Whether in public or private, writing has been a challenge among students. The study generally aimed to assess the Lipa City Senior High School Students’ academic writing in preparation to the demand of the workplace. Specifically, it sought to: identify the students’ weaknesses in academic writing in terms of: organization, language use, coherence and mechanics; determine the factors affecting students’ difficulties in academic writing; and propose a plan of action based on the findings. The study used the descriptive qualitative type of research to be able to analyze deeply the reasons behind the performance. The study did not use any respondents, yet a triangulation method (focus-group, interview, content analysis) was used to eliminate the biases and come up with a deeper results. Results revealed that Lipa City Senior High School students have committed a lot of mistakes in terms of task compliance, topic development, organization, choice of words, discourse control, sentence structure, and mechanics. The study revealed further that cognitive skills, attitude towards writing, environment, teachers, availability of reading and viewing materials at home, poor foundation, and psychomotor skills were the key factors affecting their performance in academic writing. A plan of action was proposed to enhance the students’ competence in academic writing. It was also recommended that the LCSHS administration through the proper channel may extend their full support through appropriate scaffolding.
KEYWORDS: academic writing, curriculum enhancement plan, writing proficiency