JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching http://ojs.ikipmataram.ac.id/index.php/jollt/index Email: jollt@ikipmataram.ac.id DOI: https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v8i1.2210 January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 p-ISSN: 2338-0810 e-ISSN: 2621-1378 pp.8-19 JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 8 DESIGNING STRATEGIES FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS 1 Ismiati, 1 Erlin Pebriantika 1 English Lecturer, English Language Education, Cordova University, Indonesia Corresponding email: ismiatisumarlin08@gmail.com Article Info Abstract Article History Received: November 2019 Revised: December 2019 Published: January 2020 In the process of teaching and learning English writing skill, some strategies which are considered appropriate for a certain group of learners, may not suitable for other groups as each group has its own problems and needs in writing. Therefore, teaching-learning strategies for English writing require to be continuously developed. This study aims to design strategies based on the students’ writing needs and problems as the development of the previous common implemented strategies in writing course classes at the English Study Program of Cordova University, West Sumbawa Regency. The research subjects were students who are actively studying English as their major specialization and lecturers who have been teaching English writing courses in the academic year 2018/2019. The result shows that the previous strategies give a little significant impact on the students’ writing skill progress. For the reasons, new strategies were designed and recommended to be continuously implemented for teaching and learning writing courses and involved in the curriculum at the English Study Program, Cordova University. Those strategies are (1) Collaborative Writing Strategy. (2) Combining Diary and Guided Writing Strategy. (3) Additional credit hours for writing course classes (4). Graded writing course classes need to be continuously taught by the same lecturer. Keywords Designing; Strategies; English; Writing; How to cite: Ismiati., & Pebriantika, E. (2020). Designing strategies for university students’ writing skill. JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 8(1) pp. 8-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v8i1.2210 INTRODUCTION English writing skill plays important roles in the area of language learning. This skill is considered as the crucial language skill for English learners. Learning to write is not like a natural learning activity to speak (Haerazi & Irawan, 2019). The ability to write in English is commonly required in higher education level. University students are expected to have good knowledge of English writing to accomplish academic written assignments and easily involve in written communications. Nevertheless, the complexities of English writing rules still become big challenges for university students include those who study English as their major specialization. Many studies found that English writing is one of the most difficult subjects to be learned. Sajid and Siddiqui (2015) claimed that producing written text in any disciplinary is one of the most difficult tasks done by EFL learners as it requires comprehensive linguistics and communicative ability. At the English Study Program of Cordova University, West Sumbawa Regency, most students from the first to the eighth grade in the academic year 2018/2019 still have many problems in their writing. Ismiati and Erlin (2019) found that the writing ability of many students’ in all grades was in the level of fair grade means that students’ writing was not academically or correctly constructed. mailto:ismiatisumarlin08@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v8i1.2210 Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 9 Various strategies were implemented and claimed as a solution for the students’ writing deficiency. However, In fact, some strategies may give a significant impact on the writing progress of a certain group of learners and may not for others. Each group of learners has its own writing problems and needs in writing English, therefore, teaching and learning writing strategies need to be continuously developed based on the learners’ problems and need to give solutions for them who are struggling with writing skills. Development strategies for writing mean the ways to modify or to increase the previous strategies which are considered to give little significant toward the students’ writing skill progress. Those new recommended strategies are required to give continuously solutions for the practices of writing or teaching writing to gain better improvement in the writing products. Joseph (2017) have been developed some strategies or approaches as aids for students’ writing deficiency. Some of those strategies are collaborative learning, critical thinking, and autonomous learning. Writing skills for the academic area refers to the ability of students to write academically and scientifically. Academic writing needs a complex standard of writing. Nasser (2018) states that writing skills must obtain accuracy and correctness in matters of grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, word order, spelling, capitalization, etc. These writing skills are also adapted by Haerazi and Irawan (2019) as a writing guide to see the students’ level of writing competences. The complexities of the English writing rules may influence the students’ deficiencies in writing. Most students at a higher level of education still have a lack of the ability to create good English writing including those who study English as their major specialization Ashraf (2016) found several problems in the writing of undergraduate ESL learners in which the major problems are dealt with the use of tenses, articles, and prepositions. Many studies found that appropriate teaching-learning strategies for writing classes can increase