An Analysis of the Ability of Fourth Semester English Department Students in Constructing Passive Voice in Writing Explanatory Essay

This study is aimed to describe the ability of the fourth semester Englishdepartment students at UNP, who are registered in 2015/2016 academic year, in constructing passive voice in writing explanatory essay. In addit ion, this study is also aimed to find out commongrammatical problems in constructing passive voice.This studyis classified into descriptive quantitative research. The population of this research is fourth semester English department students in 2015/2016 academic year. The total number of the sample is 32 fourth semester English department students in 2015/2016 academic year. There are 5 students from K1 class, 5 students from K2 class, 5 students fromK3 class, 5 students from K4 class, 6 students from NK1, and 6 students from NK2 class. Proportional random sampling technique was used to collect the sample. The data were collected by using writing test. Four topics were given to the students and they were asked to choose one of them. Students were asked to write passive sentences in their essay and the test was done in 90 minutes.Based on the findings of the research, it was found that students’ abilit y in constructing passive voice is in average level. There are four common grammatical problems identified from the students’ writ ing, which are grammatical problem related to the use of auxiliary be(22%), the use of past participle verb (46%), the agreement of subject and auxiliary (20%), and the choice of voice that should be used to construct the sentences (12%). Some suggestions are proposed to the lecturers that they should pay attention in teaching grammar especially passive voice. Besides, the lecturers have to pay attention to the teaching and learning especially to the use of grammar in writing.