VOCATIONAL STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN PROFESSIONAL CONTENT WRITING: A REFLEXIVE THEMATIC ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21009/ishel.v2i1.69800Keywords:
vocational English students, professional content writing, writing difficulties, reflexive thematic analysis, professional communicationAbstract
Professional content writing involves linguistic, rhetorical, and contextual demands that extend beyond conventional language accuracy. This study examined vocational English students’ reported difficulties in writing content for business and professional purposes. Semi-structured interviews with 20 students at Politeknik Negeri Padang were analyzed using theoretically informed reflexive thematic analysis across five domains: professional discourse, rhetorical and genre challenges, classroom industry communication, digital adaptation, and cognitive writing processes. The findings revealed reported difficulties in producing appropriate linguistic expressions, constructing persuasive messages, addressing audience expectations, adapting content to digital platforms, and managing idea development and revision. These difficulties were interpreted as interconnected aspects of professional communication rather than independent writing problems. Contrasting responses further indicated that students’ perceived difficulties varied according to their experiences, confidence, and exposure to English language writing tasks. These findings suggest that understanding vocational students’ writing challenges requires attention to the interaction between language use, communicative purposes, and learning contexts. The study contributes an integrated, context sensitive interpretation of professional content-writing difficulties, highlighting the need to consider linguistic, rhetorical, professional, digital, and cognitive demands together in vocational English writing education.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Muthia Damaiyanti, Ilza Mahyuni, Yumna Rasyid
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