Critique

Weaknesses
This research paper has several weaknesses that have to be taken into account. We have found
that the main drawback in this research paper is in providing ample information on result of the
study. We have found that the data analysis section is provided with the mistakes and errors of
students compositions but it is lacking of further explanation of why the students making the
mistakes when they write the essay. Certain aspects should be questioned when evaluating the
mistakes such as what are they thinking while writing the essay and make those mistakes and
what are the influences of students making the mistakes in writing in English. For example, in
this research paper the grammatical errors done by the students are shown and have been
corrected with the correct use of grammar but it is not explained well on why the students make
mistakes on that particular grammar item. My suggestion would be that if the mistakes were
explained as to why the student had a problem with the grammar item it would enhance the
quality of the research and it would not let the readers to be hanging without understanding the
students weaknesses of writing in English. For instance, the error that student No. 1 did as stated
in the research paper is about Tenses. The student wrote It had a beautiful scenery so many
people come to visit it. So the error that students make in this sentence is that the use of had
instead of has which is the correct use of tense for that sentence. Researcher should explain
why the student made mistake by using wrong verb to have tense when writing. Maybe it is
because the student misuses the present perfect as they confuse it with the past perfect. So, it
conclude that the student do not have enough knowledge about tenses and thus making errors
when writing.
Another example of explanation can be for the mistakes of student No 7 which the sentence is
The people in my town watch TV and red books. The mistake here is the word red. This
mistake could be the cause of the students inaccurate pronunciation of the word and spell the
word based on how they pronounce the word. This might be the problem of the student which is
inaccuracy of pronunciation and lack of vocabulary knowledge because the student knows what
he wants to say but could not find the correct vocabulary and how to spell it. We find that this
kind of explanations are needed in this research because the main purpose of this research is to

identify the errors and mistakes made by the students and we need to know why are the errors
and mistakes are made.
Another weakness that we found is that the information in data analysis section is not well
organized and it confuses the readers. This is because in data analysis section the researcher
showed the mistakes and errors made by the students in a numbered list and only showed 17
examples of mistakes and error made by the students. There are 27 numbers listed in the data
analysis section. The other 10 is just stating students weaknesses generally which is quite
confusing for the readers to connect because there are two components which are the mistakes
made by the students and also weaknesses joined together. There were 20 students participated in
this research and only few students mistakes were shown and we just assume that maybe the
other 3 students have no mistakes or error in their essays.. This small information should be
exposed to the reader so that they know what exactly the result that the researcher obtained from
this study. Different information about students having cognitive problem, graphomotor problem
and paragraph problem is mixed with the examples of mistakes made by students in their
compositions and creates confusions in readers mind.
Furthermore, there is another shortcoming in the research paper which we find it quite
important. The shortcoming is in data analysis section which the results are not shown in graphs,
charts or table form. In our opinion, we find that producing results in the form of charts or graphs
would be easier for the reader to detect and understand the results better. It is a lot easier to
differentiate between the writing problems and the results obtained from the study. The results
should be measurable and be shown to the reader in order for them to understand it better by just
looking at the charts or graphs. The tables and graphs should be presented in clear and
understandable fashion. Without tables, graphs or charts presented in the research paper, readers
find that it is quite confusing and not organized in terms of presenting the results of the study.
The mistakes have been categorized into its own language items. For example, the result can be
shown in table form as follows;

Language Item
Tense
Spelling
Word choice
Connectives
Faulty parallelism
Punctuation
Preposition
Comparative adjective
Transitions

Number of mistakes

TABLE 1
From this table we can see clearly as to which mistake the most made by the students through
measurable results of the test and which is the main problem when writing in English. The
number of error should also be presented in graphs in order to see the results clearly in a picture
form. There are some mistakes in the sentence are detected but has no explanations or correction
has been shown to the readers. For example, in data analysis section sentence number 10 which
is Our city is not very long way far from cabital city of Sudan. The error detected by the
researcher is the words that has been bolded but it is not corrected by providing the correct
answer and did not detect another mistake done by the students which is the word cabital that
supposed to spelled as capital. This mistake has been ignored by the researcher. This makes the
results unreliable and does not meet the expected results. .
Besides that, in conclusion section of the research paper, it is stated that there are various
types of writing problems found as result of the study. The drawback of this section is that the
problems are not ranked as the highest to lowest or include percentage and numbers to indicate
the exact results obtained. We find that this finding is not measurable and did not provide enough
information to indicate which problem students face the most when writing in English and the
least problems faced by students when writing in English. The writing problems stated in the
research paper are not in order according to the degree of the problems.

Strengths

In this research paper, there are few strengths that we found in terms of organizations,
language use and the content. In terms of organization of the content, the researcher presented his
information neatly by including the subtopic first before presenting his ideas or information
about a particular subtopic. Presentation of information or content is well organized in terms of
introducing subtopics. The researcher introduces information or theory only after stating the
subtopic. For example, in approaches to writing there are two approaches stated by the researcher
as subtopic which are Product Approach and The Process Approach. After introducing the
subtopic only then the explanation was presented by not mixing up both in one paragraph. It will
confuse the reader if both approaches mixed up in one paragraphs without categorizing them.
The researcher did the right thing by separating ideas by using subtopic.
Apart from that, as for the writing style the language use by the researcher is easy to
comprehend not confusing. The article is well written and the sentences are grammatical correct.
Researcher did not use complicated words to explain his findings and it makes a lot easier to read
and understand the content presented by the researcher. Besides that, researcher also adds some
extra information for the reader such as in the literature review, causes of learners problems in
writing and approaches to writing. This information helps students to have an insight on this
topic and gain some extra knowledge and not only merely focusing on the main topic. The extra
information is related to the topic and is useful for the researcher to further his explanation on
this study by introducing the causes, approaches and theories to the readers in order for the
reader to understand the theories first before exposed to the results. The literature review is
logically organized and it offers balanced critical analysis of the literature. Moreover, the aims,
research questions and hypotheses do reflect the information presented in the literature review as
it all about writing problems and theories regarding the problem. The sample is well stated that
the researcher uses simple random sampling which is the basic sampling technique where the
researcher selects a group of subjects for study from the population.

Besides that, the researcher gives ample information on learners writing problems which is
really important for this study. The elements of writing problems such as grammatical problems,

problems of sentence structure, problems of word choice, punctuation problems, capitalization

problems, spelling problems, content and problem organization. This information is paramount
because the mistakes of the students in writing in English are mainly involving those elements.
Through this information, readers can relate the information to the results of the study where the
researcher evaluate and identify students mistakes and errors. The aim of the study is well
explained and clearly identified as it helps the readers to actually know what the study is all
about and the purpose of the study. As for the data analysis, the results are provided with
examples of participants mistakes and errors made by them and the mistakes are corrected with
the right answer and participants problems are notified in a short sentence. Although there is not
much information about the results, it is good that the researcher identifies and corrected the
mistakes to notify the readers about the mistakes made by the participants.
Furthermore, the abstract element in the article does offer a clear overview of the study
including the research problems, sample of the study, methodology, findings and
recommendations. All those important elements are very well explained in the abstract section.
This makes a lot easier for the readers to know what the research is all about where everything is
summarized in one paragraph. Apart from that, operational definitions of terms, theories and
concepts mentioned in the study are clearly defined and it is makes the readers to comprehend
better about the study. Recommendations to overcome or reduce the writing problems faced by
students are also properly stated at the end of the research paper.