AN ANALYSIS OF EFL COLLEGE LEVEL LEARNER’S WRITING COMPETENCE IN WRITING AN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

Abstract

One of student’s competence that is expected in college level is to be able to write an argumentative essay. An argumentative essay is a genre of writing that requires students to investigate a topic; collect; generate, evaluate evidence, and establish a position on the topic in a concise manner. The purpose of this study was to find out how EFL learners’ writing competence in writing an argumentative essay. Then, the research question was how are EFL learners’ writing skill in writing an argumentative essay. The research was a descriptive qualitative study, as the data on EFL learners’ writing was analyzed to determine their competence in writing an argumentative essay. The analysis was conducted by describing and explaining the data. The study found that EFL learners’ writing skill in writing an argumentative essay was mostly adequate. In general, the organization was clear and showed the purpose of writing clearly; the content was in logical sequence; the grammar was mostly effective, even though, there were some flaws in the structure of some complex sentences; most of the mechanics were legible and neat, sometimes the word choice is not too appropriate for the context, but it could convey the message of an essay.

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CAHAYA PENDIDIKAN, Vol. 4 No: 23-33
Juni 2018
ISSN : 1460-4747
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AN ANALYSIS OF EFL COLLEGE LEVEL LEARNER’S WRITING
COMPETENCE IN WRITING AN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
Desi Surlitasari Dewi
English Department, Teacher Training and Education Faculty, University of Riau Kepulauan, Batam,
Indonesia
Email: desi@unrika.ac.id
Abstract
One of student’s competence that is expected in college level is to be able to write an
argumentative essay. An argumentative essay is a genre of writing that requires students to
investigate a topic; collect; generate, evaluate evidence, and establish a position on the topic in a
concise manner. The purpose of this study was to find out how EFL learners’ writing competence
in writing an argumentative essay. Then, the research question was how are EFL learners’ writing
skill in writing an argumentative essay. The research was a descriptive qualitative study, as the
data of EFL learners’ writing was analyzed to determine their competence of writing an
argumentative essay. The analysis was conducted by describing and explaining the data. The study
found that EFL learners’ writing skill in writing an argumentative essay was mostly adequate. In
general, the organization was clear and showed the purpose of writing clearly; the content was in
logical sequence; the grammar was mostly effective, even though, there were some flaws in the
structure of some complex sentences; most of the mechanics was legible and neat, sometimes the
word choice are not too appropriate for the context, but it could convey the message of an essay.
Keywords : Writing Skill, Argumentative essay.
INTRODUCTION
It is considered that one of the most crucial skills for academic and career success
for EFL learners, as evident in surveys of stakeholders from higher education and the
workforce, is mastering the art of written communication as described by Sparks, et al
(2014, p. 1). Writing is important to be integrated with other language skills, in
particularly stressed, in the belief that this leads to more effective language learning and it
provides more natural contexts for writing activities. It is one of the skills in English
which must be mastered by EFL learners at teaching English as foreign language. In spite
of that, there are many EFL learners thought that writing is a difficult activity than the
other foreign language skill.
In teaching English as foreign language, writing has a fundamental role as it is used to
measure someone’s ability to deliver the message in written form. In this study, the focus
is writing an essay, especially an argumentative essay. As Hasani (2016, p. 2) argued that
argumentative writing is considered as a critical skill to be learned for college level

