E-Link Journal
Vol. 7 No. 1 (2020)
p-ISSN: 2085-1383; e-ISSN: 2621-4156

AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE
TEXT
Eni Ismayanti, Abdul Kholiq
eniismayanti97@gmail.com, abdulkholiq@unisla.ac.id
Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Islam Lamongan
ABSTRACT
This research aims to describe the students’ difficulties in writing descriptive text and to find out
the causes of students’ difficulties in writing descriptive text. This research uses quantitative
descriptive methods. The research subjects are X MIPA 6 students of SMAN 1 Sukodadi who had
difficulties when writing descriptive text, the data of this research are the result of students’
worksheet and the students’ answer in interview. This research used documentation and interview
to collect the data. Data reduction, data display and drawing conclusion was used to analyze the
data. The result of this research shows that the students of X MIPA 6 have difficulty in writing
descriptive text, the difficulties are difficulties in generic structure, difficulties in grammar, and
difficulties in spelling. While the factors that cause the students’ difficulties in writing descriptive
text are lack of proficiency in the text production skills, lack of knowledge relating to the subject
contents of the script to be written, and lack of interest in learning English.
Keywords: Students’ difficulties, descriptive text

INTRODUCTION
English is international language
that used by most of people in the world,
including our country Indonesia. Goodwyn
& Branson (2005:1) states English is
vitally important and typically described as
the most important of all school subjects,
principally because reading, writing,
speaking and listening are needed to a
greater or lesser degree in every other
school subject, and life. Most of people
know about English language, it has an
important part in Indonesian education.
English has been tought from elementary
school until university. If someone is
understanding well about English, they
will able to understand about a lot of
information and knowledge.
Understanding about English as a
foreign language is begun with English
learning activities through learning the
skills properly. It is very important for
students to mastering English in all skill,
such as listening speaking, reading, and
writing. In this case, the researcher is
going to focus on writing. Writing is one
of the English skills that must be mastered
by the English language learners.

According to Nation (2009:113)
Writing is an activity that can usefully be
prepared for work in the other skills of
listening, speaking and reading. This
preparation can make it possible for words
that have been used receptively to come
into productive use. Writing is also
considered as the indicator toward the
student success in learning English. Since
writing is productive skill, it also helps the
students to develop their ability in
expressing what they feel and think.
Writing, speaking, and listening are
communication skills that are important in
all subject areas in the curriculum. This is
because the students should be able to
communicate in the target language in
spoken and written language.
To make good writing, it needs to
follow some steps. According to Harmer
(2004:4) the process of writing has four
steps, they are: 1) planning; 2) drafting; 3)
editing; 4) final version.
In planning, before start to write,
the writer will try and decide what it is
they are going to write. For some writers
this may involve making detailed notes.

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Vol. 7 No. 1 (2020)
p-ISSN: 2085-1383; e-ISSN: 2621-4156

When planning, writers have to think
about three main issues. In the first place
they have to consider the purpose of their
writing. The Second is experienced writers
think of the audience what they are writing
for. The last, the writers have to consider
the content and the structure.
In drafting, the writers write
down on paper what the ideas that they
gets from their mind. The writers can refer
to the first version of a piece of writing as
a draft. As the writing process proceeds
into editing, a number of drafts may be
produced on the way to the final version.
In
editing (reflecting and
revising), when writer have produced a
draft they usually read trough what they
have written to see where it works and
where it doesn’t. Perhaps the order of the
information is not clear, something in
written
is
ambiguous
or
confusing.Reflecting and revising are often
helped by other readers who comment and
make suggestions.
In final version, once writers have
edited their draft, making the changes they
consider to be necessary, they produce
their final version. This may look
considerably different from both the
original plan and the first draft, because
things have changed in the editing process.
But the writer is now ready to send the
written text to the reader.
In classroom practice, most of
students think that writing is difficult. It is
because in writing there are some
important components such as vocabulary,
spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
Writing text is a challenge for students,
especially for the tenth grade students of
senior high school, who is learning about
various kinds of text, writing descriptive
text is one of it. The students need to pay
more attention in detail object that is
described with the correct grammar.
Descriptive text is a general text
where it can be included to another text.
Accorrding Husna (2013) descriptive text
is a kind of writing that consists of

