FACTORS AFFECTING ESSAY WRITING OF EFL STUDENTS IN
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF IAIN KEDIRI
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Presented to:
State Islamic Institute of Kediri
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement
For Thesis Proposal Writing and Seminar Subject
By:
Dinda Annisa’ Aulia
932216318
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH
STATE ISLAMIC INSTITUTE OF KEDIRI
2021
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1
A. Background of The Study ........................................................................................... 1
B. Problem Statements .................................................................................................. 2
C. Objectives of The Study ............................................................................................. 2
D. The Significance of Study ........................................................................................... 2
E. The Definition of The Key Terms ................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................. 4
A. Writing ....................................................................................................................... 4
B. Internal Factors Affecting Writing .............................................................................. 6
C. External Factors Affecting Writing ............................................................................. 6
D. Academic Writing ...................................................................................................... 7
E. Essay .......................................................................................................................... 8
F. Previous Studies....................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 11
A. Research Design ....................................................................................................... 11
B. Participants .............................................................................................................. 11
C. Instrument ............................................................................................................... 11
D. Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 12
E. Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 12
F. Validity of the Study ................................................................................................ 12
REFERENCES
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses of some of dealing with introduction of this study. It consist of
background of the study, problem statements, objectives of the study, the significant of the
study, and definition of keyterm.
A. Background of The Study
Writing is one of the useful English skills that EFL students in Indonesia can
learn for written correspondence and academic writing purposes, such as letters, essays,
documents, posts, journals, project reports, theses, and so on. It was said that writing
plays an important role in language development that is used for global information
mediation. However, not only used for communications and purchases, but it also offers
students the opportunity to study abroad. EFL students, on the other hand, had writing
issues that hampered their ability to write. Furthermore, writing can be classified as an
ability because it requires creating rather than obtaining language (Toba et al., 2019).
Langan (2010) used this example to show how writing skills, including driving, typing,
cooking, dancing, and other skills, can be learned through action and practice. It also
necessitates a procedure for producing a happy piece of writing (Oshima & Hogu,
2007). They went on to say that writing is a series of creative acts that include
prewriting, arranging, drafting and polishing (such as revising and editing) (Oshima &
Hogue, 2007).
Following that, organizing is the next step in arranging the ideas discovered
during the prewriting process, which can be accomplished by outlining and
diagramming. The writer creates an outline of a subject by agreeing on the main idea
and its supporting ideas, while the writer begins writing with the main idea and then
creates branches to point out the supporting ideas in a tree diagram. Then comes
drafting, in which the writer creates a rough draft using an outlining and/or illustration
as a reference, without regard for grammar, punctuation, or spelling. Revising is the
process of rewriting and reorganizing the ideas that have already been written in the
previous draft to strengthen it, which includes correcting spelling mistakes, adding
missing information, and checking unity, coherence, and logical organization and
writing content; the writer may change, reorganize, add, or delete ideas until they are
clearly, effectively written. Finally, editing is the method of reviewing a final draft for
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mistakes such as grammar, spelling, mechanics, and other errors, as well as deleting
wordy phrases and rewriting ambiguous or poor sentences, before the writing result is
satisfied.
This study concern with factors affecting essay writing of EFL students in The
English Department of IAIN Kediri. An essay is a piece of writing several paragraphs
long. It is about one topic, just as a paragraph is. Nevertheless, the topic of an essay is
complex to discuss in one paragraph, it needs to divide into several paragraphs together
by adding an introduction and a conclusion. Basic writing abilities include correct
vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation, as well as well-written handwriting.
Furthermore, they involve how ideas are connected, correct organization, and content
originality for advanced writing skills.
B. Problem Statements
Based on the background of the study above, the research questions are:
1. What are the internal factors affecting essay writing of EFL students in English
Department of IAIN Kediri?
2. What are the external factors affecting essay writing of ELF students in English
Department of IAIN Kediri?
C. Objectives of The Study
Based on the problems of the research above, the aim of the study are?
1. To discover the internal factors affecting essay writing student in English
Department of IAIN Kediri.
