LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 364 PROCEDURAL ESSAY WRITING: STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES Septina Ambarwati and Listyani Listyani Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga 112017012@student.uksw.edu; listyani.listyani@uksw.edu correspondence: listyani.listyani@uksw.edu DOI: 10.24071/llt.v24i1.3371 received 11 May 2021; accepted 29 October 2021 Abstract Language learners living in the expanding circle certainly face probems that may not be encountered by their counterparts in the inner or outer circle. One of the problems these learners face is in the field of writing. They also need special strategies in overcoming these problems. This study was done to investigate the problems faced by students in writing Procedural Essays as well as the strategies to overcome the problems. This study attempted to answer two research questions: What problems do students face in writing Procedural Essays? and What are students' strategies to overcome the problems in writing Procedural Essays? This study used a qualitative method. To collect the data, the researchers used two instruments, which are open-ended and close-ended questionnaires and interviews. The participants of this research were 27 students from batch 2020 who took Procedural Writing Class in the 2020/2021 Academic Year. The results of this research showed that there were three problems faced by students in writing Procedural Essays. Those problems were problems of topic development, problems with vocabulary, and problems with grammar. The result also indicated the most strategies used by students to overcome the problems, such as receiving feedback from teachers, making an outline, and asking friends for help. Keywords: writing, problems, procedural essay, strategies, Procedural Writing Introduction Writing has played an important role in English language learning. Through writing, students can express their ideas, opinions, thoughts, and feelings into written form. The writing activity is not only done by students in writing class, but in other classes like reading, speaking, and listening, writing activity would be needed. However, writing in English is not easy. According to Richards (1990), writing is believed to be the most difficult skill for EFL students in language learning (as cited in Najmi, 2015, p.474). Writing could be very challenging for students to learn if they have limited vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. Having no interest and poor ideas of the topic might also cause difficulty in the writing process. Harmer (2001) stated that the students can become very frustrated in writing activities when they do not have the words or grammar to be expressed LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 365 (as cited in Habibi, Wachyuni, & Husni, 2017, p.97). Moreover, the lack of writing practice might be the common challenge in writing English. In the English Language Education Program (ELEP) in a private university in Central Java, Indonesia, writing an essay has become one of the commonly found activities in many courses. Basically, essay writing in English Education program is used for assignments or final assignments. Procedural Writing course is one of the writing classes in this study program. In Procedural Writing class, the students are expected to be able to write two types of procedural essays. A previous study about students’ problems in writing essays was done by Rahmatunisa (2014). In the study, she found out that there were three main problems faced by students in essay writing. The first problem was linguistic problems, which were related to the grammatical structure, vocabulary, and word choice. The second was cognitive problems. The cognitive problems that students faced in writing include problems of spelling, punctuation, and organization. The last was psychological problems, which focused more on student’s behavior, such as lack of motivation, lack of self-confidence, and writing anxiety. Different from Rahmatunisa’s study, which focused on students’ problems in writing argumentative essays, this study focused on students’ problems and their strategies in writing procedural essays. This study focused on writing and investigated students’ problems and their strategies in writing procedural essays. The study was limited to writing implemented in Procedural Writing course at English Language Education Program (ELEP), Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana. Therefore, The aim of this study was to investigate the problems faced by students of English Education programs and their strategies in writing procedural essays, especially in Procedural Writing courses. Hopefully, the result of this study could be useful for students who need to write procedural essays. Through this study, students could know the strategies to overcome the problems, and teachers could know the problems which were faced by the students in writing and help them to solve the problems. Then, this study was aimed to answer the research questions: (1) What problems do students face in writing procedural essays? (2) What are students’ strategies to overcome the problems in writing procedural essays? Literature Review The Definition of Writing In learning English, there are four basic skills that need to be achieved by students. Those skills are listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Writing is one of the productive skills that need to be emphasized in learning English. According to Al Asmari (2013), writing is a language skill that is very important for academic success. In other words, writing is essential because without good writing skills, students will not be able to express themselves