Writing is one of a skill that must be learned by students in learning English. This skill is special skill than others because it is an ability to express students’ ideas or opinion clearly and effectively in written form. This study aims at analyzing students’ ability in writing hortatory exposition based on the generic structure. The research design was qualitative descriptive methods. The researcher chose eleventh grade students in SMA Negeri 5 Malang especially in the interest crossing class (kelas Lintas Minat) which consists 29 students as the subject of the research. The data was collected by students’ assignment in writing hortatory exposition. The findings of this research stated that the ability of eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 5 Malang in writing hortatory exposition based on the generic structure were in “Good” category with the mean 72. There are 6 students were in “Very Good” category, 16 students were in “Good” category, 4 students in “Fair” category, and 3 students were in “Poor” category which wrote the hortatory exposition based on the generic structure. The researcher concludes that the students’ ability in writing hortatory exposition text based on the generic structure categorized as good with the mean was 72. Based on research findings, it is addressed to the students to learn more the generic structure of hortatory exposition and the teacher must investigate approaches or methods for teaching hortatory exposition text so that students can understand the topic. It is also needed to further exploration and investigation about analysis students’ ability in writing hortatory exposition in other future research. Keyword: Writing Ability, Students’ Ability, Hortatory Exposition, Generic Structure