American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 27, 2021 1 Issues in Graduate Students’ Academic Writing Prof. Gila Shilo Chairman of the Israeli Association of Applied Linguistics, Department of Hebrew Language, Faculty of Society & Culture, Beit Berl Academic Cokkege, Israel Abstract Studies indicate the importance of teaching student the art of writing, and particularly academic writing. Other studies refer to the types of errors found in students‟ writing, but focus mostly on grammar. Given the prevailing dissatisfaction with students‟ achievements, this study seeks to examine common issues in the graduate students‟ seminar papers. Given the importance of this exercise to their future academic development, and assuming that all are required to write at least one such paper during the course of their studies. This article reports a two-stage examination: one examined errors in each particular chapter and the other examined errors in the paper as a whole. I found that the stylistic errors listed by Andrea and Karen Lunsford (2008) constitute an important part of these errors, but another important part has to do with the overall structure of the paper. Based on these findings, several corrective actions are recommended. Introduction Studies indicate the importance of teaching student the art of writing, and academic writing of various types in particular (Ezer, 2016; Geisler, 1994; Gilbert & Graham, 2010). Other studies refer to the types of problems frequently found in students‟ writing, but focus mostly on grammar. Given the prevailing dissatisfaction with students‟ achievements in that regard (Ezer, Margolin, & Sagi 2012), this study seeks to examine common problems in the graduate students‟ seminar papers, given the importance of this exercise to their future academic development, and assuming that all are required to write at least one such paper in the course of their studies. Review of the Literature In recent years, both educators and linguists are active in efforts to improve both reading and writing among K-12 students (Ezer 2002; McCarthey & Mkhize, 2013). These efforts are important given the educational benefits of writing: it stimulates thinking, organizes ideas into a coherent whole, and requires concise, articulate, and unambiguous phrasing to deliver an effective message. In the 1970, the educational focus in the West has been on reading skills. Only in the 1980s, did educators come to recognize that reading was an independent skill rather than a direct continuation of reading, and that it should therefore be cultivated in parallel with reading; whereas reading is a process of examining and collecting information, writing involves reviewing that information and processing it into a personal statement (Geisler, 1994; Flower, 1979). The advent of the information age in the 1990s has meant that unprecedented amounts of information are at every reader‟s fingertips, but that written expression tends to be laconic
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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 27, 2021
1
Issues in Graduate Students’ Academic Writing
Prof. Gila Shilo
Chairman of the Israeli Association of Applied Linguistics, Department of Hebrew
Language, Faculty of Society & Culture, Beit Berl Academic Cokkege, Israel
Abstract
Studies indicate the importance of teaching student the art of writing, and particularly
academic writing. Other studies refer to the types of errors found in students‟ writing, but
focus mostly on grammar. Given the prevailing dissatisfaction with students‟ achievements,
this study seeks to examine common issues in the graduate students‟ seminar papers. Given
the importance of this exercise to their future academic development, and assuming that all
are required to write at least one such paper during the course of their studies. This article
reports a two-stage examination: one examined errors in each particular chapter and the other
examined errors in the paper as a whole. I found that the stylistic errors listed by Andrea and
Karen Lunsford (2008) constitute an important part of these errors, but another important part
has to do with the overall structure of the paper. Based on these findings, several corrective
actions are recommended.
Introduction
Studies indicate the importance of teaching student the art of writing, and academic writing
of various types in particular (Ezer, 2016; Geisler, 1994; Gilbert & Graham, 2010). Other
studies refer to the types of problems frequently found in students‟ writing, but focus mostly
on grammar. Given the prevailing dissatisfaction with students‟ achievements in that regard
(Ezer, Margolin, & Sagi 2012), this study seeks to examine common problems in the
graduate students‟ seminar papers, given the importance of this exercise to their future
academic development, and assuming that all are required to write at least one such paper in
the course of their studies.
Review of the Literature
In recent years, both educators and linguists are active in efforts to improve both reading and
writing among K-12 students (Ezer 2002; McCarthey & Mkhize, 2013). These efforts are
important given the educational benefits of writing: it stimulates thinking, organizes ideas
into a coherent whole, and requires concise, articulate, and unambiguous phrasing to deliver
an effective message.
