Abstract
Writing is a challenging but requisite skill at university and other life situations. At university, essay writing is generally challenging to first-year students across disciplines or faculties. This study therefore describes the writing challenges of the Faculty of Social Sciences students at the University of Botswana. To that end, this study asks the following research questions: (1) What writing tasks are first-year students in the Faculty of Social Sciences given? (2) What problems do the students encounter when writing essays in the Faculty of Social Sciences? (3) What kind of assistance do students receive on writing essays? This article is underpinned by the English for Academic Purposes genre analysis framework. All in all, the findings of this study point to the need for a more intensive writing programme for first-year students at the University of Botswana in which both faculties and the Communication and Study Skills Unit will cooperatively assist students with writing. Students’ responses clearly indicated the need for such collaboration.
Highlights
Writing is a challenging but requisite skill at university and other life situations
This study asks the following research questions: (1) What writing tasks are first-year students in the Faculty of Social Sciences given? (2) What problems do the students encounter when writing essays in the Faculty of Social Sciences? (3) What kind of assistance do students receive on writing essays? This article is underpinned by the English for Academic Purposes genre analysis framework
The findings of this study have unearthed very important issues that need to be considered in an attempt to provide writing support for the Social Sciences English as Second Language (ESL) students and by extension students from all university faculties
Summary
Writing is a challenging but requisite skill at university and other life situations. Botswana students across all levels struggle to write in English. To address this problem, the University of Botswana offers compulsory Communication and Study Skills courses to all first-year students. The University of Botswana offers compulsory Communication and Study Skills courses to all first-year students These courses teach subject-specific academic and professional communication topics using relevant teaching and assessment approaches selected by the lecturers who teach them. These courses are informed by the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) discipline. To provide context for this study, it is important to note that Botswana is a Southern African country located between South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe
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