In the time of conducting this study, I have received support, encouragement
and valuable advice from my supervisor, lectures, family and friends.

First of all, I am extremely grateful to Ms. Bui Thi Phuong Thao, my caring and
enthusiastic supervisor for her delication, precious support, invaluable instructions
and reference sources during the development of this project. In fact, my scientific
research would never be completed without her.
Secondly, I would like to express my special appreciation
the Foreign Languages Department

to the whole staff of

for the favorable conditions that help me in

doing my paper.
I, in truth, owe sincere thanks to Ms. Bui Thi Thanh True who always cares
about my theme and spent her busy schedule supplying me with precious advice.
Thirdly, I also express my heartfelt thanks to my family for their spiritual as
well as financial support during my study by far especially for their great support
and constant encouragement

to help me finish this research.

Finally, I sincerely thank all of those responded to the questionaire and interview
on getting opinions together with all of my friends in SA0201.

PHAN THI MINH TAM

Examiner's Comments
Miss Minh Tam has tackled a very difficult subject in her attempt to help
students obtain a proper method of developing the writing skills. She has done a
primary research project and tried to find out what students think about the
factors that discourage them from strictly following the neceesary steps of the
essay writing process.
This is thoughtful work, and'qs very helpful to third- ea
h-yeaI:-students at HUFLIT, who h
rewriting
subjeCt, not only for their
ement but also for fulfulling their graduation examination.
Miss Tam's 'literature review 'part is particularly interesting and useful since it
presents many points of view about the necessities of following the linear model
of the writing process. However, one point should be considered is that 42.8% of
the students involved in the survey expected that teachers should help them revise
their first or second draft. I think that is not a reasonable expectation. Teachers are
expected to look at the final draft for correction because students should learn to
work independently, as Hairston (1998: 19) asserted, 'Students can write well once
they have' developed a set of practices that help them consistently turn out good
work.
This is thoughtful work, and it is very helpful to third- year and fourth- year
students at HUFLIT, who have to master the writing subject, not only for their
own improvement but also for fulfulling their graduation examination.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION


1

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .•.•.........•......•..•................
8
1/ W ri tin g and po w e r

8

21 Writing is a skill that anyone can learn with practice

10

31 Writing - definitions and general features

ll

41 Writing - a process of discovery

14

51 Some distinguishing

language

spe aking

features

between


writing

and
15

6/ The essay writing process

CHAPTER THREE : METHOD

19

26

1/ The description of subjects

26

2/ The instruments

27

al Questionnaire
bl Interview
3/ Procedure

CHAPTER

FOUR : FIND IN"GS


1) Wri ting Process Kn 0 wiedge

28

30
30


2) Students' difficulties consisting of external affections and internal
hardships (from question 4 to question 16)

35

3) Students' attitude toward the essay writing process (from question 17 to
question 20)

49

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS
11 Discussion on the findings of students' knowledge of the stages in the

essay writing process ( from item 1 to item 3.4)

52

21 Discussion on the findings of students' difficulties consisting of external
factors and internal hardship (from item 4 to item 16)

54


31 Discussion on the findings of students' attitudes toward the steps in the

essay writing process (item 17 to item 20)

CHAPTER SIX : CONCLUSIO N
APPENDIX ONE : QUESTIONNAIRE
APPENDIX TWO
REFERENCES

LIST OF QUESTIONS IN THE INTERVIEW
AND INTERVIEWEES' REPLIES

59

63


ABSTRACT
Good command of English is a desire of any foreign language learner
and a profound acquisition of English writing is no exception. According to
Tribble (1996: 43) there are fundamentally

two kinds of English writing.

They are professional writing which is used in society and academic writing
which is used in the school system. Reality has shown that most of EFL
students at Huflit, the third year students in particular,

have had lots of


troubles in making their academic essays. One of the sources of their major
difficulties is their failure to apply the writing process techniques -

the

most significant knowledge associated with a person's writing capability.
Therefore, this scientific research was carried out with an attempt to seek
the possible hindrances discouraging the junior students at HUFLIT from
strictly following the steps in the essay writing process even though they
are supplied with sufficient knowledge about area at school, especially in
the writing class.