2. To discover the external factors affecting essay writing student in English
Department of IAIN Kediri.
D. The Significance of Study
In hoping by knowing the factors, EFL students can fix and improve their
writing skills, and lecturers are expected to understand their students what the best
approach suits them, also this study may contribute to giving valuable information
about some problems faced by English students. This study provides knowledge about
the obstacles in completing skripsi and knows how to fix the problems for the
researcher.
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E. The Definition of The Key Terms
1. Academic Writing
Academic writing is a formal writing without adding slang or contractions, it is used
in universities and scholarly publications. Academic writing itended for
publication.
2. Essay
Essay is in response to a question asked by an instructor, a reasonably short, self-
contained argument, often using references from a class.
3. Internal Factors
Internal factors is a factors come from inside of students such as intellectual,
confidance, motivation, and interest etc.
4. External Factors
External factors is a factors come from outside of students, it can be family support,
peer support, and advisor support (Alisnawati & Mintatri, 2017).
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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
In conducting research theories are needed to explain some concept explanation applied in the
research concerned. In this following part of the theoretical framework on the term was
presented.
A. Writing
Writing, according to Nunan (2003: 88), is an intellectual activity that involves
locating ideas and considering how to communicate and organize them into a statement
and paragraph that is easy to comprehend. It implies that the students are expected to
express their views and organize them into a coherent piece. Furthermore, writing
communicates the student's perspective on a subject to the general public. It necessitates
the systematic integration of ideas.
Writing skills are special qualities that enable students to turn their thoughts into
meaningful words and cognitively interact with the message. Various linguists have
offered their interpretations of writing. Writing is a component of a broader activity in
which the focus is on anything other than writing, such as language practice, acting out,
or speaking. In years ago, writing was known as a skill which used in educational or
religious institutions. People are carried out orally, but business transactions, records,
legal documents, political and military agreements are written by professional students.
That is the reason why mastering writing skill is necessary for achieving employment
in this life. Nowadays the ability to write has become an attractive skill, yet difficult at
the same time. Brown (2003: 218) stated that:
“Only a half-century ago experts were saying that writing was primarily a
convention for recording speech and for reinforcing grammatical and lexical
features of the language. Now we understand the uniqueness of writing as a
skill with its features and conversation. We also fully understand the difficulty
of learning to write “well” in any language, even in our native language.”
From that we know that to master in writing skill there are many activities which
should be done at the same time. When we want to express our idea while writing, we
must pay attention to the appropriate vocabulary, the spelling of words, the mechanics,
the style, as well as correct grammar to be used in arranging good English. "The reasons
of writing for each person are diverse," Brookes and Grundy (1990: 3) write. It's
possible that the initial solution is to deliver information to someone. The second
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solution could be to address the issue of volume or having to store more information
than the human brain can remember. The third reason for writing is that it allows us to
sift and form our experiences. Based on Hamer (2004: 4) process of writing has four
main elements:
Source: Harmer, Jeremy. 2004. How To Teach Writing. England: Longman
1. Planning
Before starting to write or type, students decide what are going to say. It may
take a note or write dong any preliminary notes in their heads. When
planning, experienced students think about three main issues. First, the
purpose of writing since it will influence the information which they want
to tell. Second, who the audience is writing for, then how paragraphs are
structured. Third, students should consider the content structure like how
best to order the facts, ideas, or arguments which have been decided to
include.
2. Drafting
The draft is the first version of the piece writing that will be amended later.
In the writing process, a draft has to edit first then produce into the final
version.
3. Editing (Reflecting and Revising)
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After drafting, usually, students read again what they have written to see if
there is any incorrect writing perhaps ambiguous or confusing. a skilled
student tends to look at issues of general meaning and structure before
concentrating on detailed features such as words and grammatical accuracy.
4. Final Version
The final version is when students have edited their draft, making the
changes consider to be necessary, they produce their final version. It can
look different from the original plan and the first draft because students have
changed it in the editing process.
