. Students who wrote essays stated that they
spent much time to think the words used in the essay, which made them feel that
their ability in word choices and mastering vocabulary needed to be improved.
Another factor was the un-surrounding environment which made students need help
with organization, mechanics, grammar, and vocabulary. When students are in an
environment that is not conducive to writing, such as a place that is too noisy
or has too many people, their writing will suffer.
Aside from the findings of this research, the
researcher found a limitation of the research conducted. The limitation is
related to the research's scope, which employs a small number of participants,
namely only students at a specific level. Future research of this type would be
preferable to use a wider scope, such as a larger number of participants or
taking samples from several classes at the same level.
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