Students’ Perception on Writing Problems: A Survey at One Islamic University in Jambi

The aim of this research was to find out students' problems in writing in the fifth-semester students in one Islamic University in Jambi. We used survey and the population of this research was the fifth-semester students consisting of 198 students. 70 students were selected as the sample. The questionnaire consists of 28 questions of 7 types of problems with 5 alternative answers. The researcher used SPSS to analyze the data. It was found that there were 7 types of the problems that students faced in their writing course. They were poor organization/illogical sequence, problems of word choice, grammatical error, spelling problems, supporting ideas confusions, punctuation problems, and capitalization. The overall mean of students' problems in writing in the fifth-semester students in Islamic Institution in Jambi was (x=2.70) categorized as "medium". Specifically, students problems in poor organization/illogical sequence was (x=3.69) , problem of word choice (x=3.72), grammatical error (x=3.25), spelling problem (x=3.35), confused on supporting the ideas (x=3.12), punctuation problem (x=3.17), capitalization (x=3.35). All the process in scientific approach was categorized as "medium" for the students. It means that the students did not find significant difficulty in writing course. Moreover, from the interpretation of the mean, and most of the students agreed that they had dominant problems; word choice and poor organization/illogical sequence.


Introduction
One of the aims of teaching English is to develop the ability to communicate.The ability involves the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.One of the skills that are as the most difficult and complicated to be learned is writing because writing needs hard thinking to produce ideas, words, sentences, paragraph, and composition.Harmer (2001) stated that the students can become very frustrated when they do not have the words or the grammar they need to express in writing.The students also have difficulties when they are asked to write about the topics that they do not interest to do, perhaps in unfamiliar genres, and without the necessary information.Writing stimulates students to focus on appropriate language use, they can go through what they know in their mind or even consult the dictionary, grammar book and another reference (Harmer: 2004).It means that writing is not just about an idea but more complex in choosing vocabulary, the using of appropriate structure.It is how the writer presents and expresses these ideas in effective writing.
In English writing, there are number of features to make effective writing, those are 1) focus on the topic, 2) organization how to develop the beginning, middle and end of the writing, 3) support and elaboration of the idea, 4) style which also means the appropriate language use to the purpose of writing, audience and context of the writing, 5) conventions or the correctness of the sentence formation, usage, and mechanics (Harmer, 2004;Hogue & Oshima, 2007).The writing process was the stage goes through in order to produce something in its final written form.The writer didn't only need to know the process of writing but also needed to apply these processes to the works.It would help the writer to organize idea logically.In writing, people needed some process to make a writing (Harmer, 2004;Hogue & Oshima, 2007).
Many problems were found in English writing.There are some classifications of writing problems; capitalization problem, punctuation problem, poor organization/ illogical sequence, grammatical error, ideas and frustration and confused on supporting ideas, and spelling error (Smith 1973;Kroll, 1991;Gower et al, 1995;Holmes, 2003;Bahloul, 2007).There are reasons for students' problems in using proper capitalization.The rules of capitalization are not universal and classifying nouns as proper and common nouns is difficult for students (Gower et al, 1995).In addition, there are some common punctuation problems; first extraneous apostrophes, it means that problems on putting apostrophes where they don't belong to.Second unnecessary quotation marks, the problem is the use of single or double quotation marks when nothing is being quoted.Third missing commas, the problem is without commas, sentences can become run-on blocks of text without any breaks.Fourth quotation mark placement, the problem is sentence ending punctuation marks often go outside, which is where they belong to.And the last semi colons versus colons, semi colons are often misused, particularly, where a colon should be used.Raimes (1983) stated that the other problem of organization in student' writing is the difficulty of differentiating a topic and supporting ideas or generalizations and specific details.The poor organization or illogical sequence may also be said to originate from poor teaching in the learning process.The problem could be reduced by effective teaching, the creating of a wider reading and writing habit, and involvement in discussions and debates.The grammatical error is a term used in prescriptive grammar to describe an instance of faulty, unconventional, or controversial usage (Nordic, 2005).The idea would be difficult to gather when the creativity is limited.The idea was a soul in writing product became interested to read.The main idea was the most important idea in a paragraph or passage.The main idea may be directly stated, or it may be implied.However, the idea was the crucial problem for the students besides the limited creativity on the topic.This problem made students frustrated to construct writing.When the topic was limited.
Another problem disucessed is spelling error.Many studies agreed on the fact that the first main cause of spelling errors was irregularities of the English spelling system (Smith, 1973;Bahloul, 2007;Jayousi, 2011).The fact that English spelling was inconsistent to makes it more difficult and requires more effort to memorize.For instance, vowels <a> can be pronounced as /i:/ in 4 freak or /ei/ in break.Similarly, /i:/ can be spelled using <a> in cream or <ee> in bee.This inconsistency requires sellers to put more attention to correct spellings of particular words.
The expansion of idea should be supported as well.The limitation on creativity and idea frustration made the students to be difficult to support their ideas or topic that has been made.Bahloul (2007) argued that the supporting ideas are reasons, examples, facts, steps, or other kinds of evidence that explain a main idea.It explained, described, proved, or gave examples of the main idea and topic sentences.The problems earlier (Limitation oncreativity and Idea Frustration) acted a very dominant attention to this problem.It confused on supporting the ideas.In addition, the time consumption in the class also gave a trouble for them on doing it.As a result, they confused and needed to helped to be know how to support their ideas in a limited time and creativity.