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learners. An argumentative essay is one of writing material taught by the teacher to
analyze EFL learners’ writing skill in writing an essay. The writer knows the problems
encountered by the EFL learners in writing an argumentative essay.
Provision of English subject in teaching English as foreign language has been
intended to make EFL learners able to develop the competence to write and communicate
in spoken and written in advanced level. The EFL learners’ are also expected to reach the
level of knowledge that they are able to make an information or text with the ability to
write as well as activating their logical reasoning of a problem.
Thus, teacher should teach writing well so that EFL learners are able to receive and
give precise and correct information in the written form. As writing skill becomes very
important in education, EFL learners should be able to perform and train themselves to
have a good writing. On the other hand, the government expects the EFL learners can
achieve the target of curriculum. However, in facts, some of the EFL learners at teaching
English as foreign language are struggling to comprehend the writing competence written
in syllabus.
Many components or skills are involved in writing task. These aspects of the writing
skills include (1) writing mechanics like grammar, sentence structure, spelling and
punctuation, (2) planning a writing strategy, (3) communicating ideas clearly and
concisely, (4) constructing reasoned demonstrable argument and (5) organizing ideas
effectively.
Based on the research done previously in four language skills, the learners tend to
state that the most difficult skill to be learned is writing. There are some difficulties faced
by EFL learners in writing class. First, they do not have idea to write. Second, they are
still confused in organizing the writing. Third, they often do some mistakes with the lack
of knowledge in vocabularies, the grammatical structure, especially in writing activities.
Fourth, they are struggling to pick the appropriate word choice to deliver the message.
Purdue (2018) mentions that an argumentative essay is a genre of writing in which the
writer has to investigate the topic, find the appropriate evidence by collecting, generating,
and evaluating the data, and show the stance about the topic in a concise manner.
Argumentative essay assignments generally call for extensive research or literature or
previously published material. The rules for an argumentative essay are the following:
a. A clear, unambigous, and defined thesis statement
b. It should have three main parts, introduction; body; and conclusion
c. Evidence or supporting details must be included in body paragraph

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d. Evidential supporting details could be actual, logical, or statistical evidence.
e. The conclusion should be able to make a restatement of the supporting details, it is
not simply a conclusion.
According to Nilson (1984, p.8) writing is a skill which has been developed in
civilized society to pass on knowledge or messages. Some experts usually define it by
looking at its characteristics. One of writing characteristics is related to speaking.
Tidyman (1959, p.257) says that writing is closely related to speaking, not only in such
items as content, organization of ideas, and vocabulary, but also in the use of pauses and
the modulation of the voice to show the division and the relationship of ideas.
While the other characteristic is said by Nilson (1984, p.134), he says that writing
is not something which is natural to humans. It is the most complex skill to be developed.
In addition, Tidyman (1959, p.66) says that the important thing in writing is attitude-
willingness to write. Furthermore, Hedge (2002, p.134) says that writing as one of the
language skills has given an important contribution to human.
According to Harmer (2007, p.86) writing is a process and that what is written is
often heavily influenced by the constraints of genres, then these elements have to be
present in learning activities. Writing is the presentation of language in a textual medium
through the use of a set of sign or symbols (known as a writing system). On the other
hand, Crystal (2003, p.98) mentioned that writing is multifaceted, it is only logical that it
evokes different images. He also stated that writing is a combination of process and
product. The process refers to the act of gathering ideas and working with them until they
are presented in a manner that is polished and comprehensible to readers. Writing is a
form of our thinking, ideas, opinion, imagination, wish and feeling that poured in a paper
and hope other know about them by reading the creation. In writing, the aspects of
writing include the use of vocabulary, structure of the sentence, composition of the
sentence, spelling and punctuation. These aspects are important to master in order to able
to produce a good writing.
In general, there are four steps of writing according to Linse (2003, p.105), they
are:
a. Prewriting
For every piece of writing, there is always a pre writing activity.
Before writing, the writer should let the minds explore the topic possibility..

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Then, record the ideas to visualize the imagination on a piece of paper.
State the purpose and choose the subject which is known to the writer is
important to do carefully. Communication, in written or spoken form, will
always have the similar purpose which is to persuade, entertain or to
influence the reader.
b. Writing
Before the writing started, defining the topic is the first step in writing.
Writing is started based on the topic and no need to worry about making the
mistakes because it is possible to change the idea and words later anyway.
After brainstorming the ideas and subject, someone should write whatever
they thought in their minds and it is not necessary to worry about the
mistake made in structure, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuationas
they will have time to revise and edit their writing.
c. Revising and Editing
Reread and edit the writing to revise the mistakes. Revising is the most
important steps in writing. It aims to improve the writing you have made
and measure how well the idea stated. Revising can be liked rearranging
ideas, developing ideas further any idea that do not fit to the topic. After
revising the idea, the writing can be edited carefully. It focuses on structure,
grammar word choices, spelling and punctuation.
d. Publishing
After a piece of writing has been edited, it is ready to be published.
Publishing refers to putting the writing in a final finished format where it
can be shared with others.
Meanwhile, Brown (2007) mentioned that there are five elements, which are
the indicators of writing. They are:
1. Organization: introduction, body, and conclusion
2. Logical development of idea: Content
3. Grammar
4. Punctuation spelling and mechanics
5. Style and quality of expression
Baker, Brizee, Angeli (2013) mentions that an argumentative essay is a genre
of writing in which the writer has to investigate the topic, find the appropriate
evidence by collecting, generating, and evaluating the data, and show the stance about

