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THE DESCRIPTION OF STUDENT’S PROBLEMS IN WRITING SKILL
1Irmawati, 2La Aba 3Enni Akhmad
1Irmawati@gmail.com 2laaba@iaingorontalo.ac.id  3enniakhmad@gmail.com 
English Education Department, Tarbiyah and Teacher Training Faculty, IAIN Sultan Amai Gorontalo, Indonesia
Abstract: The Description Of Student’s Problems In Writing Skill
 Research Objectives  to find out students’ problems in writing skill and to find out what factors hinder students’ability in writing.
	This thesis uses a qualitative method. The data collection techniques are through observation, decumentation and interviews.
	Finding research; The students’ problems in writing skill are text coherence, choice of vocabulary/grammar, content. Spiling. Student do not know how to make a sentence and also often make mistakes. Besides being difficult because of the many things to learn in Grammar, this skill also has a variety of formulas for constructing various types of sentences that must be remembered. On spelling, writing skill can be improved by frequently reading English book. Factors that hinder students’ ability in writing are factor that students lack mastery of vocabulary and geammar. The factors that students are not interested in writing and environmental factors that dp not support students to use English. This happens because of the low motivation of teachersand students lack of supporting facilities such as magazines and reference books/stories in English
Suggestions are submitted: The teachers could help the students to practice the use of language in written form. This technique is helpful for the students to be more enthusiastic to write English. Therefore, this technique is recommended to the English teachers to give the student more exercises of writing activity by trying to vary the teachers’ model in teaching and making the classroom as interesting as possible. So, the students will be more interesed in learning English especially in writing.
Keywords: Students’ Problems, Writing Skill.

Abstrak: Pengaruh Smartphone Terhadap Pemahaman Membaca Siswa
Tujuan penelitian untuk mengetahui kendala siswa dalam keterampiln menulis dan untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor apa yang menghambat kemampuan siswa dalam menulis 
	Skripsi ini menggunakan metode kualitatif. Taknik pengumpulan data melalui observasi, dokumentasi dan wawancara.
	Hasil penelitian; Masalah siswa dalam keterampilan menulis adalah koherensi teks, pilihan kosa kata/tata bahasa, isi, ejaan. Siswa tidak tahu cara membuat kalimat dan juga sering melakukan kesalahan. Selain sulit karena banyk hal yang harus dipelajari dalam Grammar, skill ini juga memiliki berbagai rumus untuk menyuun berbagai jenis kalimat yang harus diingat. Pasa ejaan, keterampilan menulis dapat ditingkatkan dengan sering membaca buku bahasa Inggris. Faktor yng menghambat kemampuan siswa dalam menulis adalah faktor siswa kurang menguasai kosakata dan tata bahas. Faktor siswa yang tidak tertarik menulis dan faktor lingkungan yang tidak mendukung  siswa untuk menggunakan bahasa Inggris. Hal ini terjadi karena rendahnya motivasi guru dan siswa, kurangnya fasilitas penunjang seperti majalah dan buku referensi/cerita berbahasa Inggris
	Saran yang diajukan: Guru dapat membantu siswa untuk mempraktekkan penggunan bahasa dalam bentuk tulisan. Teknik ini sangat membantu siswa untuk lebih bersemangat dalam menulis bahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu, teknik ini direkomendasikan kepada guru bahasa Inggris untuk memberikan siswa lebih banyak latihan aktivitas menulis dengan mencoba mempariasikan model guru dalam mengajar dan membuat kelas semenarik mungkin. Jadi, para siswa akan lebih tertarik untuk belajar bahasa Inggris terutama dalam menulis 
Kata Kunci: Masalah Siswa, Kemampuan Menulis.



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INTRODUCTION
	Writing is a language skill that is most recently mastered after someone is skilled at listening (listening), speaking and reading. Therefore, people generally think or think that writing is something that is very difficult to do.
	Writing is a kind of effort to transfer spoken language into written language. Language ability is an effort to express ideas, thoughts, and feelings in a properly written language. This means that by writing a language one can express his/her ideas, feelings, more freely and correctly.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Heaton Heaton. John. Brian . Teaching ESL Writing. United States: 1997, p.141] 

