2nd English Language and Literature International Conference (ELLiC) Electronic ISSN: 2579-7263

Proceedings – (ELLiC Proceedings Vol. 2, 2018) CD-ROM ISSN: 2579-7549

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS IN WRITING

A Preliminary Study of Implementing Writing E-Journal as Self Assessment to
Promote Students’ Writing Skill

Hanna Novariana1*), Sumardi2), Sri Samiati Tarjana3)

Sebelas Maret University
Indonesia
*hana.novariana16@gmail.com

Abstract
The study is aimed to investigate the internal and external problems in Writing by the Senior High
Students in one of the school in Indonesia. The sample of this study is the eleventh grade students
having low ability in Writing. This research is a qualitative study using purposive sample. In
collecting the qualitative data the researchers did observation, and distributed questionnaire. This
study reveals some findings related to the students’ low ability in writing. There are internal
problems which came from the students, such as: 1) the low motivations in learning English, 2)
the difficulty to choose the appropriate words in writing, 2) the lack of vocabulary, 3) the
difficulty to arrange words in the appropriate order, 4) the difficulty to spell the words, 5) the
difficulty to write the sentences in appropriate grammar, and 6) the tendency to be passive
learners in classroom activities. The external problems come from the students are: 1) the lack of
practice, and 2) there is no feedback on their writing. The result indicates the most internal and
external problems faced by students in writing class and the impacts of students’ understanding of
their writing problems in implementing writing e-journal as self assessment to promote students’
writing skills. Furthermore, the paper concludes with some guidelines for students how to face
their own problems in writing.

Keywords: writing problems, e-journal writing, self-assessment, writing skill

Introduction problems with subject verb agreements,

Nunan (2003) states that writing is the pronoun references, and connectors.
process of thinking to invent ideas, thinking
about how to express into good writing, and b. Problem of Word Choice.
arranging the ideas into statement and Writing in a second language using
paragraph clearly. It plays a major role in the appropriate words in the appropriate
expressing one’s ideas, thoughts, opinions, place is a problem for students. The effort to
and attitudes. Through writing, people are impress the reader leads to a problem of
capable of sharing ideas, feelings, diction.
persuading and convincing others. People
may write for personal enjoyment or for c. Cognitive Problems
some other purpose. Beside personal i. Punctuation Problems
enjoyment, there are some students’ internal According to Byrne (1988,p. 16), the
and external problems that commonly fact that punctuation has never been standard
occurred in writing based on some experts to the extent as spelling, makes it is
as below: problematic.

1. The Internal Problems in Writing ii. Capitalization Problems

a. Grammatical Problems Capital letters are useful for sentence
Kharma (1987) in Melese (2007, p. initials, the beginning of important words, in
12) states that students have grammatical topics, headings. The problems occur
because the difficulty to classify nouns as

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Hanna Novariana, Sumardi, Sri Samiati Tarjana
 2nd English Language and Literature International Conference (ELLiC) Electronic ISSN: 2579-7263
Proceedings – (ELLiC Proceedings Vol. 2, 2018) CD-ROM ISSN: 2579-7549

proper and common nouns (Gowere et al., writing, which is an important part of
1995) language learning, is essentially a reflective
activity that requires enough time to think
iii. Spelling Problem about the specific topics.
Due to the influence of other
languages, variant pronunciations and other d. Lack of Practice
historical reasons, the English spelling According to Davies (1998, p. 25),
system which has become inconsistent is "writing is essentially a creative process and
complex for students (Gowere et al., 1995) good writers must learn to communicate
their ideas clearly to an unseen audience. In
iv. Content Problem addition, learners must take the
Learners of English as a second or responsibility for their learning if
foreign language also face problems of meaningful learning is to take place.
exploring ideas and thought to communicate Furthermore, to become a good writer, a
with others student needs to write a lot.

v. Problem Organization e. Teachers’ Feedback

Learners have the problem of Byrne (1988, p. 29) thinks that if
structuring the paragraph, topic development teachers are to be truly readers rather than
of a paragraph, structuring the whole judges, they should perhaps look not so
discourse and a theme in a discourse, much at what the learners have failed to
differentiating a topic and supporting ideas achieve but rather at what they actually
or generalizations and specific details. succeeded in doing. This might help students
writers to appreciate receiving comments
2. The External Problems in Writing and use them in their revisions.
a. Lack of Knowledge about Writing
Stages Methodology
Byrne (1988, p. 4) classifies the The researcher used qualitative method to
writing complexities into psychological, describe the result of study. And tthrough the
linguistic and cognitive problems. It means documentation of previous writing test
that writing does not come naturally but revealed some findings related to the
rather gained through continuous effort and students’ low ability in writing. Then, the
much practice, it becomes a complex skill. researcher used observation, and
questionnaire as research instruments to
b. Lack Learners’ Motivation investigate the students’ understanding of
Writing tasks can be developed their own problems in writing. The result
rapidly when students’ concerns and indicates the the internal and external
interests are acknowledged, when they are problems in students’ writing and the
given numerous opportunities to write and impacts of students’ understanding of their
when they are encouraged to become writing problems in implementing writing e-
participants. It means that learners will be journal as self assessment to promote
encouraged to write if writing tasks motivate students’ writing skills.
them and keep them interested. The data of this research are 27
students in eleventh grade of SMAN 1
c. Inadequate Time Surakarta. The questionnaire contained of
Learners need time for gathering their external and internal problems in
ideas, organizing their ideas, writing drafts, writing and they knowledge of e-journal
proof reading and re-writing. According to learning.
Guantum and Chakraverty (2000, p. 22),