or communicate well. In addition, Batalla (2019) explained that students’ writing ability is crucial to their academic performance because writing ability plays a great part in many activities, such as examinations, assignments, and reports. Writing is an activity that requires the ability to compose words into sentences. Then, the students need a lot of efforts to do this activity. Before writing, students need more time to think of an idea. Nunan (2003, as cited in Novariana, Sumardi, & Tarjana, 2018, p.216) stated that writing is the process of LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 366 thinking to construct ideas and think about how to express and arrange the ideas into a good statement and clear paragraph. For many writers, writing is a way to express ideas, feelings, and thoughts into written form. Here, McMahan et al. (2016), as cited in Toba, Noor, and Sanu (2019) also claimed that the aims of writing are to express the writer’s feeling, and for entertaining, informing, and persuading the readers. Therefore, in the writing process, the students must have enough ideas and need to think about how their ideas can be understood by the readers. From the explanation, it could be concluded that writing is the process where the writers put their ideas, thoughts, and opinions into meaningful sentences. The Definition of Procedural Texts There are various types of English texts that should be learned by students. One of them is Procedural Texts. In the English Language Education Program (ELEP) in a private university in Central Java, Indonesia,, there is a writing course called Procedural Writing. This writing course equips the students with knowledge and skills in composing procedural texts. In Procedural Writing classes, the students are introduced about two types of procedural text. Those are directional and informational. According to Anderson (1997, as cited in Artyani, Bharati, & Sofwan, 2014, p.131), procedural text is a piece of text that is designed to inform the reader about how to do something. In general, there are three definitions of procedure text. First, procedure text is a text that gives the reader instruction on how to make something or how to do a particular activity such as cooking recipes and rules of games. Second, procedure text is a text that explains how something works; for example, how to use a camera. The last is that procedure text can be a text which deals with human behavior (Murtisari & Sumakul, 2017, p.1). Prasetya (2017) also states that the purpose of procedure text is to show how something works through a sequence of steps or instructions which enable the readers to achieve the result. Then, it could be concluded that procedure text is a text that describes how to do something by using a sequence of steps or actions. Problems in Writing Courses Since English in Indonesia is considered as a foreign language, writing in English becomes a challenging task for EFL students. Hence, there are many problems that students encounter in writing courses. Abu (2001, as cited in Alfaki, 2015, p.46) said that for native and non-native speakers, writing is a complicated skill because the writers have to balance some issues related to content, organization, purpose, audiences, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation marks and mechanics. For many EFL learners, writing is the most difficult skill to be mastered. So in the process of writing, the students have to pay attention to their skills in generating, planning, and organizing. Among the many problems the students face in writing, one of them is related to vocabulary like word choice. When writing in English, many students are confused about choosing the appropriate word based on their writing context. Reynolds & Anderson (2015) as cited in Kao & Reynolds (2017), mention that even when writers find that they can use proper words to express their ideas, they find themselves using a limited number of words or phrases again and again. It LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 367 means that in the writing process the students tend to use the English words that they already know. According to Al-Khasawneh & Huwari (2013), there are four reasons behind the weakness of writing, such as lack of general understanding, lack of grammatical knowledge, less practice, and educational background. Due to limited grammatical knowledge, many students are often afraid of making errors while writing in English in the classroom. Thus, students are unable to write down their ideas well, and it will affect their writing quality. Moreover, lack of writing practice also becomes one of the reasons why students face difficulties in writing courses. Since writing is not an easy activity, students have to practice writing continuously. This statement is also supported by Alfaki (2015), who explains that students must take the responsibility for their learning, so that in order to become a good writer, the students need to do a lot of practice. Another problem that students face in writing courses is that they do not have any ideas to start writing. Sometimes, the topics given are too difficult for students. Then, students will be unable to write anything on their paper. Byrne (1988:2), as cited in Alfaki (2015) believes that most writers are less likely to generate good writing if they have to write something they are not interested in. Students are not motivated to write in English if the topic seems unfamiliar to them. Davis (1998, as cited in Alfaki, 2015, p.47) also suggests that students will be encouraged to write if they are given a writing task that helps them to be motivated. Students’ Strategies in Procedural Writing Course For EFL students, learning