THE EFFECTS OF WRITING DIFFICULTIES ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

IN CREATIVE WRITING OF GRADE 12 HUMSS STUDENTS

This chapter

FOREIGN LITERATURE

Teaching creative writing that is encouraging students to write by drawing upon their

imagination and other creative processes may support writing development in all its

components (Barbot, Tan, Randi, Donato & Grigorenko, 2012).

According to a study by Abderraouf (2016), developing students' writing abilities is a

difficult endeavor, particularly for foreign students. Deep study of the rules and careful

application of the target language are necessary for writing as a cognitive process. In

writing assignments, students typically struggle to start writing because they are trying

to find the correct words, are having trouble with the grammar, or are having trouble

with the punctuation. The majority of the problems were in the vocabulary,

capitalization, punctuation, and spelling (word choice).

One of the most crucial abilities a college student should possess is writing (Morris et

al., 2018). This talent is crucial for a student's success in their undergraduate studies as

well as their employability and professional advancement. Being a good writer requires

being able to communicate thoughts and viewpoints more clearly (Al-Jamal & Zennou,
2018; Lam et al.2018). One of the most popular types of writing taught in higher

education is the argumentative essay (Rubiaee et al., 2020; Zarrabi & Bozorgian, 2020).

Writing is not a straightforward cognitive activity but rather a complicated mental

creation that calls for "careful thought, discipline, and focus," it may be challenging to

learn or teach (Grami, 2010, p. 9). Al Fadda (2012) discovered that distinguishing

between spoken and written words and phrases, reviewing grammar, especially subject-

verb agreement, and putting sentences together to form logical paragraphs are the

biggest difficulties ESL students face. The ability to come up with ideas for their topics

could be another obstacle preventing students from progressing with their writing (Al

Murshidi, 2014). Reading and then writing in their own words is another issue. This

could result in grammatical errors, which might discourage students from paraphrasing

and summarizing other people's work in favor of simple copying and pasting (Amin &

Alamin, 2012).

Meanwhile, Chou (2011) has outlined a variety of factors that contribute to the stress

and challenges that overseas students who are studying in an English-speaking nation

have when completing their assignments. In the beginning, pupils may come from

various cultural backgrounds where they are totally reliant on teachers. Additionally,

because they consider themselves second language learners, they may have lower

expectations than those of their teachers because they have not had any critical

thinking training. Writing instructors with high standards may assume that their students
are competent to create correct writing, and they may also give challenging subjects

that students may find difficult to write about (Al Murshidi, 2014). A lack of language

skills may hinder academic writing.

According to Ghabool, Edwina, and Kashef (2012), this issue may be the root cause of

the difficulties pupils may encounter when writing. For instance, beginning a meaningful

discussion in the target language is particularly difficult for beginning writers (Shafie et

al, 2010).

However, Al-(2013) Khairy's analysis, the study's participants identified grammar

mistakes, poor word choices, irregular verb tenses, and inaccurate punctuation and

spelling as their primary issues. Other factors that could contribute to academic writing

difficulties include L1 interference, inadequate ideas, and imprecise work instructions.

(Chou, 2011). Chou (2011) draws the conclusion that the participants in his study

acknowledged that they felt hesitant and unconfident to ask teachers for clarification

when given an ambiguous description of the work. Last but not least, Can (2009)

asserts that students' lack of confidence in their writing abilities may be caused by

teachers' inconsistent feedback from various departments within an institution.

Yugianingrum (2010), a learner's cultural background and the institution to which he or

she belongs are just as important to having good writing as their talents and effort. In

other words, writing needs to be ingrained in society, and students need access to a
large enough library of pertinent references. Furthermore, as mentioned by Al Fadda

(2012), confidence can be quite helpful in conquering the challenges of academic

writing.

LOCAL LITERATURE

According to Pablo Jim et al (2018) writing is a difficult task in general because a

variety of skills are needed. Writing is based on strong fine motor skills, motor planning

using the eyes, planning, reasoning, memory, and knowledge of vocabulary, sentence

construction, grammar, and the reason for writing. This type of writing has many

different are certain that writing is a difficult task. That's the most challenging language

skill to learn.

However in the study of Santos (2018) when given a writing assignment, students had

trouble coming up with ideas, coming up with strong opening paragraphs, and

developing their paragraphs. Numerous instances show that Humss students

consistently emphasize the length of their outputs rather than the quality of the works

content. Although teachers give guidelines and offer rubrics for students to use, the

quality of their work is nevertheless impacted by their belief that a lengthy piece of work

is superior to a brief one.

REFERENCES

- Abderraouf, A. (2016). Investigating EFL students' writing difficulties and

common errors in
 Writing. Retrieved from:
https://www.academia.edu/29046914/investigating_efl_students_writing
difficulties and_common_errors_in_writing on July 11, 2019

- Barbot, B., Tan, M., Randi, J. Santa-Donato, G. and Grigorenko, E. L. (2012).

Essential skills for creative writing: Integrating multiple domain-specific
perspectives. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 7, 209-223

- Chou, L. (2011). An investigation of Taiwanese doctoral students' academic

writing at a U.S.
University. Higher Education Studies, 1(2), 47-60.

- Grami, G. M. A. (2010). The Effects of Integrating Peer Feedback into

University-Level ESL Writing Curriculum: A Comparative Study in a Saudi
Context (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Newcastle University, Retrieved
from https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10443/933/1/grami_

- Ghabool, N., & Kashef, S. H. (2012). Investigating Malaysian ESL Students’

Writing Problems on Conventions, Punctuation, and Language Use at
Secondary School Level. Journal of Studies in Education, 2, 130-143.

- Jim Christzer I. Pablo & Ronald Candy S. Lasaten (2018) Writing Difficulties

and Quality of Academic Essays of Senior High School Students

- Santos, et.al. (2018). Overcoming writing apprehension through

photovoice: basis for interdisciplinary approach in teaching creative
nonfiction.

- Yugianingrum (2010). Producing an English academic paper: Process,

problems, and solutions, US-China Foreign Language, 8, pp. 39-49.