Abstract

Assessing students’ writing needs provides English language teachers a baseline information in designing an appropriate intervention program. This study determined students’ writing proficiency in English. It identified the most common and frequent errors committed by the respondents. Data were collected from the essays which were rated using a rubric designed for this purpose. Errors were categorized into three: grammatical, mechanical, and structural. Results show that among the errors frequently committed by the respondents, grammatical errors ranked first, followed by mechanical and structural errors. Findings further indicate that subject-verb agreement in grammar is the most common error committed. More than half of the respondents were classified as intermediate writers whose written outputs contain short and incoherent ideas which are difficult to follow. Learners could be considered proficient if they belong to at least advanced level. Thus, there is a need for a language intervention program.