to write in English is very important because the aim of writing is that students can communicate with others in a written way. However, writing in English is not easy. Many students faced difficulties when they were asked to write in English. Therefore, the use of strategies in the writing process is crucial for improving students' writing ability. There are writing strategies that students can use in the writing process. Those are planning, revising, and editing. Graham and Perin (2006, as cited in Al Asmari, 2013, p.131) state that writing strategies instruction involves the strategies for planning, revising, and editing the writing compositions. Before writing, the writers can start planning by creating an outline. Then, planning can be defined as a process when the writers start to think or brainstorm about ideas or topics for their essay writing. Planning will also help the students to generate ideas or topics that interest them. If the students choose the topic that interests them, it will be easier for them to write. Chai (2006, as cited in Al Asmari, 2013, p.131) emphasizes that generating a writing plan will be beneficial for the writers before they start writing a composition. Similarly, Maarof & Murat (2013) explain that students need to know how to brainstorm to generate ideas and plans by making good outlines before they start writing. The second strategy in the writing process is by revising what has been written. Abdullah (2009) believes that the key to producing good essay writing relies on the types, the amount of strategies, and the regulation of the strategies used to generate ideas or revise what has been written. Revision is a vital strategy for the students during the writing process. Toba, et al (2019) explained that revision is the process of reorganizing the ideas that have already been written in LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 368 order to make it stronger by adding missing information, correcting spelling mistakes, and even deleting the ideas until getting clear. In the revising stage, the students have to reread each paragraph so that they can make some revisions by adding or removing words or phrases. By doing revisions, it helped the students to reflect on what has been written on their paper. The last strategy is editing their draft. In editing, the students have to edit their writing and focus on correcting errors such as word choice, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. As Chien (2010), claims that the skilled students in his study focus on revising and editing their writing (as cited in Maarof & Murat, 2013, p. 48). In editing, it is important for students to edit their writing very carefully. Besides, to get the best result in writing, the students can ask for feedback from their teacher or their friends. Issacson (1996, as cited in Al- Mukdad, 2019, p. 301) believes that the role of teachers' feedback is crucial for the students to reinforce new learned skills and correct recurring problems. Method Context of the Study The research was conducted in English Language Education Program (ELEP) in a private university in Central Java, Indonesia, in Procedural Writing classes. It was conducted in the second semester for the first-year students. The research focused on investigating the students’ problems in writing Procedural Essays as well as their strategies to overcome the problems. Participants The participants of this study were the first-year students of the English Language Education Program (ELEP) who took Procedural Writing class in the second semester of the 2020/2021 Academic Year. The first-year students were chosen because it would be their first experience in writing Procedural Essays. Besides, if the participants were taken from senior students, they might have forgotten the moments and their experiences in Procedural Writing class. The study was conducted in all three classes of Procedural Writing course as the researchers needed to collect enough data from the participants. The total number of participants for this research was 27 students. For the interview, the researchers used purposive sampling where the five students were selected because they were willing to do the interview and easy to contact. Methodology This study was conducted by using a qualitative method. The qualitative method was chosen because the researchers wanted to get profound answers regarding students’ problems in writing procedural essays as well as their strategies to overcome those problems. Since the study was conducted in the pandemic situation of COVID-19, the researchers distributed the questionnaires to students of Procedural Writing course by using the Google Form. To collect the data from the interview, the researchers used WhatsApp Calls and a voice recorder. LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 369 Data Collection Instruments To collect the data, questionnaires and interview protocols were used as research instruments. The questionnaire was divided into two sections; close- ended and open-ended. For close-ended questionnaires, a likert scale with four options like strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree was used. Furthermore, the reason for using open-ended questionnaires was that the researchers wanted to know more deeply about the students' problems in writing procedural essays as well as their strategies to overcome their problems. The questionnaire was adapted and developed from Al-Khasawneh & Huwari (2013); Al-Seyabi (2014); Alfaki (2015); Raoofi, Binandeh, & Rahmani (2017); Toba, Noor & Sanu (2019). The following were parts of the instrument adopted from their studies: Table 1. List statements of possible problems students faced in essay