Analyzing Students’ Difficulties in Writing English Essay

Abstract

Analyzing students' difficulties in writing essays is a valuable tool for educators to enhance their teaching methods, provide personalized support, and ultimately improve students' writing skills. It also allows educators to be responsive to the needs of their students and create a more effective and engaging English learning experience. This study investigates the quality of English essays written by college students. The research aims to understand the difficulties of students in writing English essays in particularly in writing opinion essay. A qualitative method approach was employed by analyzing 23 students’ English essays. The findings reveal that while students generally demonstrate competence in structuring their essays and presenting arguments, there are common difficulties related to thesis development, evidence integration, and coherence. Therefore, it is suggested that students always implement the stages of writing an essay to be able to present their opinion in English easily and well.