Analysis of Fifth Grade Elementary School Students’ Difficulties in Writing Essays

Abstract

This research is motivated by the low writing ability, especially writing narrative essays among the fifth-grade elementary school students. This study aims to find out what difficulties are experienced by the students when writing narrative essays. This study used a descriptive method involving 20 students from an elementary school in one city in West Java. Data collection was conducted using writing tests, observations, and interviews. The results showed that there were four errors most frequently found in students' writing that cause difficulties for students in writing narrative essays. The errors included the use of punctuation marks (48.03%), spelling (37.01%), content organization (10.23%), and title writing (4.72%). Hence, the most difficult language aspect is the use of punctuation marks. Further discussion recommends that teachers take immediate correction and assistance to help students understand their mistakes in the hope to avoid the same mistakes in future.