	Writing activities can give birth to thoughts and feelings through writing. We can convey all what is in our mind or our feelings in the form of a writing. Writing is one of the languages that must be learned by everyone including students such as other skills, speaking, reading and listening. Writing is a form of thinking, because writing is changing the thoughts or ideas of the authors into written texts. In other words, what the writer wants to say to the reader can be written in written form. A writer must have knowledge, experience and insight, religion, the sundries of life and writing skills that are presented to the audience. Thus, the reader can find the need for insight that can help smooth his life in a comfortable and easy-to-digest. Someone who will write must have the ability to present an idea, sentence, structure and vocabulary. Writing skills will not come automatically: students have to follow the exercises and practice writing. In other words, can be successful if they know how to use their ideas and now they are clear. So to formulate a good use of writing, students need to develop the confidence that will enable them to cope.[footnoteRef:2] [2: Sri Wahyuni, Error Analysis of Semester II Students in Writing Descriptive Texts, Journal Volume VII Number 2. July – December 2016 ISSN 2086 – 1397] 

Writing skills can be acquired and developed through learning that includes both process and results. The development of writing skills is mastered through theoretical deepening and needs to be balanced with practice. In connection with some of the things that have been said, writing is a complex activity. Complexity occurs in the use of various aspects to produce a piece of writing. These aspects begin to initiate ideas to be written, knowledge and experience about ideas and types of writing, pouring them into the right language order, presenting them in accordance with the characteristics of discourse and writing conventions. Some of the difficulties of students in writing include lack of finding literacy, inability to organize essays, managing effective grammar such as developing paragraphs to writing techniques that are still lacking. This is due to the lack of reading culture as a form of literacy search and its results , errors occur in the preparation of scientific papers, including spelling errors, vocabulary, ineffective use of sentences, and inappropriate paragraphs .
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of Writing
	Writing is the way to communicate with other people by using words. According to Richard Nordquis, writing is a system of graphic symbols that can be used to convey meaning. Writing is the action of composing a text. While according to Merriam Webster, there are some definitions of writing. First, writing is the act or process of one who writes. Second, writing is something written, such as; letters or characters that serve as visible signs of ideas, words, or symbols; a letter, note, or notice used to communicate or record; and written composition. Third, writing is a style or form of essay. And fourth, writing is the occupation of a writer, especially the profession of authorship.[footnoteRef:3] [3: Nordquist, R. 2019. Definitions, Examples, and Observations of Writing] 

Nunan in Yuniati (2015) believes that writing is the act of creating ideas, think the way to express thoughts, and manage the concept into sentences or paragraphs to make them clear to a reader. Gaith, also in Yuniati (2015), said that writing is the process that passed by a writer to scour his ideas and thought and make their ideas are concrete.
Byrne in Junaid (2012) states that writing is more than the prediction of the sounds. The symbols have arranged according to specifications in the convention. As a rule, however, the students do not write just one sentence or several the sentence as arranged in particular order and linked together in specific ways. Widdowson, also in Junaid (2012), states that writing is a communicative activity and carried out by one specific general principle in which underlines the use of language in communication.[footnoteRef:4] [4: Junaid. 2012. Venn Diagram Method For Students’ Ability in Writing at Intensive English Class of Unismuh Makassar. Exposure Journal. Vol. 1. No. 2.] 

From all the descriptions above, it concluded that writing is the use of words, symbols to represent the speech sounds or language in text form and to express the thoughts and ideas of someone to be read by the other people.
According to Junaid G.J, there are five components of writing. The five elements are content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics.
1) Content is the topic development serviced by the writer. It is how the writerdelivers his thoughts about the topic in paragraphs.
2) The organization is how the writer makes his paragraph scoherent with eachother.
3) Vocabulary is the use of diction in organizing the paragraph switch out making the ideas or topic is hazy.
4) Language use refers to the use of the correct grammatical and syntactic patternon separating, combining, and grouping ideas in words, phrases, clauses, andsentences to bring out the logical relationship in paragraph writing.
5) Mechanics refers to the use of graphic conventional of the language, i.e., the steps of arranging letters, word sentences, paragraphs by using knowledge ofthe structure, and some others related to one another.
Nurgiantoro in Yuniati mentioned some components in scoring
writing that is organization, content, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanic.
1) Organization mean show the writer organizeshis idea. Wethereach paragraph is organize well or not. The organization of the text is fluent in expressing, reveal clearly ideas, good organization, logic sequence and cohesive.
2) Content refers to the development of the topic using supporting sentences. The excellent content had to fulfill the criteria such as full of information;substantive makes a clear thesis development and relevant to the problem.
3) Language means the students use practical complex sentence construction and make only a few faults in the use of grammar.
4) Vocabulary means if the students could choose the correct words as it is function and master informing words.
5) Mechanic means a paragraph is a combination of some sentences which need proper spelling and punctuation. If the use of punctuation is not appropriate, the article will be unreadable. So the students should be mastered in writing a good paragraph.[footnoteRef:5] [5: Yuniati, D. 2015. The Effectiveness of Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) for Teaching Writing Recount Text] 