description characteristics and definition
of object or something. While, Gerot and
Wignel (in Mardiayah, 2013) state that
descriptive text has purpose to describe
particular thing, people or place which
show the reader about physical appearance
of something clearly. Based on definition
of descriptive text above, it can be
concluded that descriptive text is a text
which describe people, place and things
physically by their appearance.
Mastering descriptive text helps
the students to make another kind of text
such like narrative text, recount text and
report text. For example in narrative text
when the students want to make the
readers interested in it they must be able to
make the text with a good detail, it
demands the students to explain something
in details. According to Gerot and Wignel
(in Mardiayah, 2013) the generic structure
of descriptive text are identification and
description. In identification is identifies
the subject to be described. The
identification usually stated in the first
paragraph to introduce the reader what the
topic to be described in the next paragraph.
In description, the writer explain about the
subject in detail. It uses to support
identification.
According to Sudarti & Grace (in
Yenita, 2014) there are several language
future use in descriptive text, they are:
Using simple present, simple present tense
is the activity happen in daily life, and the
habitual activity. . However, sometimes it
uses past tense if the thing to be described
doesn’t exist anymore. Use linking verb.
Use adjective and compound adjectives
and use of degree comparison
There are still many students who
are not able to write a descriptive text.
Muhammed (in Nasser, 2018) states that
the students may face many writing
difficulties and problems at different
stages of their learning. According to
Novita (2017) in her research, she state
that the students showed that they have
some difficulties in writing descriptive
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p-ISSN: 2085-1383; e-ISSN: 2621-4156

text. They are: 1) generic structure; 2)
grammar; 3) spelling.
The difficulties on generic
structure of descriptive text consist of
describing object in detail (Novita, 2017).
The students have to organize their ideas
into good paragraphs, the students have to
make their writing readable. To write a
descriptive text, the students can organize
their ideas by identifying the topic and
give the descriptions about the topic
(Husna, 2013).
According to Husna (2013)
grammar difficulties will influence certain
patterns of how words are put together to
form the correct sentences. The students
had some difficulties in using simple
present tense. The students made some
mistakes when they elaborated the idea in
simple present tense. It’s make the
students difficult to write descriptive text.
Farooq (2012) state that spelling
is a skill of identifying a word in spoken or
written mode. Spelling and decoding skills
are closely linked, students who suffer
from spelling problems need to memorize
the spellings of the words.
Another cases that the researcher
found while doing teaching practice
program, Senior High School students
especially the tenth grade, the students did
not understand well about what they
should write and describe. The students
can’t describe things, places, and a person
in detail because they do not have any
ideas when they are asked to describe
them. Students are not interested in
learning writing. They are lazy and bored
if the teacher ask them to write something
even it just writes a descriptive text.
There are some of the students
who can’t make descriptive text. Some of
them open their smart phone to search the
example of descriptive text. Without
reading it first, the students just copy it so,
some of them do not understand about the
purpose and contain of the text. They can’t
make the descriptive text in their own
writing, so they copy paste it from internet.

The students also can’t express their idea,
so the students just copy it from internet.
The students also show some gesture that
reflect that they was have difficulties in
writing descriptive text and there are some
students, who just walk around to see
another students duty.
The students difficulties can be
caused by some factor,according to
Graham & Harris (in Glynn, 2006:98)
writing difficulties may in large part, be
the result of three factors, they are:
Lack of proficiency in the text
production skills that is frequent errors in
spelling, the use of upper and lower case,
and punctuation. The amount of attention
that has to be expended on lower-level
skills is thought to interfere with higherorder skills of planning and the generation
of content (MacArthur and Graham in
Wearmouth, 2006:252).
Lack of knowledge relating to the
subject content of the script to be written,
Wray (in Wearmouth, 2003:252) suggests
that the actual task is important, and that
the writer reflects on the different genre,
and the structure and accessibility of the
writing for the reader and how the reader
may be guided through the writing.
Knowledge of the process is also
important for metacognition and reflection.
Lack of effective strategies in
planning or revising text, Graham and
Harris (in Glynn, 2006:98) adopt a
cognitive approach to supporting students
experiencing writing difficulties because
this approach emphasizes the component
processes of writing production which can
then be focused upon individually.
Based on the explanation above,
the research is the interested in conducting
the research study to investigate the
students’ difficulties in writing descriptive
text and the cause of the students’
difficulties in writing descriptive text.
furthermore, this research is conducted
with the purpose to know the difficulties
that students have and to knowing the

