Challenges of Academic Writing: An Overview of Academic Writing of Master’s Level Students in Nepal
Abstract
This study explores the challenges of academic writing of Master’s level students when carrying out assignments and writing theses at the Tribhuvan University. The phenomenological research design under the qualitative research approach was adopted for this study. Six students in the fourth semester of the Master of Education in English were selected through a judgmental non-random sampling procedure. An in-depth interview was implemented as a research instrument to elicit data from the respondents who have been writing these at Tribhuvan University. An interpretive research paradigm was executed to analyze and interpret the data. The findings show that feedback and comments were inadequately provided to the students; they did not have critical reading skills, incorporation of the latest APA, MLA, and Chicago writing manuals in the curriculum, and lack of awareness of the consequences of unacademic writing. Academic writing skills are the backbone of Master’s level students in carrying out assignments and theses; therefore, academic writing should be focused on at the beginning of the Master’s level.
Keywords: thesis writing, feedback, academic writing, pre-service teachers.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
AL-TAMIMI, M. O. M. (2018). An investigation of academic writing errors among tertiary level students at Hadhramout University: A perception study. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 5(2), 214-227.
BAILEY, S. (2006). Academic writing: A handbook for international students. Routledge.
BITCHENER, J., & FERRIS, D. (2012). Written corrective feedback in second language acquisition and writing. Routledge.
BLOCH, J. (2012). Plagiarism, intellectual property and the teaching of L2 writing. Multilingual Matter.
BROWN, A. S., & HALLIDAY, H. E. (1991). Cryptomnesia and source memory difficulties. American Journal of Psychology, 104, 475-490.
BROWN, A. S., & MURPHY, D. R. (1989). Cryptomnesia: Delineating inadvertent plagiarism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 15, 432-442.
BRUNER, J. (1986). Actual Mind: Possible worlds. Harvard University Press.
FAREED, M. ASHRAF, A., & BILAL, M. (2016). ESL learners' writing skills: Problems, factors and suggestions. Journal of Education and Social Science, 4(2), 81-92. https://doi.org/10.2054/jes0421504201
FAZILATFAR, A. M., ELHAMBAKHSH, S. E., & ALLAMI, H. (2018). An investigation of the effect of citation instruction to avoid plagiarism in EFL academic writing assignments. Sage Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018769958
FERRIS, D. R., & HEDGCOCK, J. S. (2005). Teaching ESL: Purpose, process and practices (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
FREDRICKS, J.A., BLUMENFELD, P.C., & PARIS A. H. (2004). School engagement potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Education Research, 74(1), 59-109.
GILLAM, K., & WOODEN, S. R. (2013). Re-embodying online composition: Ecologies of writing in unreal time and space. Computers and Composition, 30(1), 24-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom. 2012.11.001
GUBA, E. G., & LINCOLN, Y. S. (1989). Fourth generation evaluation. Sage Publication.
HIRVELA, A., & DU, O. (2013). Why am I paraphrasing? Undergraduate ESL writers' engagement with source based academic writing and reading. A Journal for Academic Purpose, 12 (2), 87-98.
HU, G. W., & SUN, X. (2017). Institutional policies on plagiarism: The case of eight Chinese universities of foreign languages/international studies. System, 66, 56-68.
HUY, N. T. (2015). Problems affecting learning writing skill of grade 11 at Thong Linh High School. Asian Journal of Educational Research, 3(1), 53-69.
HYLAND, K. (2009). Academic discourse. Continuum.
JUSUN, K. D. & YUNUS, M. (2018). The effectiveness of using sentence makers in improving writing performance among pupils in Lubok Anturural schools (ICFL). Educational Innovation in Science in the Digital Era, 20, 469-475.
KECK, C. (2014). The use of paraphrase in summary writing: A comparison of L1 an L2 writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15(4), 261-278.
KECK, C. (2010). How do university students attempt to avoid plagiarism? A grammatical analysis of undergraduate paraphrasing strategies. Writing & Pedagogy, 9(2), 193-222. https://doi.org/10.1558.lwap.v2i2.193
KUSWARI, U., & DALLYONO, R. (2022). A writing workshop model to enhance students' skills in writing essay in Sundanese. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 12(1), 266-276. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v12i1.46597
LEKI, I. (2010). Academic writing: Exploring processes and strategies (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
LIN, O. P., & MAAROF, N. (2013). Collaborative writing in summary writing: Student perceptions. Social and Behavioral Science, 90, 599-606. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.131
LITCHMAN, M. (2006). Qualitative research in education: A user’s guide. Sage Publishers
MARSH, R. L. & BOWER, G. H. (1993). Eliciting cryptomnesia: Unconscious plagiarism in a puzzle task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 19 (3),673-688. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.19.3.678.
NEUPANE BASTOLA, M. (2022). Engagement and challenges in supervisory feedback: Supervisors’ and students’ perceptions. RELC Journal, 53(1), 56-70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688220912547.
NUNAN, D. (1999). Second language teaching and learning. Heinle & Heinle.
PADILLA-DIAZ, M. (2015). Phenomenology in educational qualitative research: Philosophy as science or philosophical science? International Journal of Educational Excellence 1 (2), 1.
PECORARI, D. (2003). Good and original: Plagiarism and patch writing in academic second language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12, 317-345.
PHILIP, J., & DUCHESNE, S. (2016). Exploring engagement in tasks in the language classroom. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 36, 50-72.
PAUDEL, P. (2022). Analysis of Nepalese post graduate students’ errors in writing research proposals. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 12(2), 486-498. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v12i2.41113.
RAHIMIVAND, M., & KUHI, D. (2014). An exploration of discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Science, 98, 1492-1501. https://doi.org/10.1016/jshspro.2014.03.570.
RAIMES, A. (1983). Techniques in teaching writing. Oxford University Press.
RAMASAMY, R. M. M., & AZIZ, A. (2018). Peer assessment in writing using frog VLE in a secondary school ESL classroom. Creative Education, 9(14), 2265-2279. http://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2018.914167.
REGALA-FLORES, E., & LOPEZ, M. (2019). Self-reported summarizing and paraphrasing difficulties in L2 writing contexts: Some pedagogical intervention. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9, 286-296. https://doi.org/10.17509ijal.v9i2.2019
REHMAN, A. A., & ALHARTHI, K. (2016). An introduction to research paradigm. International Journal of Education Investigation, 3(8), 51-59.
RICHARDS, J. C., & SCHMIDT, R. W. (2010). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. Pearson Education.
RODAS, E. L., & COLOMBO, L. (2021). Self-managed peer writing group for the development of EFL literacy practices. TESL-EJ, 24(4), 1-22.
SHI, L. (2008). Textual appropriation and citing behavior of university undergraduates. Applied Linguistics, 31, 1-24.
SUHERDI, D., KURNIAWAN, E., & LUBIS, A. H. (2020). A genre analysis of research article findings and discussion' sections written by Indonesian undergraduate EFL students. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(1), 59-72. https://doi.org/10.17509ijal.v10i1.24989
TENG, M. F., & WANG, C. (2023). Assessing academic writing self‐efficacy belief and writing performance in a foreign language context. Foreign Language Annals, 56(1), 144-169. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12638
SADEGHI, K., & KHAJEPASHA, A. S. (2015). Thesis writing challenges for non-native MA students. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 20(8), 357-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2015.1063808
SELVARAJ, M., & AZIZ, A. A. (2019). Systematic review: Approaches in teaching writing skill in ESL classrooms. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 8(4), 450-473. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARPED/v8-i4/6564
WELMAN, J. C., & KRUGER, S. J. (2002). Research methodology for the business and administrative sciences, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.