Methodology
For this study, we used quantitative research, and survey approach design to investigate the student problems on writing.In doing so, a set questionnaires related to the problems developed to collect the data from the respondents.The data would be used to see the percentage of students who have problems in every possible area.After the data analysis, the finding and discussion were discussed.There were five classes for the respondents of this study.They were the fifth-semester students, class A, B, C, and D who has passed writing subject 1 until writing III in their academic activity at one Islamic University in Jambi.Each class had around twenty-five students and the total number of the participants around 198 students.For the pilot test, the sample was class B of the fifth-semester students in English Department.
The researcher used a set of questionnaire as the instrument.The questionnaire were distributed to the respondents.In this research, the writer used two sections.The first section listed the demographic question about the identity of the respondent such as age, gender, class, GPA, and writing score.The second section consists of questions about students writing problems.In doing this study, the researcher set the questionnaire by adapting from the previous research.It was from Alfaki (2015), Huy (2015), Jimenez, et al., (2013), andNawaz et al. (2015).Questionnaire is a self-report data collection instrument that each research participants fill out as part of the research study (Johnson & Christensen, 2008).The using of this technique is to obtain the information about the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions, personality, and behavioral intention of research respondents.In addition, in this research used the five Likert scale in investigating student problems in writing in the Islamic Institution in Jambi.Each of the statement in this questionnaire is accompanied by five Likert scales.The option of response shows the Likert scale which provides five option in ranging It, there are; Strongly Agree (SA) with 5 points, Agree (A) with 4 points, Neutral (N) with 3 points, Disagree (D) with 2 points, and the last Strongly Disagree (SD) with 1 point which the participant will choose by giving checklist mark (√).
In collecting the data, there were some steps applied; asking for permission to the English language program chair and the team, asking for permission to the lecturer.giving invitation letters for the respondents, distributing the questionnaire, and collecting the questionnaire.
Data analysis is the process systematically applying statistical or logical techniques to describe illustrate and evaluate data.Dornyei (2003) stated that descriptive statistics is a way that use to calculate of numerical data that can save time and space to be more efficient.After the writer got the data, the writer analyzed from the questionnaire that students had returned to the writer, the writer will use SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) to analyze the data.The writer found the mean score of students' response and then interpreted them.
To identify the criterion of mean score, we proposed the scale of mean score interpretation.It can be seen as follows:

Students' Writing Problems Based on Each Type
In this part, there were 28 questions related to the students' perception of problems in writing.The research consisted of seventh types, four items/ statements were from each type.The researcher discussed each type in the questionnaire it means there were eight domains discussed in this research.By using SPSS 20, the result of all questionnaires could be seen in table 2 The descriptive analysis result in table 2 present output analysis of types includes, mean and level of respondents' answer towards each statement.The Table 2 above also answers the research questions.By the result of the study, it was found that the students did not face many difficulties in writing problems.However, among the types, the students faced difficulties in the problem of word choice with the total mean score 3.72 it meant that students perceived that problem of word choice of students was high level and dominant be compared with the others.The researcher thought that the students were difficult in using the difficult word in writing and the lack of vocabularies that they had.Next, poor organization/illogical sequence had mean score 3.69 Students perceived that organization/illogical sequence was the second problem that influenced in quality in writing.For spelling problems and capitalization have the same mean score 3.35 Students perceived that spelling problems and capitalization can be one of the components that make the outcome of writingis being doubted.Thethird problem grammatical error had mean score 3.25 Students perceived grammatical error was the fourth problem that was very important problems for students.Students perceived that confused on supporting the ideas had mean score 3.11.It meant that students perceived that confused on supporting the ideas which make the students felt there was no effect in writing.And the last, punctuation problem had mean score 3.17.Students perceived that punctuation problem was not necessary for writing.As the result, students perceived that overall students' problems and the main problems that students had in writing appeared in the problem of word choice and poor organization/ illogical sequence, students had the most respondents' answer in these based on the mean score.Table 5 also answers the research questions for the dominant problems between male and female students.By the result of the study above, it was found the students did not face many difficulties in learning writing.However, both of them have the significant problems in writing.For the female students faced the problem in the problem of word choice Meanwhile male students faced problem in the grammatical error.By the result, both of them have the different dominant problem in writing.For the male students agreed that they had got a problem on grammar and influenced the quality of their writing.It was indicated the mean score (x=3.67) the high result in the other types.And also for female students agreed that they had got a problem on the problem of word choice, students perceived that influenced the capacity to improve the writing well.It was indicated the mean score (x=3.75) the highest result types compared with others.