B. Internal Factors Affecting Writing
Internal factors are those that come from the students themselves. It is not due
to their surroundings or the impact of other people, society, the environment, or other
factors. Internal factors affecting writing can be divided into two, and both of them are:
1) psychological aspect is about the physical condition including health condition; 2)
psychological aspect affect learning achievements like intelligence level, attitude,
ability, students’ interest and motivation (Syah, 2008: 132).
Albeit, Dwihandini et.al (2013) said internal factors consist of psychological
factors, socio-cultural factors, and linguistic factors. Psychological elements will
influence undergraduate students' ability to write well. 1) self-esteem; (2) attribution
theory and self-efficacy; 3) communication willingness; 4) inhibition; (5) risk-taking;
(6) anxiety; 7) empathy; 8) extroversion; 9) motivation are the elements. Three aspects
of sociocultural variables may pose a writing barrier for students. These characteristics
are: 1) each student's social distance and relationship with their advisor; 2) the students'
culture in the language classroom, and 3) communication skills among students and
between students and their adviser. The language element is the final internal factor.
It's all about reducing grammatical errors by figuring out which grammatical
components should be deleted, replaced, supplied, or reordered. Students who lack
adequate linguistic abilities may have trouble writing, particularly in a foreign
language.
C. External Factors Affecting Writing
External factors are factors that come from the environment outside the students
themselves. Syah (2008: 138) explained external factors affecting writing from the
social environment and non-social environment. The social environment involves
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family, school, and community. Furthermore, the non-social environment such as
school building, house, learning tools, weather, and study time. Thus Wulandari et.al
(2020) in their research finds there are three indicators in external factors namely the
teacher, the media, and classroom condition. The role of the teacher is important
because affecting in solving students’ difficulties, then the media has the biggest effect
on learning, also the classroom plays a role toward students learning because it makes
a good atmosphere in their mood.
Aslinawati and Mirarti (2017) stated that external factors include family
support, peer support, and advisor support. Family support influence student academic
achievement, if students have a problem while writing especially in the English
language, the family can give motivation. Meanwhile, peer support contributes to give
positive influence. Advisor support comes from a process of consultation factor
(suggestion or feedback, and viability of time for discussion), Job or career that may
lead student difficulties to organize the studying time, neighborhood environment.
D. Academic Writing
Academic writing is one of the genres of written language, what students write
in academic writing includes papers and general reports essays, thesis. Academic
writing, according to Stephen Bailey (2003), is meant for anyone who is studying at an
English-medium college or university and is required to produce essays and other
assignments for exams or courses. The challenge of academic writing is the complexity
of the vocabulary of academic English, it should learn style, referencing, and
organisation. Stephen Bailey also explained the purpose of academic writing, at this
part students should know why they are writing. He said the purpose is to conduct on a
piece of research the student has conducted, to respond to a question that has been
posted or has selected, to discuss a topic of general interest and express the opinion of
the student, the last is to synthesize previous research on a topic. There are four types
of academic writing:
1. Descriptive
The purpose of this type is to provide facts or information. In this case,
students will be describing their processes, over a while, changes and
developments, possibly outlining a timeline of events, including cause and
effect. Students may be required to interpret and describe graphical or
statistical data as part of this process. As part of the process of laying out
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the conditions of the student’s assignment, they will almost certainly need
to add definitions at the start. In all of these circumstances, clarity is critical
to ensure that the reader receives the information in the manner in which the
student intended.
2. Analytical
Analytical writing is like descriptive writing, but it involved reviewing what
students got from the cases. Analytical writing demonstrates the cognitive
processes that led to a specific result and examines the ramifications of that
finding. Analytical writing usually follows a brief narrative and concentrates
on questions such as "why?" "how?" and "what?". The construction of
analytical writing such as analysing, comparing, contrasting, relating, and
examining. Moreover, analytical writing is taught at a university level.
3. Persuasive
Persuasive writing is the same features of analytical writing, starting from
information until how to organise the information. Most essays are
persuasive, it contains the discussion and conclusion of a research.
