STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING IN THEIR ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY AT FOURTH SEMESTER OF UIN RADEN INTAN LAMPUNG

ABSTRACT Critical thinking was included in one of many aspects in writing, it was needed when the writer have to defend a position, argue by using his or her own ideas, or make reason and conclude the prepositions. Writer should think of the plan, before they started to write. While writing improved one’s mind to think critically, at the same time critical thinking supplied good writing. This research aimed to know how was students’ critical thinking ability in their argumentative essay. This research used descriptive quantitave research design. The sample of this research was B class at fourth semester of English Education Department, UIN Raden Intan Lampung in academic year 2020/2021 that consists of 33 students. In collecting the data, students’ argumentative essay was collected to be analyzed and scored in order to know their critical thinking ability by using Marguerite and Ennis scoring sheet (1993). The percentage of six aspects was calculated based on students’ critical thinking ability viewed from each aspects. This study found that the average of students’ critical thinking ability viewed from all aspects categorized as well-developed and developing. Five aspects categorized as well-developed such as focus (4,1), supporting reason (4,1), organization (4,3), conventions (4,3), integration (4,2) and one aspect categorized as developing was reasoning (3,8). From the calculation of all aspcets it shown that there were 28 students categorized as well-developed in critical thinking ability and 5 students categorized as developing. In conclusion, students’ critical thinking ability in their argumentative essay was well-developed. Keywords: critical thinking, argumentative essay, writing