“Writing is challenging”: factors contributing to undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing English essays

Essay writing is one of writing skills that must be mastered by students especially college ones because they often get an assignment to write an essay. However, many students find it difficult when they are assigned to compose an essay. This research aims to investigate the difficulties in English...

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Main Author: Tri Nurilah Febriani
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universitas Islam Negeri K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid Pekalongan 2022-05-01
Series:Erudita
Subjects:
Online Access:https://e-journal.uingusdur.ac.id/erudita/article/view/693
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author Tri Nurilah Febriani
author_facet Tri Nurilah Febriani
author_sort Tri Nurilah Febriani
collection DOAJ
description Essay writing is one of writing skills that must be mastered by students especially college ones because they often get an assignment to write an essay. However, many students find it difficult when they are assigned to compose an essay. This research aims to investigate the difficulties in English essay writing and its factors. Framed in a narrative inquiry, 33 students and one lecturer volunteered to participate. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke. Study findings reveal that students find difficulties in grammar, vocabulary, cohesion and coherence, and developing topic ideas. Factors that contribute to students’ difficulties are both internal factors (psychological factors and linguistic factors) and external factors (peer support and advisor support). Several ways that students do to overcome the difficulties in writing essays were motivating themselves, studying and reading a lot, and writing practice. In addition, they were also asked their friends and their lecturer to get more explanation. To make a good essay, students need to improve their grammar and punctuation ability. They, likewise, need to increase their logical thinking ability to create coherent and cohesive essays.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2809-2023
2809-2465
language English
publishDate 2022-05-01
publisher Universitas Islam Negeri K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid Pekalongan
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spelling doaj-art-2d938126e8e84689bea781aabf435e9c2025-01-29T15:01:28ZengUniversitas Islam Negeri K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid PekalonganErudita2809-20232809-24652022-05-0121839310.28918/erudita.v2i1.5441694“Writing is challenging”: factors contributing to undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing English essaysTri Nurilah Febriani0Universitas Islam Negeri K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid Pekalongan, IndonesiaEssay writing is one of writing skills that must be mastered by students especially college ones because they often get an assignment to write an essay. However, many students find it difficult when they are assigned to compose an essay. This research aims to investigate the difficulties in English essay writing and its factors. Framed in a narrative inquiry, 33 students and one lecturer volunteered to participate. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke. Study findings reveal that students find difficulties in grammar, vocabulary, cohesion and coherence, and developing topic ideas. Factors that contribute to students’ difficulties are both internal factors (psychological factors and linguistic factors) and external factors (peer support and advisor support). Several ways that students do to overcome the difficulties in writing essays were motivating themselves, studying and reading a lot, and writing practice. In addition, they were also asked their friends and their lecturer to get more explanation. To make a good essay, students need to improve their grammar and punctuation ability. They, likewise, need to increase their logical thinking ability to create coherent and cohesive essays.https://e-journal.uingusdur.ac.id/erudita/article/view/693essay writinglinguistic factorspsychological factorsstudents' difficulties
spellingShingle Tri Nurilah Febriani
“Writing is challenging”: factors contributing to undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing English essays
Erudita
essay writing
linguistic factors
psychological factors
students' difficulties
title “Writing is challenging”: factors contributing to undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing English essays
title_full “Writing is challenging”: factors contributing to undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing English essays
title_fullStr “Writing is challenging”: factors contributing to undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing English essays
title_full_unstemmed “Writing is challenging”: factors contributing to undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing English essays
title_short “Writing is challenging”: factors contributing to undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing English essays
title_sort writing is challenging factors contributing to undergraduate students difficulties in writing english essays
topic essay writing
linguistic factors
psychological factors
students' difficulties
url https://e-journal.uingusdur.ac.id/erudita/article/view/693
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