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Vol. 7 No. 1 (2020)
p-ISSN: 2085-1383; e-ISSN: 2621-4156

factor that cause the students’ difficulties
in writing descriptive text.
METHOD
In this research, the researcher uses a
qualitative descriptive method. The researcher
uses a qualitative descriptive method because
the researcher tries to describe each type of
students’ difficulties in writing descriptive text
and the factors that cause the students’
difficulties in writing descriptive text in detail
and clearly without numerical data.
The subject of this study is the tenth
grade students of SMAN 1 Sukodadi.
Especially X MIPA 6 class which consist of
35 students, 12 male and 23 female.
In this research documentation and
interview uses as data collecting technique. In
documentation, the researcher asks the
students to make a descriptive text about their
family. They can choose one of them, for
example, their mother, father, or sister, etc. In
interview, each respondent is asked the same
question, and the researcher writes it down.
The researcher does the interview with some
of the students of X MIPA 6 as an informant
by asking some questions related to the
students’ difficulties in writing a descriptive
and the factor that caused the difficulties.
Documentation
checklist
and
question list was used as instrument. The
documentation checklist is used in this
research, the aim of documentation checklist is
to document the students’ worksheet. Question
list is used in this research as an instrument to
interview the students. The researcher makes

some questions to interview the students that
have difficulties in writing descriptive text.
After collecting the data, then the
data analysis is performed to analyse all the
data that has been obtained. In this research
used
qualitative
descriptive
research.
According to Miles and Huberman in
Sugiyono (2016:246) there are four activities
in data analysis, they are: data reduction, data
display, and conclusion drawing/verification
Data reduction, after the students’
worksheet is collected, the researcher chooses
the students’ worksheets that show the
students have difficulties in writing descriptive
text, then it is analysed by the researcher. Then
the researcher chooses some students that have
difficulties in writing descriptive text, the
students are interviewed by the researcher to
find out the factors that cause the students’
difficulties in writing descriptive text.
Data display, in this step the
researcher analysed the students’ worksheet
about descriptive text, to find out what are the
difficulties that students have, when they
writing descriptive text about their family and
analysed the students’ answer in interview, to
find out the factors that cause the students’
difficulties in writing descriptive text about
their family.
Conclusion drawing or verification,
the researcher concludes the students’
difficulties in writing descriptive text and the
factors that cause the students’ difficulties in
writing descriptive text.

DISCUSSION
The Students’ Difficulties in Writing
Descriptive Text
1. The Students’ Difficulties in Writing
Descriptive Text on Generic Structure
There are some of the students
that have difficulties in generic structure,
the data were shown below:
My Father
My father is handsome. He likes
to cook. He is always there when I like and
grieve. He was the one who always
supported me and obeyed my will. As head
of the family he has fulfilled his duties and
is always there for his family. (S4)

The student S4 wrote a
descriptive text about her father. She
described how her father looked likes,
what he liked to do and how his
personality was.
From the descriptive text above,
the researcher found that the students had
difficulties in generic structure. The
generic structure of descriptive text
consisted of two paragraph, it was
identification and description. But the
student S4 just made one paragraph. In the
first paragraph, the student should
introduce or identify the character, in this
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case, the topic was her father, but she
immediately described about her father
without introducing or identifying him
first. In the second paragraph, the students
should describe the character, in this case,
the topic was her father. The student
already described her father, but she didn’t
describe him in detail. The other data were
shown below:
My Mother
My mother is angry, she is very
shy. My mother is disciplined, my mother’s
skin is white, her hair is long. I love you
mom. (S20)
Same as the data before, the
student S12 had difficulties in generic
structure. She wrote a descriptive text
about her mother, same as student S4 the
student S12 did not introduce or identify
the character first, the topic was her
mother, she immediately described about
his mother without introducing or
identifying her first. The student S12
should introduce the character in the first
paragraph. The student S12 could write
when and where her mother was born, her
weight and height. Then, in the next
paragraph, the student S12 should describe
the character in detail, for example, she
could write about her mother’s hobby,
habit, etc. The descriptive text written by
student S12 is too short. Not only that, the
student S12 not introduced the character
clearly and she did not describe the
character in detail.
My Father
My father is lovely, he is hard
work people. He is smart and can do. My
father name is Kaselan. He like eat a plate
of fried rice and like drink a cup of coffee.
(S30)
The student S30 wrote a
descriptive text about his father. He was
wrote about how his father personality and
his name. The text was consist of one
paragraph and it is too short.
From the descriptive text above,
the researcher found that the students had
difficulties in generic structure. In the first

