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LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter describes (1) definition of writing, (2) Process of writing (3) Academic writing (4) Thesis Writing (5) The factors affecting students’ difficulties in thesis writing, (6) previous related studies. 2.1.Definition of Writing Writing is one of important skills that language learners need to learn as an essential component not only for their academic practice but also later in their professional life. Writing is one of the four language skills besides listening, speaking, and reading. Writing is an activity in arranging words, phrases, and sentences (Nunan, 2003). Writing is one way of expressing ideas in order to communicate with others. By writing, a writer can express his/her thoughts or ideas on the paper. Leo (2007) says that writing as a process of expressing ideas or thoughts in words should be done at our leisure. Writing is difficult for several reasons. First , writer should be able to use proper grammar in order to make a good writing. Reid (1993) states “Writing is just another way of practising grammar.” Thus, the second difficulty in writing is that the writers should pay attention to the planning and organizing of the writing. Moreover, Richards and Willy (2002) explains that second language writers have to pay attention to higher level skill of planning and organizing as well as lower level skills of spelling, punctuation, word choice, and so on. Third , it might be difficult to write a good writing if writers difficult to use a combination of content and proper punctuation without leaving out any important information. As Checkett and Feng-Checkett (2004) claim that to make a good writing, a writer has to keep writing as short and simple as possible without leaving out any
important information, and forbidden to use slang language or confusing expressions, but use a combination of content and proper punctuation. 2.1.1. The Component of Writing To create a good writing, there are several aspects for the writer to pay a close attention to. An effective composition should meet the qualities in some terms proposed by Jacobs e t al. (1981: 90) below:
- Content The substance of writing, the experience of the main idea, i.e., groups of related statements that a writer presents as unit in developing a subject. Content paragraph do the work of conveying ideas rather than fulfilling special function of transition, restatement, and emphasis.
- Organization It is scarcely more than an attempt to place together all condition of fact and jumble ideas. Even in early drafts it may still be searching for order, trying to make our pattern in its materials and working to bring particulars of its subject in line with what is still only a half-formed notion of purpose.
- Vocabulary The selection of words that is suitable with the content. It begins with the assumption that the writer wants to express the ideas as clearly and directly as he/she can. As a general rule, clarity should be his/her prime objective. Choosing words that express his/her meaning is precise.
- Language Use The use of correct grammatical form and synthetic pattern of
perfectly usual and acceptable- after all. this is just a rough draft. You will fix the errors later.
- Revising and Editing In this step, you polish what you have written. This step is also called revising and editing. Polishing is most successful if you do it in two steps. First, attack the big issues of content and organization (revising). Then work on the smaller issues of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics (editing). 2.3. Academic Writing There are content, register and topic that should be considered in writing an academic writing. According to Proske (2010) academic writing is a complex task that involves a variety of cognitive and metacognitive. Richard and Miller (2008) stated that Academic writing is generally held to be writing that conforms to specific expectations of language, structure, and purpose. Oshima and Hogue (2007) say that academic writing is focusing on the kind of second language learner used in high school and college or in university area. It is different from creative writing, which is the kind of writing stories, and it is also different from personal writing, which is the kind of writing letters or e-mails. Academic writing is formal, so the writer should not use slang or contractions. Also the writer should take to write complete sentences and to organize them in a certain way (Oshima & Hogue (2007). Furthermore, academic writing is more difficult than the other kind of writing. Oshima and Hogue (1998) also agree that academic writing is not easy. Oshima and Hogue (2007) say that academic writing in English is probably
different from academic writing in your native language. The words and grammer and also the way of organizing ideas are probably different from what you are used to. Therefore, Oshima and Hogue also say that academic writing need a lot of study and practice in order to develop learners’ writing skill. Furthermore, Bowker (2007), Academic says that writing is a special genre of writing that prescribes its own set of rules and practices. Acad emic writing focused the written product with in deep investigation over the resource to provide relevant product. Academic writing is one of the cornerstones of university study. In all disciplines, students and their teachers need writing to express their ideas clearly. However, academic writing can come in many forms and you may be asked to write an essay, a report or even a reflective journal article. These different types of academic writing adhere to specific styles but all of them have similarities. Furthermore, this study will focus in writing thesis as one kinds of academic writing. 2.4. Thesis Writing Thesis writing is different from other kinds of writing that students have ever faced. It is likely to be the biggest and longest project for the students in term of academic life. Berndtsson et al. (2008) stated that the thesis project was probably the biggest project that student would had undertaken in students’ academic life, and maybe even in their life. Furthermore, Murray (2012) states that thesis is a far bigger project than most students will ever have undertaken before. It requires more independent study, more self-motivation. In addition. Hardling (2004) states that writing a thesis is an exercise in carrying out research