In the process of completing this study, a questionnaire was designed
and distributed to seventy-one respondents of HA0302 and HA0303 with a
desire to find out the students' attitudes toward the steps in the essaywriting process and the real obstacles they meet in an effort to apply these
steps. Apart from the questionnaire, an interview with ten other
participants was conducted to get more detailed and relevant information
about this matter. The findings drawn from the questionnaire and the


interview revealed that the pressure of time is a really big problem,
causing those students to flinch from using the writing steps they had been
taught. Moreover, their inability to thoroughly understand the functions of
these steps as well as a shortage of social knowledge, the degree of interest
of the topics in their essay writing materials and teachers' behaviors are
also the main reasons causing their negligent attitudes that process
application.

Due to the limited time, the small number of subjects and issues
explored restricted, the shortcomings are unavoidable. Thus, it is expected

that some other papers about this field will go on with studying this more
deeply so that the students can surely be the beneficiaries of the valuable
results and practical suggestions.


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Supervisor: BUI THI PHUONGTHAO

CHAPTER!
INTRODUCTION
ILBACKGROUNIl:
The epoch of modern science and technology has integrated
people of different languages into the global community to carry out their
transactions in different fields. Evidently, English has gradually become a
crucial and popular communication tool. Thus, so as to radically master
English or enhance our understanding in such relations, it is essential that
we have good command of four language skills: Listening, Speaking,
Reading and Writing.

A large

number

of English learners,

nevertheless,

have a


mistakenly-held conception that writing is neither an important objective
to achieve nor

an urgent task that is worth our consideration

or an

intensive study. Unfortunately, those people fail to realize the truth that
writing is one of cornerstones of an education, not just for the elite but for
everyone who cherishes an aspiration for obtaining a college degree. It is
obvious that all of us take a lot of benefits from our conscious, good, regular
writing activities:
_We understand material better and retain it longer when we
write about it.

I PHAN THI MINH TAM

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Supervisor: BUI TID PHUONGTHAO
_We generate

new ideas when we write because the act of

writing helps us make connections and see relationships.
_We think more critically when we write. When we get ideas
down on paper, we are more likely to be able to clarify and evaluate them.


With the above benefits that writing brings to us, people studying
English as a foreign language in general and EFL students in particular fail
to cherish a desire to be trained with essentially equipped language tools
and English text composing skills. According to Tribble (1996:67), the most
significant

knowledge

associated

with a person's

capacity

to write

successfully comprises: content knowledge, context knowledge, language
system knowledge, and writing process knowledge.

Besides that, Tribble also expresses his opinion about kinds of
writing. From the viewpoint of Tribble (1996:43) there are basically two
kinds of writing: business writing or professional writing and academic
writing. Professional writing can be said to work in society and academic
writing, on the contrary, in the school system. Therefore

in order to be

good at academic writing, students are supposed to thoroughly acquire the
above mentioned - the four-aspect knowledge.


During the time studying at university, the researcher

has found

out that the third-year students, even the forth-year ones have had to cope
with innumerable

obstacles

in academic

writing, typically in writing

academic essays. This results in an assumption of the researcher

IPHAN TID MINH TAM

that
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university students may be in the shortage of some ranges of knowledge
which must be acquired to become a good writer. After carrying out an
investigation


together

with the trustworthy

graduation papers, the researcher

results from the previous

can come to a certain conclusion that

besides the lack of content knowledge, context knowledge , and language
system knowledge, university students also seem to show a negligent
attitude

toward

writing process application.

conducting an academic writing task

Such process applying to

is considered

as a prerequisite

element. In other words, they possibly have a disposition of not strictly
following the steps in the essay writing

process


although

they are

adequately conveyed the knowledge about this.

