<![CDATA[In the digital age, social media has profoundly influenced communication styles, raising concerns about its impact on formal writing skills. Understanding this influence is crucial, as informal writing habits may affect academic writing quality among non-native English learners. Although social media’s role in shaping language use has been widely recognized, there remains a noticeable gap in the literature between theoretical understanding and practical evidence of how these informal styles translate into academic writing practices. To address this gap, the present study examines how social media writing styles influence paragraph composition skills among non-native English learners. The primary aim is to explore how informal language use on social media platforms affects grammar, sentence structure, and coherence in academic paragraphs. To achieve this, a qualitative approach was employed, involving 15 randomly selected students from Akademi Komunitas MAPINDO. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, analysis of social media content, and a review of academic writing samples. The instruments included structured interview questions and a coding scheme for analyzing both social media content and writing samples. The procedures involved identifying patterns and discrepancies between informal social media writing and formal academic writing. Findings indicate that students frequently transfer informal writing practices from social media into their academic work, including slang, abbreviations, and non-standard grammar. These practices often disrupt the clarity and coherence of their paragraphs. Nevertheless, students demonstrated awareness of the influence of social media on their writing. The study concludes that incorporating social media literacy into the curriculum and developing strategies to address informal writing practices can enhance students’ paragraph composition skills. This approach will help bridge the gap between informal and formal writing styles, thereby improving academic writing quality among non-native English learners.]]>
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