AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING SKILL AT THE SEVENTH GRADE OF MTs PPTH TEMBILAHAN

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to find students difficulties in writing skill. Writing is one of the skills that can be called success in learning English. The design of this research was the descriptive quantitative method. Through the purposive sampling technique, 21 students of VII.1 at MTs PPTH Tembilahan were chosen as the sample of this research. In this research, the researcher used questionnaire as research question. The researcher found that the students of VII.1 at MTs PPTH Tembilahan had difficulties in writing skill. The researcher analyzed the data based on five indicators in writing. There was expressing idea, vocabulary, grammar, handwriting and mechanic of writing. The result showed the highest mean score is 88 (84%) in expressing idea, followed by handwriting with a mean score 81 (81%). Furthermore, the mean score of mechanic of writing is 78 (74%). Next, for the grammar mean score is 75 (71%), and the last indicator is vocabulary which shows mean score 73 (69%). Based on the analysis, it was concluded that the difficulties of students is caused students do not have much knowledge to expressing idea in writing, students not used to write in English, students are unfamiliar with mechanic of writing such as punctuation rules, comas, and periods, some student have difficulty grasping basic grammatical rules in the English language such as tenses and formula form, and some students limited vocabulary and problems choosing the correct words.

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