From the viewpoint of Tribble, though writing process knowledge is
not so important as the other three elements, it is still an essential part. We
can not deny that a right method is extremely necessary for whatever we
do and writing is no exception. Hence, so as to create a perfect writing
product, we should master a right writing method, I mean writing process,
and strictly follow them. Applying these writing steps strictly into writing
academic essays will be of great importance

- implementing

a perfect

The steps in writing process comprising Prewriting,

Drafting,

assigned task with confidence.

Revising, Editing and Publishing are considered as the universal rules that
are accepted by any instructors and learners and applied in every schools

I PHAN TID MINH TAM


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or institutes in the world. Good writers, therefore,

hardly produce their

writing creation without going through these stages.

In reality, as far as the researcher

is concerned,

some writing

materials of the ninth-course students at Huflit are different from those of
the eighth-course. The writing materials

presenting the requirement

to

apply the writing process consist of the textbooks written for English
learners:
•

Writing to Communicate - paragraphs and essays


•

Practice Writing

•

Communication through Writing

•

The Bedford Handbook
Those have been put into teaching from the early stages of studying

writing essays with the purpose of training students to stick to the right
stages of writing.

No matter how reasonable the students' practice of going through
steps seems to be, the reality is far from our satisfaction. Many writing
teachers, nevertheless,

reveal that in spite of the students' full acquisition

of how necessary the step-following is, the teachers seem not to be able to
teach their students the content or ideas, vocabulary use or word choice,
grammatical

use or structures,

mechanical


considerations

and writing

stages at the same time. Due to the limited class time together with many
other ranges of complicated knowledge that need transmitting, effectively
to the learners,

these writing teachers at Huflit are unable to make a

J PHAN TID MINH TAM

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I Supervisor: BUI THI PHUONGTHAO
frequent supervision on whether their students strictly follow steps in essay
writing process or not. Hence, they are just able to value their students'
writing ability on their final products of writing or the very writing papers
the students handed in to them for marking.

Additionally, some writing teachers frankly confide that they have
never asked students to make any second revision for the tasks which were
corrected by them since they do not have much spare time to correct these
tasks again and again.

Certainly, the students' serious efforts to prepare and revise their
papers carefully even after the essays have been marked are gradually
discouraged. And the writing teachers admit that it is very disappointing

that their students do not look so serious-minded in their study. To put it
another way, good or bad results of students are not completely caused by
their teachers since the fourth-year

students or even the third-year ones

are mature enough to be fully conscious of how important their success in
writing is. More exactly, those who feel rather discouraged from strictly
following required steps in essay writing process have the other reasons of
their own.

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---..;;....;..;..;.;;....;;,,;;;;;;.;;,,;;;.----------

II/OBJECTIVES:

From the obstacles caused by such limitations in learning to write,
this study is carried out with a purpose of finding out what the possible
hindrances

that

block the third-year


students

of Foreign

Language

Department from strictly following steps in the essay writing process really
are. This thesis is identified as being of importance to teachers as well as
university students. That is to say, the teachers should know what make
their students flinch from investing more time into writing preparations
and draft revision. And with directions of the teachers, then the learners
can find out their

own solutions to the problems to perform

more

satisfactory versions.

III/SCOPES:

Due to the researcher's

restriction of time, this study has been

confined to seventy one female juniors in class HA0302 and HA0303 of
Foreign Language Department

of Huflit. All of them have step by step


familiarized themselves with writing essays since their third semester at
Huflit. These objectives are intended for the fact that they are prepared
for actual essay-writing practice at the sixth semester. The results collected
from the questionnaire are assumed to be more precise and valid, thus
making things discussed later only applicable to this level of English
proficiency.

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ISupervisor: nUl Till PHUONGTHAO
IV/ORGANIZATION:

This study opens with an overview of the background of writing
skill of EFL students of Huflit. It then goes on to present the literature
review. The next chapter is devoted to the research method carried out for
this paper. Then, it is followed by the report on the findings. After outlining
the research findings, the paper presents the discussion. Finally, the last
chapter gives a conclusion and some suggestions.

