Academic Writing of Saudi Graduate Students: Issues and Improvements (original) (raw)
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This current research forms part of a broader investigation into the problems Saudi postgraduate students face in English academic writing. The study used the interpretive paradigm to investigate and interpret the perceptions of Saudi postgraduate students and their supervisors in relation to the difficulties they encountered regarding academic writing in English. Therefore, the study adopted a sequential mixed-methods design. The quantitative phase of the research employed a questionnaire whereas the qualitative phase employed semi-structured interviews and document analysis. In total, 275 students completed the prepared questionnaire whilst 15 students, both male and female, and 9 supervisors participated in the semi-structured interviews. The research also used ten samples of written feedback students had received from their supervisors. SPSS descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data quantitatively, and MAXQDA software was used to analyse the data qualitatively. The st...
Academic writing problems of Iranian post-graduate students
This study investigated the problems of Iranian postgraduate students regarding their academic writing problems in using conventions they are not familiar with at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The aim of the research was to explore the common errors made by Iranian students at postgraduate level and find out the main causes of these difficulties in English academic writing in order to develop viable solutions that will help them to efficiently perform academic writing tasks required as they pursue their postgraduate studies in a university where English is the medium of instruction. The required data were gathered via mixed-method approach: both interviews with and questionnaires from the selected samples of master and PhD students in the Faculty of Engineering, employing the needs analysis framework. Such understanding of their problems and the proposed solutions will be of benefit to both students and teachers. The study showed that students‟ low level of academic writing in English was perceived to be a significant problem among this group of students. Difficulties in both content and form in writing were the result of less attention to English as a foreign language in their home country. This was compounded by the weak foundation, environment and method of teaching-learning of the English language.
Issues in Educational Research, 2022
Academic writing, which allows scientific research to be shared with other researchers, has an important place in graduate education because individuals at this stage of education gain experience in their fields with their academic writing experiences and are referred to as field experts when their education has been completed. At this point, graduate students' perception of academic writing and their experiences in this process are seen as an important element. The purpose of the current study is to examine graduate students' perceptions of the academic writing process and its problems. To this end, a phenomenological study design was adopted, with a purposive sampling to obtain participants for the study. Nine students who were attending a state university in Turkey volunteered to participate. Using a content analysis approach, perceptions of academic writing and the problems experienced in academic writing were derived from the responses to the interview questions. Results showed that graduate students' perceptions of academic writing fitted into five sub-themes: grammar, process, product, form and content. Problems experienced in academic writing were grouped under five sub-themes: text, mistake, competence, support and place of publication. In light of these findings, suggestions are offered about improving the acquisition of academic writing skills and confidence.
Academic writing challenges at Universities in Saudi Arabia and solutions
Abstract: A teacher of English always faces a challenge to teach the writing skill to the foreign language students especially at the UG level. As one of the language skills, writing is excelled only when the other three language skills are excelled. It is the combination of process and product. It involves mastery in grammar and vocabulary to present the message. It requires self-knowledge to express the thought process. It is felt a dry exercise, only used to write the exams. Though the students have the knowledge in English finds it difficult to express. Most of them depend on rote system to get through the examination. If the teacher is asked to teach the students whose English knowledge is absolutely poor at the UG level, it becomes a challenge. We tried all the traditional methods and modern methods to teach writing here in our university, and found out the reasons for the problem. The reasons may not be new, when we compare with that of Indian university students‟. But the difference is here the students do not feel it as a challenge. In India, students force themselves to learn writing for official purposes. This paper tries to present the methods that have been used to teach the foreign students whose mother tongue is Arabic. Key word: L
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The most challenging problem encountered by graduate students during their study is the postgraduate research and thesis writing. This descriptive research design was employed to investigate research skills and challenges encountered by graduate students in research writing. The respondents of the study were the randomly selected students at the College of Education-Graduate School of the Iloilo State College of Fisheries who are in their thesis and dissertation writing. The data-gathering instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. Part I of the instrument assessed the research skills which includes information seeking skills, problem solving skills, methodology skills, analysis skills, writing skills, and communication skills. Part II focused on the challenges encountered by graduate students in doing research. Data gathered were analyzed using frequency, mean, standard deviation, t-test and ANOVA. The .05 alpha level was used as the criterion for the acceptance or rejection of the null hypotheses. Results revealed that graduate students have excellent information seeking skills, problem solving skills, writing skills and communication skills. Methodology and analysis skills are the least skills acquired by students. It was found that the extremely serious problems faced by graduate students in conducting research are poor time management, financial problem, lack of cooperation of respondents, difficulty in identifying research issue, lack of ICT facilities to analyze the data, contradicting/ conflicting ideas between researcher and adviser, and lack of commitment of researcher. It can be concluded that graduate students have not fully mastered the research methodology skills and data analysis skills. They experienced several limitations and challenges. Poor time management is the most critical challenge.
564 - 2024 | صفحه 546 | مجلة جامعة صنعاء للعلوم الإنسانية مجلد 3 | عدد 2, 2024
This study investigated the difficulties used in writing theses and dissertations in the departments of English at Yemeni universities. Data was collected from 100 MA and Ph.D. students through a questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS descriptive statistics. The results revealed that Yemeni postgraduate students face various difficulties, including selecting the appropriate tense, utilizing proper academic phrases, writing an effective topic sentence for each paragraph, employing cohesive devices such as ellipses, reporting qualitative results, and completing writing the thesis od dissertation before the deadline . The results also showed that the reasons for these difficulties attributed to the lack of reading, selecting a suitable study topic, and formulating a clear problem statement . To help postgraduate students overcome these difficulties, supervisors recommended various strategies. The most commonly suggested strategies included implementing a reading strategy, attending a specialized course for developing research proposals, and seeking guidance through a consulting strategy. The researcher recommended prioritizing reading to improve writing proficiency, selecting a manageable research topic, approaching the topic from different perspectives to avoid repetition, seeking guidance from experts and peers during thesis writing, formulating a clear, preparing research problem statement in their proposals, participating in specialized courses to learn how to write research proposals, and initiating the writing process by engaging in reading, brainstorming ideas, and elaborating upon them.
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Throughout this 21st century, the communicative ability in English has become an essential skill, and it is a crucial language for global communication. Writing is one of the survival skills of modern society which forms part as one of the vital macro skills for communication. This study ascertained the weaknesses of English writing among undergraduate students majoring in English at Qassim University. It employed quantitative and qualitative research designs using an online survey technique. Results of the study showed that lack of English writing practice, the negative impact of the Arabic language, instructors' focus on syntactic forms more than semantic forms, ineffective teaching methods, and unwillingness to teach writing courses are some of the significant problems. To tackle the above problems, researchers proposed some practical strategies to help students write better. Blending new technology into writing courses is effective. Designing a wiki class, for example, not only prompts students to consider writing as a process but also cultivates collaboration. Researchers also emphasized the importance of having an excellent instructor-student relationship.
Perceptions of Challenges in Writing Academically: Iranian Postgraduate Students’ Perspectives
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2017
Academic writing skills are essential tools that postgraduate students reading for their doctoral degree have to master to be able to produce dissertations, research reports and academic assignments of quality in the course of their studies; and publish research-based articles in established journals. This paper discusses the perceptions of a group of Iranian postgraduate students pursuing their doctoral degrees at UPM (Universiti Putra Malaysia) on the challenges they face in writing academically. They provided the data for this paper via their responses to a survey. The findings indicate that these postgraduate students perceived some academic writing skills to be more challenging than the others. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings; and recommendations on how the situation can be improved.