CRITICAL THINKING-RELATED CHALLENGES TO CRITICAL WRITING: A CASE AT A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN INDONESIA

This study aimed to investigate the challenges related to critical thinking in critical writing faced by undergraduate students at a private university in Indonesia. The
study used a qualitative case study approach, collecting data through documentation of student essays and semi-structured interviews with five participants. The study
used interactive data analysis by Miles et al (2020), analyzing data through data condensation, data display, and drawing conclusions. The findings revealed that
students experienced challenges in four key aspects of Chaffe (2010). Specific issues included challenges in recognizing contextual meaning, challenges in
evaluating the validity and soundness of arguments, challenges in understanding disjunctive syllogisms, and challenges in identifying a thesis. The results of this
study indicate that critical thinking skills need to be explicitly integrated into critical writing instruction. Writing instruction should not only focus on linguistic and
structural aspects, but should also emphasize the ability to reason, analyze evidence, and understand implied meaning. Lecturers need to design learning activities that
encourage students to think reflectively and analytically. Furthermore, the curriculum should support the development of critical thinking skills through a stepby-step approach, from recognizing arguments to constructing valid and sound
arguments. By implementing this strategy, higher education institutions can strengthen students' critical literacy, enabling them to produce more logical,
coherent, and academically valuable writing.