Students' Problem in Writing Based on Each Item from Each Type
The descriptive analysis resulted in the table below present frequency, percentage, mean, and level of respondents' answers toward each statement of seven types.

Overall Mean 3.6928 High
Looking at findings as displayed, the overall mean of organization/illogical sequence was 3.69 and it categorized high.It meant that in the fifth-semester students at one Islamic institution in Jambi did not face problems in writing.On the other hand, among the items in organization /illogical sequence, it was found that most of the students had a big trouble in making an outline before writing (x=3.85)categorized as high.Looking at findings as displayed in table 7 showed that the overall mean of students' difficulties in the problem of word choice was 3.72 categorized high.It meant all of the students did not face problems in this step.Nevertheless, among the items in problems of word choice, the highest problems was by using the simple words in writing make me more confident (x=3.81)categorized as high.It meant that students in the fifth-semester students at one Islamic institution they did not confident if they used complicated words.Therefore, it was the highest problems that they faced in writing.

Overall Mean 3.2536 Medium
Findings in table 8 showed that students agreed that they got a problem on grammar and influenced the quality of their writing.The overall mean of grammatical error was (x=3.25)classified as medium.The difficult problems among the items in grammatical error, having poor grammar make me writing not so good (x=3.34)classified as medium.Based on the items above, most of the students had a big problem in grammar.Even, a good idea was created by the students but the grammar was not good, the result of writing would not qualify.Findings in table 9 showed that the overall mean of students' problems spelling problem was 3.35 classified as medium.This step was found as the most difficult for the students in writing.Especially, review your writing to check the spelling of the words(x=3.67).Findings in table 10 showed that more students were neutral that they had difficulty in supporting their ideas or topic that has been made in constructing the writing.The overall mean score of students' problems in confused on supporting the ideas was 3.11 categorized as a medium.In the items above there was two same result of mean.They were, I face many troubles in constructing the words in making supporting the ideas and I am difficult to define what items that related to the topic, the mean was 3.24.it meant both of the items had same difficulties that student faced.

Overall Mean 3.1714 Medium
Looking at findings as displayed in table 11 showed that more students were neutral that students had difficulty in using right punctuation.The overall mean of punctuation

Overall Mean 3.3536 Medium
The overall mean of students' difficulties in capitalization was 3.35 categorized as the medium.This step was found as the most difficult for the students in learning writing.Specifically, capitalization is needed in the first letter of person's name (x=3.98) was found very difficult forthe students.It meant that, they sometimes forget in the using capitalization in the first letter of person's name.

