Writing has always been regarded as the important skills in English. Research
within this discipline has mainly focused on the development of writing, but this
recent years, some researchers have examined students’ perception of writing. In
order to examine the perception about the academic writing in Senior High Schools,
data were collected from 60 students in three different state senior high schools in
Purwokerto in academic years 2015/2016 trough closed-questionnaire. Survey
study was used in conducting this research. The overall results (M= 2.08, SD=
0.6353) demonstrated that the students have positive views toward academic
writing. The result shown that students know writing is important especially for
their future career, academic and social communication. But the other result also
shown that the students have some anxieties in writing. The result implies several
suggestions: (1) teachers should give improvement in the teaching and learning
writing so that students can enjoy and feel comfortable during the class, (2) teachers
should give motivation to their students about the importance of writing, (3) the
Ministry of Education or other responsible bodies need to train teachers, especially
in the implementation of the process approach to the teaching of writing.