Exploring Students’ Problem in Writing Essay

An essay is a piece of writing that makes a claim, makes an argument, conveys a feeling, or starts a discussion. It is a piece of literature that can be personal, critical of literature, or an entirely scholarly investigation of a subject. In this study has a title of exploring the problems of essay writing. The research objectives are to find out the the students’ difficulties in writing essay and the students’ way to overcome the difficulties. The data collection techniques used in this research is quantitative and qualitative data. It was gained from the closed-ended questionnaire section and the semi-structured interview. In analyzing the questionnaire data, this study conducted likert scale formula and in interview section, the researcher used data reduction such as coding and written summarization of interviewee’s response. This study involved 37 students or 25% of 146 students as a sample of study in year of 2021 in the Department of English Language Education of Universitas Islam Negeri Ar-Raniry. However, the study’s result showed that there are four difficulties in writing essay, in term of using grammar, punctuation and spelling, vocabulary,and learning strategies. To address the difficulties of using grammar, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary, and learning strategies in writing an essay, you can follow these strategies like improving grammar and punctuation, expanding the vocabulary, organize and structure the students’ essay. Besides, to support students' arguments, use examples and evidence personal experiences. Moreover, ask a teacher, tutor, or experienced writer to review your essay and provide constructive feedback. This can help the students identify areas for improvement and develop their writing skills.