paragraph the student should introduce or
identify the character, this case, the topic
was his father, but he immediately
described about his father without
introducing or identifying him first. In the
first paragraph, the student should
introduce the character, the student could
write his father’s height, weight, etc. In the
second paragraph, the student should
describe the character in detail, for
example the student could write about his
appearance.
2. The Students’ Difficulties in Writing
Descriptive Text on Grammar
In the grammar, it consists of two
topic, the first is arranging the word that
includes noun, pronoun, verb, adjective,
adverb, preposition, etc. and the second is
arranging the sentence (tenses) the
researcher only focuses to analyze
arranging word and arranging sentence,
but in arranging sentence the researcher
only focuses on simple present tense.
1) The Students’ Difficulties in Writing
Descriptive Text on Arrange the Word
- The students’ difficulties in writing
noun
“I have a one father” (S5)
“I have my sister” (S32)
From the data above, the
researcher found that students had
difficulties in writing noun, the two
sentences above were singular noun, so it
must use “a” or “an” , but the students
didn’t understand and made an error. So,
the two sentences above should be
changed into “I have a father” and “I
have a sister”.
- The students’ difficulties in writing
pronoun on writing “he” which
supposed to be “she”
“My mother is very good, always
teach me discipline, he has a short
haired” (S8)
“My mother was a hero, because
he was always accompany me.”
(S6)

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“She never complained when he
educated me” (S16)
From the data above the
researcher found that the student had
difficulties in writing pronoun. The word
“he” it should be changed into “she”,
because my mother is a women so it
should be used personal pronoun “she”.
The students’ difficulties in
writing pronoun on writing “she” which
supposed to be “he”
“My father name is Zen Ansori.
She like coffee in warung coffee”
(S17)
“My father is a soldier. She work
in Madura Island, Sampang
district.” (S5)
“My father is my hero, because
she is very good for me.” (S22)
“He don’t mad to me even I do a
foult. But, she tell me how to do a
good thing” (S28)
From the data above the
researcher found that the student had
difficulties in writing pronoun. The word
“she” it should be changed into “he”,
because, my father was a men so it should
be used personal pronoun “he”.
The students’ difficulties in
writing pronoun on writing “her” which
supposed to be “she”
“Her fourteen years old. Now her
9 junior high school. Her school
in the SMPN 1 Sukodadi” (S32)
“Her like drink a bottle of
avocado juice. Her like play
game.” (S32)
From the data above, the
researcher found that the student had
difficulties in writing pronoun. The word
“her” it should be changed into “she”,
because the word “her” was took place of
noun and used as the object of the verb in
a sentence. The word “she” was took
place of noun and used as the subject of
the verb in a sentence.