students’ writing skills. Yusuf (2019) Asserted that Cooperative Learning (CL) Strategy has positive effects on improving students’ writing skills. Hanan et al (2015) claimed that through diary writing strategy, the students’ writing ability is significantly improved especially the grammar and vocabulary. Nevertheless, in the practice of diary writing strategy, many students write run-on sentences with less attention to the writing rules. The focus of this strategy is to motivate students to continuously practice writing, as a result, the students’ writing ability cannot significantly improve as they accept little feedback for their writing. Some strategies may be appropriate for a certain group of the learner and may not for others. Therefore, this present study is conducted to design new strategies for students’ writing skills by considering the students’ needs and problems in writing. RESEARCH METHOD Research Design This study applied a qualitative approach. It was is conducted to design new strategies for English writing skills as the development or modification for the previous strategies which are recommended to be continuously implemented in the classes of writing courses and involved in the curriculum at the English Study Program of Cordova University. Subjects for this study were 20 students from the first until the eighth grade who are active studying English as their major specialization and 4 lecturers who have taught English writing courses at the English Study Program of Cordova University in the academic year 2018/2019. Instruments for this research were observation sheet, In-Depth interview, and FGD guidelines. The teaching- learning activities in writing course classes were observed to identify the influence of the implemented strategies toward the students’ writing skill progress. Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 10 In-depth interview was conducted for both students and lecturers to obtain more clear description about the strategies which are commonly implemented in the class of writing course and to design new strategies which are recommended to be continuously implemented for writing classes and involve in English Study Program curriculum. Data Analysis Data for this study were analysed through several steps as reducing, displaying, and generating a conclusion. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Research Findings The finding of this research describes the commonly implemented strategies in writing course classes at the English Study Program of Cordova University which are presented as follows. Implemented Strategies In curriculum of English Study Program of Cordova University, there some graded of writing courses namely ‘Writing I’ which is taught in the first semester, ‘Writing II’ which is presented for the second-semester students, ‘Writing III’ which is taught in the third semester, ‘Essay Writing in the fifth semester. There found numerous strategies that have been commonly implemented in teaching the writing courses. Those strategies are described as follows. Collaborative Writing Strategy Soraya (2016) asserts that collaborative writing strategy is a mixture of cooperative learning and writing strategies. Teachers have a tendency to provide chances in working together or individually by using the collaborative writing strategy. It is in line with Haerazi et al. (2019) who state the collaborative writing strategy can help students to accomplish their assignments smoothly. In addition, Mutwarasibo (2013) collaborative writing strategy values to the domain of EFL academic writing. Collaborative writing strategy is one of the common strategies which has ever implemented in the class of writing II, III, and essay writing at the English Study Program of Cordova University. This strategy is often conducted in a small group during four earlier classroom meetings and sometimes continuously implemented after the middle test. The practice of this strategy is done through various activities. There many activities that are done during the process of group discussion. Each group is given the course material and asked to discuss and find a detail explanation of the material from the internet which is evaluable to support the ongoing discussion. After discussing the material with a team as well as with the lecturer, the students in teamwork were then instructed to practice writing, ask them to decide one topic and develop the topic into a good essay. During the process of discussion, students were active to give their idea of what they want to write in their writing. The lecturer was also really active to guide the students’ discussion by approaching each group to find out their difficulties in understanding the writing course materials and their problems in writing a good paragraph of the essay. In other opportunities, some lecturers implement a collaborative strategy in a very small group. There are only two students in the group. The lecturer effectively manages the group by involving a student who has good writing ability in each group. The discussion runs well. The lecturer actively involves guiding in the process of the discussion, the students in each group discuss until they understand. Another way to implement this strategy was done by deciding a group discussion that consists of a maximum of three students for one group. Each group was instructed to write the Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 11 same types of essays. After the group finishes their writing, each group shares or exchanges their writing with other groups in other a group can assess another group’s writing. During the process of writing assessment which is done by each group, the lecturer walks to each group to evaluate and to solve the students’ problems. The students can also find some references to help them while they are examining the writing. The activity effectively runs. Almost all students were active. After the assessment process ends, each group has to