writing. No Statements Adapted from 1. My biggest problem in writing is not having enough ideas about the topics that the teacher asks us to write about. Al-Seyabi, 2014 2. I find it difficult to write English without any practice. Al- Khasawneh & Huwari (2013) 3. I find it difficult to write because I still lack grammatical knowledge. Alfaki, 2015 4. I have problems in selecting suitable words because I still lack vocabulary knowledge Toba, Noor, & Sanu ( 2019) Table 2. List statements of possible strategies students used in essay writing. No Statements Adapted from 1. I prepare an outline before I write an essay Al-Seyabi,2014 2. I revise my writing to make sure that it includes everything I want to discuss in my writing. Raoofi, Binandeh, & Rahmani (2017) Moreover, semi-structured interviews would be used in this research. This instrument was selected because it allowed the participants to be free in answering questions. Using semi-structured interviews, the researchers could get rapid answers and ask for clarification and further explanations from the participants (Belkhir & Benyelles, 2017). Data Collection Procedures The researchers followed some procedures to obtain the data. Firstly, the researchers contacted the course coordinator and the lectures from Procedural Writing class through Gmail in order to ask their permission to conduct this study. Then, by using Google Form, the questionnaires were distributed to the participants. After the participants had finished filling out the questionnaires, they were selected for the interview session. The 5 participants were selected by looking at their answers in the questionnaire and their willingness to be interviewed. Besides, the interviewees were taken from the students who faced LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 370 many problems writing procedural essays based on the result of the questionnaires. Findings and Discussion In this chapter, the researchers presented the result of data analysis as an answer to two research questions. The discussion section is divided into two themes. The first section discusses the problems faced by Students in writing Procedural Essays. The second section discusses the strategies used by the students in overcoming the problems in writing Procedural Essays. Problems Faced by Students in Writing Procedural Essays Based on the result of the questionnaire, there were some problems that students faced in writing Procedural Essays. The researchers categorized the statements of the problems into three sub-themes. Those are problems of topic development, problems with vocabulary, and problems with grammar. The discussion about those problems would be explained below by adding some excerpts from the interview result. Problems of Topic Development The first problem faced by students in writing Procedural Essays is the problem of topic development. According to the students' responses in the questionnaire, they had problems in deciding the topic, writing on an unfamiliar topic, and writing an essay with the topic they were not interested in. Therefore, about 18 students agreed that they had a problem in deciding the topic for the essay. It happened because they were often confused about choosing the appropriate topic for their essay. Since there were a vast amount of possible topics, students could only choose one for their essay writing. As one of the students explained: (Excerpt 1) “Since there are various topics, sometimes I get confused to decide which topic is suitable for my essay.” (Interview session/ Student 3/ February 28, 2021) The other participant, Student 4, stated something different from Student 3. (Excerpt 2) “…As we need to work in pairs in writing Procedural Essays, sometimes for deciding the topic, I had to discuss it with my friend to make sure whether the topic we chose is appropriate or not……..Sometimes when we have already decided on the topic for the essay, we also found it challenging to write a thesis statement in a correct way.” (Interview session/ Student 4/ February 28, 2021) Excerpt 1 and Excerpt 2 clearly explained that the students had problems deciding the topic for their essay because there were various topics, and they had to discuss the topic with their pairs. Besides, even when they had managed to choose one topic for their essay, it was not easy to write. LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 371 Then, the result of the questionnaire (See Figure 1) also revealed that 25 students found it difficult to write an essay if they did not understand the topic and 23 students agreed that they had difficulty writing an essay with the topic they were not interested in. The students believed that the topic they chose would affect the result of their writing. This can be seen from the following statement from Student 2. (Excerpt 3) “So, writing an essay with an unfamiliar topic will affect my writing result, and I need to put more effort into understanding the topic…. writing an essay with a topic that is not interesting to me will also affect my writing. Since I do not really like the topic….. It will be difficult for me to write an essay." (Interview session/ Student 2/ February 27, 2021) Problems with Vocabulary Vocabulary became the second problem faced by students in writing Procedural Essays. Based on the students’ responses in the questionnaire, about 19 students agreed that they had problems in writing essays because they still lacked vocabulary knowledge. The students explained that writing an essay could be very challenging for them if they only knew a few words in English. Also, 21 students had problems in choosing appropriate vocabulary when writing the essay. The student explained: (Excerpt 4) “I found