The students’ difficulties in
writing pronoun on writing “her” which
supposed to be “his”
“I have a brother, her name is
Eriko.” (S7)
From the data above the
researcher found that the student had
difficulties in writing pronoun. The word
“her” it should be changed into “his”.
Because, the word “her” was used for a
subject woman, and the word “his” was
used for subject man. In the sentence
above it’s about the student’s brother, the
brother was a man, so the word “her”
should be changed into “his”.
2) The students’ difficulties in use
determiner
“Then she take a bath and
cleaning a bedroom” (S3)
”She is usually clean house”
(S26)
“He always understand the
condition and needs of his
children” (S31)
From the descriptive text above,
the researcher found that the students had
difficulties in used determiner. The
students should add word “the” before a
noun, because the students was wrote
about a certain thing, it was house, needs,
and bedroom. So, the sentences above
should be changed into “she usually
cleans
the
house”,
“he
always
understands the condition and the needs of
his children”, and “Then she takes a bath
and cleaning the bedroom”.
3) The students’ difficulties in preposition
Preposition is usually followed by
a noun or pronoun. The students’
difficulties in preposition are showed
below:
The students’ difficulties in
writing preposition on writing “on” which
supposed to be “in” .
“She was born on Lamongan”
(S3)
From the data above, the
researcher found that the students had
difficulties in preposition “in”. The student
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S3 should use “in” not “on”. Because
“in” was used to show a general place not
specific, and “on” was used to show a
location that was slightly more specific
than “in”. Lamongan was general and not
specific place, because Lamongan was
large and has some areas or district. So the
data above should use “in”.
The students’ difficulties in
writing preposition on writing “on” which
supposed to be “at” .
“She up on 04.03” (S3)
From the data above, the
researcher found that the student had
difficulties in preposition, especially in
used “at”. The student S3 should use “at”
not “on”. Because the data above was
showed a specific time, so the students
should use “at” to show the time.
The students’ difficulties in
writing preposition on writing “of” which
supposed to be “for”.
“He can be a father and best
friend of his children” (S31)
From the data above, the
researcher found that the student had
difficulties in preposition. “of” was used to
show the ownership, reference, and
numbers, while “for” was used to show the
function or the used of an object or other
thing. The data above was showed the
used of friend, so the word “of” it should
be cahnged into “for” to show the function
of friend.
The students’ difficulties in
writing preposition on writing “to” which
supposed to be “for”
“She usually making breakfast to
family” (S26)
“I know he work hard to me”
(S28)
“My mother was a hero to me”
(S6)
From the data above, the
researcher found that the students had
difficulties in preposition especially in
used “for”. The word “for” was used to
show the function or the used of an object
or other thing, while “to” was used as a

pointer to an object such as place, a person
or something that move, to indicate the
boundary or end point, and to show a
relation between clauses. The data above
was showed the function of the object (me,
family), so the word “to” should be
changed into “for”.
4) The Students’ Difficulties in Writing
Descriptive Text on Use Simple Present
Tense
Simple present tense is used to
state fact, activity or repetitive activities.
In a way, this tense is the easiest one if it
compared to other tense. Positive sentence
in simple present tense is using verb 1 or
to be / is / am / are. If the subject is a
single third person (he, she, and it), verb 1
must be added by suffix –s / -es. For
example he eats, she goes, it seems, etc.
The formula of simple present tense is:
1) Positive sentence:
- Subject + verb 1 (+s/es) +
object/adverb
- Subject + to be (is/am/are) +
adjective/adverb
2) Negative sentence
- Subject + do/does + not + verb 1+
object/adverb
- Subject + to be (is/am/are) + not +
adjective/adverb
3) Interrogative sentence
- Do/does + subject + verb 1 +
object/adverb?
- To be (is/am/are) + subject
+adjective/adverb?
The students’ difficulties in
simple present tense is shown below:
3. The students’ difficulties in grammar
on writing “was” which supposed to be
“is”
“My father was special in my
life” (S1)
“He was the one who always
support me” (S4)
“My mother was a hero to me,
because
she
was
always
accompany me” (S6)
“My mother was a special woman
in my life” (S24)