I

PHAN THI MINH TAM

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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
1/ WRITING AND POWER:
Along with speaking, writing is a means of communication, too. It
plays an important part in human beings life. Mentioning the importance of
writing, Tribble (1996,12) shares a similar point of view that:
Writing is fundamentally

an adult activitiy which is associated with

specialised social roles.
In reality, it is clear that there are numerous social activities
involving writing such as writing to the school management to explain our
children's absence from class, drawing up a business contract, making an
inquiry into a new product, asking the Higher Court to look into one's
appeals ... In some special situations, we choose to write in order to obtain a
better communication instead of speaking. Some activities demand it if the
outcome of the activity is to be successful. Take "invitations"

as an

example. In a small, informal party, to invite a number of close, constant
friends,

we find it unusual or odd to send written invitations to them. On

the contrary, we would be well advised to send written cards to be able to
invite the guests to the wedding reception. Similarly, we talk of "writing" a
contract or making a contract after agreeing on important points during
our oral negotiation. In this case, writing must be done due to its firm

legality.

I PHAN THI MINH TAM

8


-

----------------------------------------

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Supervisor: BUI THI PHUONGTHAO
Hence,Tribble (1996:13) points out that:
Public events which have legal or financial
dependent on written documentation,

implications are typically

and activities which carry with

them the need for high levels of systematic organization are often more
successfully negotiated if writing is used.
Additionally, the mere fact that something is written conveys its own
message, for example of permanance

and authority. Certain people write

and certain things get written (Stubbs1987, in Tribble, 1996:13). This results

in the implication that writing comes to be associated with status and
power, and the connection between writing, status and power is clearly
exposed in organizations. For instance, pre-printed forms request for timeoff, company's annual reports, departmental
information

is required

in a standard

monthly reports in which the

and consistent form are used to

communicate from ones in lower positions in a hierarchy
managerial
dismissal,

responsibility,
contractual

inventiveness

to those with

whereas the other documents like letters

signature

etc.,


which

mostly belong to the manager's

require

originality

of
and

responsibility and writing

skills. Thus, Tribble(1996:13) comes to a steady conclusion that by writing
you can have control not only information but of people.
Regardless of the superior formality of writing, especially in social
contexts, writing seems to contain in itself many other kinds of power.
Since writing usually produces visable graphic products, it is not difficult to
amend the incorrectness
the durability

in writing assignments. Furthermore,

of writing, throughout

thanks to

history, an aura, an ambience, a

mystique has usually encircled the written words. Last but not least, writing


I

PHAN THI MINH TAM

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I Supervisor: BUI THI PHUONGTHAO
is said to be devoted more time as well as more careful and deep thoughts
than talking. Obviously, this leads to the less misunderstanding

and offence

caused by writers in comparison with talkers. In Teaching Writing Skills,
Brown (1994:325) conveys the same viewpoint in terms of writing power:
Once something is written down and delivered in its final form to its
intended audience, the writer abdicates a certain power : power to amend, to
clarify, to withdraw. That prospect is the single most significant contributor to
making writing a very scary operation.

2/ WRING

IS A SKILL

THAT

ANYONE

CAN


LEARN WITH PRACTICE:

Some people hold the false belief that writing is a natural gift which
some have and others do not. Because of this belief, they never make a
truly honest effort to learn to write. However, like anything else we learn
to do, writing seems more natural the more we do it. That means the more
we write, the more confident we will feel. There is no famous writer having
ability to write effectively and successfully without experiencing sweating
attempts

and strenuous

efforts. Sharing the same opinion on this issue,

Hairston (1998:19) asserted:
Most successful writers have no special verbal abilities, usually they are
well read, to be sure, but they write well because they have developed a set
of practices they know will help them consistently turn out good work.