describe the weaknesses and the goodness of the writing and give a detail explanation about it. Another situation was implemented by deciding some groups. The lecturer decided the group by involving a student who is considered has good writing ability to be a proofreader in each group. One group consists of three students. Each member of a group was asked to write a paragraph on their own topic. After the students finish their writing, the proofreader in each group must lead the discussion by giving an explanation about each group member’s writing. During the process, the lecturer also takes part by doing the evaluation and giving some comments to the result of the students’ discussion. Diary Writing Strategy Diary writing is another strategy that is commonly used in the class of writing course. Diary writing is one of the common strategies that are implemented by doing regularly writing practice outside the classroom or students are given a written task t to continuously write at home. At the English Study program of Cordova University, the lecturers who have ever taught in the class of writing course practices this strategy by asking students to write on a diary at home, they are instructed to write at least one topic for one day. They were given opportunities to decide their own topic and develop the topic into at least two or three paragraphs. Other lecturers implemented this strategy by instructing students to write every day at home for two months. The practiced diary writing strategy in the class of writing III has ever done by asking students to write a different topic of the essay once a week during the semester hour. Each topic consists of at least five paragraphs. The students may choose their own topics or use the topics which were offered by the lecturers. In doing the tasks, the students are not allowed to use the Google translation tool, they have to create their own writing product. However, in fact, most students use the Google translation tool in completing the writing assignments as there was little attention carefully attention or supervision toward the result of the students writing. During the classroom activities, there only some parts of the students’ writing can be discussed because of the limited time for the writing course. Guided Writing Strategy Guided writing is another strategy that has also ever used in writing classes at the English Study Program of Cordova University. Parson (2001) defines guided writing as the process where teachers develop and guide students’ writing through discussion, join text construction, and evaluation of their independent writing. In the process of guiding, teachers or lecturers give deeply and clear feedback to the students’ writing. Milaningrum, et al (2018) State that guided writing strategy means the involvement of a lecturer guide to a small group of learners in their attempt to create individually written texts by responding or giving feedback to the students’ writing. It is useful to encourage the students to revise or edit their writing. In conducting the writing class by using this strategy, some lecturers at the English program of Cordova University usually guide the students’ writing individually or in pair based on the problems or errors which occur in their writing and also consider the students’ needs and difficulties in writing. Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 12 The guiding process mostly occurs in the classroom after the students conduct a writing exercise. Two or more students meet the lecturer for discussion and other students get writing guidance from their friends in the classroom. It usually takes fifteen to twenty minutes for guiding one student in one meeting. In the process of discussion, the lecturers gave comments, suggestions, and explanations about the errors in the students’ writing. Students had opportunities to ask many things related to their writing problems and the lecturer gives more and detail explanations about their questions. The students have to do a revision based on the result of the guiding, then meet the lecturer again after one or two days to show and discuss the revisions. They could not continue to write another topic before they did a correct revision for the previous errors. Because of the limited time for the classroom activities, the lecturers expected students to send the result of their writing using some internet applications such as e-mail and WhatsApp to applications. Through those applications, the students not only apply individual guiding but also implement group discussion. However, there only a few students who are interestingly and actively write and discuss their writing after class. Group Presentation Strategy A group presentation is one of the communication skills which is orally conducted in teamwork to discuss a certain issue. Zivkovic (2014) Claims that group presentation technique allows students to actually enjoy sharing knowledge in a constructive way both for their audience and themselves with structured planning and organization. In the class of writing at the English Study Program of Cordova University, group presentations strategy is often implemented instead of doing more writing exercises in the class. The topics which are presented in the syllabus of the writing course are divided and given to each group of presentations. Before the students do the group presentation, the lecturer firstly explains some topics for some meetings and then the following topics have to be discussed by the students in a group presentation. There are commonly two groups of presentations in one meeting. After the group presenting the course materials, the other students as the audiences in the class deliver some questions to the members of the group presentation. Not only the students in the group presentation can answer the questions or give comments during the activity but also other students as the audience are also given opportunities to take part. At the end of the