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“My father height was around
170 cm and his weight was
around 60kg his hair was black
and short.” (S31)
From the data above, the
researcher found that the students had
difficulties to use simple present tense in
using to be. Simple present tense uses to
be “is, am, and are”. So the data above
should use to be “is” not “was”.
1). The students’ difficulties in arrange
positive sentence of simple present tense
“She with my grandmother in
home” (S3)
“His name Nur Efendi” (S5)
“She a hero in the family” (S19)
“She usually making breakfast to
family” (S26)
From the data above, the
researcher found that the students had
difficulties in use to be “is”. The students
did not use to be as in the formula. The
formula is Subject + to be (is/am/are) +
adjective/adverb. So, after the subject, the
students must add to be “is” in their
sentence. For example the sentence that
written by S5 and S19 “His name Nur
Efendi” this sentence should be changed
into “His name is Nur efendi”, and “She a
hero in the family” should be changed into
“She is a hero in the family”. Another
difficulties were shown below:
“He like eat a plate of fried rice
and drink a cup of coffee” (S30)
“My sister like a plate of fried
rice, cupcake and her like drink a
bottle of avocado juice.” (S32)
“Her like play game, usually my
sister play game with me” (S32)
From the data above, the
researcher found that the students had
difficulties in arranging the word. The
students did not add –s or –es after verb 1
as in the formula. The formula is Subject
+ Ver 1 (+s/es) + object/adverb. So, after
the verb 1, the students must add to be “s”
or “es” in their sentence. For example the
sentence that written by S30 “he like eat a
plate of fried rice and drink a cup of

coffee”, the word “like” is as verb 1, so it
should be added by –s. So, the sentence
should be changed into “he likes eating a
plate of fried rice and drinks a cup of
coffee”.
2). The Students’ Difficulties in Writing
Descriptive Text on Spelling
The difficulties in spelling in this
research is when the students makes an
error in writing a word. The difficulties are
shown below:
“He is fery handsome” (S1)
“My mom is verry beautiful”
(S19)
“My father veri handsome” (S20)
“He woks like as captain” (S5)
“She is a bautiful girl” (S16)
The data above are show that the
students had difficulties in spelling word.
The sentence “He is fery handsome”
written by S22, the word “fery’ it should
be changed into “very”. The sentence “My
mom is verry beautiful” written by S19,
the word “verry” it should be changed into
“very”. Same as before, the sentence “My
father veri handsome” written by S20, the
word “veri” it should be changed into
“very”. The sentence “He woks like as
captain” written by S5, the word “woks”
it should be changed into “works”, and the
sentence “She is a bautiful girl” written
by S16, the word “bautiful” it should be
changed into “beautiful”.
Based on the result of data
analysis above, the researcher found that
the students had difficulties in all point.
The students’ difficulties was known from
the student’s worksheet, the researcher
found that the students had difficulties in
generic structure, grammar and spelling.
The students who had difficulties in
generic structure did not know how to
make a good descriptive text, the students
only made a simple descriptive text, they
did not describe their family in detail. The
students who had difficulties in grammar
didn’t know how to make a correct
sentence and they were confused in using
simple present tense. The students who
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had difficulties in spelling they were made
an error when they writing an English
word. So, what Novita (2017) said before
was same with the students’ difficulties
which researcher found. The difficulties
were in generic structure, grammar, and
spelling.
The Factor that Cause the Students’
Difficulties in Writing Descriptive Text
The researcher used Bahasa to
interview the students, then the researcher
translated the interview into English.
Based on the interview, the researcher
found the factors that cause the students’
difficulties in writing descriptive text are:
1. Lack of Proficiency in the Text
Production Skills
Lack of proficiency in the
text production skills was one of the
factors that caused the students’
difficulties in writing descriptive text.
There were some students that said the
cause of their difficulties was lack of
proficiency in text production skills. The
data from interview were shown below:
The researcher: “what are the
causes that make you difficult in writing
descriptive text?”
S17: “I don’t understand how to
arrange a good sentence in
English miss, and also
because I’m not interest in
learning English.”
S31: “I don’t understand about
grammar miss, the teacher
not explain about it.”
The student S17 said that she
didn’t understand how to make a good
sentence in English, the student S31 said
that she didn’t understand about grammar.
So it was the factor that caused her
difficulties in writing descriptive text. The
other data from interview were shown
below:
S8: “I am confuse to write a good
sentence in English miss. The
material about descriptive text is
also difficult for me miss.”

