Understanding students’ insight on academic writing: Perspective of graduate EFL students

Abstract

Academic writing is a crucial skill, especially when enrolling in higher education. The demand for academic writing is unexpectedly higher in graduate school since students are expected to write longer academic texts. This study is aimed to gain insight from graduate students regarding their academic writing experience. This study explores the perspectives of EFL graduate students on academic writing and the necessity of teacher instruction even in higher education. This study employed a quantitative method, and data was collected through a questionnaire to find out students’ opinions of their academic writing experience. This study involved 23 participants from one university in West Java, all of whom participated voluntarily. The findings revealed that students faced some difficulties in writing longer academic texts. Some of those difficulties involved creating complex sentences, using formal academic language, finding data and theories to support their research, paraphrasing and synthesizing previous studies, and using hedging to alleviate certainty in their writing. The students also reported the need for intensive support from their lecturer, especially when writing longer academic texts like articles or theses.