Nurfathia, Khairin. 2020. The Ability of Writing Cause and Effect Essay of English Language Education Study Program Students of Lambung Mangkurat University Banjarmasin Batch 2017 in Academic Year 2018/2019. English Languagee Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. The first advisor: Dr. Jumariati, M.Pd., the second advisor: Nasrullah, M.Pd.B.I. 

Keywords: ability, writing, cause and effect essay

Writing is a productive skill which is considered as difficult by EFL students’ skill because they have to find the idea and express the ideas into appropriate English written form. This research aimed to investigate the ability of the students of English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) of Lambung Mangkurat University Banjarmasin batch 2017 in writing cause and effect essay regarding the components of writing namely content, organization, vocabulary, grammar and mechanics. 

The design of this research was a descriptive study with quantitative approach. The population of the research was the students in English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) from Lambung Mangkurat University Banjarmasin batch 2017 in academic year 2018/2019. Using cluster random sampling, the researcher chose students who took Advanced Writing class from A2, A3, and A4 with the total students were 56. The researcher used writing task as an instrument of this research.

The findings showed that the students had good ability in writing cause-effect essay. To be specific, there were 28 students (50%) who were categorized as excellent, 26 students (46.4%) were good, and 2 students (3.6%) were fair in the content. Then, in organization component, there were 27 students (48.2%) who in excellent category, 25 students (44.6%) were good, and 4 students (7.1%) were in fair category. In the component of vocabulary, there were 27 students (48.2%) who were categorized as excellent and 29 students (51.8%) who were in good category. In the component of grammar, 23 students (41.1%) were in excellent category, 27 students (48.2%) in excellent category, 5 students (8.9%) were fair, and only 1 student (1.8%) who was in poor category. Finally, in the component of mechanics, there were 23 students (41.1%) in excellent category, 30 students (53.6%) were good, 2 students (3.6%) were fair, and 1 students (1.8%) was poor. It is concluded that the ability of the students in writing a cause and effect essay was in good category. It is suggested to Advanced Writing students of the English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) in Lambung Mangkurat University to maintain their writing skill, especially in writing cause and effect essay. They are also suggested to improve their writing in the component of vocabulary, language use, and mechanics.