Writing Academic Argument Paragraph A Challenge For Efl Students

This study investigates the students' argument paragraph writing and aims to spot the difficulties they face and help them improve their competencies in writing argument paragraphs. The study adopted a mixed-method approach to collecting data from the students. A group of 34 first-year students were asked to write an argument paragraph as a consolidation task; the papers were carefully examined and corrected. Besides, a short structured questionnaire was delivered to the students to obtain insights about their writing difficulties. The results of the study showed that a good number of them still had difficulties with writing argument paragraphs. Among the problems they faced was the adaptation with the academic context. They failed to adjust their writing to the bounds of formality, coherence, and objectivity. The findings showed that grammar was another hindrance for the students. They still had problems with sentence structure and use of articles and punctuation marks. Some of them had problems with the paragraph format. The study suggests reviewing these aspects to help students develop their writing skills.