presentation, the lecturers also give little comments and explanations related to the topic. Lecture-Explanation Technique The lecture-explanation technique also becomes one of the most common strategies which is often implemented in the class of writing courses at the English Study program of Cordova University. Good and Markel (1959) in Kaur (2011) point that lecture as a method of teaching by which the instructor gives an oral presentation of facts or principles to learners and the class usually being responsible for note-taking, usually implies little or no class participants by such means as questioning or discussion during the class period. Howe (1980 ) in Kaur (2011) also points the same definition as a lecture that occurs whenever a teacher is talking and students are listening. In implementing this strategy, the lecturers at the English Study Program of Cordova University present the speech to explain the material using powerpoint. The lecturer usually takes more time to explain the course material then conducting writing activities. After spending much time to explain the material, the lecturer then asks for comments or questions from the students about the material. Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 13 Research Discussion New strategies were designed as the development or combination of the previous common implemented strategies which are recommended to be continuously implemented in writing course classes and involved in the curriculum at the English Study program of Cordova University. Those new strategies are described in the following discussion: Recommended Strategies Various strategies that are commonly implemented in writing course classes at the English Study Program of Cordova University give little significant contributions to the students’ writing progress. Therefore, by considering the students’ needs and problems of writing skills, new strategies were designed and recommended. Collaborative writing strategy was claimed effective to help students get the progress of their writing ability. However, the significant effect of the collaborative strategy is no longer accepted by the students because of the limited time of classroom discussion. It is considered that two credit hours for the writing course class is too short to do various classroom activities. In fact, the lecturers suggested the students conduct group discussion after class, they can continuously discuss with friends or lecturers in any spare time, however, many students implement the collaborative strategies only in the classroom when the lecturer asks them to discuss. There only a few students who have high motivation to conduct a group discussion outside the classroom to help them improve their writing skills. The implementation of diary writing was considered less effective if there is no continuously attention and supervision from the lecturers toward the students’ writing results. Many studies believed that continuously practice diary writing may improve the students’ writing skill, however, to practice this strategy, most students usually write run-on sentences and give little attention to the writing rules. As a result, their writing is not academically and correctly improved. As mentioned earlier, many students use Google translation when they are tasked to do diary writing at home. Using the translation tool does not help their writing progress as the writing is not their original handwriting product. Guided writing strategy was not effectively conducted in the classes of writing courses. Each student’s writing needs to be individually guided to get better writing improvement. Therefore needs more time to implement this strategy. Two credit hours for the writing course was claimed not enough to continuously conduct classroom activities using this strategy. Lecturers recommended implementing this strategy not only in the classroom but also at any time outside the classroom in which students can discuss their writing with other friends or with the lecturer outside the classroom or through the internet applications such as email or what’s up. Unfortunately, many students do not initiative and actively write and discuss their writing after class. Group presentation strategy was claimed as one of the strategies that do not broadly affect the students’ writing skill progress and understanding toward the writing material. The discussion is often dominated by only a few students who have good preparation to do the presentation. Responding to the questions from the audience is answered by only one or two group members. Only one or two students work hard to prepare some materials related to the topic of presentation. Many members of the group presentation do not take part. They only read the material on the day of doing the presentations. As a result, they do not give much contribution to logically and correctly respond to the questions or comments from the audience. In addition, the group presentation members and the audience are not active enough to involve during the process of a group presentation. They're found only a little feedback from the audience and the group much more read their paper in presenting the material instead of giving a clear explanation. Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 14 The lecture-explanation technique is less beneficial to be implemented in writing class as the classroom is dominated by the lecturer’s speech. Writing class needs more writing activities and discussion rather than only presenting the explanation about the course materials which can be copied during the process of students’ discussion in which the lecturer is also actively involved to guide the students. In implementing this strategy, it was found only a little feedback from students to respond to the lecturer's speech. Many students look busy with their own activities while the lecturer is giving a speech about the course material. Many of the students do not pay attention to what the lecturer explains. When the lecturer finds no comments or questions, she or he then continues to explain another topic until the class ends. Referring to the weaknesses of the implemented strategies, it was designed new strategies for the writing course classes as elaborated as follows. Collaborative Writing strategy It was recommended to continuously implement the collaborative strategy in writing course classes. Implementing this strategy needs more time, therefore, the lecturer is expected to spend much time on classroom activities through group discussion instead of presenting more speech from the lecturer. The course material which is much more explained by the lecturer can be discussed during the work of group activity. The lecturer may involve giving comments or suggestions for each group. Many students enjoy using Collaborative writing strategies in the classes of writing courses. Biria and Jafari (2013) found that the use of a collaborative learning strategy improves the overall quality of the learners' writing production. In addition, teachers can provide students with interesting writing materials to facilitate them to write (Haerazi et al., 2018). The students can get beneficial progress in their writing through this strategy. The students can share a lot of things with their friends include discussing their writing difficulties and find a solution together in the group. They can always remember parts of their writing which were mostly corrected or revised by the team and the lecturer. Using this strategy makes the classroom activity more lives as the students actively discuss to each other. It also significantly affects the students’ motivation to write and develop their writing skills. By considering the benefits of using the Collaborative Writing Strategy and the case which was found through this study, it is recommended to continuously implement the Collaborative Writing Strategy in writing courses classes by actively used inside or outside the classroom to support the students’ writing motivation and to develop their writing skill. Combining Diary and Guided Writing Strategy Diary writing means daily writing practice which is done in the writer’s own enjoyable place and time. Guided writing is a process of practice writing through guidance or support from others. Diary and guided writing are commonly implemented as strategies for teaching- learning in writing class. Many classes use both of the strategies separately. Lecturers who teach Writing course and essay writing course classes at English Study Program of Cordova University have been implemented each of those strategies in the classes of writing I, Writing, II, and Writing III, and essay writing. Some lecturers applied diary writing to give a written assignment to the students. Others have been implemented Guided writing strategies to help students overcome their writing problems. The practice of Diary writing was done by asking students to write on their own topic every day or twice in a week at home. The implementation of guided writing was done through the use of internet applications such as What Up and e-mail. Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 15 The use of each strategy in writing course class is believed gives a positive effect on students’ writing skills. It was claimed that practice Diary Writing can motivate students to build their writing habit and get guidance for the writing is effective to overcome their writing problems and improve their writing skills. It is believed that regularly giving a suggestion, guiding, and correction to the students’ writing task which is applied through guiding strategy can significantly influence the students’ writing skill progress because it can be done any time and at any place. Fatima, et al (2015) found that diary writing habit is useful to develop the students’ writing skill. Holdich and Chung (2003) in Yu Feng (2011) indicated guided writing offers greater opportunities for young writers to make valuable connections between text, sentence, and word level decision and help children shape and read texts with particular criteria in mind. Besides the advantage of using the diary and guided writing in the class of writing course, there also found the weaknesses of implementing those strategies separately. In fact, most students at the English Study program practice writing only if the lecturers give them a written assignment. They almost never practice regularly writing at home except if they have to accomplish the college assignments. If the lecturers do not give attention to the students’ writing assignments, many students do not create their own writing. Most of them use Google translation tools in completing their diary writing assignments or take others’ writing from the internet. The practice of guiding strategy by using internet applications gives less influence toward the progress of students’ writing ability. Most students cannot build a good understanding of the lecturers’ explanation through guiding the applications and not many lecturers have much time to give directly respond to the students’ writing on the application. It can be more valuable if the use of a guided strategy is directly implemented face to face among students and lecturers in the classroom. The students can be more focus and understand the lecturers’ explanation. They also have opportunities to give more questions and asking solutions for their writing problems. Referring to the advantage and the weaknesses of implementing Diary and Guided Writing strategy separately, it is recommended to implement the combination of Diary and Guided writing strategy in the classes of Writing course I, writing course II, writing course III, and essay writing at English Study Program of Cordova University. It is believed that the combination of the Diary and Guided writing strategy gives a significant influence on the students’ writing development. It was claimed that most students have low motivation to practice