In the 1970, the educational focus in the West has been on reading skills. Only in the 1980s,
did educators come to recognize that reading was an independent skill rather than a direct
continuation of reading, and that it should therefore be cultivated in parallel with reading;
whereas reading is a process of examining and collecting information, writing involves
reviewing that information and processing it into a personal statement (Geisler, 1994; Flower,
1979). The advent of the information age in the 1990s has meant that unprecedented amounts
of information are at every reader‟s fingertips, but that written expression tends to be laconic
American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 27, 2021
2
and underdeveloped, writing skills have become increasingly neglected, and the overall
quality of writing is in decline.
In both Israel (Ezer, 2002) and worldwide (Gilbert & Graham, 2010), the importance of
teaching written expression as a subject matter in its own right and as part of the teaching of
other subjects in school has been recognized. The Nevo Committee, Ezer, 2002) called for
more systematic training of teacher education students in written expression as part of the
teaching of particular subject, such that the expert on writing on a specific subject would be
the subject teacher rather than the written expression teacher.
The growing attention recently devoted to writing in the education system, as well as in
discourse and linguistic studies, all over the world is a response to the deterioration in writing
skills and the narrowing of the vocabulary, the shortening of messages and the inarticulate
language used by so many writers have mobilized educators, as well as linguists and other
scholars, to sound the alarm. They have been joined by schools, colleges and universities who
are increasingly aware of the need to not only invest more in the teaching of argumentative
and academic writing, but also foster students‟ personal voice and creativity, particularly with
the emerging awareness of the need to educate for diversity (see, e.g. Ezer, 2002, 2016;
Livnat, 2011). Despite the growing awareness to the need to improve student's writing, only
limited number of hours is dedicated to these courses (Kellogg & Raulsen, 2007).
The present article focuses on academic writing required in higher education as part of the
students‟ training. This training is provided by lessons dedicated to academic writing, lessons
that combine subject matter and writing studies, lessons that prepare students for seminar
papers, etc. The literature has described several approaches for teaching this genre, as well a
specific lesson contents. Of particular relevance to the present study is the literature on
typical problems in seminar papers. Lunsford and Lunsford (2008), for example, listed 20
major errors in the writing of undergraduates, suggesting concomitant training emphases. In
the Israeli context, Ezer and Margolin (2008) evaluated several indicators in students‟
undergraduate seminar papers – content, structure, syntax and style – and recommended
greater emphasis on structure; greater focus on prepositions as a source of grammatical
problems; and teaching argument structure as part of the preparation for writing the papers.
Despite the importance recently attached to this issue in the literature and the growing
attention devoted to it in undergraduate and graduate studies, students‟ writing is still far
below the standards of academic writing (Perlin, 2013). Ezer et al. (2012), for example, found
a significant gap between lecturers and students‟ perception on that regard. I have therefore
decided to examine recurring problems in seminar papers submitted by graduate teacher
education students. To the best of my knowledge, beyond Lunsford and Lunsford‟s (2008)
study of undergraduates, no such examination has been conducted among graduates writing
in their own language (Bitchener, Young and Cameron (2005) have studied English errors by
non-native English speakers, an issue that is beyond the present scope). This study is
informed by the errors listed by Lunsford and Lunsford (2008), as well as by guidelines
provided to Israeli students on the structure of three types of seminar papers.
Most of the errors listed by Lunsford and Lunsford (2008, PP)1 are related to punctuation,
spelling, missing words, ambiguous word choices and other errors affecting both clarity and
1 The complete list is: Wrong Word; Incomplete or Missing Documentation; Vague Pronoun Reference;
Spelling; Mechanical Error with a Quotation; Unnecessary Comma; Unnecessary or Missing Capitalization;
American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 27, 2021
3
comprehensibility and the way the text is phrased. This suggests the question, whether there
are problems of other kinds that have to do with delivering the message in a way appropriate
for the academic genre.
The three types of academic paper proposed to students in higher education institutes in Israel
are as follows:
TYPE 1. Empirical paper that examines a hypothesis or phenomenon based on data:
Abstract covering the main points of all sections, half a page
Table of Contents with sections numbered conventionally: 1, 1.1, 1.2; 2, 2.1, 2.2, etc.
Introduction that presents the study‟s theoretical background, rationale, research questions
or hypotheses
Method: Sample, participants, instrument (questionnaire, review of the literature), and
findings (presenting the data, graphs, tables)
Discussion of findings with reference to the research questions and literature review, theories
presented in the introduction, practical implications of the findings, research limitations and
recommendations
References (all those included in the paper must be included in this list, and this list must not
contain any sources not referred to in the main text)