This study was conducted to find out writing strategies and the most
dominant strategy used by the fourth semester students of English Education
Department in Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto. The method of the
research was descriptive study. The subject of research were all students or 90
students of fourth semester of English Education Departement. This study used
questionnaire and interview as the data collecting techniques. The finding result
showed that all the students used the six strategies which was stated in this
research. The percentage were; cognitive (65.19%), metacognitive (68.43%),
rethorical (59.54%), communicative (56.85%), and social/affective strategy
(63.15%). The score result indicated that metacognitive strategy was the dominant
strategy used by the fourth semester students and it was supported by the result of
interview. It could be concluded that the dominant strategies used by the fourth
semester students was metacognitive strategy. The students preffered to identify
the purpose of essay before writing, make an outline before writing and reread
their essay after writing.