Based on the description of the aspects or elements in writing above, itconcludes that there are some aspects or features in writing that are content or central idea, organization, language use or grammar, vocabulary or choice of words, and mechanic.
2.1.2 Writing Purpose
	Writing is used by educated people for various purposes such as note-taking, recording, convincing, informing, and influencing. Tarigan divides writing goals from inexperienced writers as follows:[footnoteRef:6] [6: Tarigan, Henry Thunder. Writing as a Language Skill p. 24] 

1. Telling or teaching (informative discourse)
A writer can disseminate information through his writings such as journalists in newspapers, tabloids, magazines or other print mass media. The writings on the print media often contain information about events or events, be it facts, data or events, including:
opinions and views on facts, data and events so that readers gain new knowledge and understanding about various things.
2. Convincing or pressing (persuasive discourse)
Through writing, a writer can influence the beliefs of his readers and hopes that the reader can determine his attitude, whether to agree or support what is stated. The author must be able to persuade and convince the reader by using a persuasive style of language. Therefore, the persuasion function of an article will be able to produce if the author is able to present it in an attractive, familiar, friendly, and easy-to-digest language style.
METHOD
0. Method and Design of Research
3.1.1 Types of research
	The research design used is descriptive qualitative research. Descriptive qualitative research is a research that intends to understand the phenomenon of what is experienced by the research subject, for example about behavior, perception, motivation and others holistically by means of description in the form of words and language in a special natural context. [footnoteRef:7] In this study describe through primary data. [7: ] 

3.1.2 Research Approach
	Approach can be interpreted as an effort in research activities to establish relationships with the object under study.[footnoteRef:8]The approach is an effort to achieve the targets that have been determined in the research objectives. Suharsimi Arikunto said that although the research problem is the same, sometimes researcher can choose one of two or more types of approaches that can be used in solving problems.[footnoteRef:9] [8: Hadari Nawawi and Martini Hadari, Research Instruments in the Social Sector (Cet.II; Yogyakarta: Gajah Mada University Press, 1995), p. 66.]  [9: Suharsimi Arikunto, Research Procedure: A Practical Approach (Cet. XIV; Jakarta: Rineka Cipta, 2010), p. 108.] 

	The approach used in this research is as follows:
a. Sociological Approach, which is the approach used to analyze student errors in writing skills that are in theStudents of MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto, Gorontalo Regency from various social phenomena that are interrelated with this research.
b. The phenomenological approach, which is an approach used to understand a fact, symptoms and events whose form can be observed and assessed through scientific glasses, this approach is used to objectively reveal facts, symptoms and events related to the research problem.
3.2 Setting of Research
	To obtain the data needed in this study, the research will be carried out on students who are in Students of MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto, Gorontalo Regency with the research subject of class VII totaling 22 students consisting of 12 female students and 10 male students.
3.3 Subject Of Research
	In conducting this study the authors used data sources consisting of primary data and secondary data. An explanation of the data sources can be stated in the following description:
3.3.1 Primary data sources
	Primary data sources in this study are data sources obtained directly from informants in the field according to the problems discussed in this study. The informants in this study were students who were in Students of MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto, Gorontalo. In this study, the total number of informants for students who were in Students of MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto, was 10 informants. and considering the number of informants with such a short research time and limited funding, as well as available personnel, in this study it is not possible for researcher to examine all informants, so that researcher remain in accordance with their objectives, so researcher need to take some of the existing informants with a view to reduce the object under study.[footnoteRef:10] [10: Ibid h. 109] 

RESULT AND DISCUSSION
To obtain information and research results, researchers conducted research on an object of research, namely MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto. In this research, the researcher focuses on the research on teachers and students and researcher to find out students' problems in writing skills and to find out what factors hinder students' ability in writing.
Data was collected by interviewing resource persons, namely the English teacher and six students in English learning activities[footnoteRef:11]. The interview technique uses a question guide that has been prepared in advance, and it is possible that the interview can be developed independently of the question guide as long as there is still a close relationship with the problem to be studied to clarify the answers of the interviewees. As well as the teacher and student observation sheets in class activitie. [11: Delfiani Manan, Salma Laroko, Moh Alim Yusuf, Widya Lakuma, Alvian Katili, Fitriani Moito. Interview with Class VII Students at MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto, Interview. May 8, 2022
] 

