Purpose-Citation is vital in academic writing but particularly challenging for novice writers who use English as a second or foreign language. While much is known about citations types and functions, scarce knowledge is available about what makes citing a complicated procedure. Hence, this study explores the difficulties in citing and integrating information from academic sources into the literature review chapter of PhD proposals.

The study has been made possible through the postgraduate scholarship scheme (PGS) provided by Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).

Citations are significant academically for establishing research backgrounds and justifying a research problem. In spite of the increasing studies on citations, limited studies have employed the Systemic Functional Linguistics in analysing citations. Therefore, this study explores the logico-semantic relations in citations with clause complexes, employing the ideational metafunction of the Functional Theory. The study adopted a purposeful sampling in selecting the literature review chapters of 20 PhD theses by EFL postgraduates in a public Malaysian university in two disciplines: Information Technology and Applied Linguistics. The findings revealed that citations were structured to realise two logico-semantic relations, mainly Expansion and Projection with several subcategories for each. A combination of Projection and Expansion was also used, which resulted in reclassifying the logico-semantic relations. The findings could present comprehensive descriptions of citations that could be pedagogically utilised for academic purposes.

Academically, citation is pivotal since it presents justifications for the arguments and a demonstration of the writer's position. Despite the increasing number of studies on citations, little knowledge has been reported regarding the citation use and practices of EFL students within the ESL context. Hence, the present study aimed at investigating the extent of variation in the citation practices in the literature review of PhD theses in Applied Linguistics and Information Technology. The study analysed the citations qualitatively focusing mainly on several aspects, including using types of citations, the variety of the citations based on the type of the clauses in each citation, and the perspectives of EFL Arab postgraduates on using citations. A purposeful sampling was adopted in selecting the literature review of 20 PhD theses and nine EFL Arab candidates of Applied Linguistics and Information Technology. The results show the dominance of the integral citation in the literature review of Applied Linguistics and Information technology. The inter-disciplinary comparison also reported similarity in terms of the high frequency of using citations with clauses complexes. The discourse-based interviews revealed that EFL Arab postgraduates depended on the integral citation to highlight ideas, attract the reader's attention, affirm the credibility of the cited information, and refer to the type of the information. The little available information on using citations and the possible effect of their native language may lead EFL Arab postgraduates to have their own strategies regarding citations use. Consequently, EFL postgraduate students probably need explicit instructions on the use of citations.

Collaborative writing has gained researchers’ attention due to its efficiency in enhancing students’ writing abilities compared to traditional writing. More recently, more emphasis has been on computer-based versions of collaborative writing because of the introduction of Web 2.0 and other cloud-based writing tools, such as Google Docs and Wikis, especially at the tertiary level. However, there is still a dearth of research regarding synchronous collaborative writing in mainstream K-12 classes. Therefore, this quasi-experimental quantitative study aims at investigating the impact of synchronous collaborative writing on developing fourth-grade EFL students’ writing. The data were collected from the pre-tests and the post-tests of 49 students in a technology-supportive K-12 school in Riyadh-Saudi Arabia and were analyzed using independent samples t-test via SPSS version 23. The analysis of individual writing performance in the pre- and post- tests revealed that the total mean scores of the Content, Language use, and Organisation measurements have increased in both the experimental group, after experiencing collaborative writing using Google Docs, and the control group, who used traditional pen-and-paper writing. In addition, significant differences existed in the three writing tasks (Narrative, Argumentative, and Informative) in the post-test scores of the experimental group as well as in the post-test scores between the groups, with the experimental group scoring higher than the traditional writing group. However, no significant difference was revealed between the pre- and post- test scores of the control group. In addition, it was found that the task type variable plays a vital role in collaborative writing. These findings are significant for both educators and students in implementing computer-based collaborative writing in mainstream classes and for researchers who are interested in web-based education and E-learning.

Stance in general and metadiscourse markers, in particular, have attracted the interest of several studies. Therefore, this study explores the use of metadiscourse in the second language (L2) academic writing by English as a foreign language (EFL) postgraduates in one of the Malaysian public universities. We analyzed the frequency and wordings of modality within the citations of the literature review chapters of 20 Ph.D. theses employing the Systemic Functional Linguistics. Data were analyzed manually utilizing the technique of quantifying the findings to highlight the similarities and differences in using metadiscourse markers. The findings revealed the dominance of full declarative clauses in both Applied Linguistics and Information Technology. Besides the Finite Modal Operators, Mood Adjuncts and Comment Adjuncts were also used to demonstrate modality with a variety in their stance, degrees, and frequencies. Pedagogically, these findings could help supervisors in identifying the implications of their students' writings. In addition, students can be directed towards reading EAP textbooks and materials that are dedicated to areas of academic writing, metadiscourse markers, and citations.

Due to their significance in establishing a research background, citations have been under focus by several researchers. However, limited studies have applied the Functional Theory in analysing reporting verbs in citations. Hence, this study identifies citations in the literature review chapters of 20 PhD theses in Information Technology and Applied Linguistics by EFL postgraduates within the ESL context. These PhD theses were selected purposefully. This study explores qualitatively the processes based on the ideational metafunction of the Systemic Functional Linguistics. The findings show that the material processes were used dominantly, followed by relational, verbal, and mental processes, whereas the behavioural processes were less used. The use of processes 'verbs' is influenced by field and tenor as register variables. Thus, the findings imply that EFL postgraduates are unaware of using processes; therefore, they should receive discipline-specific instructions. Pedagogical textbooks for academic writing could be also developed based on the outputs of the present study.

Pedagogically, the issue of linguistic errors in writing is highly significant. Therefore, this study aims at exploring the gender differences in committing linguistic errors by Turkish students in English and Arabic at Karabuk University in Turkey. The sampling included selecting purposefully 80 essays written in English and Arabic. The 40 English essays belong to 20 male and 20 female students from the Department of English Language and Literature at the university. Similarly, the 40 Arabic essays belong to 20 male and 20 female students from the Department of Arabic Language at the same university. The findings showed that male and female Turkish students are similar in using ‘concord' with the highest frequencies of errors in English, but the frequency of using other errors is different. In contrast, male and female Turkish students are varied in the errors in Arabic. The findings also revealed that male and female Turkish students in both Arabic and English languages showed a similarity in the types of errors, namely substitution and omission as the most frequent ones.