Core Self-Evaluation, Writing Motivation, and Business Writing Performance of College Third Year Students of Occidental Mindoro State College

This predictive cross-sectional study explored core self-evaluation, level of writing motivation, and their influence on the business writing performance of junior business students at Occidental Mindoro State College. One hundred fifty junior business students of Occidental Mindoro State College Main Campus in Academic Year 2020-2021 selected through a simple random sampling technique were the respondents in the study. It was found that the student’s level of core self-evaluation was moderate considering their results in the locus of control, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. However, the students are highly motivated in performing their writing activities. Therefore, the improvement in core self-evaluation may slightly improve writing motivation and writing performance. Likewise, improving writing motivation may slightly improve the writing performance of business students. The positive beta coefficients indicate that if the indicators of writing motivation are improved, the students’ writing performance becomes better. Thus, core self-evaluation and writing motivation affect students’ business writing performance.

is crucial to their academic performance since a more significant part of school activities from examinations, assignments, reports, and research are written. Unfortunately, previous research has shown that despite learning English for twelve years in schools, many learners still cannot produce even short and comprehensible writing (Jalaluddin & Paramasivam, 2021).
As one of the variables of this study, self-evaluation is one of the factors that might affect students' writing motivation and writing performance. Self-evaluation can support students' involvement in the learning process while providing teachers with valuable information to guide instruction. Through self-evaluation, students reflect on what and how they learn. The main goal of self-evaluation is to have students discover what they can do well with their problems and improve. In turn, the empowerment and self-evaluation learning strategies can improve student motivation and academic achievement (Dement, 2008).
Many students entering college seem to lose their drive for learning and the learning experience. They are just going to school for compliance and not for learning. As a result, they seem to have lost the motivation to learn and often find school boring. Self-evaluation, with its focus on the self, may be one way to reignite the desire of college students to learn. The unknown is whether the core self-evaluation regarding writing in a business class affects students' writing motivation and performance.
Meanwhile, most contemporary writing models agree that motivation plays an essential role in writing production and success. While there are several different ways for writers to motivate themselves, it appears that inspiration is a crucial ingredient for writing success (Banaruee et al., (2018). In addition, some research studies have also shown that motivation affects writing (Cahyono & Rahayu, 2020), and students' motivation contributes to the improvement of students' writing proficiency. Similarly, Mo (2012) found that students' problems in English writing can be overcome by boosting students' motivation in attending writing classes focusing on writing practices.
Motivation is critical for the students learning, especially for writing, and creating and maintaining motivation is difficult. However, these studies showed that writing motivation has a vital role in making writing sustainable. Jalaluddin and Paramasivam (2021) identified that learners' writing problems range from lower-level mechanical problems such as spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, to higher-order cognitive and metacognitive problems such as planning and revision. These writing skills deficits may overwhelm the learners or may even push away learners from attempting to write. This study about the core self-evaluation, writing motivation, and their effect on the business writing performance of the third-year students was conceptualized. The need to conduct this study is to investigate whether core selfevaluation and writing motivation influence the writing performance of college business students.

Objectives of the Study
This study investigated the relationship of core self-evaluation, writing motivation, and Business writing performance of third-year college students of Occidental Mindoro State College, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. Specifically, this study aimed to: 1. Determine the level of core self-evaluation of the respondents in terms of: 3. Determine the level of business writing performance of the respondents. 4. Test if there is a significant relationship between the core self-evaluation and writing motivation of the respondents.

5.
Test if there is a significant relationship between the writing motivation and business writing performance of the respondents.
6. Determine among the indicators of core self-evaluation and writing motivation will significantly influence business writing performance.