However, persuasive writing needs to be supported by some evidence, for
example, a reference to research findings or published sources, so your
claim can be trusted because persuasive writing includes an argument,
recommendation, interpretation of findings or evaluation of the work of
others.
4. Critical
The utility of critical writing is for research, postgraduate and advanced
undergraduate writing. All the features of persuasive writing are similar to
critical writing, which makes it different from the point of view. If
persuasive writing used a students point of view, then critical writing used
two points of view, including the student's point of view. First, the students
explain a researcher’s interpretation or argument, after that the students
provide their alternate interpretation or vice versa.
E. Essay
An essay is a piece of writing that consists of several paragraphs that discuss a
topic or situation. (Oshima & Hogue, 2007). An essay is also defined as a "short formal
piece of writing on a particular subject." It is usually written in an attempt to persuade
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the reader through the use of selected research evidence. Hasanuddin WS decides essay
in two types; formal essay and non-formal essay. the formal essay discusses a deeper
topic with a quite objective review. The non-formal essay discusses someone's essay
and in subjective review (Lubis, 2017). When writing an essay, students should have
knowledge and skill in composing a good essay. students must have basic information
to write a good essay. It can assist them in comprehending the material, which could be
the essay's topic of choice. They will begin to create a new idea from the reading once
they have chosen an essay topic. They use the keywords as a starting point for their
writing.
It refers to how the students begin to have a plan for writing an essay when they
talk about constructing thoughts and developing the writing. They must plan with the
concepts of writing an essay that focuses on the key point and is related to the essay's
topic. Using these items, the essay is organized clearly and logically, with real evidence
or examples to support up the main idea. Furthermore, processing the essay can be a
difficult task at times. The task at hand is to master the basic skill of writing. In
academic essay, there are three part of an essay:
1. Introduction
A reader can find the interest and what essay is about of students. The aims
of the introduction or the introductory paragraph are to attract reader’s and
to introduce the topic of the essay. The introduction contains some general
statements and one thesis statement. The general statement explains the
student background information from a general idea to a specific idea.
Whereas the thesis statement states the specific topic, list the sub-topics of
the main topic, even mentions the method of organization. The thesis
statement is in the last part of the introduction.
2. Body
A student can write more than one paragraph of essay body. Each body
paragraph has a topic sentence and several supporting sentences to support
the thesis statement. It contains evidence that is used to persuade the reader
to agree the student 's point of view.
3. Conclusion
The last but not least of the essay is the conclusion, without a conclusion a
student can not reveal the main points of their essay, and make readers
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confused about what the final thoughts on the main topic are. The use of the
conclusion is to remind the reader of the student 's main points.
F. Previous Studies
In this study, at least three researchers have done this kind of research namely
Eliwarti and prof DR Nooreiny Maarof (2014) with the finding research the effect of
type writing approaches on EFL students’ writing performance. It said the pilot study
was conducted in one university in Pekanbaru. This pilot study aims at ensuring the do
ability of the intervention. Hence, the other researcher is A. Ariyanti and Rinda Fitriana
(2017) entitled “EFL Students’ Difficulties and Needs in Essay Writing”, this study
investigated the difficulties faced by EFL students in essay writing as well as exploring
their learning needs to have better quality of English composition. The result as follow;
the students expected more intense guidance from the lecturer, such as continuous
consultation regarding to the lecturer‟s feedback in their essay draft.
The third researcher is Rostanti Toba, Widya Noviana Noor, and La Ode Sanu
(2019) discussed “The Current Issues of Indonesian EFL Students’ Writing Skills:
Ability, Problem, and Reason in Writing Comparison and Contrast Essay”, the findings
of their study revealed that Indonesian EFL students’ writing ability was good, but some
of them encounter problems in writing aspects including content, organization,
vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. Their reasons for having these problems include
not only a lack of knowledge of writing aspects and the comparison and contrast essay
itself, but also personal reasons such as a lack of writing practice, a dislike for writing,
writing anxiety, a negative perception of writing, low writing motivation, insufficient
time given in writing tests, and insufficient teaching of the writing process by their
professors.
