DIFFICULTIES FACED BY STUDENTS IN CONSTRUCTING COMPARISON CONTRAST ESSAY

Abstract

Writing an essay is still considered difficult for some students. There are various kinds of essays. One of the types of an essay is comparison contrast. In this research, the researcher is trying to find out the difficulties that are found by the students and the causes in constructing comparison contrast essay. The researcher uses content analysis. First, she collected all the students’ work given by the lecturer. Second, she distributed the questionnaire to 30 students. The last, she interviewed the students who have lower score. Based on the research result, she finds students’ difficulties in using transitional signal and degrees of comparison. Writing thesis statement and conclusion are also included to the students’ problem. Then, unclear explanation of the lecturer gives an effect to the students in constructing comparison contrast essay. Besides, there are three common problems, they are: lack of time, skills and motivation. By making an outline the students can organize and keep their idea to be well organized and clearly focused.