Theoretical Framework
This study was anchored on the two theories which provided a framework for this study -the self-efficacy theory and social cognitive writing theory. This study examined the relationship between core self-evaluation, writing motivation, and Business writing performance of junior business students.
The first theory framing this study is Albert Bandura's self-efficacy theory. Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy is directly related to individuals' beliefs in their abilities, both at physical and mental levels. As a result, they can manage their skills and cognitive abilities and can carry to achieve a predetermined goal. In this study, the level of locus of control, self-efficacy, and self-esteem as indicators of core self-evaluation were investigated. Individuals with a high level of self-efficacy are more frequently expected to perceive challenging duties as something to be mastered instead of perceiving them as something to be bypassed.
Consequently, individuals with a high level of self-efficacy are more inclined to work hard to accomplish their duties, even if they have to keep up their endeavors in the long term. However, Bandura stated that the extent to which people will alter their perceived self-efficacy based on performance feedback would depend on different factors. These include the task's difficulty, the amount of effort they expend, the amount of external aid they receive, the situational circumstances under which they perform, and their mood and physical state at the time (Chea & Shumow, 2014).
The second underlying theory for this research is Bandura's Social Cognitive Writing Model, partly because of the cognitive emphasis on the writing process. Bandura's work on social cognition is based on his self-efficacy theory that addresses motivation, apprehension, feedback, and other behaviors related to writing which is one of the variables of this study. He contended that modeling behaviors that receive rewards are more effective than only modeling with no consequences. The social-cognitive theory states that human achievement depends on interactions among one's behaviors, personal factors, and environmental conditions. Therefore, the critical focus in Bandura's theory is modeling processes, behaviors, and procedures. Learning occurs when one can observe a given behavior and practice it (Ismail, 2008).
In addition, the social cognitive theory also considers the differences among learners for they have individual goals, learning styles, and prior knowledge. Therefore, students will interpret instructor and peer feedback and other contextual features according to their differences. For example, even though the classroom becomes a shared community of writers, writing remains a particular individual due to learners' cognition (Ismail, 2008).

Conceptual Framework
The research paradigm that guided the study is presented in Figure 1. The independent variables are core selfevaluation and writing motivation. The dependent variables are writing motivation and Business writing performance of the Junior College of Business, Administration, and Management Students of Occidental Mindoro State College -Main Campus. The arrow on the core self-evaluation (first independent variable) indicates its relationship with the writing motivation dependent variable. Meanwhile, the arrow from the writing motivation (second independent variable) indicates its relationship with the business writing performance of the respondents. Lastly, the arrow from the core self-evaluation and writing motivation indicate their influence on the business writing performance of the respondents.
The relationship between core self-evaluation and writing performance is associated with the study of Lam and Law (2007), which claimed that when working with words, creation and criticism are central components. Writing allows the writer to put their thoughts on a page and then pull back and ask questions about their thoughts. This dynamic process makes writing a potent tool for learning, and this process is the core self-evaluation. Meanwhile, when the students expect to achieve a writing task that they value successfully, they are most motivated due to the correlation between writing motivation and writing performance. In addition, Fazel and Ahmadi (2011) concluded that motivation positively impacts the students writing, but they found no significant difference between their motivation and their academic performance. This conclusion supports the relationship between writing motivation and writing.

Research Design
This study utilized the predictive cross-sectional research design to determine the relationship between the core self-evaluation, writing motivation, and Business writing performance of third-year college students of Occidental Mindoro State College during the second semester of A.Y. 2020-2021. It also investigated the factors of the core self-evaluation and writing motivation that significantly influence the business writing performance of the students.

Data Gathering Procedure
After the necessary communications were done to the concerned school officials, the researcher determined the respondents from among the third-year college students of College of Business, Administration, and Management of Occidental Mindoro State College -Main Campus by enlisting them. The data for this research were collected using a survey questionnaire. First, the respondents were asked for their consent and were informed regarding the conduct of the study. The first survey questionnaire administered was the Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSEs) adopted from Judge et al. (2003), which is composed of a 12-item Likert scale and was followed by the 20-item Likert-scale Academic Writing Motivation Questionnaire (AWMQ) instrument adopted from Ashley Payne (2012). Both questionnaires were encoded in the Google Form, which was sent to the Group Chat with the students through one of the social media platforms, Messenger, for it is the most convenient way to send it to the respondents. For the last part, the respondents were instructed to compose their Business Letters: An application Letter, Resumé, Collection Letter, and a Resignation Letter. These were rated using a holistic rubric that is researcher-made; it comprises the mechanics, vocabulary, content, and grammar. Finally, the researcher gave one hour and 30 minutes each writing activity to the students to finish the instrument given every after the presentation and discussion of the lesson. The data gathered were used only for the research and were treated with the utmost confidentiality.

Respondents and Sampling
The study's respondents were a total of 150 students taking the Business Report Writing course enrolled in the College of Business, Administration, and Management in Occidental Mindoro State College -Main Campus for 2020-2021.
They were chosen through a simple random technique.

Data Analysis
The study utilized descriptive statistics such as weighted mean, Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, and Regression analysis. Weighted mean was used to measure core self-evaluation, writing motivation, and determine the level of writing skill of the respondents.
The Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Coefficient test a significant relationship between the respondents' writing motivation and business writing performance. Regression analysis was used to determine which core self-evaluation and writing motivation indicators influence the respondents' business writing performance.