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Supervisor: BUI Till PHUONGTHAO

Hence, no one fails to write well. The noticeable issue is that

whether we make effort to practise writing or not, to students, writing is
actually one of the study tasks that call for most concentration

and hard

work. Practice and effort are neccessary elements to write well, so Phyllis
Ballata (1997, IX) makes it clear that:
Writing is a skill that must be learned both by practice in safe, private
settings and by efforts at peak performance

with the pressure such

performance entails.
Hidalgo, Hall and Jacobs (1995:216) share a similar statement that:
We realized that writing is not achieved by following formulas but by
using skills adapted to new tasks. Such skills are developed only through
steady practice.

3/

WRITING

- DEFINITIONS

AND GENERAL

FEATURES:

The results of deep investigations
demonstrated


and thorough

research

have

that written language came into existence much later than

spoken language. If speaking seems not to be able to fruitfully keep up
man's thoughts, feelings, desires for a long time as well as successfully
transmit the heritage to the future generations, writing can undoubtedly
make up for such drawbacks of speaking. More specifically, writing can be
even considered

I

as an unique means that helps maintain or prevent

PHAN Till MINH TAM

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speaking from being eroded through time and transmit the very spoken
messages through long distances to faraway horizons. Therefore,
an exaggeration that writing is extremely necessary


it is not

for human life and it

has pushed our civilization forward.

People have used many tools for writing including paint, pencils,
pens, typewriters and computers. Writing can be the scripts formed on the
wall of a deep cave, a piece of paper on our desks or a well-designed text on
the computer screen. In order to have such perfect pieces of writing, the
writer is expected to go through different required steps. In other words,
writing, in the point of view of making processes, is made up of prewriting,
drafting, revising, editing and publishing. In addition, to understand what is
meant by writing, it is advisable to look at several genres of writing:
expository,
Literature
short

narrative,

descriptive,

imaginative,

and

persuasive

ones.


is also a type of writing that consists of poetry, novels, plays, and

stories. Regardless

of the language or text types, good writing

requires the writer to have command of grammar rules and exceptions,
spelling, and punctuation. Besides applying those rules to produce effective
texts or essays, people must have access to other helpful tools such as
dictionaries and thesaurus.

Although there

have been various ways to define writing, these

definions all come to an agreement that writing can be used effectively to
convey and transmit meaning. Basically, writing is considered as a process
of putting ideas down on paper to transform

IPHAN Till MINH TAM

thoughts into words, to
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I Supervisor: BUI THI PHUONG THAO
sharpen your main ideas, to give them structure and coherent organization
(Brown,1994: 321).
Writing is the expression of language in the form of letters, symbols

words. [file:/IIF:/writing.htcm

[accessed_May 2006 ]]

An additional explanation is that:
Writing is a two step process.First,you figure out your meaning,then you
put it into language. (ElbowI973, in Brown,1994: 321)
Obviously, we can see the difference
speaking

from the above definition.

Human

between

writing

and

beings all generate

our

meaning in our mind first, then we will display it in letters as writing and in
utterances

as speaking. Futhermore,

due to the fact that writing produces a


visable graphic creation, it is inevitable that we make mistakes which easily
lead to misunderstandings

together with instant recognization

of readers.

Sharing the same opinion, Miss Nguyen stated in her graduation

paper

that:
Writing- a silent process but definitely a very challenging task, is by no
means a minor skill at all.
Writing

is, therefore,

a productive

ability that mainly requires

correct and even exact use of language as a network of systems.
As for the authenticity
writing (Brown,1994:324).
distinguish between

of writing, there are real writing and display


It is extremely

necessary

for us to clearly

these two kinds. Real writing aims at the genuine

communication of messages to an audience in need of those messages while
display writing which is mostly used within the school curricular

context

involves an element of display. A resembling point of view is that:

