Abstrak
ABSTRACT Halimah, 2318069. THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY AT UIN SJECH M. DJAMBEK DJAMIL (SMDD). A Thesis, State Islamic University of Sjech M Djamil Djambek Bukittinggi, 2025. This study investigates the differences in writing abilities between male and female students in the fourth semester of the English Education Study Program at UIN Bukittinggi. The research is grounded in previous studies that highlight gender-based variations in linguistic behavior, particularly in academic writing. Based on a comparative analysis of writing samples, this study examines key indicators such as sentence length, vocabulary use, grammatical accuracy, sentence structure, and stylistic features like hedging language, intensifying adverbs, and emotional expressions. A total of 20 participants (10 male and 10 female) were selected through stratified sampling to ensure balanced representation. Students' writing was assessed using Ellis et al. (2013). The data collection technique used in this research is documentation analysis, a qualitative method that involves systematically analyzing written texts to assess students’ writing abilities. This technique was applied to collect and analyze writing samples from ten fourth-semester students The findings indicate that female students generally demonstrated higher writing proficiency than their male counterparts. Female participants exhibited greater sentence complexity, richer vocabulary, better grammatical accuracy, and more frequent use of academic language features such as hedging, dependent clauses, and emotion-laden words. In contrast, male students showed more variability in writing performance, with some individuals performing well while others struggled with grammar, sentence structure, and lexical diversity. Key term: Writing Ability, Gender Differences, Comparative Study