Level of Core Self-Evaluation
Core self-evaluation describes how individuals evaluate themselves, their attitude towards the environment and situations they find themselves in, and how they perceive their self-esteem and competencies. Although these four areas are not identical, each has its contribution making a fundamental assessment of the individual (Nikolina et al., 2020).
The present study assessed the level of core self-evaluation of the respondents in terms of self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, and locus of control.

Self-Esteem
One's self-esteem would be academic success divided by how well one thinks they ought to be doing. To increase one's self-esteem, one needs to boost successes or diminish expectations for achievements. Several studies found that self-esteem positively affects academic performance in English among EFL students, as Shahnama and Tajan (2010) stated. Self-esteem is a way one feels about oneself, including the degree to which one possesses selfrespect and self-acceptance. It is an attitude of self-approval (Aashra & Jogsan, 2012). Table 1 presents that the respondents garnered an overall mean of (2.74), which is moderate in self-esteem. Results indicate that the students' overall subjective sense of personal worth or value is at a moderate level, they are satisfied with themselves (3.91), but when they fail, they feel worthless (2.31) and depressed (2.36). These findings imply that the critical area of self-esteem will be self-evaluation regarding one's strength and energy to act. This idea of self-esteem is consistent with the conclusions drawn by Tabaczek (2011) that self-esteem determines, among other things -initiation of activity, readiness to take up challenges, and perseverance in task executions. Furthermore, self-esteem indirectly affects academic achievement via its influence on the occurrence of deviant behaviors and motivation.

Self-Efficacy
People usually try things they think they can accomplish and do not try things they think will not succeed. People with a strong belief in their abilities will try even complex tasks; however, those with low self-efficacy will result in depression and anxiety (Soleimani et al., 2020). Table 2 presents the self-efficacy of the students, which obtained an overall mean of (3.43) which indicates that when the students try, they generally succeed (4.01) and can complete tasks successfully (3.78). But the respondents are filled with doubts about their competence (2.39). The finding implies that students have stronger beliefs in their abilities to perform academic writing tasks successfully. If the learners have high self-efficacy in writing, they are probably more optimistic and confident in completing their writing tasks. Conversely, learners' behaviors can also alter efficacy beliefs. For example, as they work on their writing tasks, they notice their progress and capabilities in writing. This goal progress and accomplishment will convey to the learners that they can perform well. Consequently, it enhances self-efficacy for continued writing (Jalaluddin & Paramasivam, 2021).
The findings mentioned above are also backed up by Bandura's theory, which states that there is a cyclic relationship, with positive experiences leading to greater self-efficacy, which leads to more commitment to ier.ideasspread.org International Educational Research Vol. 4, No. 2; subsequent tasks and a greater likelihood of success. Therefore, if a teacher can provide challenging yet positive learning experiences in the classroom, self-efficacy should experience growth (Jalaluddin & Paramasivam, 2021).

Locus of Control
Locus of control refers to an individual's subjective perception of a reinforcing event and evaluation of whether that event is contingent upon one's action. For example, people who believe that the events that occurred in their lives were the result of their behavior and personality characteristics have an expectancy of internal control. On the other hand, people who believed events in these lives to function as powerful others or powers beyond their control or comprehension have an expectancy of external control, as explained by Aashra and Jogsan (2012). Many educational types of research have operationalized the locus of control construct in different ways and examined its impact on students. For example, it was found that an internal locus of control was a significant predictor of final course grades. Further, subjects with an internal locus of control were more likely to persist longer at specific tasks and set higher goals asserted by Sterbin and Rakow (2012). Table 3 presents the junior business students' locus of control, which obtained an overall mean of (3.27) interpreted as moderate level. The table also shows that the students are confident enough to succeed in life (4.39) and try to determine what will happen in their lives (3.64). However, sometimes they do not feel in control of their work (2.31). The findings imply that students believe that they can control events in their lives, and some events are under control due to internal and external factors.
This premise explains why students have better writing performance and those who have poor writing performance. Kumaravelu (2018) stated that dimensions of locus of control significantly contribute to students' academic achievement. Students in the school have gone on to greater heights in their professional careers with the incorporation of locus of control in school education (Dement, 2008).  Table 4 presents the grand mean of the indicators of Core Self-Evaluation, which is 3.43 (Moderate). Locus of control, self-esteem, and self-efficacy was considered moderate, while self-efficacy gained the highest mean, at 3.43. The result reveals that the respondents are optimistic and confident in performing writing activities.

