Word Processor Tools: Overcoming Mechanical Engineering Vocational Education Students’ Difficulties in Academic Writing

Abstract

The emergence of word processing tools assisted the students in overcoming academic writing difficulties. However, there is a deficiency of research on the impact of word processor tools on overcoming students' academic writing difficulties in language problems. Hence, a result of this research was to discover how word processor tools overcome Mechanical Engineering Vocational Education of Universitas Negeri Jakarta who struggles with academic writing. A qualitative survey with descriptive analysis was employed from May until July. Students' articles and 40 second-semester Mechanical Engineering Vocational Education students served as data sources. Analyzing students' articles and online questionnaires were employed to collect the data, after which it was examined and descriptively inferred. The questionnaire was distributed in which a total of 28 items to 40 students. They confirmed that the word classes were of high difficulty. It implies that a word processor would be the most beneficial in overcoming word formatting areas. Therefore, despite the frequent use of word processing tools, students should not neglect reading while writing academically with this tool because it does not ensure that it would help them 100% of the time.