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Real writing is writing when the reader does not know the answer and
genuinely wants information. In many academic contexts, however, if the
instructor is the sole reader, writing is primarily for the display of a
student's knowledge. Written exercises, short answer essays and other
writing in test situations are instances of display writing. (RaimesI991,
in Brown,1994:324)

4/ WRITING - A PROCESS OF DISCOVERY


Talking
agreement

about

the essay writing process,

we have

reached

an

that such a writing process involves several steps that besides

making up a sequence, the steps are said to build on one another . We
should not get the idea that once we have completed the first step, we
should proceed to the second or the third without ever looking back. In
contrast, we can and should stop often, review what we have done and
immidiately make changes. To put it another way, we can back the former
stages, add any further information that suddenly appear in our mind or
eliminate ideas that are no longer important to our project. This makes
writing exciting since the more we discover about a subject, the better we
undestand it and the more likely we are to change what we thought we
want to say when we began. It is, therefore,

possible for us to say that

writing always involves discovery. Hidalgo, Hall and Jacobs (1995:212)
make it clear that:


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We also realized that writing was both a procedure for demonstrating
what we knew and a procedure for discovering what we knew.
Zamel, Silva and Applebee (1990:152) hold a similar point of view that:
Writing is a recursive and creative process which focuses on discovery
and expression of meaning.
Bnscemi,Nicolai and Strugala (1998,5) give additional agreement that:
Going through

these stages carefully will make your writing more

effective.It may even make the proces more excitingJor it will help you
see writing as a voyage of discovery. Each stage will reveal more and more
about your subject and gradually help you focus on exactly what you want
to say about it.

5/

DISTINGUISHING

SOME


BETWEEN

FEATURES

LANGUAGE

WRITING

AND

SPEAKING:

Traditionally, the four languaging processes of listening, speaking,
reading and writing are paired in either of two ways: listening and reading
are perceptive

or receptive

skills. The first

distinction

skills, speaking and writing are productive
resides

in two criteria:

the matters


of

organization and of graphic recording. Connors and Glenn(1999:332) state
that:

IPHAN THI MINH TAM

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Writing is originating and creating a unique verbal construct that is
graphically

recorded. Talking

is creating

and originating

a verbal

construct that is not graphically recorded (except for the circuitous
routing of a trascribed tape).
Connors anf Glenn (1999:332) also give an additional dictinction
that talking and writing may emanate from different organic sources and
represent


quite different,

possibly distinct, language functions. Besides

that, there are still many points that we are able to recognize the real
differences between talking and writing . These differences are showed
fundamentally as in follow:

WRITING

_ To be an artificial activity

TALKING

_To be acquired as part of
growing up

_To be a technological device,

_To be organic, natural, earlier

but early enough to qualify as
primary technology
_To be slower than talking

_To be faster than writing

_Leaning on its own context


_Leaning on the environment

_The audience is usually

_The listener is usually absent

present

While it is clear that the physical acts of speaking and writing are
obviously different, and while we can see how one language mode might be

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more appropriate

in one social context than another

(please read in

"Writing and Power "), it is really the case that there are fundamental
differences between the language that we use when we speak and when we
write.

Tribble(1996:16-17)

reveals

that

two of the most important

aspects of speaking are prosodic and paralinguistic features. He also gives
further explanation of these two features that:
Prosodic features are the non-verbal aspect of spoken English that are
used systematically to help give meaning to utterances like rhythm,
pgrasing, and pauses. Paralinguistic features are not a systematic part
of the language, but they still add meaning to what we say. These
features include the way someone is speaking (loudly, softly, shouting
or whispering) , the facial expressions and physical gestures.

Although writing, however, is not able to imitate or express the
non-verbal

features of speech mentioned above, it also has its own ways to

express the non-verbal features similarly like punctuation and typography
(bold, underlined, italicized text).

Furthermore,

it is very clear for us to see some most significant

differences between written language and oral language in the areas of

grammar and vocabulary. Taking the same content expressed in the form
of spoken language and written language as an example, we easily have
comments on the differences between them in the following terms:

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