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Hanna Novariana, Sumardi, Sri Samiati Tarjana
 2nd English Language and Literature International Conference (ELLiC) Electronic ISSN: 2579-7263
Proceedings – (ELLiC Proceedings Vol. 2, 2018) CD-ROM ISSN: 2579-7549

Findings and Discussion Furthermore, the students’ external

The version used in this study consists of problems found in writing are because of
fourteen Likert scale questions and one lack of practice. It has been revealed that the
open-ended question about knowledge of e- reason that the students is lazy and lack of
journal learning. motivation to practice. And second problems
most students got in writing is there is no
1. The questionnaire of students’ external feedback on their writing. Sometimes,
and internal problems in writing teacher only give a score and correction on
This is the result that commonly their writing without any feedbacks and
occurred in writing class. There was not comments.
much difference in the way the students In teaching and learning process,
reported of what the problems they got in teachers also need the students point of view
writing. The result found that the most about their ability and need to know
internal problems challenged the students in students’ understanding of their own writing
writing are grammatical problem and the problems because there are many reasons
second is lack of motivation. And the next is that cannot be expressed by the students in
problem in cognitive and sentence structure. the result of the test then teacher might be
However, a few students have problem in consider them as an evaluation for the next
word choice and vocabulary. teaching and learning process.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the questionnaire.

Categories Item Percentage
The Internal problems Q1 33% Grammatical Problem
Q2 26% Lack of motivation
Q3 15% Cognitive problem
Q4 11% Problem of word choice
Q5 15% problem of sentence structure
The external problems Q6 30% lack of teachers’ feedback
Q7 15% lack knowledge of writing stages
Q8 18% inadequate time
Q9 37% lack of practice
The knowledge of e-journal Q11 15% students didn’t know about e-journal learning
learning Q12 26% students have write journal learning.
Q13 52% students interest to write e-journal learning
Q14 37% students believe that it can improve their writing

The researcher suggested some writers. And the last is give extra help if
guidelines for teachers how to face students there are some difficulties occurs by
who have problems in writing: first is give students.
them opportunity to understand and try to
solve their writing problem. Then give them 2. The questionnaire of the knowledge of e-
positive feedback, try to evaluate their journal learning.
writing without judging their mistake but Based on the results, most of the
also prise their work. Teachers must students stated that they never used journal
consider a placement test to know the as the writing method to recognize their own
writing ability without rush writing. And ability so far. The teacher stated that he only
encourage them to practice and give some used the result of the test and student’s
revisions if there are some mistakes. behavior in class to know their skill.
Furthermore, ask them for an opinion about Furthermore, a few students have write
their own work. To know how much they journal learning. However, almost all
understand about their own work. Then, students are interested to write e-journal
emphasize reading; good readers are good

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Hanna Novariana, Sumardi, Sri Samiati Tarjana
 2nd English Language and Literature International Conference (ELLiC) Electronic ISSN: 2579-7263
Proceedings – (ELLiC Proceedings Vol. 2, 2018) CD-ROM ISSN: 2579-7549

learning because they believe that it can References

improve their writing skill. Nunan, David. (2003). Practical English
Writing journal is similar to writing Language Practice. Singapore: Mc
diary which is one of traditional methods in Graw-Hill Company.
writing. In the process of writing diary, the Kharma, Nayef. (1987). Arab Students’
students are given opportunities to write by Problems with English Relative Clause.
using a pen and a paper. However, this ERIC Journal.
traditional method seems problematic by the Byrne, D. (1988). Teaching Writing Skills.
students to write journal through paper Londom: Longman
especially for the teachers if they find a Gowere, R., Philips, D. and Walters, S.
badly-formed letter in their students’ (1995). Teaching Practice Handbook.
writing. To minimize the problems, e- Exford, Heinemann.
journal is the modern method that students Davies, Lawe. (1998). Coherence in Tertiary
only need smart phone or laptop and internet Students’ Writing: Writters’ Skills and
them a personal space to write their own Readers Expectations. (unpublished
improvement, worries, and problems doctoral thesis, University of Western
personally. Australia.
In teaching and learning process,
teachers also need the students point of view
about their ability and need to know
students’ understanding of their own writing
problems because there are many reasons
that cannot be expressed by the students in
the result of the test then teacher might be
consider them as an evaluation for the next
teaching and learning process.

Conclusion
It is concluded that students are still have the
same difficulties from the past. To minimize
the problems, e-journal is the modern
method that students only need smart phone
or laptop and internet connection to write
their learning activity. It is an easy way to
reduce the stress and to motivate students in
writing and to give them a personal space to
write their own improvement, worries, and
problems personally. In teaching and
learning process, teachers also need the
students point of view about their ability,
because there are many reasons that cannot
be expressed by the students in the result of
the test. And then, for the teacher, it might
be considered as teaching evaluation for the
next teaching and learning process.

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Hanna Novariana, Sumardi, Sri Samiati Tarjana