Summary of Respondents' Level of Core Self-Evaluation
This point calls to mind the potential power of self-efficacy: positive self-evaluations encourage students to set higher goals and commit to tasks. On the other hand, negative self-evaluations allow students to make excuses for performance or set unrealistic goals in learning tasks. Thus, higher self-efficacy translates into higher achievement. Conversely, if students evaluate themselves low in writing, chances are their actual writing outputs will show poor proficiency (Cequeña et al., 2013).   Schunk et al. (2014), they defined motivation as the "process whereby goaldirected activities are instigated and sustained." Motivation is a drive that influences how one learns. Students who believe they can complete a skill or task are often more motivated to see it through. On the other hand, students who feel they cannot complete a skill or task often lack the motivation to persevere. Motivation is what keeps students going when faced with challenging or, sometimes, unattractive work. Motivation is essential for writing instruction, as students often face complex tasks (Martin, 2016).

Affective State
One of the indicators that affect writing motivation is the affective state. It has an impact on goal-directed behavior (Jones et al., 2012). Table 5 shows the affective state of the respondents, which gained an overall mean of 3.57. The findings showed that the junior business students enjoy writing assignments that challenge them (3.81) and generally enjoy writing with a mean of (3.76). But the students enjoy least writing research papers (3.24) and writing stories or narratives (3.37). The finding implies that students have a positive attitude over time and circumstance and enjoy writing activities.
Similarly, in the study conducted by Gustilo (2010), students were more comfortable in L2 than they were in L1. Not only were they confident about their writing skills in L2, but they also considered writing in English enjoyable. This characteristic may be a crucial factor since emotions have been found to play a role in the success or failure of writing essays. The findings mentioned above are explained by Schutz et al. (2013) that individuals expressing a high positive affective state are characterized as energetic, enthusiastic, active, and enjoying life. In contrast, those expressing a low positive affective state are listless, lazy, and apathetic.
Moreover, high positive affect is associated with sociability, control, helpful behavior, feelings of duty, accuracy, care in decision-making, and positive attitude over time and situation. Thus, high positive affect individuals experience a greater appreciation of life, more security, generally show more self-confidence, more social relations and assertiveness, greater satisfaction of friends. Furthermore, they are often described as passionate, happy, energetic, and alert; high negative affect individuals experience the reverse, more significant stress, strain, and pessimism in a wide range of circumstances and events of which they experience slight if any, control.

Physical State
The physical state has also been associated with more significant academic achievement, according to Kellogg (2008). As shown in Table 6, the students obtained an overall mean of (3.89) in the physical state which indicates that the respondents practice writing to improve skills (4.00), and they put a lot of effort into their writing (3.97).
However, the students would instead write an essay then answer multiple-choice questions (3.69). The findings imply that the students' affective traits may be associated with different emotional recognition and reactivity to affective state induction techniques. Affective states and affective traits may interact and integrate to produce complex behavioral patterns in a predictable way (Quarto et al., 2014). Table 6. Level of writing motivation in terms of physical state.

Indicators
Mean Description I complete a writing assignment even when it is difficult.
3.90 High I put a lot of effort into my writing.
3.97 High I easily focus when I'm writing.
3.86 High Becoming a better writer is important to me.
3.90 High I practice writing to improve my skills.
4.00 High I would rather write an essay than answer multiple-choice questions.

Social Acceptance
According to Gifford-Smith and Brownell (2003), students who are well-liked by their peers generally participate in larger, more loosely structured social networks. The social acceptance levels of the students, who consider themselves part of the class, are independent.
As shown in Table 7, Social Acceptance gained an overall mean of 3.81, interpreted as high. The respondents like to get feedback from their teacher on their writing (4.28), and they like their writing to be graded (4.16). But the students like the least for others to read what they have written (3.46). The findings imply that students have innately a solid need to be valued and liked and approved of by others. Mishra (2020) stated that human performance is innately affected by their friends or peer group. Llurda (2010) supports the study's findings that there is a positive correlation between language writing proficiency and social acceptance -trustworthiness as one of the aspects and different levels of proficiency in writing.  Table 8 presents the grand mean of the indicators of core self-evaluation, which is at 3.75 (High). Affective state, physical state, and social acceptance were interpreted as high, while physical state gained the highest mean, at 3.89. This finding reveals the level of writing motivation of the College of Business, Administration, and Management junior students is high (3.75). In addition, the student's level of motivation is high on the affective state (3.57), physical state (3.89), and social acceptance (3.81). It shows that the respondents are well-encouraged in performing writing activities.