it difficult to write because my vocabulary is limited…I did not know some words in English” (Interview Session/ Student 1/ February 27, 2021) The other student also explained: (Excerpt 5) “Vocabulary is important for essay writing then, due to limited vocabulary, my writing process is getting stuck." (Interview Session/ Student 2/ February 27, 2021) Problems with Grammar Another problem faced by students in writing Procedural Essays was grammar. Based on the result of the questionnaire, about 19 students agreed that they found it difficult to write the essay with correct grammatical (See Figure 3). The students explained that in essay writing, grammar has become something important. So that lack of grammatical knowledge could lead the students to face difficulty in the writing process. This can be seen from Student 2’s statement: (Excerpt 6) “In my opinion, grammar is important in writing the essay because later on, it affects the result of the essay…..but I am not really confident about the LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 372 grammar skill that I have so far…. I am afraid of making mistake.” (Interview Session/ Student 2/ February 27, 2021) One of the students, Student 5, also stated: (Excerpt 7) "Since my grammar is still poor, I am not able to write in a good way" (Interview Session/ Student 5/ March 5, 2021) Based on Excerpt 6 and 7, it could be seen that the students had less confidence about grammar skills and how it could affect them in writing Procedural Essay. Thus, the students need to be more careful in writing the essay because if they made a grammar mistake, their writing would be misunderstood. The result of the questionnaire also revealed that 18 students have problems in composing English sentences due to lack of grammatical knowledge (See Figure 3). As two students explained in the following statements: (Excerpt 8) "It is because...I have been using Bahasa Indonesia for the very first time…….so it would not be easy if in English" (Interview Session/Student 3/February 28, 2021) (Excerpt 9) "I have not passed basic grammar class, so I do not really understand the grammar…. I have to check my grammar, whether it is correct or not." (Interview Session/ Student 4/ February 28, 2021) Students' Strategies to Overcome the Problems in Writing Procedural Essays According to the student's responses in the questionnaire, there were certain strategies that might help them overcome the problems in writing Procedural Essays. Those strategies were made an outline before writing, checked on their writing before submitting, learned from teachers' feedback, and asked some friends for help. In this finding, the researchers only focused on discussing the most common strategies used by students in writing Procedural Essays. Receiving Teacher Feedback About 27 students agreed that they liked receiving the teachers' feedback on their writing. They assumed that teachers' feedback could be an effective strategy to overcome the problems in writing Procedural Essays. Besides, the students could learn from the given feedback and improve their writing. This can be seen from the following statements from three students. (Excerpt 10) "It helped a lot because we could know the mistake and know how to correct it" (Interview session/ Student 3/ February 28, 2021) LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 373 (Excerpt 11) "So, the lecturer always gives feedback… like on the sentences which are not effective or incorrect grammar… so it could be corrected again." (Interview session/ Student 2/ February 27, 2021) (Excerpt 12) "So if we had done with the first draft, we submitted it and then received feedback… the lecturer corrected the draft and gave suggestions… so that the final draft would be good." (Interview session/ Student 4/ February 28, 2021) Making an Outline Another students' strategy is making an outline. The result of the questionnaire revealed that 25 students agreed that preparing the outline before writing could help them overcome the problems in writing Procedural Essays. As two students explained in the following excerpts. (Excerpt 13) "For me, it helped. Since we had to make an outline first, we knew what we were going to write later on." (Interview session/ Student 5 / March 5, 2021) (Excerpt 14) "So by outlining we knew the steps, and what we were going to write after this, it would be more organized." (Interview session / Student 4 / February 28, 2021) Asking Some Friends The next strategy was asking some friends. About 17 students chose this strategy to overcome their problems in writing Procedural Essays. The students explained that with the help of their friends, they could improve their writing. As one of the students stated: (Excerpt 15) "....There were some of my friends whose grammar was better than mine, so I asked my friends to correct the grammar…..and I found it easier to work on the essay" (Interview session/ Student 2/ February 27, 2021) Discussion From the findings on problems related to topic development, it could be seen that the students had problems in writing essays if they were not familiar and not interested in the topic of writing. Besides, when students had selected the topic, they realized that they could not write anything on it. This explanation is in line with Pablo and Lasaten's (2018) statement that students have difficulty that leads them to lack confidence in writing about the topic. It implies that students need to be familiar with the topic first before they write their essays. Then, Yugianingrum (2010), as cited in Al Badi (2015), suggested that students should also select what interests them in writing so that they can focus on the quality of their writing. In other words, it is important