daily writing, the lecturers who teach writing courses are expected to be more active to give diary writing assignments in other the students can regularly write and make writing become their daily habit. In addition, it is expected that the lecturers not only ask students to submit the task but also have to give comments on what students have written in other they can get progress on their writing skills. The implementation of Diary writing assignment needs to be followed by guided writing strategy, the lecturer is expected conduct continuously or regular guidance for the students’ diary writing by asking students to report and discuss their diary writing with the lecturer in other the students realize that it is valuable to do their own diary writing without using Google translation or copying from the internet website. It is agreed that writing regularly and continuously in the students’ own places can be more enjoyable to develop the idea. Writing needs guiding. It means that when they finish their writing product, they need to discuss the writing with others to reduce their writing errors and make it better. Students’ writing skills can be developed if they practice writing every day or make writing becomes their daily habit and the students can get better progress on their writing skills if they continuously accept comments or feedback for their writing. Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 16 Writing every day for a thesis is one of the practices of combining diary and guided writing strategy. The students write every time at home to complete and to revise their thesis writing. The thesis supervisor continuously gives comments or suggestions for the students’ thesis writing. It is very helpful for students to learn more from the errors which they made in their writing. The combination of diary and guided writing strategies had ever implemented by a lecturer in the writing course classes at the English study program of Cordova University for a very short time. It was done by firstly write every day at home and come for writing guidance with the writing course lecturer at least once in a week. The students must bring the result of their writing to be discussed with the lecturer every week in the class of writing. 45 minutes before the class ends, the lecturer asked the students to come for a discussion. There were two or three students who can consult in one meeting. The other students were asked to discuss with their friends in the classroom while the lecturer is discussing with one student in front. In the process of giving guidance to the students, the lecturer firstly asked about the students’ difficulties related to the topic of writing which they consult on that day, then the lecturer gives explanations based on the students’ needs and difficulties in their writing. During the discussion, students also have opportunities to ask many things and the lecturer gave a clear explanation of what the students asked. Unfortunately, the combination strategy was no longer implemented in the class of the writing course. There were only a few lecturers who often use this strategy and they cannot continuously conduct the classroom using this strategy because it needs longer times to ask students to practice daily writing and get individual guidance for their writing. Two credit hours are not enough to guide the students’ individual and they cannot continue the guiding in the next writing course class because the lecturers at the English study program often teach for a different course in each semester. Referring to the significant impact of combining Diary and guided writing strategy for students’ writing motivation and progress, it is expected to all lecturers who teach in the classes of writing course at the English Study program of Cordova University to continuously conduct teaching-learning using this combination and include it in the curriculum. Additional credit hours for writing course classes Writing practice which involves across the curriculum during the academic program is considered inconsistent and fewer opportunities credit hours for the students to develop their writing skills, (Lewis, 2014). Each class of writing courses at the English Study program of the Cordova university curriculum is programmed for two credit hours. The class of Writing I in the first semester until the essay writing course class in the fifth semester is attended for two hours in a week. Students and lecturers need to do a lot of activities in the class of writing course. Therefore, they need a longer time to discuss in the class. It is claimed that two credit hour for the English writing course in each week is too short to do various activities in the classes of writing course. The lecturers mostly begin the class by giving or presenting an explanation about the writing course materials. They often spent more time to discuss the course materials with the students and sometimes need to give more explanation to the students’ comments or questions. It was found that students have a short time to finish and discuss their writing practice in the classroom. Some lecturers often give classroom writing exercises. The students have to do individually writing practice and present the result of their writing one by one in front of the classroom, then the class discusses the writing together or the lecturers need to give a response on the students’ writing. It is believed that combining dairy and guided writing strategies gives significant progress in the students’ writing motivation and progress. However, two credit hours is not Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 17 enough to practice this strategy, it needs more time because the students are given an individual diary writing an assignment and continuously guidance. It was found that writing guidance is better to conduct face to face during the class instead of doing the writing guidance outside the classroom through internet applications. Therefore, It