EXPLORING STUDENTS’ ABILITY AND PROBLEMS IN WRITING ACADEMIC PAPER

摘要

This study potrays the students’ ability and problems of students in writing academic paper especially research proposal and to find out the possible solutions in writing research proposal. The paper will centre around an analysis of students’ ability and difficulties in writing an Introduction chapter. This study conducted in sixth semester students of university of Muhammadiyah mataram in academic year 2013-2014. The study utilized qualitative case study. The data were obtained from document analysis with the students participants. The finding revealed that students ability is in the discourse semantic levels and most students still have problems in achieving the communicative purpose of introduction chapter. In general, the students’ problems were in presenting arguments in terms of justification. Most students have not been able to justify their research area to fill the gap in previous research. The possible solution to solve the difficulties suggest that the students still need guidance, assistance, and explicit teaching in writing the elements and inguistics features of a research proposal to solve their problems in writing a research proposal.