values and expectations of the academic discipline in which it is produced and will be assessed. The structure of a text is, nevertheless, a central issue in text processing and production. 2.4.1. The Component of Thesis Thesis writing seems to be the biggest project for all college students. It can be very long process until the students finish writing all components of the thesis. The thesis have some of components, in general it is classified into five chapters. Paltridge and Starfield (2007) classified some main chapters that must be written in the thesis writing: introductory chapter, literature review chapter, methodology chapter, result chapter and conclusion chapter. Each chapter has its own level difficulties and it is challenging for the students to write each chapter properly. Based on Technical Book of Thesis Writing and Scientific Work of English Education Studi Program UIN Raden Fatah Palembang (2015) there are five main components of thesis writing that we have to know such as introductions chapter, review literature chapter, methodology chapter, result chapter, and conclusion chapter; the body of the thesis includes five different chapters as follows:
- In the first chapter, we write an introduction including a precise background of the study, an explicit statement of problem, some clear objectives, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations of the research and operational definition of the key terms
- Chapter two of the thesis includes review of the related literature. The review can be of both theoretical and empirical. This chapter also
includes implications of the review of related literature and conceptual framework as a su mmary of the theory used in the research.
- The third chapter of the thesis presents the methodology ,including research design, samples, sampling procedures, data collection tools and procedures and data analysis and interpretation procedures.
- The fourth chapter states the analysis and interpretation of the data. Different charts, tables, figures, descriptions explanations, discuss ions, narratives etc. are used in order to process and display the collected data.
- Finally, in the fifth chapter effective conclusion of the entire thesis is written. Based on the analysis, findings and recommendations are also presented. These are the specific suggestions for policy level and practice level. 2.5. The Factors Affecting Students’ Difficulties in Thesis Writing In writing thesis many undergraduate students face problem in writing their thesis. Levine (2002) mentioned the language problems in writing are poor vocabulary, awkward phrasing and unconventional grammar, difficulty with sentence structure and word order. Therefore, the students must have productive skill in writing. Brown and Atkins (1988) say that the difficulties encountered in writing-up could be classified as lack of necessary skill. Furthermore, Rudd (1985) found two interrelated aspects to the problem: slowness in formulating what to write, and difficulty in bringing the material into coherent shape (as cited in Brown and Atkins, 1988). In addition, Bryne (1988) divided the problem that
2.5.1. Psychological Factors The success and failure we face in various activities we perform each day most often depends on our everyday psychology. Martos (2006) reveal thet psychological factors can be divided into two categories: affective or emotional, and cognitive. Paltridge and Starfield (2007) say that psycho- affective/emotional is the factors related which may directly affect a student’s ability to write. Beharu (2018) says that the problems mainly emanates from psychological factors such as stress, anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, loneness, helplessness and phobias. Further, Paltridge and Starfiel ( explain that the affecting factors which become the psycho-affective factors that will affect the undergraduate students to create good thesis writing are: Low of confidence, fear of failure, anxiety, and motivation. a. Anxiety The construct of anxiety plays a major affective role in second language acquisition. Even though we all know what anxiety is and we all have experienced feelings of anxiousness, Brown (2007) says that anxiety is still not easy to define in a simple sentence. Anxiety as the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system. More simply, anxiety is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self- doubt, apprehension, or worry. Task anxiety is the most frequent affective variable related to student performance and achievement. Research results consistently show a negative effect of anxiety on academic performance (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002)
b. Lack of Confidence. Lack of confidence is one of common problem among students in writing thesis. They will have a tendency to be inconsistent or capable, even though they have good abilities. Boscolo and Gelati (2007) assume that learners‟ self-confidence about their writing level correlates with the level of their motivation to write. Lack of confidence called is fear of failure. Murray (2002) points out that fear of the supervisor’s feedback or fear of the supervisor him or herself can also have an effect on the student’s ability to write. Paltridge and Starfield (2007) say that fear is related less to something the supervisor may have done but more to the student’s own image of the supervisor as a punishing and judging figure. c. Lack of Motivation Motivation is also become a factor make students difficulties in writing. According to Al-Daihani, AlYaman, and Almututairi (2016) state that motivation i s one of the most important factors which has a great influence on language learning. In line with that, according to Al Kaboody (2013:45), “Motivation plays a significant role in the rate and success s of second and foreign language learning in general, and in classroom language learning in particular”. Brown (1980) says that motivation is an inner drive impulse, emotion or desire that moves one to a particular action; motivation is a task-oriented.