is recommended to add the writing course credit hour become at least three credit hours in other all students can have opportunities to get directly individual writing feedback from the lecturer or friends in the classroom. Group discussion strategy is also considered to give a positive impact on the students’ writing development. It needs more time to conduct this strategy in the classroom because the students are divided to do group writing practice, discuss the writing and certain material in teamwork. The lecturer also needs time to lead, guide, and evaluate the group discussion process. The lecturer has to approach each team to give an explanation and respond to the result of teamwork. Most students are less motivated to initiative conduct the group discussion outside the classroom. Therefore, it is recommended to add the credit hours for the writing course in other the class can have enough time to do group discussions in the classroom. Two credit hours are considered too less to design teaching programs as ways to improve the students’ motivation and ability to write. Almost all lecturers and students suggested to the study program to design the writing courses in three credit hours in other the lecturer as well as the students can plan regularly and continuously appropriate teaching- learning process strategies to help students develop their writing skills. Graded writing course classes need to be continuously taught by the same lecturer Based on the earlier data, it was found that the classes of Writing I, Writing II, writing III, and essay writing course at the English Study Program of Cordova University is taught by a different lecturer in each semester. The lecturer who teaches writing courses I in the first semester does not continue to teach the other writing courses in the following upper grade such as writing II in the second semester, writing III in the third semester, and essay writing course in the fifth semester. Each lecturer often teaches for a different course for each semester. This condition influences the students’ writing course progress. It was claimed that they get difficulties to follow the different lecturing strategies from the lecturers if they are taught by the different lecturer for each writing class. It was suggested that the all writing courses classes need to be taught by the same lecturer because there are many activities which can be designed for the writing classes and the left activities can be continuously implemented in the next classes if there was limited time to finish the activities in the previous grade. It was pointed out that the lecture’s guiding for the students’ writing should be started from the first semester until the fifth semester of the writing course graded classes. The lecturer who teaches the integrated course such as writing to is expected to continuously teach the students from the first semester to the last semester in which the writing course is programmed. If the same lecturer continuously follows the students for the next writing class, the lecturer can continuously implement his guiding in the classroom because not many students meet lecturer for the writing task feedback outside the classroom, therefore, more time for classroom guiding is needed to overcome the students’ writing problems or get progress on their writing ability. Writing courses that are programmed from the first grade continued until the fifth grade should be handled by the same lecturer in other to build a closer social relationship between the students and the lecturer in order to create an enjoyable teaching-learning process. The students can enjoy continuously asking help, communicate, and consulate their learning difficulties to the lecturer. The lecturer and students can conduct more pleasure discussion. Ismiati & Pebriantika Designing strategies for… JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, January 2020. Vol.8 , No.1 | 18 The students have their own writing problems. They need continuously writing guiding from the same lecturer because it is believed that continuously guiding the students’ writing for a longer period of time by the same lecturer can be more easily for students to solve the students’ individual writing problems and develop their writing skills. CONCLUSION This study found that the commonly implemented strategies in the classes of English Writing Courses at the English Study Program of Cordova University give little significant impacts on the students’ writing skill progress. Therefore, through this present research, some new strategies were designed and recommended based on the students’ needs and problems in English writing. Those strategies are expected to be continuously implemented in writing course classes and involved in the curriculum as solutions for students’ writing skill deficiency at the English Study Program of Cordova university. Those strategies are (1) Collaborative Writing Strategy. (2) Combining Diary and Guided Writing Strategy. (3) Additional credit hours for writing course classes (4). writing course classes need to be continuously taught by the same lecturer. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to express our gratitude to the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education as the research funder in 2019. REFERENCES Ashraf, A. (2016). ESL learners’ writing skills: problems, factors, and suggestions. Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 4(2):1. http://dx.doi.org/10.20547/jess0421604201. Biria, R and Jafari, S. (2013). The impact of collaborative writing on the writing fluency of Iranian EFL learners. Journal of Language Teaching and Research. 4(1): 164-175. https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr Albesher, Khaled B. (2012), Developing the writing skill of ESL students through the collaborative learning strategy. Newcastle: Newcastle University. Fatima. A, Salatar. B, Susanto (2015). 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