Abstract
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.
Highlights
Many international students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds pursuing their postgraduate studies at institutions of higher learning abroad (Lea & Street, 2006; Hyland, 2008; Turner, 2011) are expected to be versatile and flexible to cope with the demands of their studies; and living in a foreign country
Prior to the production of the dissertation or any academic writing assignments, postgraduate students have to search for relevant information on data bases; read, screen, analyze and synthesize information gleaned from related texts and articles to support their stance and statements made in their writing
The findings from the survey indicate that these Iranian postgraduate students have positive perception of academic writing
Summary
Many international students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds pursuing their postgraduate studies at institutions of higher learning abroad (Lea & Street, 2006; Hyland, 2008; Turner, 2011) are expected to be versatile and flexible to cope with the demands of their studies; and living in a foreign country. One of the prerequisite crucial requirements is for these students to be competent in writing academically (Pecorari, 2006) in the English language (the medium of instruction in most public universities abroad) to succeed in conducting their research and reporting the research findings in the form of a dissertation/thesis and disseminating the findings to society to expand the frontiers of knowledge to a wider context via publication in august journals These budding scholars can share their ideas and findings from their research effectively only if they have the ability to write well academically. Prior to the production of the dissertation or any academic writing assignments, postgraduate students have to search for relevant information on data bases; read, screen, analyze and synthesize information gleaned from related texts and articles to support their stance and statements made in their writing They are expected to have a repertoire of appropriate vocabulary and to adhere to the standard academic writing convention in their writing
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