S32: “I don’t understand the
grammar and I don’t know how
to make a good sentence in
English.”
S22: “The problem is because I
don’t understand how to make a
good sentence in English miss,
so I think that is the cause of my
difficulties miss.”
S3: I rarely study English and I
don’t understand how to make a
correct sentence in English.”
S19: “I don’t understand the
grammar, the material of
descriptive text and I don’t like
English lesson miss.”
S28: “The problem is because I
don’t know well about grammar
miss, it’s too hard.”
Form the data above the students
said that the cause of their difficulties was
because they don’t understand about
grammar and don’t understand how to
arrange correct sentence. It can be said that
the cause of their difficulties was lack of
proficiency in the text production skill.
Because grammar and how to arrange the
sentence are included in the text
production skill. Mastered grammar was
important, if the students understood well
about grammar they be able to make a
good descriptive text. The students who
said that the cause of their difficulties was
grammar they said that the teacher did not
explain the grammar.
2. Lack of Knowledge Relating to the
Subject Content of the Script to Be
Written
Lack of knowledge relating to the
subject content of the script to be written
was one of the factors that caused the
students’ difficulties in writing descriptive
text. There were some students said that
this was the factor that caused their
difficulties. The data from interview were
shown below:
The researcher: “what are the
causes that make you difficult in writing
descriptive text?”

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Vol. 7 No. 1 (2020)
p-ISSN: 2085-1383; e-ISSN: 2621-4156

“S5: “The problem is because I
forget the material of descriptive
text miss.”
S8: “I am confuse to write a good
sentence in English miss. The
material about descriptive text is
also difficult for me miss.”
S19: “I don’t understand the
grammar, the material of
descriptive text and I don’t like
English lesson miss.”
The data above were shown that
the cause of the students’ difficulties was
didn’t understand about the material of
descriptive text. It could be said that the
cause of their difficulties was lack of
knowledge relating to the subject content
of the script to be written. Because the
subject in this case was descriptive text,
and the student said that they didn’t
understand about the material of
descriptive text and they said that the
material of descriptive text was difficult to
understand.
3. Lack of Interest in Learning English
Lack of interest in learning
English was one of the factors that caused
the students’ difficulties in descriptive
text. Some students said they didn’t
interest in learning English. The data were
shown below:
S16: ”I’m not interest in learning
English.”
The students above was said that
they didn’t interest in learning English.
There are some students have the same
answer as the students above. The data
were shown below:
S1: “The problem is because I
don’t like English miss, it’s too
difficult”.
S20: “Because I don’t like
English lesson miss.”
S30: “Because I’m not interested
in learning English.”
S26: “I’m not interested in
English.”
S17: “I don’t understand how to
arrange a good sentence in

English and I’m not interest
in learning English.”
From the data above the
researcher found that the factors that
caused the students’ difficulties was not
interested in learning English. Most of the
students said that they didn’t interest in
learning English. Because, the students
think that English was difficult to learn.
Not only that, they said that writing in
English is also difficult.
Based on student’s interview, the
researcher only found two factors that
same with three factors above, and the
researcher found one another factor. The
two factors that same as Graham & Harris
(in Glynn, 2006:98) said were lack of
proficiency in the text production skills
and lack of knowledge relating to the
subject content of the script to be written.
The students said that the caused of their
difficulties were they didn’t understand
how to made a correct descriptive text and
they didn’t understand about grammar.
The other factor that researcher found was
lack of interest in learning English. Most
the students of X MIPA 6 said that the
caused of their difficulties was because
they didn’t interest in learning English.
They said that English was difficult to
learn.
CONCLUSION
The students’ difficulties in
writing descriptive text at tenth grade
students of SMAN 1 Sukodadi are: 1) The
difficulties in generic structure. It’s mean
that the student can’t make a descriptive
with correct generic structure. 2) The
difficulties in grammar. It’s mean that the
student can’t arrange the word correctly
and can’t arrange simple present tense
sentences correctly. 3) The difficulties in
spelling. It’s mean that the students can’t
write the correct word in English.
The factor that caused the
students’ difficulties in writing descriptive
text at tenth grade students of SMAN 1
Sukodadi are: 1) Lack of proficiency in the
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E-Link Journal
Vol. 7 No. 1 (2020)
p-ISSN: 2085-1383; e-ISSN: 2621-4156

text production skills. It is mean the
student is lack of the proficiency in
grammar and lack of the proficiency of
how to arrange correct word and sentence.
2) Lack of knowledge relating to the
subject content of the script to be written.

It is mean that the students not understand
well about the material of descriptive text.
3) Lack of interest in learning English. It is
mean that the students not interest in
learning English at school.

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