Writing difficulties influence how students write in every writing stage. Applying the cyclical nature of writing difficulties across different stages of the writing process, this paper investigates students’ perception of their writing difficulties and writing stages based on five research questions. The quantitative study employed a survey (41-item questionnaire) with a purposive sample of 267 respondents. Data were collected and analysed using SPSS, and the findings were presented by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicated that moderate levels of writing difficulty are prevalent across these areas of rhetorical situation, goal setting, teaching instruction, teacher explanation, long-term memory, individual paragraph, and writing process, with significant challenges particularly noted in rhetorical situation and goal setting. The findings also reported that reviewing assignment requirements and studying model essays by skilled writers are considered very important in before writing stage. Meanwhile, the findings also revealed that in while write stage, starting with the introduction is a highly popular strategy among students, emphasizing its importance in beginning the writing process well. The findings for when revising stage showed that checking if the essay meets the requirements is seen as the most important revision strategy. Finally, correlation analyses revealed three relationships between the writing difficulties and all the writing stages. Discussions of the findings and implications of the study are also reported in this paper.
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