Indonesian Tertiary Education Students’ Academic Writing Setbacks and Solutions

Abstract

Writing is a crucial skill and tertiary education students face difficulties in academic writing. This paper aimed to identify the setbacks or difficulties and the solutions to the setbacks experienced by the Indonesian tertiary education students in academic writing. A survey was used as the method of this study. The data were collected through a questionnaire using a Google form distributed to 26 fifth-semester students taking the Academic Writing course in the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for the academic year 2019/2020. The survey results showed that, in general, the students faced setbacks in, for example, parts of speech, tenses, spelling, prepositions, vocabulary, punctuation, cohesion, discourse markers, writing paragraphs with a clear focus, constructing clear and coherent academic essays, paraphrasing, in-text referencing, and compiling a correct reference list. Concerning academic writing solutions, the results showed that lecturers should be trained and equipped with various writing strategies, feedback on the strengths and weaknesses was vital, and the students needed to improve their organization of ideas, for example. Other solutions were better language skills, language elements, critical thinking skills, paraphrasing, and referencing. Implications of the findings are that students and lecturers would understand and identify common setbacks in academic writing and have opportunities to adopt the suggested solutions to academic writing difficulties.

The Cycle of Writing Difficulties and Writing Stages

“…Problems include incorrect use of tenses, difficulties with parts of speech, and issues in writing coherent and well-structured paragraphs (Bulqiyah et al, 2021). Moreover, the ability to use academic vocabulary and to express ideas clearly are ongoing challenges (Bram & Angelina, 2022).…”

“…These stages typically involve planning, drafting, revising, and editing. The approach that focuses on these processes, as discussed by Aldabbus & Almansouri (2022); Bram & Angelina (2022), treats these stages as crucial learning phases where structured teaching methods can significantly improve students' writing abilities. This process-oriented approach aligns with the concept of scaffolded instruction discussed by Mdodana-Zide & Mafugu (2023), where support structures are adjusted gradually to help students develop their writing skills.…”

“ I Get Blank When I Start Writing’’ Analysis of EFL Student’s Anxiety in Writing Descriptive Text

“…Writing forces individuals to think critically about ideas and express them in ways that others can understand. Writing can also be said to be a complex process (Bram and Angelina (2022). Therefore, writing in a foreign language is said to (2024), 7 (1): 76-85…”

Determinants of Achievement in Scientific Work: Exploring the Relationship of Leadership Style, Adversity Quotient, and Motivation

“…Scientific work achievement is essential to study because based on previous research conducted by Barli Bram shows that there are still many problems experienced by students in writing scientific papers, including lack of motivation, lack of ideas for writing, limited opportunities to practice academic writing, and lack of support, recognition, and awards from the authorities. In addition, Indonesia is a country whose academic writing work still needs to catch up to other countries due to the problems mentioned earlier (Bram & Angelina, 2022).…”