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the topic in a concise manner. Argumentative essay assignments generally
call for extensive research or literature or previously published material. The rules for
an argumentative essay are the following:
a. A clear, unambigous, and defined thesis statement
b. It should have three main parts, introduction; body; and conclusion
c. Evidence or supporting details must be included in body paragraph
d. Evidential supporting details could be actual, logical, or statistical evidence.
e. The conclusion should be able to make a restatement of the supporting details, it is
not simply a conclusion.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
According to Creswell (2003, p.18) research design divided into three, they
are quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research design. This study was conducted in
descriptive qualitative research design as the data was analyzed and explained
thoroughly, although statistical data was used to help the description of the data.
Statistical description will be used to generate the result of the research and help to
describe the result. He also said the word qualitative implies and emphasis on
processes and meaning that are not rigorously examined or measured (if it measured
at all), in terms of quantity, amount, intensity or frequency. According to Railis
(1998) in Creswell (2003, p.181) these are characteristics of qualitative research:
a. Qualitative research takes places in the natural setting. The qualitative research
often goes to the site of the participant to conduct the research.
b. Qualitative research uses multiple methods are interactive and humanistic. The
methods of data collection are rowing and they increasingly involve active
participants and sensitivity of the participants and sensitivity to the participant in
the study.
c. Qualitative research is emergent rather than tightly refigured. Several aspect
emerge during a qualitative study.
d. Qualitative research is fundamentally interpretive; this means that the researcher
makes an interpretation of the data.
e. The qualitative researcher views social phenomena holistically. This explains why
qualitative research studies appear as broad.

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f. The qualitative researcher adopts and uses one or more strategies inquiry as a
guide for the procedures in the qualitative study. For beginning researcher it is
enough to use only one strategy and to look in recent procedural books for
guidance as how to design a proposal and conduct the procedures of the strategy.
The data in this study are described by analyzing EFL learners writing skill in
writing an argumentative essay. The writer gave the writing test to collect the
data. Writing test for this test is an instruction to create an argumentative essay.
The administration of the writing task uses structure to write an argumentative
essay. Finally, researcher analyzed the data by using analytical scoring designed
by Brown and Bailey (1984) in Brown (2004).
RESULTS
The writing scores of EFL learners in this study were determined by using
analytic scale for rating composition tasks by Brown and Bailey (1984, pp.39-41).
The following figures indicate the data of EFL learners’ writing skills gathered from
the test.
a. Organization
1 2
21
4
2
Excellent to good
Good to adequate
Adequate to fair
Unacceptable
Not-college-level work

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b. Logical development of ideas
c. Grammar
d. Punctuation, spelling, and mechanics
0
4
22
4
Excellent to good
Good to adequate
Adequate to fair
Unacceptable
Not-college-level work
0
3
22
4
1
Excellent to good
Good to adequate
Adequate to fair
Unacceptable
Not-college-level work
7
18
4
1
0
Excellent to good
Good to adequate
Adequate to fair
Unacceptable
Not-college-level work