for students to select the topic of writing that really LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 374 interests them. Here, Figure 1 is the diagram that shows the problems of topic development. Figure 1: Student’s Questionnaire Answer about the Problems of Topic Development Next, based on the research findings dealing with vocabulary problems, it could be concluded that students had problems in word choice due to a lack of English vocabulary. Students found themselves having a limited number of words because they did not know some words in English. As a result, they could not find the appropriate vocabulary to write. This finding is in line with Al Seyabi’s (2014) statement that the biggest problem in writing an essay is choosing the right words to express the idea. Similar to Rababah (2003)’s opinion, as cited in Al-Khairy (2013), students often lack the appropriate vocabulary when writing. As a result, they were unable to express their ideas accurately in their writing due to their limited vocabulary. As support, Figure 2 showed that students had problems related to vocabulary, taken from the result of the questionnaire. Figure 2: Students’ Questionnaire Answer about the Problems with Vocabulary LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 375 Dealing with grammatical problems, it was shown that about 19 students experienced writing problems because their understanding of the grammar was still poor. The students often struggled with grammar because they realized that the structure of Bahasa Indonesia and English were different. This result is in line with Afrin's (2016) finding that grammatical weakness is the main problem faced by students, so there is no doubt that an understanding of grammar is necessary for writing English. Besides, it is also in line with the result of Darus and Ching’s (2009) study that the most common errors that students committed were basically grammatical, and it happened because when writing the essay, students were very influenced by their first language. Figure 3 showed that students had problems related to grammar; it was taken from the result of the questionnaire. Figure 3: Students’ Questionnaire Answer about the Problems with Grammar About the strategies to overcome the difficulties, from Student 2, 3, and 4's statements, it could be concluded that teacher feedback was essential for the students to solve their writing problems. Besides, the students could know their mistake from the feedback, and it could help them not repeat the same mistake again. This is consistent with Issacson (1996), as cited in Al-Mukdad (2019) who believed that the role of teachers' feedback is crucial for the students to reinforce newly learned skills and correct recurring problems. According to the students' statements on making outline as another strategy, it could be concluded that making the outline before starting to write the essay was absolutely important. It allowed the students to plan and organize their ideas so that they knew what needs to be done in essay writing. This is in line with Al Fadda (2012), as cited in Al Badi (2015), who assumed that preparing an outline before starting to write, and following the writing stages such as planning, writing, and revising might help the writer to perform better in writing. Asking some friends became another strategy that the students did to overcome their problems. Student 2 clearly explained that to overcome problems in writing, she asked some friends who understand more about grammar. Based on the statement above, suggestions from friends could also help the student make some improvements in writing. Therefore, this is in line with Yastibas and LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 376 Yastibas' (2015) study that peer feedback could reduce students' anxiety because it allowed them to work collaboratively with other friends so that the students could learn from each other. Therefore, as shown in the research findings of the study, it could be reported that students had problems in writing procedural essays. Based on the result of the study, the students had problems in determining the writing topic, selecting appropriate words, and composing English sentences. It can be concluded that language problems still became the major issues that these Procedural Writing students struggled with. Hence, the first thing that needs to be done to help the students overcome the problems in writing Procedural Essays is to give feedback to improve their writing. Since feedback is considered an effective strategy to overcome writing problems, it is suggested that teachers should always provide feedback to their students as much as possible. The student participants also stated that they had limited vocabulary and had difficulty composing English sentences. Then, to enrich their vocabulary, the students should use their time to check the dictionary to look up the meaning of difficult words. At the same time, the teachers could help the students by introducing them to a wide range of important words that could be used in essay writing. Moreover, the teachers could also help the students by providing the writing materials that encourage them to improve their writing. Considering that the first-year students of the Procedural Writing courses still had problems writing Procedural Essays, the teacher should encourage the students to practice writing activities as much as possible, even in their free time. Besides, there is no doubt that good writing depends on the mastery of grammar, so the students should be given many opportunities to practice writing in the target language. Conclusion This research found out that there were three problems experienced by students in