Discussion
There were 28 items in the questionnaire that asked students' perception toward the problem in writing.Based on the findings, all of the types such as poor organization/illogical sequence, the problem of word choice, grammatical error, spelling problem, confused on supporting the ideas, punctuation problem, and capitalization perceived in positive perception in students' problem.By knowing the perception result of each type, the researcher could determine the final result.By the result of the study and findings above, it was found that the fifth-semester students at One Islamic University did not face a significant problem in writing.Furthermore, the overall mean showed that it was medium.It meant that the students sometimes faced problem in some types.There were only 2 dominants problems from 7 types that most influence students learning of writing based on of the level mean score.Those types were the problem of word choice and poor organization/illogical sequence.
First,it was the problem of word choice.Students perceived less understanding on the choice the words and it made them be difficult to expand their writing product if they were stuck when they were in writing.it was supported by statement number (always using the simple words in writing) which was used to counter check students' positive response towards students problem.It elicited (58.6%) of agreement and interpreted the high level of mean scores.Moreover, the problem of word choice was also supported by some statements in the questionnaire (statements number 6, 7, and 8).Students agreed to be said that they felt hard by using difficult words in writing.Hence, the students felt confidence if they used the simple words in writing (statements 6).They were actually perceived that the statement number 1 that if it was happened and could limit students' creativity in writing because the lack vocabularies that they have (statements 7).In addition, they also had difficulty in using new vocabularies in writing.They take a long time to understand about the new vocabularies in writing (statements 8).This finding was similar to previous study of Keong and Mussa (2015) which showed the result in the writing difficulties that students faces are a lack of vocabulary.It made them difficult to develop what on their mind.
Based on the result of findings, the problem of word choice had the high level the mean score 3.72 compared to the others.The problem of word choice was the most difficult problem in writing course.If the students got less vocabulary in writing, they would not develop their own ideas and opinions well.Nevertheless, many of results of respondents' answers also had a problem in all the types.All problems have relation to each other in the learning writing process.Students perceived that they had so many problems while they were in learning writing.Nancy (2008) confirmed that students' perception of difficulty may not always be the same as the actual or performance difficulty that they encounter.A high level of difficulty may be perceived by students who have produced a big number of errors because they could not avoid using items they found difficult.
Second, poor organization/illogical sequence.It focused get less understanding about the techniques in writing.There were four statements and students perceived most of the students had a big problem in this techniques.Based on the respondent answers each type statement, the most students agreed that they got the problem in poor organization/illogical sequence.It was supported the statement number 3 "making an outline before writing".It was found 3.85 of agreement answer.It meant that in making writing product they did not use the technique to make them easier in writing.Because in writing, we need to make an outline, in order to make us easy to write about something.By making an outline, it should focus on the outline that we have done.We are not out of the context.The students perceived that they had low confidence in the techniques skill require d in writing.It supported based on statements number 1, 2, and 4 in the questionnaire.The finding also was similar with the previous study Keong and Mussa (2015), which showed the result students got problem poor at organizing and expressing ideas.
In regarding research question number 2, it can be seen by the most dominant problem in writing between male and female student.By the result of the study and findings, in grammatical error type focused on less in grammar that student male had.Based on the result each type in the questionnaire, male students perceived that they had the big problem in grammatical error when doing writing.It indicated the mean score 3.67.The males felt that they had the low level of grammar, and this problem motivated them to be better in writing.They may have a good idea but difficult to improve it.The students also thought that they were not confident in writing.On the other hand, student female got the problem of word choice.Based on the result, female students faced difficulties in it.Most of them always used simple words and got difficult to understand the new vocabulary when learning writing.Look at the result each statement on the problem of word choice in the questionnaire.All of the result in the problem of word choice it indicated high level.The mean score was 3.75, the finding corresponded with Chu-yao, Ciu (2008) in term of writing quantity, the results showed that female student wrote better than male students.For his experiences, female students often wrote more and took more organized records of their written works than male students.Regarding the writing quality, female students better than male students in both the total scores and the analytic scores of English writing.However, the result showed that the difference statistically significant.Nevertheless, the result didn't same with my research.In the contrary of my result, female students were less writing than male students.Based on the result finding, female students got the problem in the problem of word choice.It focused on less vocabulary that female had, so they couldn't develop writing well.Meanwhile, male students got the problem in the grammatical error.It could be concluded that female students tend to be good in grammar more than male students had less in the grammatical error.
Based on the theory about the characteristic of Adolescent Learner, female brains process language activities more easily, earlier, and faster than males, while males more readily excel at spatial mechanical and gross motor skill task, (Clements, et al., 2006).These differences explained females were more outperformed than males in reading and writing, and males tend to gravitate toward physical activities and video games.By the result that I got from the males and females problems in writing, it was found both of them had different problem on writing.Why the result both of them weren't same?Because based on the theory the characteristic males and females were different.It has been described according to experts above, and it was contrary with the research which I have done.It showed that females had problem in word of choice, and they preferred to use the simple words.Meanwhile for males, they got difficulties in using grammar.

Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to analyze the students' perception of writing problems in the fifth-semester students at One Islamic University in Jambi.Based on the findings and discussion, we concluded that students faced problems in writing problem of word choice and poor organization/illogical sequence.Furthermore, for the female students they got the problem of word choice, meanwhile male students got the problem in the grammatical error.
Based on the conclusion above, there were some suggestions proposed.Firstly, students need the assistance to overcome the problems that they faced in learning writing process.Second, it would be better for the lecturer to find out the strategies that used to overcome the problems that have been identified in learning writing process.In addition, the lecturer must be focused on making students to pay attention in learning writing and be attractive, in order to avoid bored in learning writing.Third, the researcher also suggests for the further researcher to conduct a survey by taking the same college to see the result of the college in learning writing.

Table 1 .
Interpretation of Mean Score

Table 2 .
Mean and Level of Types

Table 3 .
Problems in writing; Male students

Table 4 .
Problems writing; Female students

Table 6 .
Frequency, percentage, mean, and level of poor organization/illogical sequence in each item.

Table 8 .
Frequency, percentage, mean, and level of grammatical error

Table 9 .
Frequency, percentage, mean, and level of spelling problem

Table 11 .
Frequency, percentage, mean, and level of punctuation problem

Table 12 .
Frequency, percentage, mean, and level of capitalization