THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE STUDENTS’ READING HABITS AND ESSAY WRITING ABILITY

Abstract

This study investigates the correlation between students' reading habits and their essay writing ability. A quantitative
correlational research design was employed, with a sample of 39 sixth-semester students from the class of 2020 at one university in East Java in East Java. Data were collected using a questionnaire to
assess reading habits and documentation of students’ essays to evaluate their writing ability. The correlation was analyzed using
Pearson and Spearman formulas in IBM SPSS version 29. The findings indicate that students demonstrated good reading habits and essay writing ability. However, the correlation between the two variables was found to be low, with a correlation coefficient of 0.334 and a significance value of 0.037. These results suggest that while a
relationship exists between reading habits and writing ability, other factors may also contribute to students’ writing performance.