30
e. Style, quality, and expression
DISCUSSION
Based on the data analysis, the researcher found some findings, as follows:
a. Organization
In organization, only a few respondents (3,3%) could write an effective
introductory paragraph to address the topic and leads it into the body
paragraph. They could use the outline effectively to direct the readers to
the flow of their essay as well as transitional expressions. While, some few
others (76,7%) had consistent topic, introduction, and body paragraph, but
are struggling in using transactional expressions to let their paragraph run
smoothly. In this category, their outline was acceptable but lack of
evidence made the ideas were not fully developed. The biggest error that
the respondents made in organization was the order of ideas, so the
organization is rarely seen (13,3%). Some of the respondents’s writing
were even absence of introduction and conclusion (6,7%).
b. Logical development of ideas
In the way of developing the ideas, no respondent was able to hit
the excellent mark by the absence of unnecessary extraneous material.
While a few of them (13,3%) were able to address the topic thoroughly.
Their ideas are well developed, but it could be improved though. The lack
was the focus to the ideas when some unnecessary material presented in
their essays. Most respondents, by percentage 73,3%, did not develop the
6
20
2
2
Excellent to good
Good to adequate
Adequate to fair
Unacceptable
Not-college-level work

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topic by the ideas thoroughly. It means that the ideas related to the topic
were not fully explained. Some paragraphs were not divided correctly. On
the other hand, only a few respondent (13,3%) had major problems with
the content. Their problem is that the ideas were inappropriate with the
topic. It seems that they wrote their essay in hurry without adequate
thinking towards the topic or it could be that they actually had problem in
understanding the assigned task.
c. Grammar
By the data displayed in result, it seems that grammar is continuing to
be an enormous problem in writing foreign language. While no respondent
was able to use a correct native-like fluency of grammar, a few of them
(10%) had an advanced competence in using english grammar correctly.
The grammatical errors that they made in their essay did not influence the
reader’s understanding toward the passage. More than half of respondents
got problems in grammar that affected the content of essay negatively.
There were incorrect use of relative clauses, prepositions, modals, articles,
verb forms, and tense sequencing and fragments present in the essay.
d. Punctuation, spelling, and mechanic
If grammar is probably the most challenging aspect in foreign language
writing, punctuation, spelling, and mechanics could be the strength of the
respondents in EFL writing. Seven repondents out of thirty (23,3%) were
able to use correct English writing convention, capitals, and punctuation,
and no spelling error was found. Furthermore, only a few of them had
commited some errors in spelling. It seems that most of the respondents
did not have any problems in punctuation.
e. Style and quality of expression
Two of thirty respondents (6,7%) wrote an excellent paragraph with
some varieties of the sentence structure, parallel structure, appropriate
vocabularies in line with the context, the intention of writing, and the
readers. The other six respondents, even though the word choice were not
as precise as the former, but it was acceptable to convey the message of
the passage. While most of them (66,7%) misused the vocabulary, the
ideas were not properly transferred to the readers. In addition, some

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sentences were too wordy and lack of variation. Two other respondents
(6,7%) completely failed in this category by using fully inappropriate
vocabulary for the context.
CONCLUSION
To sum ap, almost in all five aspects of analytic writing scale, most
respondents had adequate to fair competence in writing an argumentative essay,
Although their competences in every aspects were almost similar, but they had
strongest competence in punctuation, spelling, and mechanics of an argumentative
essay as in this aspect, the respondents made the slightest error. On contrary, grammar
and outlining the logical development of essay were the most challenging task for
EFL college level learners in writing an argumentative essay.
REFERENCES
Baker, J, Brizee, A., Angeli, E. 2013. Argumentative Essays. Indiana: Purdue
University. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/05
Brown, Douglas, H. 2007. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to
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Brown, Douglas, H. 2004. Language Assessment: Principle and Classroom Practice.
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Creswell, John. 2003. Research Design. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Crystal, David. 2003. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
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Harmer, Jeremy. 2007. How to Teach Writing. Harlow: Longman
Hasani, Aceng. 2016. Enhancing Argumentative Writing Skill through Contextual
Teaching and Learning. Educational Research and Reviews, Vol. 22, pp. 1573-
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Hedge. 2002. Approaches to Writing in EFL/ESL Context. Oxford: Oxford University
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Linse, Caroline, T. 2005. Practical English Language Teaching for Young Learners.
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Nilson, Jeffrey. 1984. Writing System. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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Sparks, Jesse R., Song, Yi., Brantley, Wyman.,& Liu Ou L. 2014. Assessing Written
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