Summary of Respondents' Level of Writing Motivation
Writing performance is positively affected by motivation if students are motivated and emotionally encouraged to accomplish whatever they desire to achieve. Moreover, as the learners work on their composition, it also gives them the impression of how capable they are in writing and thus affects the confidence to persevere and perform (Jalaluddin & Paramasivam, 2021). ier.ideasspread.org International Educational Research Vol. 4, No. 2; Published by IDEAS SPREAD

Level of Business Writing Performance
Writing is the production of communication, linking ideas and information development, or giving arguments to a particular reader or a group of readers (Hedge, 2008). This definition implies that writing is the production of the ideas expressed in the written form. Before producing the writing, the writer needs to receive and process information as much as possible. This assumption is in line with Kellogg's (2018) ideas that writing is a significant cognitive challenge because it is at once a test of memory, language, and thinking ability.
Unlike essay writing, business writing is not open-ended writing and has a specific and well-defined purpose of achieving (Tsai, 2013). The results in table 9 indicate that junior business students are achieving an outstanding level of competency in certain areas of business writing. The level of business writing performance of the respondents is high (93.05). The students are highest in Resignation letter writing but lowest in writing Resumé.

Relationship between Core Self-Evaluation and Writing Motivation
The Pearson-Product Moment correlation Coefficient was used to determine the relationship between the respondents' core self-evaluation and writing motivation. The correlation analysis in Table 10 reveals a weak positive relationship between core self-evaluation and writing motivation (.284). This finding indicates that improvement in core self-evaluation may slightly improve writing motivation. Thus, the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between core self-evaluation and writing motivation is rejected.
The same result was found in the study conducted by Süğümlü et al. (2019), which states that as the self-evaluation increases, the writing motivation of the students also increases as supported by the claim of Dement (2008), which states that self-evaluation can support students' involvement in the learning process. Through self-evaluation, students reflect on what and how they learn. Self-evaluation helps students discover what they can do well with their problems and how they can improve. This process can improve student motivation and academic achievement by utilizing and implementing self-evaluation learning strategies.
Similar to the explanation of Pinar (2017), self-evaluation is a crucial concept for ensuring student participation and encouraging learning. It may be a powerful tool for educators to meet the learning needs of students. At the beginning of learning activities, students have a sense of self-efficacy to achieve their goals. The student's selfevaluation of their learning process helps to protect self-efficacy and motivation.

Relationship between Writing Motivation and Business Writing Performance
The correlation analysis in Table 11 reveals a weak positive relationship between writing motivation and business writing performance of the respondents. This finding points out that improving writing motivation may slightly improve the writing performance of the respondents. Furthermore, this points out that the null hypothesis, which states no significant relationship between writing motivation and business writing performance, is rejected.
Similar to Cahyono and Rahayu (2020) claim that motivation affects students' writing achievement. Parallel to this is Sabti (2019) claim that the higher the writing self-efficacy and writing achievement motivation level, the better the writing performance. In addition, student writing motivation involves the whole writing process and appears vital in transforming a writing action into a product.

Indicators of Core Self-Evaluation and Writing Motivation
Influencing Business Writing Performance Many claims that different factors affect the academic performance of students, specifically in writing. Nevertheless, writing motivation and core self-evaluation impacted the writing task performance, and instruction in academic writing courses can develop motivation and self-regulatory strategy. The findings relating to selfefficacy as an indicator of core self-evaluation in this study reflect previous studies that examined the impact of tertiary-level academic writing skills courses on learners' writing self-efficacy development (Wilby, 2020). Table 12 reveals that the indicators of core self-evaluation such as a locus of control (.774), self-esteem (764), and self-efficacy (.574) do not influence writing motivation. While affective state (ß=.356), physical state (ß=.366), and social acceptance (ß=.347) significantly influence the writing performance of the students.

The regression analysis in
The positive beta coefficients indicate that if the indicators of writing motivation are improved, the students' writing performance will likewise become better. On the other hand, the null hypothesis regarding the indicators of core self-evaluation and writing motivation influencing the business writing performance is rejected.
Likewise, the study conducted by Chea and Shumow (2014) built the influence between the indicators of selfevaluation and writing motivation in academic performance of the respondents, which focused on writing in particular, which supports the result shown in table 12.