2.5.2. Linguistic Factors
c. Vocabulary Vocabulary in writing refers to the word choice used to express ideas appropriately. The vocabulary includes: sufficient arrangement and variation, effective word or idiom choice and usage, correct form of word form mastery, e.g. accurate prefixes, compound words, word classes, and appropriate register. d. Mechanics Mechanics in writing refers to ways the writer handles basic convention of writing, such as punctuation, spelling, and capitalization. The mechanical errors include punctuation errors, spelling errors, capitalization errors, paragraphing, and handwriting 2.5.3. Cognitive Factors There may be a number of the reasons for the causees of these cognitive problem. Alfaki (2015) mentions that the cognitive problems faced by students include problems of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, content and organization. a. Punctuation The fact that punctuation has never been standard to the extent as spelling, makes it is problematic (Byrne, 1988). Similarly, Carrol and Wilson (1995, p191) state that students' writing encounter punctuation problems as there are no universal rules of punctuation.
b. Capitalization Capital letters are useful for sentence initials, the beginning of
important words, in topics, headings (Kroll, 1991). However, learners have problems in using capitalization properly. There are reasons for students’ problems in using proper capitalization. The rules of capitalization are not universal and classifying nouns as proper and common noun is difficult for students (Gowere et al,. 1995 as cited in Alfaki 2015) c. Speeling Due to the influence of other languages, variant pronunciations and other historical reasons, the English spelling system which has become inconsistent is complex for students (Gowere et al, 1995 as cited in Alfaki, 2015). d. Content Learners of English as a second or foreign language are also faced problems of exploring ideas and thought to communicate with others (Clifford, 1987). e. Organization Learners have the problem of structuring the paragraph, topic development of a paragraph, structuring the whole discourse and a theme in a discourse (Kharma, as cited in Alfaki, 2015)). Furthermore, Raimes (1983) states that the other problem of organization in student’ writing is the difficulty of differentiating a topic and supporting ideas or generalizations and specific details.
first-year Japanese university students. In collecting the data, the writer applied two instrument, questionnaire and interview. The data were collected by using questionnaire with total of 18 items designed on five points Likert-type scale items (5= very difficult ; 1= very easy ) to captured students the students’ perceptions of difficulty in academic writing. Descriptive quantitative design was used in this research. The results of the study show that the students tended to perceive academic writing to be difficult. In particular, they perceived language-related components of academic writing to be more difficult than structure/content- related components. Moreover, it was found that a great number of students expressed a high degree of difficulty with research design. This paper concludes with a discussion of some of the implications for teacher development. The last study was conducted by Sariyanto (2013) the purpose of this research was to found out the most causing factor of undergraduate students’ difficulties in writing thesis in the English Education Study Program of FKIP Tanjungpura University Pontianak. Descriptive research design was used in this research. 28 students were chosen as the sample and selected by using purposive sampling. The data was collected by using questionnaire with 31 items designed on a five-point likert-type scale to capture students’ opinion about the causing factors of their difficulties in writing thesis. Data analysis shows that basic knowledge of thesis main components factor has percentage 27.68%, process of consultation factor has percentage 26.04%, psychological factor has percentage 25.25%, while economic factor has percentage 21.03%. Therefore, it is concluded that basic knowledge of thesis main component factor is the most causing factor of students’ difficulties in writing thesis.