writing Procedural Essays. The first problem experienced by students was problems of topic development. In this problem, the students faced difficulties, such as deciding the topic for their essay, writing an essay with unfamiliar topics, and writing an essay with the topics they were not interested in. The second problem was problems with vocabulary. The students faced this problem due to lack of vocabulary knowledge, and they also had difficulty in choosing appropriate vocabulary. The last was problems with grammar. The grammatical problems might come out because the student's understanding of grammar was still poor, and they found it difficult to compose English sentences. This research also examined the strategies used by students to overcome those problems. Those strategies were receiving feedback from the teachers, making an outline before writing, and asking some friends for help. The students felt that these strategies could help them to minimize their problems and improve their essay writing. Therefore, the result of this research was expected to benefit the students when they had to write the Procedural Essay. However, this research has limitations. This research only focused on students' problems and strategies in writing Procedural Essays. Future researchers hopefully will explore teachers' strategies to overcome the problems faced by students in writing procedural essays. Also, another limitation is the instruments LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 377 used in this research. The students’ data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. Thus, the findings reflected more on language problems and did not include enough essential writing aspects. Future researchers can collect data through writing tests and observation as well to know more what other problems students face in writing Procedural Essays. References Abdullah, M.R.T. L. (2009). The writing strategies used by engineering ESL Malay learners. Conference of the International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 1(12), 168-185. (Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad_Ridhuan/publication/26645 5318_The_Writing_Strategies_used_by_Engineering_ESL_Malay_Learners/l inks/551c7f970cf2fe6cbf7918c4/The-Writing-Strategies-used-by- Engineering-ESL-Malay-Learners.pdf on June 12, 2020) Afrin, S. (2016). Writin problems of non-English major undergraduate students in Bangladesh. Open Journal of Sciences. 4(3). 104- 115. (Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.43016 on January 18, 2021) Al-Asmari, A. (2013). Investigation of writing strategies, writing apprehension, and writing achievement among Saudi EFL-major students. International Education Studies, 6(11), 130-143. (Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ies.v6n11p130 on June 13, 2020) Al Badi, I.A.H. (2015). Academic writing difficulties of ESL learners. The 2015 WEI International Academic Conference Proceedings, 1(1), 65-78. (Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280696919_ACADEMIC_WRITIN G_DIFFICULTIES_OF_ESL_LEARNERS on January 4, 2021) Alfaki, I. M. (2015). University students’ English writing problems: Diagnosis and remedy. International Journal of English Language Teaching. 3(3), 40- 52. (Retrieved from http://dglib.nilevalley.edu.sd:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/2116 on June 05, 2020) Al- Khairy, M.A. (2013). Saudi English-major undergraduates’ academic writing problems: A Taif university perspective. English Language Teaching, 6(6), 1- 12. (Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org./105539/elt.v6n6p1 on March 4, 2021) Al-Khasawneh, F. M., & Huwari, I. F. (2013). The reasons behind the weaknesses of writing in English among pre-year students’ at Taibah University. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on International Studies (ICIS). 14(38). (Retrieved from http://www.zu.edu.jo/MainFile/Profile_Dr_UploadFile/Researcher/Files/Rese archFile_3794_35_58.pdf on July 15, 2020) Al-Mukdad, S. (2019). Investigating English academic writing problems encountered by Arab international university students. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 9(3), 300-306. (Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0903.07 on July 06, 2020) Al-Seyabi, F. (2014). Writing problems and strategies: An investigate study in the Omani School and Univeristy context. Asian Journal of Social Sciences & https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad_Ridhuan/publication/266455318_The_Writing_Strategies_used_by_Engineering_ESL_Malay_Learners/links/551c7f970cf2fe6cbf7918c4/The-Writing-Strategies-used-by-Engineering-ESL-Malay-Learners.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad_Ridhuan/publication/266455318_The_Writing_Strategies_used_by_Engineering_ESL_Malay_Learners/links/551c7f970cf2fe6cbf7918c4/The-Writing-Strategies-used-by-Engineering-ESL-Malay-Learners.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad_Ridhuan/publication/266455318_The_Writing_Strategies_used_by_Engineering_ESL_Malay_Learners/links/551c7f970cf2fe6cbf7918c4/The-Writing-Strategies-used-by-Engineering-ESL-Malay-Learners.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad_Ridhuan/publication/266455318_The_Writing_Strategies_used_by_Engineering_ESL_Malay_Learners/links/551c7f970cf2fe6cbf7918c4/The-Writing-Strategies-used-by-Engineering-ESL-Malay-Learners.