4.2 Discussion Of Research
Writing, like the other three language skills, is a developmental process. Writing demands experience, time, opportunity, practice, special skills, and direct teaching to be a writer. Writing demands ideas that are logically arranged, clearly expressed, and arranged in an attractive manner. 
Writing is an activity to express thinking and feeling with other people. Learning to write is done to help and encourage students to express language in written form, or components prepared by educators to produce behavioral changes in learning to write . 
Agood writing will lead the readers understand the event and they can almost feelthe event in the work that they read. Moreover, there are several elements whichare needed in composing good writing include vocabulary, content, grammar,styles and mechanics. When we write, we give our ideas and information to reader.
In the discussion section, the research will explain what are the students' problems in writing skills in English learning. In this research, researchers found several problems in writing skills in English learning by using observation and interviews.
In this Research, researchers used observations and interview texts that were distributed and asked to students and used interview texts to educators to find out problems in writing skills in learning English. After conducting research, the researcher found several problems in learning English, especially in writing skills.
Students who can write in English well and correctly often have good English skills as well. Writing as a productive skill is considered more difficult because the process involves thinking skills (thinking skills) and the rules are more stringent, namely grammar, spelling, coherence, cohesion, writing style, etc. It was also conveyed by students that:
I like to speak English but I find it difficult to write English.[footnoteRef:12] [12: 	 Delfiani Manan. Interview with Class VII Students at MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto, Interview. May 8, 2022] 

Students also said that:
My difficulty in writing English is that everything I write does not match the pronunciation.[footnoteRef:13] [13: 	 Salma lakoro. Interview with Class VII Students at MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto, Interview. May 8, 2022] 

From the problems obtained by the researchers from this research using observation and interview texts that were distributed and asked to students and teacer, the researchers found problems in the writing skills of students, namely that most students what they wrote did not match the way they read and pronounce it. The participation of students' motivation in learning English, especially writing skills, is very lacking.
The students said :
“my problem with writing skills is that I don’t know many vocabularies and when come to class, the teacher only give a book and told to take notes”[footnoteRef:14] [14: Moh Alim Yusuf. Interview with Class VII Students at MTs. Nuruttaqwa Limboto, Interview. May 8, 2022

] 

The problems that researchers get to teacher are Lack of methods and strategies in learning English, especially in writing skills. So that when entering the class, the educator only gives an English printed book and students are only asked to write down what is in the English printed book.
Based in research, it is necessary for students to be taught well in mastering these aspects so that they can do everything well, for example in terms of writing what the teacher dictates. Informants as English teachers provide information that:
Madrasah Tsanawiyah Private Nuruttaqwa Limboto is a kind of junior high school which is equivalent to a junior high school in general, but Madrasah Tsanawiyah is specifically for students who are Muslim. Private Madrasah Tsanawiyah Nuruttaqwa Limboto Has an English teacher but the students' writing skills are still minimal, students also don't know how to make a sentence and also often make mistakes. 
In grammar, writing skill is one of the most avoided skills when studying English. Besides being difficult because of the many things to learn in Grammar, this skill also has a variety of formulas for constructing various types of sentences that must be remembered. On spelling, writing skills can be improved by frequently reading English books.
So it can be seen that students' writing skill problems still often occur in learning English. Students' writing skills are still minimal, students also do not know how to make a sentence and also often make mistakes. Students' writing skills are not obtained by themselves, but through the teaching and learning process.
 
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CONCLUSION
In this research, the researcher presents the following conclusions and suggestions based on the result of the research findings and discussions as 
explained in the chapter IV :
5.1.1 The students' problems in writing skills are text coherence, choice of vocabulary/grammar, content, spelling . Students do not know how to make a sentence and also often make mistakes . Besides being difficult because of the many things to learn in Grammar, this skill also has a variety of formulas for constructing various types of sentences that must be remembered. On spelling, writing skills can be improved by frequently reading English books
5.1.2 Factors that hinder students' ability in writing are factors that students lack mastery of vocabulary and grammar. The factors that students are not interested in writing and environmental factors that do not support students to use English . This happens because of the low motivation of teachers and students, lack of supporting facilities such as magazines and reference books / stories in English
5.2 Implication
	To produce quality writing and also in learning English there are lots of media and methods that can be used or even developed so that English learning can be more interesting.
5.3 Suggestions
	Based on the findings and conclusions that have been put forward, the following suggestions are submitted:
1. The teachers could help the students to practice the use of language in written form. This technique is helpful for the students to be more enthusiastic to write English. Therefore, this technique is recommended to the English teachers to give the student more exercises of writing activity by trying to vary the teachers' model in teaching and making the classroom as interesting as possible. So, the students will be more interested in learning English especially in writing
To overcome the obstacles found in the management of English learning and their solutions. This requires the support of facilities and infrastructure such as learning media, reference books related to teaching materials, dictionaries and the use of language laboratories as media to support the learning process.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper has been submitted as partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the
Attainment of the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan in English Education Department IAIN Sultan Amai Gorontalo on January 2023.

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