Despite the three studies that have been discussed above, the researcher wants
to research factors affecting EFL students in the English Department of IAIN Kediri
because some students experience it while learning. The previous studies studied the
difficulties and the problems of writing on EFL students in general aspect. As the result,
the researcher tried to find the factors of their problems deeper and focused on writing
essay circle’s problems. It has a relationship with this study in supporting the research.
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This part the researcher discussed the research methodology which involves research
design, participants, data collection, and data analysis.
A. Research Design
In this study, the researcher used a qualitative method descriptive research
design. The researcher’s aim is to find the factors affecting essay writing of EFL
student in the English Department of IAIN Kediri. By using descriptive research
design would acknowledge the problems, hence descriptive research design is one
type of research whose purpose is to present a complete picture of a social setting
or is intended for exploration and clarification of social phenomenon or reality.
B. Participants
The participants of this study were the 3rd semester students of English
Department in IAIN Kediri. The researcher chose these 10 students in the 3rd
semester because in the 3rd semester EFL students got academic writing as their
subject. To choose the sample, the researcher used simple random sampling.
Simple random sampling occurs when all members of the population have the same
probability of being selected, also termed simple random selection (Schreiber and
Asner-Self, 2011: 87). It is a reliable method of obtaining information where every
single member of the population is chosen randomly, merely by chance. Each
individual has the same probability of being chosen to be a part of a sample.
C. Instrument
A Research Instrument is a tool that you can use to gather, measure, and
evaluate data on your research topics. These techniques are most typically used to
assess patients, clients, students, teachers, and staff in the health sciences, social
sciences, and education. Interviews, examinations, surveys, and checklists are
examples of research instruments.
This study used an interview guide as the instrument which adapted the
questions from the previous study. By using this method, the researcher can
conduct interviews according to expectations and directed. The interview guide
contains 6 questions that will be asked on EFL students.
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D. Data Collection
The interview was used as the instrument to collect the data. An interview is
one strategy that the respondents were required to obtain more detailed information
from the subject regarding something that we are unable to witness (Patton, 1980).
The researcher chose an interview to learn more about factors affecting essay
writing of EFL students in the English Department, the interview is an appropriate
tool for the researcher to use to answer the research questions in this study. The
steps of collection data can be done by:
1. The researcher prepared the question based on the review guide.
2. The researcher recruited participants by direct invitation or via phone
invitation.
3. The researcher used the one-on-one interview to give the participants
privacy.
4. The researcher used audio recording and took a note.
E. Data Analysis
Data analysis is the process of analyzing, interpreting, and visualizing data
to discover valuable insight that drives smarter and more effective business
decisions. Data analysis is an important aspect of running a successful business.
When data is used wisely, it allows businesses to gain a better knowledge of their
past performance and make better decisions about their future actions. Mohamad
Ali (1982: 120) explains that: "descriptive research methods are used to solve
problems as well as answer problems that occur in the present."
Done by taking the steps of data collection, classification and analysis or
data processing, making conclusions and reports with the main aim of making an
objective description of a situation in a descriptive manner. The descriptive
analysis provides a solution to the question "what happened" by presenting
previous data in the form of dashboards. Despite using descriptive to analyze the
data, the researcher analyzed data by listening to the interviews answers and
opinions with a phone, not only listening to the interviewing, the researcher noted
the data from interviews.
F. Validity of the Study
Triangulation is used by the researchers in this study to check the data's
authenticity. According to Moleong (2009: 330), referenced in Muhammad Anis
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Murtadho, “triangulation is a technique that is used to check the legitimacy of
the data by introducing an element outside the data.” It could be understood to
mean that the element outside the data is used to compare it to the data.
Because the researcher used interviews, and it is also a structural
interview, method triangulation is chosen. The use of various approaches to
analyzing a situation or phenomena is known as method triangulation. The goal
is to minimize the flaws and biases that occur with any single method. The
reason of using method triangulation is the author use the same method like the
previous study to gather the data and information.
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Brookes, Arthur, Grundy, Peter. Writing for Study Purposes: A Teacher's Guide to Developing
Individual Writing Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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