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.43016 http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ies.v6n11p130%20on%20June%2013 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280696919_ACADEMIC_WRITING_DIFFICULTIES_OF_ESL_LEARNERS%20on%20January%204 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280696919_ACADEMIC_WRITING_DIFFICULTIES_OF_ESL_LEARNERS%20on%20January%204 http://dglib.nilevalley.edu.sd:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/2116 http://dx.doi.org./105539/elt.v6n6p1 http://www.zu.edu.jo/MainFile/Profile_Dr_UploadFile/Researcher/Files/ResearchFile_3794_35_58.pdf http://www.zu.edu.jo/MainFile/Profile_Dr_UploadFile/Researcher/Files/ResearchFile_3794_35_58.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0903.07 LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 378 Humanities, 3(4), 37-48. (Retrieved from http://www.ajssh.leena-luna.co.jp on Juny 23, 2020) Artyani, D. D., Bharati, D. A. L., & Sofwan, A. (2014). Developing “battleship” game based material for teaching grammar of procedural text writing: The case of the eighth grade of junior high school students. English Education Journal. 4(2), 130-137. (Retrieved from https://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej/article/view/6670/4826 ) Batalla, A. V. (2019). Difficulties in English writing skills of sophomore college students. Asian EFL Journal Research Articles. 2(50. 232. (Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com on July 14, 2020) Belkhir, A., & Benyelles, R. (2017). Identifying EFL learners essay writing difficulties and sources: A move towards solution the case of second year EFL learners at Tlemcen university. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 16(6), 80-88. (Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com on June 02, 2020) Darus, S. and Ching, K.H. (2009). Common errors in written English essays of form one Chinese students: A case study. European Journal of Social Sciences. 10(2). 242-253. (Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net on March 16,2021) Habibi, A., Wachyuni, S., & Husni, N. (2017). Students’ perception on writing problems: A survey at one Islamic university in Jambi. Journal of Islamic Education, 22(1), 96-108. (Retrieved from http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php.tadib on May 25, 2020) Kao, C. W., & Reynolds, B. L. (2017). A study on the relationship among Taiwanese college students’ EFL writing strategy use, writing ability and writing difficulty. English Teaching and Learning, 41(4), 31-67. doi: 10.6330/ETL.2017.41.4.02. ( Retrieved on June 23, 2020) Maarof, N., & Murat, M. (2013). Writing strategies used by ESL upper secondary school students. International Education Studies, 6(4), 47-55. doi:10.5539/ies.v6n4p47 (Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net on June 23, 2020) Murtisari, E.T., & Sumakul, T. (2017). Procedural writing course book. English language education program. Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana. Najmi, K. (2015). The effect of genre-based approach on enhancing writing skill of Iranian law students. Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods, 5(2), 474. (Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net on June 23,2020) Novariana, H., Sumardi., Tarjana, S.S., (2018). Senior high school students’ problems in writing: A preliminary study of implementing writing E journal as self- assessment to promote students' writing skill. ELLiC Proceedings. Vol.2, pp. 216- 219. (Retrieved from https://jurnal.unimus.ac.id/index.php/ELLIC/article/view/3540 on June 04, 2020) Pablo, C. J & Lasaten, R.C. (2018). Writing difficulties and quality of academic essays of senior high school students. Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 6(4), 46-57. (Retrieved from http://www.apjmr.com/-content/uploads/2018/08/APJMR-2018-6.4.06.pdf on March 2, 2021) http://www.ajssh.leena-luna.co.jp/ https://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej/article/view/6670/4826 https://scholar.google.com/ https://scholar.google.com/ https://www.researchgate.net/ http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php.tadib https://www.researchgate.net/ https://www.researchgate.net/ https://jurnal.unimus.ac.id/index.php/ELLIC/article/view/3540 http://www.apjmr.com/-content/uploads/2018/08/APJMR-2018-6.4.06.pdf LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021 379 Prasetya, E. P. (2017). The use of cooking video to improve students’writing skill on procedure text. English Journal, 20(1), 25-33. (Retrieved from http://150.107.142.43/index.php/ENGLISH/article/view/1513 on June 04, 2020) Rahmatunisa, W. (2014). Problems faced by Indonesian EFL learners in writing argumentative essay. English Review: Journal of English Education, 3(1), 41- 49. Retrieved from https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE/article/view/113 on May 25, 2020) Raoofi, S., Binandeh, M., & Rahmani, S. (2017). An investigation into writing strategies and writing proficiency of University Students. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 8(1), 191-198 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0801.24. (Retrieved on Juny 26, 2020) Toba, R., Noor, W.N., Sanu, L.O., (2019). The current issues of Indonesian EFL students’ writing skills: ability, problem, and reason in writing comparison and contrast essay. Dinamika Ilmu, 19(1), 57-73. doi: http://doi.org/10.21093/di.v19i1.1506 (Retrieved on July 15,2020) Yastibas, G.C., & Yastibas, A.E. (2015). The effect of peer feedback on writing anxiety in Turkish EFL (English as a foreign language) students. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 530-538. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.543 ( Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net on March 10, 2021) http://150.107.142.43/index.php/ENGLISH/article/view/1513 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE/article/view/113 http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0801.24 http://doi.org/10.21093/di.v19i1.1506 https://www.researchgate.net/